Mexborough and Swinton Times August 16, 1937

Oldest Resident’s Death.

Mrs. Mary Ann Wright, Wath’s oldest inhabitant, died at her home, 6, High Street, on Tuesday. She was in her 96th year.

Born near King’s Lynn, Mrs. Wright went to Doncaster at the age of four, and at the age of nine she was assisting her father in a greengrocery business in the market. She first came to Wath as maid to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Evans, of the old Wath Corn Mill. It was there that she met her first husband, Mr. John Say, who was then manager of the Mill, and while still a girl of eighteen she was married at Doncaster Parish Church. She later married Mr. George Wright, a yeast and fruit merchant, who also died before her. She herself carried on the business and made her rounds with a dray.

Mrs. Wright remembered Wath when it won and deserved the name “Queen of Villages.” Neither Manvers nor Wath main shafts had been sunk, and the industrial epoch that was to come was presaged only by Stanley’s Oil Works.

These Mrs. Wright has seen twice burned down, and she used to describe very vividly the collapse of a large chimney during one of these conflagrations.

Wath’s population was, of course, much smaller when she came to the town, and she could tell of Fitzwilliam Street, Winterwell, and Sandymount being just open fields, and there was not a house between the old Cross Keys and Adam’s Mill.

Mrs. Wright retained her faculties until the end, and used to look forward eagerly to her annual family birthday party. She leaves a son and daughter—Mr. John Say and Mrs. Arundel