South Yorkshire Times June 8, 1968
Street name clues to Wombwell’s history
More about Wombwell street names. Older residents of the town may know that George Street and Marsh Street commemorate one of the oldest families in the town, that of Mr. George Marsh, who originally owned the property and possibly had a financial interest in the wool warehouse which at one time was established near premises now occupied by Burrows’ Garage in High Street.
Fleeces from a wide area of South Yorkshire were taken to Wombwell for storage and sale. Marsh House in George Street was named after the family. Hadfield Street on the King’s Road housing estate was so named in honour of the Rev. George Hadfield who was minister of Wombwell Congregational Church for over 40 years and a leading educationist in the town. Myers Street (Mitchell Main) now wiped out by a clearance scheme, and Hammerton Street were named after the original property owners — Myers of Wombwell and Hammerton of Darfield
Name Changed
Sokell Avenue (off Windmill Road) was originally Premier Street. The name was changed as a tribute to the late Mr. Fred Sokell, a member of Wombwell Urban Council and a figure in miners’ union.
Roy Kilner Road needs no explaining It was of course named after Wrombwell’s most illustrious sportsman, the Yorkshires and England cricketer who died at a tragically early age in 1928 on returning from a tour of India as a guest of the Maharajah of Patalia.
Frederick Street and Snowden Terrace (off Pearson Field) were named after the builders, Mr. Fred Ward of Wombwell and Mr. H. Snowden of Barnsley. Elliott’s Terrace lost with the demolition of New Scarborough, was named by and after the late Mr. William Elliott, one time a member of Wombwell Urban Council who later lived at Swaithe Hall. Bondfield Crescent has political significance. It was named after the late Miss Margaret Bondfield.
The names Orchard Street has puzzled many people. Actually when the stone houses on the right hand side of the street were built they faced a large orchard—hence the name.
Diamond Jubilee
Certain Wombwell streets were obviously named arbitrarily and for no specific reason. These include Myrtle Road, Victoria Road (possibly at the time of the Diamond Jubilee). Milton Street. Summer Lane, York Street. Smith Street, New Street, Princess Street, Diamond Street (off Orchard Street, possibly again at the Diamond Jubilee), Hope Street (off Ship Croft), Wood Street (behind the post office in Hough Lane). King’s Road, Kingsway and Prospect Terrace.
Pearson Field, Hough Lane, and Bradberry Balk Lane must have some personal association but the writer cannot name it.
Baffling investigation are Kelvin Grove and Windmill Road. Kelvin Grove, was named by the late Mr. John Robinson who built the property and is said to have expressed in some way his deep love of music. Members of the family may know the yes or no of that. Did Windmill Road get its name as a result of someboly’s whim ? Not likely. There must have been a windmill somewhere in that vicinity in the old days and as likely as not it stood on high ground about a hundred yards from Hough Lane and opposite the far corner of Wombwell Main cricket ground. At any rate old foundations were discovered at that spot when houses were built there in recent years. The windmill could have been used to give a head of water to the residents of Wombwell Main. These are speculations which might be carried further.
The Railway
Station Road, Wombwell was not so called until toward the middle of the last century when the railway came through. It was originally Well Lane, so named because the town well was on the present site of the public library. This was the original “Wamba’s Well,” hence Wombwell.
Wombwell by-ways whose quaint names have passed out of usage In recent years include “Round Bashy’s,” which still holds romantic associations for present day grand-parents (Bashforth’s kept the farm), “on Fatticake” (Kent Row, the road between Station Road and Darfield Main Colliery) and “along Tommy Todd’s” behind Wombwell low station. That was the spot where Tommy Todd, who had a garden there, chopped off his toe to cure a corn! And that, by the way, is no myth. The writer remembers being shown the hammer with which he smote the wood chisel and a flat piece of wood in which he drove nails to keep his toes apart for the operation ! He must have followed the Shakespearean precept that “if ’twere well when done. ’twere better done quiokly’
THE GATE
If any one can tell the writer how and why the Bartholomew Street district came to be known as “New Guinea” he will be pleased to hear from them. He would also like to know where the “gate” was in Everill Gate Lane, and what purpose it served.
Park Street, Wombwell. calls for special treatment. This thoroughfare originally passed Wombwell Hall on the North side and something like a couple of centuries ago was diverted to the South side. This would be done either from necessity on the construction of the Dearne and Dove Canal, or to give the family a little more privacy. It is recorded that at one time the Wombwell family lived there in “baronial splendour.” with a vast retinue of servants and a deer park which extended from the hall to the rivers Dove and Dearne on the Darfield boundary. Only fragments of the original hall remain.
At The Ford
Finally Stonyford Road. Time was — and not in very remote days either — when this was what it was callled. a “stony ford” over the Dove stream, which is the Wombwell-Darfield boundary. Up to the opening of the cemetery at Wombwell in the 1.860’s Wombwell’s dead were taken to the churchyard at Darfield for burial. It was then the custom for the cortege to halt at the ford as a sort of “farewell” gesture. Victims of the Lundhill Colliery disaster of 1857 were buried at Darfield, as the memorial stone in obelisk form indicates .
Readers may like to cut out these articles and file them for future reference.—CONCLUDED.