Mexborough and Swinton Times December 13, 1929

Grandmother At 34

A Wombwell Golden Wedding

The Bad Old Days.

Mr. Samuel Shaw (72) and Emma (70), his wife, of 12. Junction Street, New Wombwell, have reached the golden wedding stage of their married life. There were no felicitations, firstly because both Mr. and Mrs. Shaw are averse to “fuss,” as they call it, secondly for the more practical reason that they have not the wherewithal to get merry on.

The old couple, comfortable, contented and happy in their way, are ekeing out what ‘luxury of life is possible on two old age pensions. Both Mr. and Mrs. Shaw have worked hard all their lives, but circumstances over which they have had no control have prevented their saving. They brought up a large family, and have found it hard enough to keep the wolf from the . door as they have gone along. Both enjoy good health, and are grateful enough in the know ledge that no greater blessing could be bestowed upon them.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Shaw were brought up in Wombwell, and can tell some interesting stories 6f what Wombwell used to be like in their childhood days. Mr. Shaw is a native of Calow, near Chesterfield, and had started working on the pit top when his parents brought him to Wombwell at the age of eight. His father was a banksman at a small pit, at which only a few men were working. Sometime. coal was not available at the pit head, and on such occasions his father would slide down the rope and help the men working at the coal face. Meanwhile the son would hold the fort, as it were, at the pit bank.

Mr. Shaw spent the whole of his working life in the pits. Coming into the Wombwell district when still a boy, he went to work at Wath Main, and remained either there or at Houghton Main until be handed in his checks four years ago. Mr. Shaw is as strong and mentally alert as the average man today, and it was not from his own choice that was superannuated. To show that he was “genuinely dismissed work.” And possibly to matte arguments that do arise when old colliers get together, he still carries in his pocket the notice which terminated his employment.

Mrs. Shaw was born in Jump, but was really domiciled at Broomhill, to which village she was taken when six weeks old. At the age of seven she commenced to earn her living, and a little later went to work at the old Bobbin Mill at Wath.

The old couple have never lived outside the Wombwell parish, and during the past fifty years have had only two landlords. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw belong to the days when large families were common, if not popular. They themselves have had nineteen children, six of whom are now living.

Their grandchildren number twenty-five, and there are children to whom they are great-grandparents. To an interviewer Mrs. Shaw led the rather remarkable fact that one of her children, only just 40 years of age, is grandmother to four, one of whom is six years of age! She was therefore a grandmother at 36, an age at which many people begin to wonder whether marriage is a practicable proposition.

Mr and Mrs. Shaw were married at Wombwell Parish Church by the then vicar, the Rev. T. Flagman, who, many old residents will he surprised to learn, is still living.

Mr. Shaw remembers Wombwell when it not quite the law-abiding township we know to-day. Robberies in his boyhood days were common, and there were times when such terrorism prevailed that timid people whose business took them out after dark went about in fear of their lives. He himself was the victim of an act of violence in Broomhill Lane—at least be was the intended victim, but his assailant got decidedly the worst of it. The old man relates that one dark night he was proceeding up Broomhill Lane towards Wombwell, and had just reached the field gate where the waterworks buildings now stand when a hand gripped his throat and a gruff voice whimpered in his ear, “Has ta any money!'” Most people would have been thrown into a panic at such an encounter, but not so this hard-headed miner. The demand was met with the cool rejoinder, “Yes, but not for thee!” There was a bit of a struggle, but it did not last long. Not far behind Mr. Shaw was walking an acquaintance —a man of the same type. Between them they gave the desperado the thrashing of his life, and left him behind the hedge groaning and apparently unconscious.

“He didn’t die.” said Mr. Shaw, in a matter of fact way, “because we went to the same spot next morning and found he was gone.” This episode do not exaggerate the dangers that lurked in the by-lanes around Wombwell half a century ago. Mr. Shaw himself knew a man who would never think of going to Wombwell from Broomhill without a pistol his Pocket. It should be remembered that at that time the peace of Wombwell was kept by one constable, the late Mr. Jonas Taylor, whose relatives are still in the district.

Mrs. Shaw was greatly interested in the biographical details of two Broomhill worthies given in the “Mexboro’ and Swinton Times ” a fortnight ago. In one respect seeing can go one better than Messrs. Green and Brooksbank, in that she can remember the Broomhill Primitive Methodist Church anniversary being held in a brick shed, the building having been swept and garnished for the occasion.