GRANGETOWN IN TIMES PAST
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The Village That Disappeared 1871-19**
 | photo -courtesy of Kevin Murphy USA
There must be very few people now living who can actually recall the village of Lackenby which was swallowed up by Dorman & Long - now Corus Steelworks, the present owners of the land owned by Bolckow, Vaughan & Co Ltd from the latter part of the 19th C.
But an American writer whose family lived in Lackenby at the turn of the 20th century chose to include this place-name in a thriller written in the US - as a gesture to the early memories recounted by his father Joseph Murphy - from Irish immigrant stock (County Monaghan ) who lived and worked in the Eston and Cleveland Iron Works of Bolckow,Vaughan and Co. before emigrating to the US where he met his future wife and fathered his present family which included the thriller and Sci Fi Writer Kevin Murphy.
This obsession and desire to link with his long dead father’s past led Kevin to find this website on Grangetown and uncover family links which he had previously believed to have been erased and perhaps subsumed by the iron industry itself. However Kevin’s enquiry - see Messages from abroad Section - suggests to me that we need to explore this forgotten town a little more just for the sake of history itself.
Here is a photograph taken circa 1895 which embodies the essence of the early days of the ironworks and its existence - where platelayers, locomen, blacksmiths, stokers, furnacekeepers, engine drivers, sawyers, iron artz fitters, engine fitters, metal carriers, iron slaggers, brick makers and labourers; all lived together in this small village doomed to disappear forever in the not too distant future when the ironworks grew rapidly to become the expansive steelworks which we all remember and which played such a dominating role in all our working lives.
See Census Records for Low Lackenby Wilton of 1881.
On this picture second right on the back row sporting a moustache is James Murphy - another of the many Co Monaghan immmigrants who arrived in the area and according to family lore - saw the ‘ fire in the sky’ which led him to the furnaces and ironworks of Yorkshire.
His children were all born in the area, educated in South Bank and Grangetown before serving in the Great War and eventually emigrating themselves in the 20's to the U.S.
It is fortunate that one of his descendants Kevin Murphy discovered the site and we are able to share his family photographs sent through cyberspace - a timely reminder perhaps of the possibilities inherent in our own future researches and the future of all our families.
All future memories may never be lost or irretrievable - but ever present - if the internet doesn’t collapse under the strain. |
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Low Lackenby ( New or North Lackenby )
 | photo - courtesy of Dennis King
Bulmer's Directory of 1890 states that :
"New Lackenby contains forty-eight cottages, inhabited by the workmen at Messrs. Downey & Co.'s ironworks.
These furnaces, three in number, were erected in 1871, and are situated at Low Lackenby, where an iron school-church has also been erected by the proprietors for the benefit of their employees."
Scan, OCR and html by Colin Hinson. Checking and correction by Peter Nelson.
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Map of Low Lackenby 1894
 | image - J White
1881 Census Low Lackenby
In this small community of 48 houses - the Census of 1881 lists 40.
The two cottages at Lackenby Station, which was actually there in 1861 according to a map of the area - are the homes of the Bedford and Rutherford families who work as platelayers; a clerk and locomotive fireman.
Nearby are a number of Irish immigrant families -
Ed McLish and lodgers Wm Terry ( Fireman ) and Joe Terry
Bill Keitchinmaster born in Germany and John Howitson - a blacksmiths striker.
Jim O’Neill - lodger Charlie Pevlin and Pat Ward
Widowed lodging house keeper Mary Mahon with her children and Irish lodgers - Tom Smith, Arthur Comiskey, Barney McDonald, Pat Carn and Brian Mahon visitor.
Next comes families of
Sam Hurons of Twickenham
Wm Knott - Furnace Keeper ( Iron ) Staffordshire
Wm Dickenson - Boiler Tender or Stoker;
Richard Owen of Welshpool;
John Jackson - Engine Driver and Richard Williams - platelayer;
Alfred Hall from Staffordshire;
Thomas Lilly,
James Early - Ireland;
Ben Johnson - Sawyer;
Joe Millington - Iron Arz Fitter;
Geo Blakeman - Blacksmith;
Charles Hall - Staffs.
Paddy Flood - Ireland and lodgers Pat Hynes, Pat McDonnell, Pete Cavanagh, Bernard McVarry;
Enoch Short - Furnace Keeper ( Iron );
Richard Pepper Grocer;
Engine Fitters Scott Johnson and Wm Henderson;
Edward Cook - MilkSeller;
Pat Combar with lodgers - Jim Malone, Jim Rafferty, Wm Glym, John McParland, Tom Murphy, Jim Halley, John Donaghy,
Widowed Maggie Conway with 4 children and lodger Dan McGoon,
Wm Cripps born in Cottsford Oxfordshire;
William Gilliam metal carrier with children and lodgers - Jim Morris, Edward Fox and engine drivers Harry Whale and John Taylor.
Next the families of Patrick Laylor( Lawlor )
Thomas Burns,
MichaelGrugin,
Robert Jordeson,
Terence O’Connon,
Thomas Lloyd - Weighman;
Richard Gray - Brickmaker;
John Richards;
Widowed Elizabeth Eden;
Farmers : John Collin - Farmer of 145 acres with 3 servants
Thomas Wilson Heornshire House Farmer of 115 acres with six children inc. watchmaker son John aged 18.
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Later Map of Low Lackenby 1919
 | | image - oldmaps |
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Low Lackenby Children
 | Low Lackenby Children - courtesy of Mrs Harriet Thompson nee Semper
Back Row: Jean Hart, Lilly Semper, Charlotte Brudenell, George Foreman, Terry Ward.
Middle Row: Donald Mackay, Jimmy Lagan, Margaret Semper, Tessie Foley.
Front Row: Colin Bell, Hunty Hart, Audrey Semper. |
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The Cripps Family c 1890
 | The Cripps Family c 1890 - courtesy of Ron Vickers
Isn't it amazing to think that the Cripps family lived in Low Lackenby - a fine and sturdy group of people in Victorian times, with all their lives ahead of them as they pose for a photograph outside their home at Number 26.
Holding a book or pamphlet of some kind, William Cripps rests his hand upon his wife Ellen Hancock's shoulder. His bearded father, also called William, sits in the front row, and sister Emma stands second from the left alongside his brother Tom - next to William. On the far right is younger brother George Cripps. The lady standing on the left is probably Tom's wife Hannah Miller. |
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The Johnson Family c 1946
 | The Johnson Family c 1946 - courtesy of George Johnson
Mam, George, Hazel and Alison
Thanks for your info on getting onto your site. I was interested in the Low Lackenby segment.
"The Village that disappeared 1871- 19**. I guess someone wanted to know when it finally disappeared.
Well I may have the answer. You see - my family, George & Bella went to live there with us kids, me George Jnr (nicknamed Juicy) & sister Hazel, c 1939/1940. My younger sister Alison, being born in Low Lackenby 1944.
We lived at No 28, the third last house in the last row. This is taken on the front green where the ladies hung out their washing. The shale heap in the background is the start of the foundations of the road works. This heap covered what was once the beautiful garden allotments the men had. My sister Alison would be about 3 yrs old - making the photo about 1946/7.
George Johnson Nov 2007 |
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The Last Kids in Low Lackenby
 | The Last Kids in Low Lackenby- courtesy of Geo Johnson
This photograph is of me and my sisters. We were in fact the last kids to live in Low Lackenby. We were the final chapter in the life of Lackenby - the family having been moved to South Bank in 1950.
I have some wonderful memories of Lackenby. We had our own swimming pool where all the kids learned to swim. I remember Peter (Tot) Hart, diving off the top bank and scraping his body on the the rocks below. He came up all covered in blood.
Another time, one winter, the bottomless pit had frozen over with ice and all the kids were urging my sister Hazel to test it out. Thank goodness it was thick ice. I dread to think what would have happened.
We also had our own football field at the bottom of the village and we were always careful to pick a certain lad (Brian Semper?) He was the only one with a leather casey in those days,to play with.
At Easter time the mothers would make different coloured paste eggs and we would roll them down the little hills, in Portas's(Porter's?)fields.
Going to School was an amazing time, of how we got there. We had to walk all the way. It was a long walk in those days - along the black path, past Threepennies Garden to Grangetown station. We would get lifts in Tonkin's Fish Van.( we used to smell all day afterwards )or we jumped on the back of the tar trucks as they passed, through the station Bridge.
One time my sister Hazel thought she would be smart and beat the rush and jump on the truck, from the first bridge. She jumped on grabbing the tail gate bar - the truck piled high with tar stones of course. When it went under the low bridge, the tar was levelled off, leaving my sister covered in tar. Mam went mad and poor Hazel had to have all her hair cut off - and her clothes. I wonder if anyone out there still remembers.
I will have some more stories later.
Regards,
George J Nov 2007
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