The Reminiscences of Mrs Hannah BOCKING nee STORER of Intakes Farm, Chisworth

Life in Chisworth in Early - Late 20th century


These reminiscences were written by Mrs BOCKING nee STORER for the late Mr RICHARDSON who was hoping to write a book about the area.  They are contained in two sets of notes - one white paper; one blue and are now at Glossop Heritage Centre.

White Page 1 

One of our neighbours at Hr Chisworth was Mrs HYDE she lived in the house now owned by Mr PARSONAGE.  She was well over 80 & her family had lived there so long that when she was past work Lord HOWARD allowed her to live rent free, except for an acknowledgement of 1/- per year.  The cottage was very old & dilapidated & had been a small farm, but the ground had been added to the farm across the road & she was left with the house.  She told me her nephew who had lived there & was called Robert BRADBURY was a blacksmith in The Falkland Islands, where he had been sent by The Government, his wife a Miss SALT from Broadbottom had followed him out & married him there.  Another nephew also called BRADBURY was found dead in the quarry in the recreation ground.  He had been at The Commercial Inn, (now Hunters) got off the path & fallen into the hole left by the crane, broken his leg & laid there all night. 

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His daughter & another girl from Hr Chisworth going to work at Kinderlee for 6 A M, heard shouts from the quarry & thinking it was another man who sometimes got drunk & stayed out all night took a short cut down the field before the rec, in order to avoid him.  Had they gone to see they might have saved him.

Mrs HYDE died soon after we came to live at Hr Chisworth.  The house & the croft it stands in was sold at Lord HOWARD`s sale for £47.  Lord HOWARD gave a rent day dinner for the tenants at Chisworth & Ludworth at The Norfolk Arms Marple Bridge, as each tenant paid, his land agent gave them a ticket to go into the dinner.  The Joke was, Mrs HYDE had an adopted son & his wife living with her & when the wife went to pay the 1/- she was given a dinner ticket worth 3/6d.

Rationing during the first world war ended the dinner.  (overleaf) After that tenants were given 3/6 the price of the dinner.

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There was a village band with bandsmen from Charlesworth & Chisworth.  I don`t know when it was formed, long before I came to live here, they used to lead the Whit Walks & always came round & played carols at Christmas.  I think it disbanded in the 20s but I don`t know why.

Chisworth had a very good football team in the 20s, they played in the field behind the cottages which adjoins the recreation ground, some of the team came from farther afield, & they won the league cup in the mid 20s.  I don`t know which league they belonged.

Mr Ben ROWBOTTOM of Beech House, Charlesworth & Holehouse Mill bought the recreation ground at Lord HOWARD`s sale & presented the deeds to Chisworth Parish Council in 1921.

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[This page has been edited to remove the address and comment intended just for Mr Richardson]

Our farm is as its name implies an `Intake` it must have once been common land.

“The law it hanged him for a felon 

who stole the goose from off the common, 

But left the greater felon loose

Who stole the common from the Goose” Anon

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When my family came to live at Highgate Farm at Chisworth in 1917 there were 4 shops in the village.  Mrs LONGSON`s in Hole House sold Grocery & a large variety of other things.  SIDEBOTTOM`s shop was the second & third house in Ten Houses, made into one The first part the living accommodation & the next the bake house & shop.  They made very good bread & cakes & also sold sweets.  The shop at the end of Ten Houses sold paraffin, everyone bought that as there was neither gas or electricity in Chisworth.  There were four mills, Hole House Mill made rope & twine & was owned & run by the ROWBOTTOM family with Mr Cecil ROWBOTTOM as the Managing Director.  Kinderlee Mill was also owned by ROWBOTTOMS & run by Mr Edmund ROWBOTTOM who lived at Chisworth House.  This mill made yarn & thread also string or `baut` as it was called.  This mill went in the name of J.H.RATCLIFFE the previous owner.

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The RATCLIFFE family built & lived at Rarewood House, but had sold the mill & left before we came.  They had been cotton spinners & doublers, & also had a mill at Johnson Brook, Hyde, & a Lace Works in Nottingham.  They were quite well to do.  Chew Mill was small employing about 14 people they made tubular baut, & also belonged to ROWBOTTOMS

In the valley below Kinderlee was Lee Valley Bleach Works known locally as Bone Mill, this was making gan cotton for the war  This mill was burned down in the Autumn of 1917 & though it was rebuilt it never worked again & was later demolished.  I forgot to mention Chisworth Co-op which was in the first two houses in middle row at Chisworth past the then, Commercial Inn.  This was run by a President & Committee of local men & was a good shop & doing well.

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Every body seemed to work, grandparents minded the children while mothers worked, hours were long 6.A.M. to 5-30 p.m. with half an hour for breakfast & 1 hr for dinner, Saturday 6am to 12.  It was said the best paid men in the village were the rope splicers at Hole House Mill who travelled all over Lancashire splicing driving ropes at the cotton mills, a lot of this work at week-end while the mills were closed.  The old people spoke in the local dialect, Thee & Tha, canna, munna & shauna, & dunna. 

I got tired of running after hens, sheep & cattle & got work as a winder at Kinderlee.  Though I could do the work I never liked it as I always wanted to be a teacher, but never got the chance.  It was here I learned all the local history.  Most of the older people had worked at Kinderlee in RATCLIFFE`s day

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One woman told me she started work when she was ten, & was so small she had to stand on a buffet to reach the frame to put bobbins on.  Another told me of a woman who took her little baby to work, it had to lie in a skip of cotton & she fed it in between her work.  They told me of a man who was buried in two different churchyards, his arm was ripped off by the shafting at Kinderlee & was buried in Charlesworth Churchyard, he later lived & died at Hyde & was buried there.

One woman had lost the first finger of her right hand.  She said it had got caught in combers & had 60 steel needles stuck in it.  She was taken by horse & trap to the Dr at Glossop.  She lost her finger & she said “ I was back at work in less than a month & managed very well without it“.  She got no compensation.

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The girls sang at their work all day, when it was good, usually the popular songs, but four of us who worked together “young uns” sometimes played when no one was watching, we gave the older ones a concert, one sang comic songs another was a good mimic,  I couldn`t sing but I could recite, comic poems, which I used to do at concerts at Rowarth Sunday School years before.

I wrote a parody which we sang to the tune of “Neath the shade of the old apple tree”, it ran

Neath the shade of the Kinderlee Mill

Its enough to make anyone ill

The cops they are rotten & so is the cotton

And the manager he needs a pill

The doffers are running about 

You can hear them all whistling & shout

So get your ends up or you will be getting mucked up

Neath the shade of the Kinderlee Mill

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Mrs T said she had paid many a shilling to see a concert & never laughed so much as she did at us.  There was a staircase in one room which was guarded by an iron rail, one breakfast time we filled a degging can (used for damping the yarn & stood behind the rail intending to deg a certain boy when he came up after breakfast from the baut walk, it was rather dark.  We heard the door open & got ready, I was the look out to give the signal when he was underneath.  To my horror I saw it was a big fat elderly woman who only came to work after breakfast.  I shouted “stop it” but the one holding the can thought I said “Tip it” up it went all over her.  We fled in terror were made to apologise, though we told her it wasn`t meant for her, I don`t think she believed us & never spoke to us again for ages.  She said “Its come to summat when yer canna come to work bowt gettin` yer clothes & dinner degged”.

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A boy who worked with us kept bantams which he had to feed in winter by candlelight.  One day he told us the bantam cock had caught his tail in the candle & burnt it off, so we sang “Stanley burnt its tail off” to him.  That night when I got home mother had plucked a chicken.  I got the tail feathers pinned them to a card & wrote

“This little gift accept from me

Its use you may contend

If ever your bamtam burns his tail

Just stick these on the end”.

I placed this on his frame when he was out so he wouldn`t know who, but he guessed right.

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Kinderlee went bankrupt after the slump & was taken over by JACKSONS Belting manufacturers from Bradford.  JACKSONS are a wealthy Glossop family & were friends of ROWBOTTOMS

The flood damage was repaired, the mill was modernized & new machinery installed to weave belting.  JACKSONS also bought the houses at Chew, & some in the village for workers from Bradford.  The old cottage in the mill yard used for years as a waste store was renovated & the weaving manager & his wife lived there.

There must be people in the village who know more about this than me.

All the people I have mentioned previously have passed on, except for 2 or 3 of my friends but they don`t live here now, though we do meet at times and laugh when we think of old times.

Is village life dull? No its as you make it.

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What is LAMBARD`s house at Lr Chisworth was once a mill though no one could tell me more than  that.  There is still the remains of a small lodge above old road, below (when we came here) The brook at this point was fenced by heavy iron posts & chains similar to those in Norfolk Sq. Glossop only the chains were much heavier.  With continual swinging the links broke from the posts & instead of repairing what was a most attractive fixture the council removed them & built the present wall.  They have now made Hr Chisworth a Conservation area but their predecessors destroyed one of its most attractive features.

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Chisworth was under Glossop Hall Rural District Council which covered Gamesly, Charlesworth, Chisworth & Ludworth down to Marple Bridge.  In 1984 the boundaries were changed.  The above council ceased to exist & Gamesly went to Glossop, Ludworth went into Cheshire.  The boundary which was previously the River Goyt was moved to the boundary between Ludworth & Chisworth & we came under Chapel-en-le-Frith R.D. Council.

In 1920 Lord HOWARD of Glossop, whose estate was Glossop, Hadfield, Padfield, Charlesworth, Chisworth & Ludworth decided to sell the outlying parts. This was Charlesworth, Chisworth & Ludworth.  Up to then everyone who owned property paid ground rent.  Lord HOWARD owned all the farms & a lot of other property, though some farms were leasehold.  When my late father (John STORER) bought Highgate Farm Lr Chisworth later

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in 1920 he was told, "You have the distinction of being His Lordships first customer."  Those who could bought their farms, the others had to leave & these farms & cottages were sold by auction.

There had been a big colliery at the junction of Sandy & Sanders Lane, the loading bay was at the wide paved part of the road & the small brick building opposite was the weighing machine box.  This was a deep pit employing a lot of miners.  The winding shaft in one of our fields is 120 yds deep & was recently capped by the Coal Board.  This pit closed towards the end of the last century when they struck an underground stream & was flooded.  One could still hear water running at the bottom of the shaft & it runs down a tunnel opposite Sandy Lane Farm

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Mr. J.H. RATCLIFE (formerly of Kinderlee) rented a farm near us at Hr Chisworth; Fold Farm, which was run by a farm bailiff.  He also rented all the other cottages & Thornlea Farm.  He let the cottages (part furnished) to avoid paying higher rates, to week-enders, who would pay more than twice what the village people could afford.  The average rent in the village was 4/6 per week.  Some of the smaller houses 2/6.  Mr RATCLIFFE`s tenants paid 10/- 15/- & £1 per week.  Ashton under Lyne Girl Guides had one, M/cr Municipal Day Training College girls had another, a group of teachers another.  Mr RATCLIFFE was a business man. He told me his family came from Mellor where they had a mill & there were RATCLIFFES in Mellor Churchyard for over 200 years.

In 1921 there was the coal strike everyone was out of work.  Local men began to dig in

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in Chew Wood for coal & found it.  Some Glossop men heard of this & they started to dig in the banks of the brook above Chew Wood.  They found coal & worked shifts staying all night to guard their claim.  This was on ground rented by Mr RATCLIFFE, he complained to Lord HOWARD who said so long as they worked near the brook they could go on.  Later that year Mr RATCLIFFE bought all the property he rented, plus High Ash Farm, he now owned all of Hr Chisworth except our farm.

In 1905 my husband`s father (John BOCKING) bought this farm from THORNLEYS whose family had lived at Thornlea Hr Chisworth for over 200 years.  Mrs THORNLEY owned the house & buildings the land was leased from Lord HOWARD.

In those days it was considered sinful in the village to hay make on Sunday

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Mr BOCKING did hay make on Sunday & was known in the village as "that B....r at th` Intakes as hay makes on Sunday".  My father also made hay on Sunday I was told it was wicked to come from Sunday School & go into the hay field but I had no choice.  Father said if it wasn`t wrong to make munitions & kill men on Sunday (these were the years of the 14 - 18 war) there was no sin in providing for your cattle.  My sister & I used to deliver milk in the village carrying it to the doors in a big can with a measure inside hung on the rim.  We measured it out into jugs on the doorstep, my younger brother (George STORER) took over the round & kept it until he left the district in 1953.  Chisworth held a carnival in the mid 20s.  I still remember Dan THORNLEY (a local man) as a KOK - DUK, he had a ducks body, ducks head & beak, a big red cocks comb, yellow legs with cow horns for spurs & webbed feet.  He said he got the idea when someone said "Tha does look a cock duck" a local expression..

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The slump had now set in, many people were out of work as the mills reduced their workforce. 

1929 was a very bad year locally.  Hole House Mill had two disastrous fires in six months, sabotage was suspected as there was ill feeling in the village about who was sacked & who kept on, & the second fire in the baut walk started on Saturday night when no one was working, but nothing was proved.

About Summer of 1930 there was a cloudburst above Coombs Rocks water poured over the rocks like Niagra, the small brook became a raging torrent flooding all the low lying houses.  Kinderlee lodge overflowed down the mill yard through the mill & baut walk taking everything before it.  It was dinner time & most people were at home but one man Peter WARBURTON who was in charged of the Baut Walk must have gone back early, he was washed away in the flood & his body was found later at Bone Mill.

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Chisworth school was grant aided & belonged to the Wesleyan Chapel, it was a good school with a good scholarship record, in those days the only way to Glossop Grammar School was by fee or scholarship.  The children who won scholarships had to walk to Glossop & back.  We also had to walk to & from the pictures at Glossop on Saturday night, but the village people could make their own entertainment.  The Chapel had a large congregation & they put on shows in the school a few I remember were "Pearl the Fishermaiden", "Don Quixote",  "Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves" & Passing of the 3rd floor back".  The school children also gave concerts.  There had been big families in the village 12 - 9 - 8 - 7 in one family & so in those days the school was full, small families became the fashion & the school went down & the teachers went down to two, & eventually some time in the 1960s the school was reduced to 10 scholars & one teacher & was closed.

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In 1923 buses started to run from Stockport through the village to Glossop & back.  This took trade from the village shops, people began to go to Glossop to shop regularly, where they only used to walk there when they needed something special like clothes, shoes etc..  People found that Glossop Co-op paid a bigger dividend than Chisworth & started to join as they had started to deliver in the area.  This hit Chisworth Co-op which began to go downhill, by 1934 they had many debts due to the depression members withdrew their shares & deserted the sinking ship & they were obliged to sell out to Glossop for the amount they owed to M/cr Wholesale Co-op.  The shop was rented from ROWBOTTOMS who owned the whole row.  Glossop Co-op also bought this.  Sometime about 1968 history repeated itself.  Glossop Co-op was losing money & in debt, they closed many outside branches &

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Chisworth was one, they also sold the cottages to the tenants or as they came empty.  There was now only one shop in the village, which is still there HARDY`s at Hole house.  The Ten Houses shop had closed years before.  Hole House Mill closed though I can`t remember the date & moved to join JACKSONS at Holroyd Glossop, the staff & some of the work people also went there.  Kinderlee closed much later on.

In 1933 Fred MASSEY started to get coal at Mount View, Chisworth but this story can be read in the book "Ludworth Moor Colliery" by Geoffrey DU FEU & Roderick THACKRAY who are now working open cast coal on the same site salvaging the pillars left by Fred MASSEY.      

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In 1942 my father was seriously ill he sold his stock & farm by auction & the farm was bought by Mr John Fletcher MILLER, who had already bought Hilltop Farm & Moorside Farm, both in Chisworth.  Mr RATCLIFFE had also sold his stock & let the farms.  He died some time later at the age of 93 & his farms & property were also up for sale & were all bought by Mr MILLER.  He now owned the whole of Hr Chisworth & High Ash Farm at Sanders Lane.   In 1953 Mr MILLER died & all his farms which he had stocked & run with a staff of men were put up & sold by auction, some of the tenants buying their own, the cottage tenants in Hr Chisworth each bought his own house.  I can remember the price which was paid to Lord HOWARD & each later owner & the prices asked & paid today, but I don`t think it would be fair to disclose this.

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In 1932 The Central Electricity Board erected a high power line on pylons from Hartshead Power Station through Chisworth to Buxton.  This was 32,000 volts, at Buxton it was later transformed to 11,000 volts & another line was brought back connecting the towns & villages.  Sub stations were set up & in a few years the village was lit up by electricity first the houses on the roadside, the farms came in later bit by bit as an isolated farm needed a special line & its own transformer.  The charge to bring to a farm like ours was £100 plus the cost of installation to the house & buildings & a guarantee to use or pay for £20 worth of electricity per year.  This doesn`t sound much today, but in those days it was a lot of money, & I had to put an electric fire in each of my four bedrooms in winter in order to use my money`s worth & not pay for nothing.

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Whit Saturday was a great day in the village all the scholars walked in procession with the Sunday School banner & lead by a band.  The 3 denominations met at The Square Charlesworth where a short service was held before walking back to their respective schools for refreshments.  Everybody turned out either to walk or watch, former residents came to renew old acquaintances & it seems a pity it has now ceased.

Dave THORNLEY also broadcast his own dialect poem "Muffin Jim", in the very early days of radio.  

I have now lived at Intakes Farm for nearly 54 years it has been in the family since 1905 & is now farmed & owned by my son Geoffrey William BOCKING.  Tthey say village children don`t stand a chance.

My elder son John is a research chemist in South Carolina.  My daughter Marjorie, B.Sc (Econ) A.L.A. is the Librarian at Cambridge Institute of Education.  G.W. is doing well as a farmer & it all started with scholarships from Chisworth school.

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About 1927 or 8 Miss R Douglas DEAS (?) rented Rarewood House & turned it into a Youth Hostel.  On Mr RATCLIFFE`s death she bought the house & it was closed & sold on her death sometime in the 40`s.  RATCLIFFES had been a big family & kept servants & horses & a carriage & trap.  The Mr RATCLIFFE I knew was one of the sons.  The house is now divided into two.

My late father Mr John STORER was chairman of Chisworth Parish Council & on the rating authority before it changed over to Chapel-en-le-Frith, he was also on the committee & for a short time president of Chisworth Co-op.  My late husband never sought public life, he was always too busy ploughing, growing crops & cattle & improving the farm, but he was a very good scholar.

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Peace was celebrated in 1919 by a party for all residents in the schoolroom, with a field day & sports to follow.  There was also a party to celebrate George 5th silver jubilee in 1935 & another in 1937 for the coronation of George the 6th.  There was a commemorative mug for each child a field day with sports, games & prizes for the children.  These all ended with a large bon-fire & fireworks in the recreation ground.

All this was paid for from the rates, the Parish Council were the organisers.

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The most prominent people in the village when we came were the ROWBOTTOMS, who were then the mill owners.  Mr. J.H. (Harry) ROWBOTTOM who lived at Chew was a J.P., Rural District & Parish Councillor & for a long time President of Chisworth Co-op.  Mr. G.E. (Edmund) ROWBOTTOM lived at Chisworth House, but he did not hold any public offices.  The people were clannish & seemed to be all related one way or another, people like us who came in from outside were foreigners, but we were accepted & I am now fast becoming an old inhabitant.  There were Rose Queen Festivals in the mid 40s held in the school then dropped & revived later in the 50s & held at the afternoon service in the Chapel.  My daughter Marjorie then a Sunday School teacher wrote the words of a hymn which was always sung after the crowning ceremony.  It started "Crowned is our Queen of Roses Bright & in God`s house is crowned."

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Fair View House was built by Mr. HETT.  When I came, 5 Miss HETTS lived there.  They also owned the 3 adjoining cottages & built & owned Olive Terrace, Broadbottom which was called after his youngest daughter.

All the houses at Chew were owned by ROWBOTTOMS also some of the cottages in Holehouse.  

HARDY`s shop & the adjoining cottage, & the two which stand on the corner as you turn to Holehouse Mill were built by the COOPER family who had lived at Hilltop Farm for many years.  Joe THORNLEY owned three cottages at Marple Rd Chisworth, he also bought Ten Houses.

Willow Bank & cottage was built by the CLAYTON family who had previously owned Alma Pit.

Commercial Row was owned part by the Brewery & part privately, the next row was owned by ROWBOTTOMS & the next 5 Cottages by John HARRIS & his niece Effie ASHWORTH.

Blue Sheets

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Some of the farms in Chisworth had been tenanted for very long periods by members of the same family, but Far Coombs seemed to have had a lot of short stay tenants.

Moorside Farm was occupied for a very long period by the ROWBOTTOM family who were Particular Baptists.  One of the older residents told me she used to go carol singing with the Baptists.  One year they were invited to sing & have supper at Moorside.  She said they were all sat round the fire after singing carols.  There was a large pan on the fire & thinking it contained the supper began to guess among themselves what it was, one said a fowl & soup, another ham & pea soup, a third potato Hash, then Moses ROWBOTTOM came in lifted the lid & said "These tater peelings are cooked.  I`ll go & feed the pigs & you can put the kettle on".  She said all we got was coffee & "shouter", currant bread with the currants so far apart they had to shout across to each other.

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The family left after Mrs ROWBOTTOM`s death in 1916 & the farm was tenanted & later bought by Tom SMITH.  Hill Top was tenanted by the COOPER family perhaps for hundreds of years & must have been leased as Caleb COOPER built an extension to the farm house in 1812.  It was taken over by John FERN in the 1900s & in 1912 by Joseph SHAW & his son Walter.  They bought it in 1926 & hoped to pass it on in  due course to Walter`s only son Harold, but when Harold died at the age of 17 they felt there was nothing left to work for & sold it lock stock & barrel to John Fletcher MILLER, who also bought Moorside & later Highgate from my father who was seriously ill & died a few weeks later.  Mr MILLER had a flourishing Oil Works at Hyde & rumour said he was buying the farms & farming to avoid super-tax.  He paid farm bailiffs & other men to do the work.

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All three farms were sold by auction after Mr MILLER`s death.  Hill Top had three short term owners, first T. KEATING who went back to butchering, John MASSEY who died & Robert BOLT who shot himself in the farm yard.  It was then bought by Mr J GOULD who is still there.  He also bought Moorside from John PENNINGTON & Far Coombs which he sold to Mr & Mrs GREEN.  The man who bought Highgate sold the land to adjoining farmers.  Mr MILLER had already put the fields near Hill Top to that farm, & it is now a private house & flat made from some of the buildings, the tenants PRYCE, LEWIS & Joseph JACKSON bought their respective farms & the cottages were bought by the occupiers.

A couple who had a poultry farm at Hr. Chisworth in mid thirties came for a drive round a few years ago & were surprised to see George GOULD in Sandy Lane & then to find BOCKINGS still at the Intakes.

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Highgate Farm was tenanted by J.S. THORNLEY known as "Jimmy Sammy" later Charles BOOTH, A.D. BRERETON & then my father John STORER who had the distinction of being Lord HOWARD`s first customer prior to the 1921 sale.  The farm known as Thornlea was occupied by the THORNLEY family until John THORNLEY`s death in 1916 later taken over by J.F. RATCLIFFE who had Fold Farm,.  He was a gentleman farmer & kept a bailiff & farm workers.

Sandy Lane Farm was tenanted by Francis J ASHTON who left in 1921.  It was sold & had a number of short term owners, Stanley BELL, Joe DONAGHUE, who opened up the coal pit opposite Sanders Lane & sold coal for a short period.  Mr George GOULD who had bought Far Woodseats Farm then bought it & let it first to W. LOMAS, later his son-in-law John HIGGINBOTTOM & then he sold it to Mrs DRIVER who was a widow.  It is now farmed by her son who has added a lot more land to it, including High Ash Farm & part of Fold Farm.  He also rents the remainder.

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Mr RATCLIFFE bought all the farms & cottages at Hr Chisworth (except Highgate) at Lord HOWARD`s sale.  These were sold on his death & bought by John Fletcher MILLER.  High Ash Farm House was privately owned on leasehold ground & was sold separate from the land.  Mrs WHITE now owns the farm house.  Sander`s Lane Farm was leased by another of the RATCLIFFES, James, & he added a new part to the farm house.  His widow (later Mrs ASHTON) still owned the lease at the 1926 sale & was bought out.  It was occupied by Lister BROUGHTON, Joel BEARD & then A.D. BRERETON who left in 1921.  It now got a few short term owners one of whom expected it to keep them plus a maid & farm labourer, he looked afraid to dirty his brown boots.  They sold up two years later & left in a hurry leaving no address.  A few days later a Jewish money lender came in a  large car looking for them, he took possession of the farm & for 2 years

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tried to sell it for 2 1/2 times what it was sold for a few years before.  There were no buyers & so after being empty for two years we managed to rent it from Shylock to find a home for my husband`s parents, so we could marry & take over the Intakes.  Our ground joined at Sanders Lane & we ran it along with this until Mr BOCKING died just before the 2nd World War.  It was then taken over by my brother George STORER who had kept father`s milk round & he farmed there for about ten years.  It now became compulsory to sell milk in bottles instead of from a can on the doorstep, so my brother sold his stock & bought his milk ready bottled from a dairy.  He left the farm & bought Chisworth House & the cottages next door & ran his round from there.  A few years later he sold Chisworth House to Mr RAWLINSON, his milk round to Fletcher MILL(ER) & bought a farm at Denshaw in the edge of West Riding.

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Far Woodseats Farm was occupied at one time by Mrs BAGSHAW who was head mistress at Chisworth School.  This was in the days of school pence & one woman told me if they went without it on Monday morning she sent them home for it.  Later it was farmed by the MYCOCK family, whose son Herbert founded `Herbert MYCOCK & Nephew`.  A daughter was Mrs DRIVER, Stanley`s mother.  It was bought by George GOULD in the 1921 sale.  He still kept the farm though later he married Mrs DRIVER for his 2nd wife & lived at Sandy Lane.

Boarfold Farm was farmed by the MANIFOLD family (before my time) & was bought by Mr BUTTEMER at the sale.  After his death his daughter Mrs STAFFORD & her husband lived there until they sold it a few years ago.

Miss Margaret Dawson HAMMERSLEY lived for many years at Stirrup Benches & bought it at the sale.

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She was quite well to do, she had been a teacher at Chisworth School in her younger days & members of her family are buried in the Chapel yard.  She was always welcome at the Anniversary.  She would come in a black silk dress & a hat with a large white ostrich feather, & it was known that she never put less than £2 in the offertory box.  This was in the days when 1/- was usual, 3d often & 2/6 generous.  I was told that before the First World War she always gave a large Christmas Party to all her neighbours & the surrounding farmers.  She died in the early 1920s.  What is now Mount View was 20 acres of accommodation land with a disused quarry at the road junction.  It was bought by Joseph MASSEY of Pistol Farm at the 1926 sale.  He had a small wooden bungalow built, & he & his wife retired there.  They found coal & he brought his eldest son

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Fred to work it (a former miner) but died before the mine got going.  Fred stayed on with his mother & the mine flourished for a number of years.  The place remained in the MASSEY family until 1978 when John STAFFORD inherited it from his wife a former Mrs R MASSEY.  He signed an agreement for open cast coal to be worked but died tragically shortly afterwards.

The new owner Mr Albert HALL has improved & extended the bungalow but had to accept the open cast mining which is drawing to a close.