South Yorkshire Times, April 21st 1939.
Mr & Mrs. J. T. Cooper.
50 years ago tomorrow Jonathan Thomas Cooper married Ann Goodchild, of William Street. Swinton, at St. Margaret’s Church, the rev. John Levitt officiating. This weekend Mr and Mrs Cooper will receive the congratulations of their family and many friends at the golden wedding celebrations at eight, Coronation Road, Wath where they have lived for many years. Mr Cooper will be well-known to Manvers Main men: when he retired in 1931 he had completed 40 years as a deputy. Born near Nnueaton, he came of a long line of pit workers: indeed, he was the last of a line, holding a record of 200 years of pit service. And he never saw a man buried in the pit, never had personal experience of an explanation, and of all his uncles and forefathers who worked underground only one ever received appreciable injury. Mrs Cooper is a daughter of Mr and Mrs Henry Goodchild, of William Street, Swinton, her father being an engine driver who will be well remembered by old railway workers. They have a family of six sons (none of whom went into the pit) and four daughters, and there are 11 grandchildren. Most of them are coming, from north and south, to take part in the celebrations.
Mr. Cooper Started work at Manvers Main where he was 15, was a deputy at 25, and retired when he was 65, he and his father, Mr Thomas Cooper. Have a record of 84 years service for Manvers Main with a total period between them as deputies, of 62 years Mrs Thomas Cooper joined Manvers Main immediately after the pit was opened. Both Mr and Mrs Cooper have excellent health. And they are very proud of their successful family. They are all able to go out into the world and look after themselves, they said. Mr Cooper has an inexhaustible supply of anecdotes about Manvers Main and his memory of the pit in the early days is flawless. Next week we hope to publish one of his photographs of Manvers official of 1893: he can remember their names and careers of all the 33 men on it. He can speak of meeting men who remembered being carried by their mothers at dawn to go down the pit and carried back home late at Night to be washed and fed and put to bed.