Tickhill Local Board

Tickhill Local Board was set up under legislation of 1848 which concerned health but was subsequently widened to cover many local issues, including highways, parks and housing.  The 9 newly-elected councillors met for the first time in the Red Lion Inn on 11 November 1864. The Board functioned until it was subsumed into the new Urban District Council in 1894. The Board operated with a variety of committees; initially it looks as though their response to any issue was to establish a committee but these gradually became regularised to cover the main functions, such as Nuisance, Highways and Drainage.

The major initial preoccupation would appear to have been the state of the highways, a topic which appears regularly over the following 3 decades. Material in the form of stone and road materials was taken in 1865 from ‘the Friars Hill Close’ quarry of Mr James Flower.  There is an interesting reference in 1869 about repairs to “the bridge in the Castle Fields across the sewage drain”, restored with stone flags and a wooden handrail at a cost of not more than 30 shillings. Pavement and path repairs were frequent and at least one claim for compensation following a fall is recorded.

The first major project was an extension to the parish churchyard, approved in August 1865, which involved a highway diversion. I assume that this led to the construction of New Road.

As early as 1867 an ‘Inspector of Nuisances’ had been appointed. This officer was kept active throughout the life of the Board, as nuisances of varied kinds appear regularly in the minutes. Examples are plentiful. “Six pigstyes in Victoria Terrace being in a filthy condition and within 5 feet of the dwelling houses” (There was a similar complaint about 4 styes in Sunderland Street also in 1867). An unspecified “nuisance arising from the Castle Moat” was ordered to be removed following a complaint at the 1873 AGM. Trees overhanging the footpath in Sunderland Street were brought to their attention. In 1877 “mischief was committed in Lindrick by throwing off the coping stones into the Mill Dike”. After the installation of street lighting someone “maliciously and wilfully broke a lamp by shooting” and a £5 reward was offered for information leading to a conviction but this does not appear to have been claimed.  Some things don’t change!  Business was not exempt – the Brick kiln in Northgate was castigated for failing to have a proper appliance to take away the smoke in 1882. Action was always demanded, sometimes after an inspection.

Drains were a perennial problem. In 1873 it was resolved that it was a necessity to improve them. A ‘Practical Surveyor’ was appointed to assist and estimates were to be prepared for ‘sewers’ and ‘surface drains’.  Nevertheless the Board’s Medical Officer reported in 1881 that “the nuisances were of such a character as to disgrace any community”; he was amazed that the town had escaped a serious epidemic. A series of householders were in consequence given orders to repair or clear drains while major projects followed, with a Westgate scheme in 1885 and a Sunderland Street scheme in 1893-94. The same officer regularly reported in detail about births, deaths, diseases, vaccination and even school attendance.

There is a reference in 1881 to the Gas Works causing problems for neighbours from smoke, smell and ‘liquid refuse’. Evidently, however, many councillors were shareholders because a limited number only were able to agree a contract with the gas Company in November 1886 for street lighting. At a cost of £48, lighting was to be provided from 16 October to 16 April between dusk and not before 11 p.m. (10 p.m. on Sundays) and there were to be no lights on the 3 evenings at each full moon unless the Board’s officer required it. Our ancestors were thrifty!  Needless to say, the laying of the necessary gas mains and the location of the lamp standards caused controversy.

A selection of other references will indicate the breadth of interest of the Board. In 1866, in response to public enthusiasm, they supported the promoters of a Worksop to Doncaster railway, which was at the time an abortive project. They thanked the Misses Alderson in 1868 for presenting a new weather vane for the Cross.  In the Queen’s Jubilee Year (1887), the Board purchased lime trees from Northampton to plant from the Gas House to Sandrock; Mr Brooksbank kindly undertook to convey them from the station, but which station is not stated. (Bawtry perhaps?) There was also a discussion about a possible hospital with a suggestion that the Common Lodging House in Sunderland Street might be turned into a Hospital for Infectious Diseases but nothing seems to have followed from this.

As local government change beckoned, in 1888 there was to be an election for a councillor from the Tickhill Division to the new West Riding County Council. With no local notable able to stand, a request was received for support from a Lord Auckland, who the Board duly nominated. They were fulsome in their praise for the noble lord but gave no indication of this connection with the parish!

By the latter years of the Tickhill Board, its minutes refer to the Board’s Office in Westgate. It had clearly seen 3 decades of active and genuinely local government for the benefit of the town.

John Hoare - 2014