Excerpts from Interviews with Cyril Waiton 9th and 15th September 2008

These interviews were conducted by John Millington

Cyril was born in 1920 in Bradley Square, Tickhill. The square is now demolished, but used to stand near Sunderland Place. 

Cyril’s father, Ralph, had originally worked, as a groom, on the Sandbeck Estate before joining the Veterinary Corps during the First World War. 

Sarah Ann, his Mother, “ was a very good manager,” and kept her family fed economically.

“We all had to be so so, you know. If you went to the table, there was no chatter, you had to eat what you were given or leave”. One of the dishes Cyril remembers is a sheep’s head stew with lentils. This fed the whole family.

Cyril started  at the infants school in Tithes Lane the age of five. The Headmistress was  Mrs. Shaw, who was assisted by Miss Iva Hornshaw,. The school comprised three classrooms, and the infant room was the smallest. 

“I was never taken to t’ doctor’s when I was younger ‘ cos you had to pay for it” he says, but “my mother used to treat us”. There was  goose grease for  bronchial ailments, Beechams pills. For coughs and colds and .brimstone and treacle for bowel disorders.…” 

In winter time, Black Lane fields flooded from the Torne as far as the castle. When the water froze it was possible to slide to a pond which was at the back of the castle.  

Cyril also enjoyed ”tripping about with the lasses round the maypole,’ at the Mayday celebrations .There was a procession to the Buttercross. 

“It’s about time “you found a job and got to somebody else’s table,” said Cyril’s dad, not long after he had left school.  “The Nineteen thirties were terrible times. I was at home a month before I could get a job”, recalls Cyril, though he did odd jobs in the locality…. “one and six here… a shilling there… sometimes nowt at all”. 

Cyril joined the Home Guard, and also volunteered to be trained as a ack ack (anti aircraft) gunner for the batteries at Thrybergh. He recalls marching to Wentworth for manoeuvres, and taking part in marksmanship competitions. 

The Glass Bulb Factory was being built in Harworth. Here Cyril was to spend the next twenty  five years. 

“I’d give anything to get a t’ back of a pair of horses and plough a furrow” he says, “Just to see if I could still do it.

For a fuller version of these interviews, with more information on the topics illustrated above, please click here