Worksop of Yesterday

(Please note: this booklet was originally published in November 1969. Worksop has changed almost as much again, as this article describes)

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The Priory Cross prior 1894

INTRODUCTION

A few years ago a terrace of small, stone-built cottages stood on the southern side of Eastgate, a position that they had occupied for about one hundred and fifty years. Suddenly, in a matter of days, they were demolished; their materials removed; their site left empty. By no means an isolated incident, this has happened and will continue to happen in many parts of the town. Change follows the path of the bulldozer: new buildings begin to rise almost before the dust of the old has settled. The Worksop that steps into the 1970’s will be very different to that of the 1950’s. How much greater will the contrast be if time is pushed back to the final decade of the reign of Queen Victoria. This booklet is not a full-scale history of Worksop: it is simply an attempt to present a picture of the town and the life of its people at that moment of time, the last years of the 19th century. And even as such it does not pretend to be a definitive work. Perhaps it can be best described as a commentary on the contemporary illustrations it contains and which tell so eloquently of the town and its inhabitants. As a focal year I have selected 1897, just seventy years ago as I wrote the text. Much of the statistical information relates to that year though more general material spreads both backwards into the past and forwards into the future. The 1890’s are fascinating years to write about: far enough away to possess the remoteness of history, close enough to be enriched by living memory. For Worksop they marked a watershed in the town’s development: previously it had been predominantly a rural community. By the turn of the century it was assuming more and more the appearance and atmosphere of an industrial township. Omens of change were apparent too. For the first time working men elected their own work-mates to the local council, the first cars hiccuped their way through the town, the Co-operative Society opened its first branch stores. They were also the last years before the state took its first faltering steps in social assistance. Poverty haunted many homes. With increasing age the dread spectre of the Union Workhouse loomed larger and larger before those whose struggle for subsistence left nothing to spare from their few weekly shillings. Such people would have thought little to the present day cult of “The Good Old Days”.

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Many people have helped me in compiling this work and I gratefully acknowledge their assistance. In particular I must mention Mr. Douglas Inger, Borough Librarian and Curator of the Worksop Public Library and Mr. W. R. Serjeant, Nottinghamshire County Archivist. I have also used both the Denman Public Library at Retford and the British Transport Archives in London and am grateful for the facilities placed at my disposal. The quotation from the poem `The Sherwood Oak by Fred Kitchen is reproduced by the kind permission of J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. Finally I would like to express my indebtedness to the members of the Worksop Archaeological and Local Historical Society. In their company I have discovered much about the past of the town, mutual discussions have clarified hitherto conflicting material and I have benefited from the comments of those who have read through the text in typescript.

M. J. JACKSON