1900 - 1994

Silverwood Mine

Hollings Lane

Thrybergh

Facts, Stories and Features

THE NEWEY FAMILY

Presented by David Newey

My Granddad Benjamin Newey he came from Dalton and Benjamin Newey of Mexbrough was his uncle, My Granddad was married to Ethel Newey and he  died at the age of 57 years old they  had a big family, 11 children all in all and lived at 50 Osburton Street Dalton. He started work at Silverwood age 14 as a Driver  in June  1928

Brian Newey ?age 30 living at 50 Osberton St Dalton signed on as a Collier August 1919.

The family were related to the Newey's of nearby Mexbrough who were shown on the 1901 census as

Alfred  Newey 2 Yorks Mexbro Yorkshire West Riding Mexbro  
 Benjamin  Newey 14 Yorks Mexbro Yorkshire West Riding Mexbro Coal Miner Pony Driver
 Frances  Newey 37 Worcestshire Dudley Yorkshire West Riding Mexbro  
 Francis  Newey 12 Yorks Mexbro Yorkshire West Riding Mexbro  
 Henry  Newey 39 Worcestshire Dudley Yorkshire West Riding Mexbro Coal Miner Hewer
 Henry  Newey 9 Yorks Mexbro Yorkshire West Riding Mexbro  
 James W Newey 7 Yorks Mexbro Yorkshire West Riding Mexbro  
 Joseph  Newey 11 Yorks Mexbro Yorkshire West Riding Mexbro  
 Leonard  Newey 0 Yorks Mexbro Yorkshire West Riding Mexbro

My dad Bill Newey started at Silverwood colliery at the age of 14 years old and worked at Silverwood until he died  suddenly in the station hotel at Parkgate aged 48 on Christmas eve1973. He became a foreman on the pit top at Silverwood and only then did he start to earn a decent wage, before that my dad brought up 9 children  on £14.00 a week as a surface worker . The family lived at  East Herringthorpe Rotherham.

When dad worked at Silverwood he was very good at drawing, he would watch top managers go about their duties at the pit and then dad would draw cartoon pictures of them. he would put the drawing in such places as the baths and mess area's although he did this other managers did see them and found them funny, and they knew who had done the cartoon work. He did a drawing of the colliery manager and put it in the hut dad used to sit in, and I have recently been told that the drawing was still there till the day they closed Silverwood.  One of the lads that worked with dad on the pit top retrieved it and took it home with him, he also told me dad was very well liked and respected as a foreman on the pit top , he had been known to stand with a door open with just his head poking around the door and bring his hand over his head and grab his own hair and pull his head back and this I am told would have the lads in stitches. I remember dad being very funny at home.
One thing I will always respect my dad for, and that is he worked at Silverwood colliery and he worked with a good deal of blokes, but he never ever swore in the house in front of mum or the kids. I  was very proud of my dad and I still do miss him after 34 years.
 
One of his brothers John Henry (Jack) Newey was buried 3 times  at Silverwood when he was a miner, and the last time he got buried in the pit due to a pit fall he never worked again, and is still living.
 
Joe Newey one of my Dads brother's worked at Silver wood after he came out of the Army and retired from the colliery
at the age of 64 years old, he is now dead and has been for some years.
 
Thomas Newey another brother also worked at Silverwood again as a miner and died very young he was 35 when he died..
 

The two remaining brothers of my dad family are Arthur and Jack, both still live in the area.

 The only Uncle Ben my dads other brother has been dead some years too, but he did work at Silverwood colliery with all his other brothers when he was a young man, there are thousands of Newey's in Rotherham and I always recall my Auntie saying if you put all the Neweys on the pit top at Silverwood there would not be enough room for the lot of them,.

My uncle's, cousins and great uncles worked at Silverwood colliery and if it had still been in production as a pit the Newey Lad would still be there I am 100% sure of that.

Other Newey's of Silverwood

William Newey (bill)
Jack Newey
Tom Newey
Joe Newey
Ben Newey

? Newey  ?  of  54 Osberton St  Dalton 
Simon Newey of 51Osberton St  Dalton 
B. Newey   of  ? Osberton St  Dalton
J. Newey ? J    51    31 Lindley St  
Martin Newey ?  of 44 Dalton Lane  Dalton
A. Newey  of  88 Saville St  Dalton 
David Newey  54 Saville St  Dalton
Thomas Newey  51 Osberton St  Dalton 

My great uncle Norman Foulks worked at Armthorpe for some years and he was a miner. Uncle Norm as we call him lived at 20 Bassil Ave Armthorpe till he died about 12 years ago he was a tall man,  very freshed faced, and he had one daughter.
My Grandmother was Normans sister and he moved to Armthorpe as a lad from Rawmarsh where he and my Gran was born, that was in 1936 he took employment at Armthorpe pit as a young man and lived in Bassil Ave the rest of his life with his wife Floe, the pit gates was at the top of Bassil Ave and he always went to work and very rarely took time off or laiked as miner's used to say.
 
I often visited my Aunt and Uncle and I loved the way they lived,  a simple life but a good life he was a man who liked a pint of beer and a little flutter on the horses, you may have been aware at some time of the name Foulks, Billy Foulks was the famous goal keeper, he was Normans uncle and so he was always proud to have been related to  Bill Foulks.
Norman worked at the pit for forty four years, he suffered with his breathing and the pit did not help his condition, his lungs were closer together than mine and yours so it made it difficult for him to breath when the conditions got cold in winter.
 
Like most miners Norman liked a drink and he could ride a push bike he found this easier than walking really, he was a miner and worked very hard from being a young man to him dying in Doncaster Royal hospital. Norman had a cheerful nature and was always smiling, I once recall him telling me about when he worked at Armthorpe as a young lad, he said it was hard graft and we had to keep up with the older men, they took no rubbish from the young lads, but they were fair and always helped him if he got stuck with anything he could not manage.
  Norman was up at 4.00am every day but only had to walk to the top of Bassil Ave to the pit he would come home to good food, plain cooking but good never the less, Auntie Floe would have shin beef cooking in the oven and it would fall apart in your mouth, the house had a fire in the kitchen and one in the front room, I remember her cooking on the kitchen fire before she got a gas cooker.
 He had told me when he had gone down the pit and had to crawl on his hands and knee's to get to where he needed to be, one seam he told me of was so tight to crawl through if he needed to turn his shovel or what ever he had in his hand around he would have to come out backwards to turn it around.
Nothing really bothered him from what I remember  he used to walk from Armthorpe to Rotherham where we lived at least once a year, he always come to our house at Christmas and brought with him tanners that he used to give all the nine kids.

My opinion of miners are that in the day's gone by they were men of humour, good hard working lads, and family men that knew their position in life, I take my hat off to every man in this country who have ever been miners or worked in collieries.

I married a girl from Greasborough and her father was Ronnie Smith, he was a black smith and worked at New Stubbin and Silverwood, he has just recently died on the 24 of April 2007 he was 82 years old


 © David Newey. DavidNewey07@aol.com

 David would like to know how for back the Newey family lived in Dalton Rotherham. If you can help with any information please contact David.

Many thanks to David for adding his family here.