Mexborough and Swinton Times January 21, 1927

Vanished Industries
When Newhill was a Beehive
Recollections of an Innkeeper

There are few men in the district, probably, were better acquainted with the history of their neighbourhood than Mr George William Stables, the licensee of the “Traveller’s Rest” Inn, Swinton.

Mr Stables is not an old man – he’s barely 60 – but he is a member of a family that has been settled in this district for three or four centuries, probably longer, but its connection with the neighbourhood can be traced for many generations.

The Stables family are represented in many parishes around here, and particularly at Wath where they have been a noted pottery, farming and innkeeping family. At one time there were five members of the family holding in licences in Wath alone stop

Mr Stables, in the course of a chat with a representative of this newspaper, recalled that Newhill, now an unimportant hamlet, was less than 60 years ago the busiest and most prosperous part of Wath. It had its pottery, brickworks and colliery.

The pottery was owned by Messr Dibb and Coulter, and the all pottery buildings still survive as dwelling houses, and the old pottery buildings still survive as dwelling houses. A daughter of Mr Coulter was the first person to be buried in the cemetery at Wath, and the secondary burial there was of William Cresswell a noted local character known as “Cotton ball Billy,” who built the Cresswell Arms in Bowbroom, Swinton.

Mr Stables grandfather was manager of the New Hill pottery, and incidentally, the founder of the Cooperative Society at Castleford.

The brickworks was situated at the bottom of Dawson’s Lane, which leads to Abdy farm. The colliery was close by the pottery, and was worked long before the Manvers Main and Wath Main Collieries were sunk. Most of the houses in Newhill are over 200 years old, and the newest were built 50 years ago.

Newhill also had a mill at one time, situated in Mill Lane, leading to Grange Form. It was afterwards used for the manufacture of “children’s preservatives” and later still for the manufacture of soap.

The old Newhill colliery closed down about 1874, and a new shaft was sunk in Newhill Lane, near the present cemetery. This was worked until 1886, trouble arose over the lease, and it was abandoned shortly afterwards. An uncle of Mr Stables was manager and Shaw and Whitfield were the proprietors. The coal worked was the “Bright” seam, found at a depth of 101 yards. The same seam was recently opened and is now worked at Manvers Main.

The brickworks and the pottery did not long survive the colliery, the brickworks being the last to go, and this was the end of Newhill’s “industrial era.”

Some years before, Wath become a coalmining centre of much greater importance. The members Main Colour Company had sunk their number one shaft making 69 and their number two shaft in 1874. The Wath Main Colliery was down to coal in 1876.

Brewing was among the industries which flourished for a time at Newhill, and there were two public houses there.. One of these, the “Beehive,” was in the occupation of the Stables family for about 35 years. There was also a lodging house at Newhill which was large enough to accommodate 42 navvies. Newhill, 50 years ago was a famous rendezvous for poachers operator between Wentworth and Askern. They worked in cooperation and sent loads of rabbits to the market roundabout. It was also a regular camping ground for gypsies and vagrants.

Mr Stables recalls the old “barnstorming” days of the theatrical pioneers of this district, notably the Lacey family, who built the Prince of Wales Theatre at Mexborough, and he remembers them giving a show in the wooden theatre at Town End, Wath called “Ten nights in a Bar room.”

Swinton was once a great sporting centre, much frequented for running, prizefighter, horse racing, and rabbit coursing. A favourite coursing ground used to be “Hyde Park,” where the Swinton sewage farm now is, and in comparatively recent times the police have rounded up as many as 150 “Sports” in a gambling raid on that ground. Some good race horses have been bred and trained at Swinton, the most famous of them being “Tommy Tittlemouse”, one of Fred Archer’s mounts, and one of the best horses in the year 1886.

The “Travellers Rest,” which Mr Stables is the landlord, was often visited by Charles Peace, whose talent for entertainment was a source of great delight to the unsuspecting customers.