Tickhill Urban District Council 1946-1974

At the end of the war the Council was concerned at the lack of information about the site of a new school, clearly intended to provide for secondary age pupil formerly educated in the town. They sought clarification from the Divisional Education Officer, as they had not been consulted. There appear to have been two alternatives, Maltby and Bawtry, with the former evidently the final choice.

Many issues remained the same as before the war. Discussions about the future of local government, conversion of privies, the lodging house in Sunderland Street, the library, drains and sewerage, repairs to local roads and footpaths, complaints about bus services (especially the Saturday service to Doncaster when “buses were still full on arrival in Tickhill” – East Midlands service – and the lack of connection between Harworth-Maltby and Maltby-Sheffield services – Rotherham Corporation), some things never change!

The new preoccupation, a dominant feature of the Council’s work right through to 1972, was housing, where local responsibility for adequate provision became vital in the post-war years. In 1948 a priority list of applicants for new council houses was drawn up, containing 2 agricultural workers, 14 colliery and 14 general. The following year the Ministry of Housing and Local Government accused the Council of having insufficient housing land for the next 18 months and insufficient properties to meet need; the Council sent its (unspecified) proposals in reply. When there was further government pressure, both sides accused the other of causing the delay! The record, however, is impressive. In 1950 16 bungalows were completed and authority sought to build 22 houses on a Sunderland Street site – they cost about £30,000. At the rent review in 1951, the Council held 8 houses in Rawson Road, 8 in Pinfold Lane, 48 in King Edward Road, 44 in Crown Road, 11 in Doncaster Road, along with 24 bungalows on two sites at either end of Wong Lane.

In 1951 an offer was made for land in Worksop Road. In 1954 16 new flats were let in Doncaster Road and 4 flats were to be erected on opposite sides of Westgate where unfit properties were demolished. In 1955 it was proposed to purchase and upgrade Vine Terrace, which the MHLG agreed to the following year. Notices continued to be served on owners of unfit properties regularly, for example 19 at one sitting in 1958 with the outcome either a promise to improve speedily or a demolition order.

Consent was sought to build 6 one-bedroom bungalows in Vine Road in 1960. By the end of 1961 the Council owned 257 houses, with a further 20 being built, one-third of the houses in the area. The MHLG said this was “getting out of proportion” so more stringent conditions were imposed on the waiting list, effectively only providing for displacement from unfit properties and OAPs. However, properties were also built for sale and sold to tenants. In 1962 12 new properties were built for sale in Walnut Avenue and 8 for rent in Beech Avenue, as well as 26 new bungalows. The Castle Close development of bungalows with a community centre was opened in 1964. The Trustees of Maison de Dieu asked the Council for aid to rebuild the almshouses in 1964, which was refused, but the site was acquired and the homes reconstructed by the Council by 1966.1 The provision of housing was arguably the greatest achievement of the UDC.

There was, of course, much else. Hackney Carriage licences and the making of accompanying bye-laws arose in 1947-48. Following the establishment of the National Health Service, there were discussions about the Home Nursing Service. In 1949 the basis was agreed for local authorities in the Doncaster area to share the costs of a crematorium at Rosehill, Doncaster. The destruction of rats is periodically referred to in the minutes. Problems with the Mill Dam surfaced in 1954 when the Council considered taking over responsibility although the Duchy was reluctant to relinquish its rights, while Lord Scarbrough objected to contributing money when the cause of the deposits was primarily Maltby Colliery. The Council instructed its Surveyor to empty the Dam and called a meeting of all parties!  In the last years of the UDC the Mill Dam appears an issue again until it was agreed to provide an automatic shuttle and improve the sluice gates. Stream pollution was a regular problem, such that in 1955 a meeting was called with Worksop RDC, the National Coal Board and the Trent River Board; typically the outcome is not reported.

A royal visit spurred the Council to action in 1948 when the royal party were to travel from Bawtry to Sandbeck in the morning and then from Sandbeck to Doncaster; the public were asked to decorate their houses, the Council adorned the Cross and the Library and the school children were to cheer in the Market Place.

There are occasional domestic references to the Council’s own affairs. A duplicator was purchased for the Clerk in 1949. In 1953 the Library was extended and public conveniences built behind it.  All meetings were held in the Library until January 1961. The following month, without explanation, the meeting was in the Council Chamber. There appears to have been some crisis with regard to the Library, as the County Council indicated late in 1962 its willingness to provide premises and run a library and a committee was set up in January 1963 to consider the future of the Library, which had many regular lettings such as the youth club and the Ratepayers’ Association. In 1968 it is called the “Old Library” and a trustee arrangement jointly with the County Council was discussed so as to support the youth club meeting there.

Planning decisions continued throughout the period, with delegated powers from the County following the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. These vary from the trivial, like the refusal of a garden hut on the grounds that the owner had already sufficient accommodation to house building projects, like those of Ben Bailey either side of Sunderland Street around 1970. “Representations” were made to the County on its plans in 1950 with regard to the inclusion of buildings of historic interest (none had been included in the County Survey!) and concern over the line for the Doncaster by-pass (it should “clear the sewage works”!). When a Village Plan was drafted by the County in 1967, the Council asked for the inclusion of a list of open spaces, the deletion of two proposed new roads and the extension of the graveyard. In 1969 a Tickhill Conservation Area was proposed.

Highway issues were mostly a question of repairs. However, there are occasional references to speed. In 1959 complaints about speeding vehicles in Sunderland Street led to a response from the Assistant Divisional Surveyor that he didn’t think that additional signs would make much difference but the police did agree to take the necessary action against offenders. In August 1960 a serious accident at the Cross was reported leading to a meeting with the County Surveyor and Police to discuss “the dangerous situation in the town generally … owing to the increase in traffic”. Discussion followed about the construction of pedestrian refuges and new signs and white lines. In1967 a new traffic system was instituted around the Butter Cross (the first reference to the Cross so named), and regarded favourably by the Council.  Small issues also arose, such as a complaint about parking on a grass verge in Westgate, this as early as 1955.

As late as 1963 there were complaints by residents of St. Mary’s Road about pigs at Northgate Farm. Within a few years the farm was reported as derelict.

Local government reorganisation reared its ugly head again with a County Review in 1963 when the Council defended itself strongly; “Tickhill was better administered by its own authority”. It was resolved to resist any proposal to change the town’s status. By 1971 the writing was on the wall when the Council resolved to “propose as essential that a Local council (with Statutory powers) be formulated in Tickhill when the new structure was finalised “.

The Council was active to the end. Its last year’s activity included road safety, planning new dwellings on the residue of the Walnut and Beech Avenue land, travel concessions, lettings, tackling damage to trees, dealing with planning applications, path diversions, new street lighting and work on the Castlegate sewage scheme.

At the final meeting on 26 March 1974, the Chairman, Cllr W A Hill, reflected on his 39 years of membership of the UDC. During his time, no councillor had received any payment by way of expenses. When he joined there was no running water to dwellings; now it was laid on to houses across the town. The staff were thanked for their loyal service.

An era when local government really was local had come to an end. The Urban District Council had powers in health (drainage and sewage, services of a Medical Officer of Health, inspection of properties for fitness for use, inspection of slaughter houses and bakeries, milk and dairies), education (provision of public library), highway (maintenance of all streets, paving, street lighting, naming and numbering, cleansing), parks and recreation grounds (buying and managing land for these purposes) and allotments (providing a sufficient supply). Add in the growth of housing and planning responsibilities and the breadth of the Council’s work was comprehensive. The record shows that it was performed conscientiously and with distinction.

John Hoare - 2014

1 The Maison Dieu Trustees’ minutes say that the old almshouses were demolished in 1967 but that 6 new bungalows were not completed until 1973 - the date on the plaque at the end of the bungalows.   H Moffat