Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 08 November 1929
Coming Of Age.
Thurnscoe Council’s 21st Birthday.
An Era of Progress.
Celebration Dinner.
Twenty-one years ago, Thurnscoe was a village of scattered houses, the roads were cart tracks, and the cart tracks often quagmires. It was creeping along behind the times on the far boundary of the Doncaster Rural District Council, unthought of and almost unknown, and it might still have been labouring under the burden of an inferior sanitary system, had drainage, bad roads, and negligent local government but for the courage of those who demanded improvements and obtained them.
Twenty-six years ago, Thurnscoe was included in the Doncaster Rural Council area, and had its Parish Council, a worthy body of villagers, but not an active one by all accounts. They were re-elected year after year, and then came a change. New faces appeared and amongst the new-comers were the Rev. T. T. Taylor. Lord of the Manor, who occupies a prominent place among Thurnscoe’s benefactors of the past generation, and Mark Notes, still a popular figure in the district. Progress was slow, and it was eventually decided to apply for urban powers. Another long wait, and the Parish Council’s application was at last granted.
The First Urban Council.
The Council was constituted on September 9, 1908, and the first meeting was held on October 7, when Mr. Nokes was elected chairman. The Rev T. T. Taylor was vice-chairman, and the following were the members: Messrs. William Buckley, David Fawcett, John Parker, Samuel Proudfoot, William Clough and Arthur Badger. Mr. J. Ledger Hawksworth was appointed clerk, Mr. T. Dull, Surveyor; Dr. W. Craik, Medical Officer. Of the original members, only Mr. Nokes and Mr. Parker remain. Mr. Notes was continuously chairman until 1924, and has served throughout the 21 years, but Mr. Parker’s service has not been continuous. Mr. J. Ledger Hawksworth has guided the Council through many delicate negotiations, and to-day is as active as ever.
With the formation at the Council, things began to move. Liabilities in respect of sewage, water, etc., amounting to £10,902, were taken over from the Doncaster Rural Council, so extensive have been the improvements carried out, that at the end of March, 1929, the outstanding loans were;
Light Railways £29,990;
Housing £366,534
The population in 1900 was 3,600, and there were 664 houses in the area. To-day it is 10,500, and the Council’s housing schemes have brought the number of houses to 2,426. The figures speak for themselves. The rates in 1908 were: Poor Rate 3s 6d, District Rate, 4s.; against 3s.4d. and 5s for the past half year
Nearly 500 More Dwellings.
The Council have erected 466 houses. They have joined with Wath and Bolton to form the Wath, Bolton and Thurnscoe Gas Board, and with the same Councils to form the Dearne Valley District Electricity Board. With Wath, Wombwell and Bolton, they have formed the Dearne Valley District Light Railways Committee, and with Bolton-on-Dearne they own a motor ambulance.
The water supply, which was always inadequate, has now been ensured, as the Council have entered into an agreement with Barnsley Corporation from whom they receive a bulk supply. A pretty park and pleasure ground has been laid out, the cemetery has been improved and extended, and recently the Council took over the swimming baths erected by the Miners’ Welfare Committee, which they will maintain.
As far as health services are concerned, the Council have done an invaluable work. The drainage system was the first big problem they had to tackle, and they did it thoroughly. Sanitary arrangements were very bad, but they have gradually been improved and two or three months will see the completion of a privy conversion scheme. Most of the roads in the district have been made up, and the whole thoroughly drained. In order to meet the requirements of the additional population, and to provide for the adoption of the water carriage system throughout the district, a loan of £22,000 was obtained during 1924. To complete the scheme, it was found necessary to borrow a further £7,830 in 1927, and it is anticipated that the provision made will meet the needs of the district for many years to come. Owing to the growth of the district, the Council was enlarged in 1924 from nine members to twelve. There have been a number of changes during recent years, but the Council maintains the same progressive policy.
The Council of To-Day.
The present chairman is Mr. Arthur Bramham, the vice-chairman, Mr. Walter Major Starkey, and the members: Messrs. Mark L. Nokes, George Richard Fardy, John Parker, Thomas Hardwick, William Henry Mabin, William J. G. Fawcett, Ernest Frederic Heal, Henry Garwood, Harry Schofield, and Chas. Robert Turner.
The officials are: Mr. J. Ledger Hawksworth (Clerk), appointed October 7, 1908; Dr. Robert Malcolm (Medical Officer of Health), appointed September 22, 1912; Mr. Robert W. Grantham (Engineer and Surveyor), appointed January 10, 1927; Mr. F. C. Brookes (Sanitary Inspector), appointed March 1, 1921; Mr. A. Percival Ridge (Treasurer), appointed January 17, 1928; Mr. Reginald Higginbottom (Collector), anointed October 7, 1908; Mr. Horace Shimeld (Waterworks Inspector), appointed October 13. 1924; Mr. Clarence Fretwell (Assistant Collector), appointed May 21, 1924; Mr. Joseph Bell (Assistant Collector), appointed August 18, 1927; Mr. Richard Crowe (Baths Manager), appointed May 2, 1928. Mr. J. Parker is the township’s representative on the County Council.
Mr. Nokes’s Reminiscences.
Mr. Mark Nokes, the father of the Council, its first chairman, and still one of its most active members, chatted to our representative about Council activities, and the early struggle for recognition. “It used to be deplorable here until some of us began to take a hand,” he declared. He went on to describe the old-time Parish Council, and the apathy that existed. “Eventually some of us became fed up with paying rates and receiving nothing for it, so we got on the Parish Council,” he added. “That was only a stepping stone, however, and it was a great day in the life of the village when they were granted urban powers. Mr. Nokes paid a tribute to the Rev. T. T. Taylor and his work on behalf of the district. Amongst other things, Mr. Taylor gave the Parish Hall to the Council and the land on which the park and pleasure ground has been laid out. He also gave land for the widening of Shepherd Lane, which has been carried out, and a further plot of land for a town hall at the corner of the lane, but this has not yet been utilised. Application has been made to the Ministry for a loan, but it has not yet been granted. “We shall get it in time,” added Mr. Nokes.
He reviewed the work the Council had accomplished, and spoke of the harmonious, manner in which the members had worked, together. “At a time like this,” he said, when we are celebrating our coming of age, it is as well to look back and see what progress we made. I am perfectly satisfied that we have been an active body and justified our existence. It could not have been accomplished if we had all been pulling different ways, and it has been accomplished largely a result of harmonious working. Great credit is due to the Council and its officials. Members have not considered their politics in matters which been for the good of the district, and if they continue in that spirit there is I reason to believe that the future will be much more progressive than the past.”
A Dinner-Table Review. Looking Backward – and Forward
Members and officials of the Thurnscoe LLD. Council celebrated the “coming-of-age” with a little dinner at the Butchers’ Anna on Wednesday. Mr. Arthur Bramham, J.P., presided.
Mr. John Parker, one of the two surviving members of the original Council, proposed the health of the Council and of Thurnscoe. He would, he said, take too long to go through all that had been done since 1908, when urban powers were rested in them. Thurnscoe was then a very dark place, which had been neglected to some extent. When the Urban Council got in working order their first job was to lay a footpath from one end of Thurnscoe to the other. Lighting, sanitation and roads were all bad. There were nine men on the first Council, and he and Mr. Nokes were the only two of those men still living. Since then a great amount of spade-work had been done, and the two men who had taken the greatest individual share of the work were Mr. J. Hawksworth who had always been their pilot, and Mr. Nokes. They were very glad to see Mr. Nokes with them again, Iooking better than they had expected after his severe illness. Mr. Nokes had put in a great deal of work, week in and week out, throughout those 21 years, particularly in connection with the sewage works. Mr. Hawksworth, too, had been with them 21 years, and had guided them through some difficult times. Whatever difficulties they had had to face they had always managed to come through all right. They would travel long way before they found a district of similar size and resources so well scare me you are a return found as was Thurnscoe to-slay. When they remembered their great trouble with water supply in 1922-3, due to the rapidity of the’ district’s development, they would realise far they had come.
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