While reading local papers on microfiche at Doncaster Local Studies Library, to help with research for Occasional Paper 6, Lesley Nicholson found the following items:  

A youthful misdemeanour and its consequences

Doncaster Gazette April 1918

THE PARENTS PAY

Three Tickhill boys were at the Doncaster West Riding Police Court on Wednesday brought up charged with stealing a number of India rubbers, stamps and a quantity of paint etc belonging to the West Riding Education Committee, from the National School at Tickhill. The father of one boy has been in the army over three years. They were bound over in 40s for 12 months and the parents ordered to pay the costs.

An aspiring poet

Doncaster Chronicle 24 November 1922

            TICKHILL’S BUDDING LAUREATE

The aspiration in our last issue for a poet to celebrate the long journey of Emily Beighton to her marriage in India has produced the following effusion from a boy of eleven. He is a scholar of our old school, but at present away through dental trouble. In the first stanza we are full of hope; in the second the raging molar induces despondency, but we get the happy ending after all.

To Miss Emily Beighton sailing to India 11 November 1922 

The good ship left Southampton,

One bleak November day;

And we hope that our dear Emily

Will safely reach Bombay.

‘Twas on the Glengorm Castle,

Our Emily sailed away;

We shall not see her face again,

 For many a weary day.

The good ship sails upon the spray,

To sunny lands so far away;

And wedding bells will surely chime,

For Emily in that distant clime.

The young poet was George Jenkinson, from Market Place, Tickhill. Lesley remembers Jenkinson’s haberdashery shop where the fancy dress shop is now.

 Climate change?

Doncaster Chronicle 18 May 1923

            MAY ILLNESSES

According to the poets and other romantic folk, the month of May ushers in sunshine and warmth. It is traditionally regarded as a period that marks a definite cleavage with the cold and dreary winter. The English climate, however, appears to be getting more and more erratic, and now, although we have reached the middle of the month, we are still retaining winter clothing, rainproofs and umbrellas. The cold snap experienced during the last week or so is certainly unusual. There has been searching wind from the north-west quarter during the past week and

practically no day has been free from rain, indeed it snowed last Wednesday. The temperature has been as low as 53 degrees in the daytime and 32 at night. The cold snap is having a marked effect upon the health of the people, and Doncaster doctors are working at full pressure coping with unusually numerous cases of influenza and pneumonia.

See the Society's Occasional Paper 6 for how this poor weather and illnesses affected events at Tickhill National School. It is currently on sale in KSM