Mexborough and Swinton Times November 29, 1929
Methodist “Brothers.”
Half a Century of Unbroken Friendship.
A Tale of Broomhill.
Among all the elements of personality that contribute to communal life in the village of Broomhill there are no more worthy chartacters than Mr. Joseph Geen (72) and Henry Brooksbank (75). This remarkable pair have spent practically the whole if their lives in Broomhill, and though the village has progressed by little in the ordinary sense of the term since the builders designed it, these two worthies have seen hundreds of folk come and go and have witnessed many changes.
Mr. Green and Mr. Brooksbank have aged with Broomhill, and yet in one important respect their lives have been constant; as children they were brought up in the ways they should go, and in their old age they, have not departed from it. Their whole life has been devoted to religious work in connection with the Primitive Methodist Church, and there are not two more remarkable men in the circuit. For over half-a-century they have enjoyed unbroken friendship; a friendship that has been forged on the anvil of hard work, and upon which Christian loyalty has bestowed a benediction. Greater affection, indeed, could not have existed between brothers. Corner stones of Nonconformity at Broomhill, they are justly honoured and looked up to by every resident in the village, churchgoers and others alike._
Mr. Green.
Details of the life stories of these two stalwarts were related to a “Mexboro’ and Swinton. Times” representative this week. Mr. Green, the younger of these two “brothers’,” was born in Sheffield. When he was six the family moved to Broomhill, his father having obtained work at Broomhill brickyard.
The Village of Broomhill is built in the form of a triangle, in the centre of which the brickworks was situated. This, by the way, gives a clue to the origin of Broomhill. In all probability the village sprang into being where it is for no other reason than that building materials were handy, and, road transport being a matter of great difficulty a hundred years ago, the bricks were fashioned into houses on the spot. The observant will notice that the bricks from which the houses at Broomhill have been built are of the old fashioned hand-made variety. This brickworks is now nothing but a memory, though a small pond in which small boys, duck and aquatic creatures disport themselves, still remains to challenge the fallacy that Broomhill never was the centre of an industry. –
At seven years of age Mr. Green used to take his father’s dinner, and one of his earliest delights was in watching the men make bricks. Schooling was not compulsory in those days, and as young Green liked work better he was given a job at “clapping” bricks for 7d. a day before he had attained the age of eight. Mr. Green is literally a -self-made” man. He never went to school for a single day, but despite that handicap has learned to both read and write. He worked first of all in the afternoons only, but at 9 he commenced to do his full whack.
These brickworks, Mr. Green recalls were owned and operated by William Rothery, a member of a well-known Wath family, and from the works went practically all the bricks in the district known as Winterwell (West Melton). A speciality of these works was the making of earthenware pipes for the draining of land.
At thirteen years of age Mr. Green first went into the pit. He worked at the Old Lundhill Colliery until it closed down thirty years ago, afterwards going to Cortonwood, where he remained until the fire in 1904 caused a stoppage, and he then took up a small business. In that capacity he would probably have settled down for the remainder of his days, but that during the war period he went back to duty at Cortonwood, and carried on until last September, when he definitely retired.
Primitive Methodism at Broomhill passed through two phases, and these two worthies have been intimately acquainted with both. The second phase was opened when the handsome new church was erected in 1906, at a cost of £1100. To put up a similar building to-day would cost at least double that sum. The first primitive Methodist Church at Broomhill—the Primitive Methodists are the only branch of Nonconformity represented there—was a very small and unpretentious building. Built in 182, this served for the humble needs of the village for nearly fifty years, when the new place was built, and the old one was subsequently converted into a clubroom.
(Continued from Column 7).
Mr. Green arrived at Broomhill just after the old building had been opened. He joined up for active service in the church at the age of 16, and since that time has never relaxed in hard work and patient application to religious obligations.
Altogether he has had over forty years in office, as his diplomas testify. He has held every office in the church, including that of Superintendent of the Sunday School, and is now the treasurer.
Mr. Brooksbank.
The elder “brother,” Mr. Henry Brooks-bank, was born at Middlestown, near Huddersfield, but came to Wombwell as a very small child. His well remembered father, Mr. Jesse Brooksbank, who died at the ripe age of 86, was for many years a deputy at the old Lundhill Colliery . .
Mr. Brooks-bank started work at the age of 11 as a trapper, and remained in the pits until Cortonwood was closed down in 1904, when he went into business as a milk dealer, in which his sons have succeeded him. Mr. and Mrs. Brooksbank have had nine children (five sons and four daughters) and they are all living, the whole family having passed through the Primitive Methodist Church at Broomhill.
Mr. Brooksbank can tell many interesting stories, both grave and gay, of early life at Broomhill. He recalls the time when floods were a frequent occurrence, and when it was necessary, three or four times almost every winter, to commission horse drawn vehicles to take pedestrians over the water along the thoroughfare between the Railway Inn and the river bridge. This flooding has now been stopped by a system of drainage, and by the fact that mining has lowered the bed of the wayward Dearne. Within Mr. Brooksbank’s recollection the tunnel on the old Midland Railway at Cat Hill was opened out. What was considered an engineering feat of some magnitude at the time was the fact that the whole operation was carried out without a single train being held up.
Mr. Brooksbank is just old enough to remember the old chapel at Broomhill being built, his father having something to do with it. Collections were very sparse in those days, but some person unknown had a generous heart and an expansive purse. The collection for the opening ceremony had just been taken up when out of the building rushed Mr. Jesse Brooksbank, in a state of great excitement, exclaiming, “We have got gold; we have got gold!” Some’ one had given the church officials the shock of their lives by dropping a sovereign into the bag.
Mr. Brooksbank’s programme of service has proceeded on lines almost identical with those of his bosom colleague. Graduating into office from the Sunday School, he has filled all positions, and was for many years Sunday School superintendent and secretary of the school and church. He has been a worker from choice, and still has his official duties.