Kiveton and Wales Community History Project

[Lindseyw]

Cheers Lindsey - I'll PM you when the website is ready.

 

In the meantime, give me a shout if you'd like to pop down sometime for a coffee and to see all the stuff we've collected so far (I try to be in the Colliery Offices from Monday - Wednesday, but I'm in and out this week).

 

JT

 

Sounds good to me - it's only at the back of my house so I will pop round.

 

L

[cdriver]

Hi John, Cheshire calling! Wish I were nearer to offer support. My husbands paternal family first moved to Stavely and then Kiv circa 1890's. Maternal line from circa mid 1800's. 3 generations then worked in the mines up until mid 1950's/60's. The sons started working at the pits around the ages of 13/14 and were generally pony drivers before being 'promoted'. We have some lovely family stories of day to day life but very few pictures (didnt have cameras) that may be of interest. Have to say life was hard. Up until 'grandad's death (mid 1960's), he still used to throw his cap into the house when he came home from the pub. If it got thrown back out, he'd turn tail and return to the pub. Let me know if I can be of any assistance, albeit remotely. Regards Caroline PS If anyone can assist me with some 'Storr' family history from the area, I would be greatly appreciative.

[cdriver]

PS On checking the fam history, it would appear that Thomas (the migrant) moved across to work on the railway lines initially (census occupation) before his career change to the coal face. Im sure a lot of men did, but I understand they were in situ when the coal face was first opened up as I can now link the stories of the children being taught in the colliery offices, before the school was built, which will tie up with the mines history.

[KivWaHistory]

Hi Caroline,

 

I've only just seen your post, cheers for all the information and your offer of help. I'm just heading out of the office and won't be back in till Monday, when I'll reply properly. It sounds like there are some fascinating contributions you could make to the project!

 

John

[KivWaHistory]

Hi Caroline,

 

The name certainly seems to mean a lot to some of our volunteers - I'll PM you when I've had a chat with them properly after our Coffee Morning on Saturday. Not least, I've got the original surfacemen's signing on book - signed by every man and boy who worked on or around the pit top between 1916 to 1952. I think there were a few Storrs on there but I'll have to check through properly. Similarly, the name rings lots of bells with other material I've seen, which I'll check properly for you. The chronology you mention does check out, but it would be interesting to find out exactly when your ancestors arrived.

 

My office is in the colliery offices so if you're ever in Kiveton give me a shout - the clocktower is working now too! We're putting together a history of the schools as an article for the website. Not least, we've been given partial confirmation of the opening date for the Infants School - watch out for unexpected centenary celebrations in the nearish future!

 

We're also putting pages on the site about specific families in the area: so far, we've got contributions on the way from ancestors from one of the pitsinkers (1866-7), one of the first men to die down the pit, Herbert Chapman (former Arsenal manager - considered one of the best ever) and two brothers who fought in the First World War (the diaries of which will shortly be our first local history publication). It would be great if you, or anybody else reading, could contribute their family memories and stories, and have a page of the site devoted to them.

 

I hope we can help family historians too. One of the things going on the website will be listings of the pit records, school records and other material we've got, to try and help people interested in family history in the area.

 

I look forward to hearing from you, and hopefully meeting some SFers in the flesh on Saturday!

 

JT

[cdriver]

Hi John Thank you so much for the response. My husband is one of 6 children so Ive prompted a lot of history hunting amongst them its marvelous! Im sorry to miss the coffee morning but hopefully we can manage a trip in the new year. Keep up the excellent work! Kind regards Caroline

[highmoor]

Hi its a reply to KiWAhistory.

 

I worked at Kivo pit for about two years and left just before it shut. I wondering whether the South Yorkshire BAT Group could survey the roof voids of the old managers offices at Kivo pit site. The old victorian building has some excellent high roof voids that bats may utilise for roosting in and if this is true it would be another attraction for the former site both as a future bat walk starting point when the park nearby is matured and also from the fact that any bat roosts in there would be protected un legislation that would help secure the building from any future ugly developments or alterations.

 

regards

 

Graham Gregg

SYBG

[KivWaHistory]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the support Caroline, we had a great coffee morning last week, when people brought along things ranging from silver medals from Wales Cricket Club in the 1890s to the original radio out of a Lancaster Bomber! These have all been photographed for our on-line picture museum (the website is looking great, but we're still tweaking it before putting it on-line). The geneology parts of the site are going to be bigger than we expected, partly because we've had a huge response to Family History Classes which are being run next year, and because we've turned up many more family history resources, including school records going back to 1870, which we hope to digitise and put on the site. I'll keep you posted.

 

Huge apologies, but in the excitement of the Coffee Morning (myself, my very pregnant wife and lots of history volunteers were running around from the crack of dawn to the late afternoon!) I forgot to ask the other volunteers about your family. I'll make sure I do it next week. Similarly, I've now got dozens of school photos, carnival photos and sporting photos, many of which we've got the names for. I'll look through them for Storrs.

 

Hi Graham, That sounds fascinating! I'm sure it would be absolutely fine, but I'd have to check with a few people. The building is listed so should be well protected for the future, but anything that might guarantee this would be welcome. Similarly, batwalks sound an excellent idea, and I'm working closely with the Forestry Commission Rangers who would be keen to be involved. Do you want to pop in some time to have a preliminary look around? Having said that, I've not heard anything about bats, but I agree it's a possibility.

 

Let me know when you might pop in and I'll make sure the relevant people are around. I'm in on Monday and Thursday, but at the Junior School all day Tuesday for their History Day. Similarly, we're turning the place into a film studio on Wednesday, for a documentary which is being filmed about the miners' strike, so that might be difficult. If you prefer evenings, I'm working late on Tuesday until 7pm, so that might be a good time to meet up.

 

Let me know what you think,

 

John

 

ps. I'll pop back with project photos next week

[KivWaHistory]

Cheers for e-mails and its been good chatting to a couple of Forummers recently - sorry for not popping back on here sooner. Caroline - I'll PM you tomorrow. Not least, I'm running family history workshops in a few weeks time using local and national sources. Some of those attending are new to the area, so I'm sure they'd be happy to look for your stuff when we're using local resources.

 

If anybody fancies a listen to me and a few of our volunteers (please don't laugh at us!), we were on Radio Sheffield today and you can listen to it by clicking on the listen live link to the right of the screen ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2006/02/22/radio_sheffield_radio_player_list.shtml ), clicking on the 'Phone Rony' program and fast-forwarding to approx 2 1/2 hours into it.

 

It would be great to hear from anyone who has any photos/memories/objects about Kiveton or Wales, past or present.

 

All the best,

 

JT

[KivWaHistory]

ps: website going live next week, I'll post the link here!

(if that's ok with Geoff et al - of course, I'll stick a link to the SF History Board on our site)

 

pps: We have an oral history training day at the colliery offices on Saturday, food and drink provided. Please PM me or phone 01909 773348 tomorrow if you'd like to come along. Otherwise, just come down at about 10am. It should be fun and there will be no obligation to go out into the community interviewing people, but of course this is what we're hoping people will be happy to do.