TICKHILL TRANSPORT AND
THE SOUTH YORKSHIRE JOINT
RAILWAY
(The photographs which relate to this topic are in the
Gallery section of the website under "Society Activities" -
"Commercial " - "Transport".)
Until the
arrival of the South Yorkshire Joint Railway (SYJR) in the early
20th century, all transport was by road; Tickhill was
easily accessible as two turnpike roads, Bawtry to Tinsley and
Balby to Worksop, ran through the village. In the early 19th
century, it was well-served by mail coaches as the ‘Glasgow
Mail’ from London to Glasgow stopped at the Red Lion twice a
day, and the ‘Royal Forrester’ and the ‘Light Post Coach’
operated services to Nottingham throughout the week. By the late
1830s they were joined by services to Stamford and Lincoln, and
every Saturday, local man, James Storer ran a coach service to
Doncaster.
However, transport services
used regularly by villagers were more likely to have been those
operated by local carriers, such as James Western, who left
Church Street for Doncaster every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday
(market days). Church Street was also the starting point for
George Malkin’s service to Retford. Carriers, John Hibberson
and William Crampton operated services to Gainsborough and
Sheffield from The Millstone, whilst W & J Pettifor travelled to
London and York from The Three
Crowns twice a week.
Construction
Until
1910, Tickhill people wishing to travel to Doncaster had, therefore, to use one of the aforementioned methods of transport.
The passing of the 1903 South Yorkshire Joint Railway (SYJR) Act
paved the way for a direct train link between Tickhill and
Doncaster.
Ownership of the SYJR was
shared by the five major railway companies serving South
Yorkshire: the Great Northern Railway, Great Central Railway,
Midland Railway, North Eastern Railway and the Lancashire &
Yorkshire Railway. The whole purpose of the SYJR was essentially
to transport coal, and to give easy access to those collieries
not linked directly to a main line operated by the railway
companies. The new line ran from Dinnington to Kirk Sandall with
spurs to local collieries.
Construction of SYJR began at
Dinnington in November 1905. Navvies, working between 6am and
5pm, used gunpowder to blast through rock, and manual and
mechanical methods - picks and shovels and 15 patent steam
excavators and cranes, capable of moving 12,000-15,000 tons of
earth daily - were employed to clear the site ready for laying
the track.
The Navvies lived in camps or
lodgings in the local villages. Some brought their families;
their behaviour was good, possibly due to regular visits to the
‘Navvies Mission’, to which the SYJR made regular contributions
of £50.00.
The line opened for freight on
January 1, 1909. The SYJR had no locos or rolling stock; each of
the joint companies supplied their own.
Tickhill Station
Although
Tickhill did not serve a colliery, the line, which the
Doncaster Gazette described as ‘ a remarkable piece
of railway enterprise’ ran close to the village and a station
was constructed on Doncaster Road at Gallow Hill half way
between Tickhill and Wadworth; passengers, however, faced a long
walk from either village.
Tickhill Station was built by F
J Salmon of Cudworth; he had a joint contract to build stations
at both Tickhill and Maltby at a cost of £4,738. The station was
built of red brick with two platforms approximately 350 feet
long connected by a footbridge, a booking hall, waiting room,
porter’s room, and goods’ yard. The station was renamed
Tickhill & Wadworth in 1911.
Staff
The
station was initially manned by a stationmaster with an annual
salary of£65 and a signalman, who combined his duties in the
Tickhill & Wadworth signal box with that of the porter. He
worked a 12-hour day, 6 days a week, with no meal breaks for,
the sum of one guinea (£1.05) per week. Other employees worked a
10-hour day, 7 days a week but were allowed meal breaks.
The stationmaster was provided
with a house on site for an annual rent of £15.12.0. (£15.60),
he also received ten days holiday per year; the holiday
allocation for the other staff was not so generous, with the
signalman receiving four days and other employees three.
Each employee was given three
free rail passes a year, one of which could be used abroad; in
addition his wife and any children under 15 were permitted to
accompany him on two of these journeys.
All staff were provided with
free uniforms, which were replaced every two years; however the
stationmaster had new cap every year.
By 1924, the number of staff
had increased, as had their pay: the stationmaster now received
any annual salary of £220 and a clerk £105; there were four
signalmen, who each received £135.5.0. (£135.25) and two porters
received £119.10.0. (£119.50) each.
23-year-old Wilbert Briggs was the first stationmaster. In
December 1909 he was promoted to a Traffic Inspector; he
continued to work for SYJR until his retirement 42 years later.
Briggs was an all-round sportsman, who officiated at the 1934
Empire Games. In 1920 the stationmaster was Charles England, he
again lived in the station house, on his retirement he moved to
Tickhill, where he remained until 1970.
Passenger services
July 6,
1909 saw the first passenger excursion from Tickhill: 142 adults
and 122 children from Tickhill Wesleyan Chapel paid 3/- (15p)
and 1/6 (7p) respectively for a Sunday School outing to
Cleethorpes. Although the weather was unfavourable, it did not
diminish the excitement of the passengers who arrived at the
station by horse-drawn Wagonette and a variety of other
horse-drawn vehicles. The success of excursions, such as this,
led to regular passenger services at Tickhill.
The first regular service
between Doncaster and Worksop, which stopped at Tickhill, commenced on
December 1, 1910 with four
trains a day; the journey to Doncaster took 16 minutes. Fares from Doncaster to Tickhill were single 1st
class 10d (4p) and 3rd class 6d
(2½ p); return 1/8 (8p) and 10d (4p)
respectively. Cheap rates were introduced on market days when a
3rd class return was 9d (3½p). However,
few people travelled 1st class, and the line lost
money, as a result services were reduced to three a day in
August 1911. Despite 1913 being a boom year for passenger
travel, more 1st class travellers were needed to make
the service profitable; by 1917 a further reduction resulted in
a Saturdays only service.
Daily
services resumed in the 1920s, but despite 20 girls from the
area travelling Monday to Friday on the 8.20am to Doncaster High
School and returning on the evening train, and the popularity of
the service during St Leger week there was a decline in
passengers: by now potential 1st class passengers had
their own car and 3rd class passengers found the bus
service cheaper. Another factor was the location of the station,
which was 1¼ miles outside the village.
The line closed completely
during the General Strike in May 1926 and although coal trains
commenced again in October, the passenger service didn’t
re-start until July 1927, with two trains each way daily.
As well as coal, the
transportation of cattle and sheep to and from local farms was
now the most important consignment.
On December 2, 1929 the
passenger service on the SYJR was withdrawn, there was little
opposition, only Tickhill Urban District Council objected on the
grounds that local traders would lose their delivery service.
During the 1930s, evening
excursions and seaside trips operated. Passenger services had
been an expensive luxury on what had essentially been a freight
line for coal.
Over the
years, there were various forms of transport for passengers to
and from Tickhill to the station. Joseph Saxton of Northgate
paid a £1.00 annual fee for the contract to run a horse-drawn
carriage service for a fare of ½d (1p). Saxton’s
horse drawn Wagonette service still worked between Tickhill and
the station in the 1920s, but by then it was in competition with
a motorbus service between Doncaster and Tickhill, which had had
been started by Mr Preece in 1919. Three years later, in 1922 it
was taken over by W T Underdown; the advantage of this new
service was that it passed through the centre of the village.
Another more expensive option was a taxi: the fare 1/6 (12p).
(The photographs which relate to this topic are in the
Gallery section of the website under "Society Activities" -
"Commercial " - "Transport".)
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