Mexborough & Swinton Times – March 26, 1949

Down Your Way – Jump

Jump, of course, is famous for its name. Places with names such as this are assured of fame. But that apart. Jump has a character all its own

Time was when it was famous for its twins (there were at least 11 sets in the day school). In recent years one of its more prominent sons has lifted its intriguing name into the national headlines; Charles Jarrett, internationally famous for the perfection of his body.

And then, of course, there is the cemetery. Jump must be as noted for its cemetery as is Scarborough, though I doubt if Scarborough Cemetery has such a peculiar place in local tradition.

I talked to 2 man who told me there was a strange rivalry between Jump and Hemingfield. The cemetery was equidistant between the two, and only therein did they meet! Only in death was there perfect amity.

He smiled. There was a superiority complex about Hemingfield Any foundation for it ? Well .. . . perhaps, Thriftier, maybe… With an enigmatical shrug of the shoulders he left me to my own conclusions.

We walked down from the Flying Dutchman (all inns should have a flavour of the Flying Dutchman) and into old Jump. The new Jump with its colony of slate blue roofs, has an air of newness  about it, but in the old dwells all the depression of a relic of the industrial      revolution. Narrow cobbled streets, flung down the hill-side; long rows of back -to- back houses, straw and paper blowing about in the gutters and a multiude of mooching dogs. So much demolition work has been carried out in Jump you might think it, had been a target for German obmbs,

The Wesleyan Reform Church has been set down in the middle of a row of houses; you become aware of it suddenly, like dropping across a friend you didn’t expect to see. At the foot of a hill of cobbles I saw couple of rabbit hutches. In the batch of waste ground five school girls were playing marbles. Gangs of youngsters were spinning tops in the road. From an open door a wireless set was blaring out “Hawaiian Heaven, ” and a woman, arms akimbo in the doorway, was singing to the music.

And a few minutes’ walk away— where the Roebuck reservoir stands—you can be on the highest spot in Wombwell. They will tell you Jump is healthy because it is high; higher than Wombwell itself.

And another thing they’ll tell you if you ask: the rate of Sunday school attendance is uncommonly high

You see, there are three facets; the Jump you see as you pass the chipped nameplate on the road from Hemingfield; the old Jump, and the Jump you can discover, the Jump so totally unlike its near sister Hemingfield.