The Growth of a Township
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Chapter Eleven - The Victorian Era - Self-help and Charity.
The Nineteenth Century found Maltby little changed from the pattern of earlier centuries. Throughout the new century the population remained fairly static. In 1801 there were 600 villagers. By 1851 the population had risen to 924 and then declined to 792 in 1901. Until 1816 the Vicar still lived in a Seventeenth Century peasant's cottage next to the Church. Maltby Hall was occupied by a John Cook. In religion Maltby was still strictly conformist and Establishment. Methodism came late to the village. The Vicar rode the three and a half miles to Sandbeck to lead worship in the Chapel - Evensong and Mattins on alternate Sundays.
Though Sandbeck still dominated, new families, like the Cooks at the Hall, were coming into the Parish occupying the other large houses. Sandbeck Park had more servants and workers. A survey of the Estate in 1845 describes Sandbeck as an area well-wooded and beautiful. The survey was made by William Downes. He reported that "The Mansion presents a handsome elevation standing in an extensive park, beautifully timbered and well-stocked with deer. To the Mansion are attached Pleasure Grounds, Walks, Kitchen Gardens, Hot Houses, Grapevines and every necessary outbuilding to render it suitable for a Nobleman, a Gentleman with an Establishment of £10,000 a year". Sandbeck apart, the Napoleonic Wars must have affected the tenant farmers and the poor villagers adversely. Their complaints are described in the Sandbeck records.
The early district Directories give a picture of a continuing, fairly self-sufficient economy in the village. Better means of communication produced by the turnpike roads and the stage coaches brought new, more affluent families to the village. White's Directory for 1838 lists five shoemakers! Other trades listed are shopkeepers (4), masons (3), tailors, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, a saddler, a butcher, a millwright. The schoolmaster, the surgeon and the Vicar are all mentioned. In addition White lists "three gentlemen". They appear to have had no describable profession! They obviously had enough capital to live the life of leisure as described in Jane Austen's novels. Two of the masons listed in 1838 were John and William Ridgway. They and their descendants were master masons. There are many examples of their work in Maltby Churchyard in which they built the Nineteenth Century burial vault of the Lumley. Life was becoming more organised in the little village. The various Eighteenth Century small charities were consolidated in one fund.
The end of the Napoleonic Wars brought new problems for the poor. Taxes and rates were high. Wages were low. The vexed question of Common Land enclosure arose again, in a less amicable atmosphere than in a previous century.
By 1821 the new families of influence in the village were beginning to assert their power. In 1807 there was a famous election. William Wilberforce's Abolition of Slavery Bill was the main issue for the new Parliament. The eleven recorded voters for Maltby and Hooton Levitt supported Wilberforce's Bill, which was also supported by Viscount Milton, heir to Earl Fitzwilliam of Wentworth, Rotherham. Beaumont Broadbent, Maltby's Vicar, was one of those who went to York for the election. The rest included George Flower, the village surgeon, four farmers, two labourers, one woodcutter and a joiner. They must each have owned freehold land in the parish.
In 1816 a significant figure appeared in Maltby - the new Vicar, George Rolleston, M.A. (Oxford). He stayed in Maltby for over 50 years until his death in 1868. Rolleston must have been the typical "squarson" (squire and parson) of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. One of his descendants said of him, "He was more famed for his good looks and his horsemanship than for his holiness"! He was a pluralist, since he apparently had at least one other "living" in addition to Maltby. The humble peasant's cottage was obviously not for George Rolleston. It would have been far below a squarson's dignity! He managed to purchase Maltby Hall from the Cook family. From the high vantage of the Hall his could oversee his flock and his parish!
In the next election of 1841 the electors numbered 30 including 17 from Hooton Levitt. George Rolleston appeared in the voters' lists. He was an Establishment man, a staunch Tory! He was the second largest landowner in the village. The voters were equally divided between Whig and Tory.
In the 1850s the social patterns in Maltby were changing. Roads were somewhat improved. Folk in Rotherham and Sheffield learned about the beauty of Maltby's countryside, and were able to enjoy it on a day trip. The attractions of the Valley of Roche brought other activities. The Rotherham Press reported in 1847 a "great Temperance Rally" at Roche Abbey. The report stated that "the Seven Men of Preston", who boasted they were the first to "sign the Pledge in Britain", were present. A vast multitude attended. We are not told in the Press what the effect was on the beer-drinkers, inns and ale houses of Maltby!
In the middle years of the century Maltby had three inns - The Swan, the Don John (in High Street), and the Scarborough Arms (High Street). These inns are listed in the 1845 edition of White's Directory. In earlier Directories there is mention of the George and Dragon and the Yellow Lion. The records say that Francis Hartshorn kept the Swan in 1861 and in 1868 changed its name to the White Swan. It is recorded in White's Directory that he fenced in the medieval cross which is a little distance from the White Swan. Maltby's second oldest inn is the Don Jon. Though it is old, the present structure was built to cope with the great increase of population which came with the sinking of the coal mine in 1910. The previous inn on the site had been named after the winner of the 1838 St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster. The horse named Don Jon was owned by Lord Chesterfield. The Eagle (later Spread Eagle) was at Stone on the Sandbeck Estate. There were various "ale houses" as well.
The ancient mills on Maltby Dike still figured economically in the Nineteenth Century, and maintained their medieval names - Wood Lea or Hooton Levitt, Stone, Roche Abbey and The Yews. As in earlier records the Directories mention the fact that the miller at The Yews was also a paper maker.
Squarson though he was, Vicar Rolleston accomplished a lot in his small village. The village school founded in 1723 by Viscount Castleton and village men was quite inadequate for a later age. It was housed in a small limestone building some way from the village Church.
On 16th December, 1823 land and buildings were provided for a school under the auspices of the Reverend George Rolleston, Vicar of Maltby and Stainton. On December 30th, 1823 John Cooke and George Rolleston became trustees for the new school. For the time being Viscount Castleton's Endowed School continued in its ways. On September 1st, 1842 the new school - its trustees were now Vicar and Churchwardens - was formally associated with the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church. It was through the co-operation of the National Society (a Church of England organisation) and the Government (through grant aid) that schools all over England were set up.
The School now had to be subject to Government inspection. The new school was one, rather gaunt, stone built room next to the Church. The National School (or Church School) flourished. In 1851 it had 98 scholars out of a village population of 578! The Government Inspector came to the school. Inevitably with so many children in such a small room he made an adverse report. The logical step was to amalgamate the resources of the Eighteenth Century Endowed School and the new National School. This happened in 1858. The endowment was paid towards the general expenses of the National School which then became open to all the inhabitants without religious distinction. The original Endowed School became the schoolmaster's house. It was called Rose Cottage. Unfortunately it became very dilapidated and was pulled down some years ago.
The necessity for the new school was illustrated by the Government Inspector's report on the school in 1880. "the new schoolroom which has been completed through the liberality of Lord Scarbrough and other resident gentry is a great improvement on the inconvenient unhealthy room in which I saw the children on my last visit. The younger children are now taught in a separate room. The scholars are clean and healthy looking. But, except in the Second Standard, they are backward". Until the Elementary Education Act of 1891 established free education, farmers paid 6d a week for their children, tradesmen 4d, and labourers 3d. The relationship between family work patterns and the school is illustrated in a report in the local press in 1880. It stated that the school did not re-open after the summer holidays until October 4th. This was because of a delayed harvest. The children's priority was the harvest field. Rolleston's successor, Francis Baldwin, extracted from a reluctant Government the largest grant ever given to a National School up to that time!
With the vast developments in Maltby during the Twentieth Century new schools have had to be built. So the Maltby C. of E. National School ceased to be viable as numbers declined. Notice of closure was received on June 10th, 1980, and the school closed on July 18th with a service of thanksgiving for the Endowed and National School's 266 years contribution to Maltby's children. The school building is now divided into flats.
There were two other schools in the parish. In 1862 Jane Goodband is recorded as having connection with an infant school in a house at the hamlet of Stone in the parish of Maltby. Successive teachers lodged there. They used their sitting room as a school during the week. A school building was built in 1897, and the teacher was Miss O'Neill who retired in 1920 and died years afterwards aged 93. Her sister continued the school until 1933 when the remaining children were transferred to a new school in Maltby. In 1868 a Mr. Ebenezer Ellis started a school at the- Grove on Lord Scarbrough's Estate. When he died in 1918 his daughters, Miss Bertha and Miss Mary, carried on with the school as a day and boarding school until 1949.
By the 1851 Census there was a broadening of social patterns in the village. Maltby had 80 farm labourers and 18 farmers. "Housewife" figured in the Census returns. A new entry is washerwoman - Maltby had nine! They were obviously employed by the new rich - the Squire, the Parson, the Surgeon, the Schoolmaster and the people in the grand houses. The Census lists "8 daughters at home". There were 12 dressmakers - these too would be for the service of the affluent, as would be the 29 servants listed. There were 11 masons - an increased from the 3 listed at the beginning of the century. There were 10 apprentices of various trades. Other occupations listed include blacksmiths, limestone workers, butchers, carpenters, cordwainers, millwrights, millers, road labourers. Inevitably there were 10 widows. But no baker is listed! Maltby housewives must have made their own bread, as some of the men-folk would brew their own beer and maintain an "alehouse".
The Census gives a picture of a more varied life in the village. The development of communications, the post, the establishment of the local press at Rotherham and Doncaster, the coming of the railway to Rotherham and Doncaster all made for a more social life in the village. Both the villagers and the affluent families responded and contributed in a simple way. The Rotherham Advertiser in 1879 notes that the poor in Maltby and Sandbeck were not forgotten. The Countess of Scarbrough gave blankets to the poor and contributed £2 to the village coal club. There was also a clothing club for the poor.
1880 was a year in which social activities and care seem to have flourished. A lending library was established. Subscriptions per annum were 1/- for labourers, 1/6d for artisans and 2/6d for others. It was at this time that coal and clothing clubs were formed. In 1881 the local Press reported that Lord Scarbrough "with his usual generosity" presented all his Estate workers with a piece of beef for Christmas. There were also gifts for the Estate children, which might include a new suit. Part of the price to be paid was that if the children met the Countess in the Park they might be asked to recite the Prayer Book Collect for the week!
In addition to the Library there was established a reading room and a coffee room. The Church magazine for 1880 reports that they were well used. The "Seven men of Preston" at the Temperance Rally must have had some effect! There was still a Church Temperance Society in 1880.
The Maltby Reading Room was established and open every Friday from 5--10 p.m. The announcement of the opening declared that fathers with large families end small means could spend a quiet evening at no expense. Nothing was said their wives! Perhaps they were assumed to be illiterate. Children under 14 were not admitted. But it was a beginning!
There is a note for 1862 that letters arrived (presumably from Rotherham) at Maltby at 6 a.m. The postmaster acted as Parish Clerk in the village. Local government was in the hands of the Vicar, Churchwardens and two overseers of the poor! The village now had one doctor, five shoemakers, five wheelwrights, four saddlers, three masons, two blacksmiths, two butchers, two tailors, one corn dealer, one rope maker, and four shopkeepers. The Agricultural revolution had reached Maltby. Threshing machines and other farm implements were made in the village. There was one school master, George Bennett. The scattered parish had 21 farmers. There was a coach from Rotherham to Tickhill and Bawtry four times a week. It passed through Maltby en route for Tickhill and Bawtry. It did the return journey in the afternoon.
As in the previous two centuries the birth and death records in the Registers provide evidence for the state of the village. The average age of death between 1806 and 1893 varied over the years from 29 to 63. Mostly the average age at death was in the 30s and 40s. From 1800 to 1820 Maltby had 388 births of which 40 were illegitimate. The infant deaths numbered 24. From 1880 to 1900 there were 326 births of which 22 were illegitimate and 35 died in infancy. The developments in education and agriculture were not matched in health.
Maltby was still a poor village as these statistics show. But the rigours of the Industrial Revolution were far removed from it. In 1872 George Rolleston's brother, a Vicar in Warrington, wrote a letter appealing for financial help for the destitute mill workers in his parish. Boxes were fixed to the Church door for donations from the Maltbeians, poor though they might be.
During the 1870s two of the Earl of Scarbrough's daughters were married in Maltby. The first, Lady Ida Arabelia, was married in the Parish Church. Soon after her marriage the new Chapel at Sandbeck was completed so that in November- 1874 Lady Sibell could be married at Sandbeck. The Rotherham Advertiser of November 7th, 1874, has a graphic and romantic account of the wedding., It illustrates the affluence of the aristocracy of the day, and the romantic attitude of the public at large.
"Sandbeck, the seat of the Earl of Scarbrough, was on Tuesday last scene of one the most brilliant assemblages of aristocracy which has taken place in this neighbourhood for many years. The occasion was the wedding of the nineteen years old Sibell Mary Lumley, daughter of the Earl of Scarbrough, a Peer of the Realm, and Victor Alexander, Earl Grosvenor, eldest son of the Duke of Westminster, a Peer of the Realm.
"The Chapel at Sandbeck had been decorated by the Estate workers with evergreens and white flowers. The text had been picked out above the Altar, 'The Lord bless thee and keep thee'. The wedding was conducted by the Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland and grand-uncle of the bride. He was assisted by the Sandbeck Chaplain and the Vicar of Maltby. The list of guests was studded with titles - Duke and Duchess of Westminster, Duchess of Sutherland, Duke of Rutland, Earl and Countess of Zetland, Earl and Countess Fitzwilliam, Viscount and Viscountess Newport, Lord and Lady Galway.
"Leaving the Chapel for the wedding breakfast the happy couple were greeted by the scholars of the Sandbeck School, founded and maintained by the Countess of Scarbrough, who had presented each scholar with a new blue frock and a scarlet cape. The bride had given to each a straw hat with a blue ribbon on which she herself had printed 'SIBELL'.
At the wedding breakfast, which was naturally lavish, the centre-piece was a three tier cake four feet high and weighing one hundredweight. The numerous gifts the couple received included a pair of magnificent silver candlesticks from the Rt. Hon. Benjamin Disraeli, MP.
"The honeymoon was to be spent at Trentham Hall, the seat of the Duke of Sutherland. The couple travelled first in a coach and four to the Rotherham Station where they took a train to Derby.
Leaving the Lodge Gates at Stone, they passed under an archway decorated with evergreens and flowers and bearing on the house-side the words 'Health Happiness to them'. Further up Blyth Road Mr. Ellis of the Grove School was waiting with his scholars under another archway bearing the words, 'Long Live the Earl of Grosvenor and his beautiful bride'.
"When Maltby was reached the village was in festive mood< Flags were everywhere displayed and another archway had been erected with the rather enigmatic words, 'We wish you good luck in the name of the Lord'. The local proceedings at Sandbeck commenced with a fireworks display at 5.30 p.m." It was indeed a Red Letter Day for the villagers though it did nothing to relieve the poverty of the "poor".
In 1876, two years after Lady Sibell's marriage, the Tenth Earl proposed to enclose the Common Land. As in earlier centuries the enclosure was opposed. No less a protagonist than Vicar Rolleston's son, Professor George Rolleston, made his objection. He wrote from Oxford to the Government's Enclosure Commissioner: "A form of industry which Maltby is likely to develop in the future is that of providing temporary lodgings to persons from such places as Rotherham and Sheffield". Great opposition to the Earl's plans was aroused from far beyond Maltby, not least in the towns mentioned by Professor Rolleston. There were public meetings. The Mayor, Aldermen and Town Burgesses of Sheffield sent a petition to the Common Land Commissioners, as did the Mayor of Rotherham. The Sheffield petition described Maltby as a place of "salubrity and natural beauty much frequented every summer by the inhabitants of Sheffield who resort there with their wives and children for weeks together". The Mayor of Sheffield and the Master Cutler gave evidence at the House of Commons Select Committee on Common Lands. Objections from Maltby people included the loss of grazing. Local carters said it would mean the loss of their livelihood. In spite of the objections in the 1879 Summer the enclosure seemed imminent. An open air meeting was held attended by 200 Maltbeians. The order of enclosure was withdrawn from Parliament on July 3rd, 1879. So strong was feeling that a Commons Preservation Society was formed. People in Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster had become aware of the need to preserve common open spaces.
The House of Commons Select Committee directed that 25 acres at Wood Lea should be enclosed but given to the parish. In 1880 a writ was issued against Mr. Askern, a villager, who claimed he had rights of Commons on the Common Land. The dispute seemed to have died down with a sort of status quo. The vexed question has arisen again nearly a hundred years later! The Tithe Commutation Agreement for Maltby in 1839 stated that 2,103 of Maltby's 4,473 acres was arable. Of the rest, 1,583 acres were pasture and 708 acres woodland Only 81 acres were common land. The movement for enclosure in the Eighteenth Century had taken its toll.
For the most part Nineteenth Century Maltby gives the impression of being roused from the torpor and lack of enthusiasm of the previous century. Apart from the aristocracy with the lavish weddings like that of Lady Sibell - her sister's wedding which took place earlier when the local press said the presents were reported to worth £30,000! - and the professional in-comers, most of the village would be poor to say the least. Village enjoyments depended on the goodwill of the landowners and professional people. From time to time the parish magazine mentions a "treat" for children held at Maltby Hall. Church collections appear to have been given to "charities". It is recorded, for instance, that the collections at the Harvest services in 1867 were given to the coal club which enabled every poor person to obtain a ton of coal for 5 or 6 shillings. The harvest collection was £9.3s.8d. In 1877 there was a Cottage Gardener's Society. There seems to have been virtually one man was fined for driving his cart on the Turnpike without holding the reins! There were the inevitable tragic events which come to even the smallest village December 20th, 1873 a boy of 14, servant to Mr. Felix Nicholson of Bullatree Farm, was killed when he fell from a cart near Roche Abbey. Some years later a young man, son of a well respected servant of Lord Scarborough, was found crowned at Roche Abbey. In May 1890 there is a report of an attempted murder of a young girl by her grandfather who later committed suicide. In 1880 two Faster entertainments were given by the Maltby Dramatic Society. These growing social activities and the Reading Room were doubtless the work of some of the new families - the Misses Crosskey (their father was the village Doctor) and the Mackenzie Smiths who lived at the Hall. Lady Mabel Smith was an ardent pioneer in education and social welfare.
The economic historian F. W. Hobsbawm describes the results of the 19th Century Industrial Revolution and its industrial and economic results. "The Industrial Revolution re-shaped the social and working patterns. Ours was a country filled with a stoic mass of those destined to live all their lives on a bare and uncertain subsistence until old age threw them on the scrap heap of the Poor Law, underfed, badly housed and badly clothed". Hard though the lot of the Maltby villager and estate worker or farm labourer might be it was at least better than the life of the "stoic mass" in the great and growing manufacturing town of Sheffield. Fred Kitchen, the Maltby author, described the difference when he wrote from his own experience as a farm labourer: "Traditionally the farm servant was hired annually at the great Hiring Fairs. If unmarried, he lived in and ate at the farmer's table. A large part of his income was in kind. He earned little, but enjoyed the security of regular employment, unlike the man hired weekly or daily who earned no' wages when not actually working for a master". Barbara Hammond makes the point in the "Village Labourer". "In the Nineteenth Century", she wrote, "through the , patriarchal relationship between master and man ... the poor labourer shared the Fate of the poor farmer. A man was discharged only in cases of direst necessity". Such would be the pattern for many in Maltby. hey had little and, being landless, could make no impact on the decisions of the landowners and tithe holders who were enfranchised. But many were, as Hammond points out, protected by the lingering communal sense of the ancient feudal economy. But even in the mid-century the pattern was changing. The 1851 Census showed that townsmen for the first time outnumbered country folk.
Many of this growing majority of townsfolk living and working in the dirt and grime of the new "coke-towns" of Rotherham and Sheffield took advantage of the good air and picturesque surroundings of rural Maltby. The ruins of Roche were a great attraction. The Sheffield - Bawtry Turnpike made travel easier. The opening of the Sheffield to Rotherham railway facilitated the day trip to Roche. From about 373 up to the First World War tourists flocked to Roche in the summer months. White's Directory of 1871 records that William Goodband lived in the Abbey House and offered good stabling and refreshments. He was also Lord Scarbrough's farm bailiff. Scarbrough allowed the Abbey grounds to be opened on Mondays and Thursdays. Among others J. Moorhouse ran a horse omnibus from the Ship Hotel Livery Stables in Rotherham at 2 shillings a journey. Excursions were run from further afield. Choir outings, Sunday School Treats, Friendly Societies and many others found the overgrown valley with its attractions of the "Wishing Well", the "Stepping Stones" and the "Table Mountain" a fascinating place in which to spend a summer day. Maltby rose to the occasion in catering for this urban invasion. Several cafes and eating rooms supplied meals. Tea and sugar and hot water were supplied to picnickers by Roche Abbey cottagers. The occupant of Roche Abbey house before Goodband was Miss Hartshorn whose family name can be traced back via Maltby tombstones for 200 years. Michael Hartshorn of Roche Abbey was listed as a cabinet maker.
Besides the day trippers, many Rotherham and Sheffield business people brought their families to Maltby for the summer. Some of the larger houses on Rotherham Road date from this period. So attractive did Maltby's new found status as a holiday resort appear that in 1880 the building of a Rotherham to Bawtry Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament! In 1888 the project was wisely abandoned.
Vicar Rolleston died in 1868. He had two sons and a daughter, Rosemary. His son George was born at Maltby Hail in 1829 and died at Oxford in 1881. He was a distinguished Linacre Professor of Physiology at Oxford University. it is of interest that he excavated the Dinnington Barrow near to Maltby. Distinguished though George was he was ready to give time to Maltby, stay with his sister in 1878 and give a lecture to the villagers on "Our doemstic animals"! William, George's younger brother, was equally distinguished. He became an early colonist in New Zealand, and spent 45 years in the Colony. For some years he was Superintendent of the Canterbury Province, He died in New Zealand in 1903.
Rolleston's death meant a new Vicarage had to be built. The Hall had belonged to the Rollestons. On his death the Hall was purchased by the Schofields of Sand Hall, East Yorkshire. From the Schofields the Hall went to Miss White and became a school. It was then bought by a Colonel Mackenzie Smith, a grandson of Dr. Catty, Rector of Ecclesfield, Sheffield. Mackenzie Smith married Lady Mabel, a sister of the Earl Fitzwilliam. The Mackenzie Smiths resided at the Hall for some years. Inevitably the new Vicarage of 1868 was large. It was obviously designed for a "gentleman ". It had seventeen rooms, stabling and a place for two carriages! It was in 1952.
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