Local author Jane Ainsworth writes about her great-great-grandfather’s connection to Hemingfield Colliery, and the wider family connections in and around Elsecar.
OSTCLIFFE FAMILY OF STUBBIN & ELSECAR
Two Ostcliffe women are on the right with a child in arms (Courtesy Jane Ainsworth)
Although my paternal great grandmother Fanny Harriet Ostcliffe’s family has an unusual surname, they have not proved easy to research far back because of variations in the spelling. They had early connections with Leeds and Wath-upon-Dearne.
Robert Ostcliffe (1807-1847)
My 3x great grandfather, Robert Ostcliffe was born in 1807 in Rotherham, the son of William and Hannah Ostcliffe. Robert married Ann Hinchcliffe (1804-1878) in 1829, in Wath-upon-Dearne parish (which included Hoyland and Elsecar).
Ann was born in Elsecar or Rotherham (differs on succeeding Census returns). By 1841, Robert, aged 30, a turner, and Ann, aged 35, were lodging at Stubbin – now the area of Elsecar around Hill Street. With them was Mary Naylor, 30, her three children, and her sister-in-law.
Mary Naylor’s son William Naylor himself married into the Ostcliffe family in 1887. It is interesting to note the Census Enumerator’s route for covering Stubbin: it follows: Robert Ostcliffe, then two houses, then the ‘Round House’, then Jump Colliery, then Skiers Hall.
Ann and Robert had one son, Charles, born in 1841 in Leeds, probably at Robert’s parents’ home. Robert died at Stubbin on 10th April 1847, aged 39. The cause was given as “Ascites, 50 weeks” – an accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity, usually because of cirrhosis, cancer or liver disease. A neighbour John Sanderson was in attendance and registered the death. Robert was buried in Elsecar Holy Trinity Churchyard.
Ann Ostcliffe married again late 1849, in Rotherham district to Thomas Smith (c.1816-1858) who was 12 years younger. Thomas was a coal miner born in Leicestershire and had been boarding at 10 Reform Row, Elsecar, with George Royston and his family. In 1851, they lived in Stubbin with her son Charles (9), a scholar, and three lodgers: Joseph Jessop aged 24, a coal miner, and his wife and baby son.
Ann Smith was widowed again, after 8 years of marriage, when Thomas Smith died on 9th January 1858, aged 42. His death came nine weeks after an accident at Jump Pit, Hoyland. William Naylor of West Melton was present at the death and registered it.
Thomas had worked there from at least 1852 because he was on the list of miners to receive a gratuity for St Thomas’ Day that year. This was a custom on Earl Fitzwilliam’s estate, and Jump pit was one of the Earl’s collieries in and around Elsecar. They were all overseen by the Earl’s superintendent Ben Biram until he died in 1857, after which John Hartop took over.
I have not found a newspaper article about Thomas’ accident although there were lots of colliery disasters reported at this time. Almost all the verdicts of Inquests were “accidental death” whatever the cause, and colliery owners seemingly got away with “murder” on many occasions; avoiding having to pay compensation to their workers or their widows and children.
On 1st September 1855 the Barnsley Independent reported on another tragic and fatal accident at Jump Pit which had occurred on 24th August in which Thomas Evans was killed. He was “in the act of cleaning the ringdaws, which are midway down the shaft, when a quantity of coal fell from the surface and lighted upon his head. He hung suspended about five minutes, and afterwards fell down a distance of 40 yards to the bottom, where he was found dead. An inquest was held on the body, when a verdict of “Accidental death” was returned. He was father of eighteen children, thirteen of whom are still living to lament his premature demise!”
By 1861 Ann Smith, then 57, had moved to Reform Row with her son Charles, a 19 year old coal miner. She had two boarders: John Allen (19) coal miner, and Frederick Speechley (28) a forge man, at the iron works operated by William Henry and George Dawes.
Ann was not included on the 1871 Census with her son and his family, but was definitely still alive – something which made it much more difficult to find her death certificate. Ann Smith, “widow of Thomas Smith, a coalminer”, died on 21 July 1878, aged 74; Charles was present at her death at Reform Row.
Charles Ostcliffe (1841-1918)
My 2 x great grandfather, was born in Hunslet, Leeds, in summer 1841. He briefly lived in Stubbin before moving into Reform Row, Elsecar. His father Robert had died when he was about 6 years old, followed by his stepfather Thomas Smith when he was 16. He became responsible for supporting his mother Ann. Charles had attended Elsecar primary school, built in 1841, before becoming a coal miner, aged about 11. I do not know where he worked first, but assume that he was at Hemingfield Colliery until Elsecar Main opened.
Charles Ostcliffe was married on 28th February 1865 at All Saints Church in Darfield to Harriet Ellis (1846 – 1928). The couple occupied four rooms in Reform Row, Wath Road for the rest of their lives, although the house was renumbered and renamed several times.
Reform Row, a terrace of 28 small houses with gardens, was built in 1837, and is now a Grade II listed building in the Elsecar Conservation Area. Charles and Harriet had 11 children; and their sons and sons-in-law worked in the local collieries. Four of their children died in childhood, and were buried in the family grave in Holy Trinity Churchyard:
- Emily died aged 13 of Typhoid Fever,
- George died aged 10 of Enteric Fever and Heart Disease,
- Hannah died aged 1 of Bronchitis
- and Alice died aged 15 of Pulmonary Phthisis Asthenia (Tuberculosis or TB).
Two other children, who had attained adulthood and married, died before the 1911 Census:
- Sarah Ann (Lunn) died, aged 37, of Epilepsia; her husband Fred, a miner, was found drowned in 1937, aged 75, in Elsecar Reservoir, after 32 years as a widower.
- Robert, miner, died of Pneumonia, aged 23, and was joined less than 18 months later by his only son, Gladstone Robert, born after his father had died.
- All of these deaths must have caused much grief for the entire family.
By 1901, Charles (59) was a horse-keeper underground (lighter duties as he grew older) and he continued in this role. He died on 9th February 1918, aged 76, of Carcinoma of Stomach and Asthenia (lack of strength from various causes).
His son Fred was still present. Charles had remained at 138 Reform Row, Wath Road, for at least 57 years in a working life of around 65 years. He was buried in Elsecar Holy Trinity Churchyard. Harriet Ostcliffe continued to live there with Fred and his family. he died on 31 May 1928, aged 82, was interred with her husband.
Fanny Harriet Ostcliffe (1865-1948)
Harriet was my great grandmother and I wrote up her story for the National Coalmining Museum’s Heroes and Heroines Project about 10 years ago. I am full of admiration for how she coped with such a difficult life, which was probably typical of women from mining families at that time.
Some of Fanny’s siblings went to Elsecar school, as had her father, but she did not, and she was unable to read or even write her name as she signed her marriage certificate with a mark – an ‘X’. Fanny’s children all attended school, although her sons left aged 11-13 to start work as pony drivers underground at Elsecar Collieries.
Life was hard for men; they started work as children, often by the age of 10 or on leaving school, following the occupation of their father. They worked long days of hard physical labour in unpleasant conditions and at risk of injury or fatal accidents. They had few holidays and were forced to continue to find employment until incapacity or death, unless they had been able to save enough to live on in retirement. The first Old Age Pensions were paid in 1909 to those aged over 70 years but they were subject to a means test.
But life was also hard for women, who often worked before getting married then had to look after the home, which necessitated hard graft, while bringing up a large family on limited means. It was not unusual for working men to unwind with mates in the pub and for women to then suffer the consequences of oral if not physical abuse. Death was ever present, especially that of young children, and it must have been as painful to cope with then as it is now.
In 1881, Fanny (16) was a general domestic servant at the Ship Inn in Elsecar, where the innkeeper was William Oxley. The original Ship Inn pub was demolished and rebuilt, and it is now converted into a house. I do not know when or where she met her future husband, Charles Ernest Hardy (1863-1932), but he may have seen her working in the pub when he visited Elsecar in search of work at the nearby Hemingfield colliery.
In 1886 Fanny was already 8 months pregnant when she and Charles, then a coal hewer, got married at Elsecar Parish Church. Holy Trinity Church, built c.1841, played a significant role in our family’s life for generations, with baptisms, marriages and burials – my grandparents and parents were married there, I was baptised there, and so were some of my cousins’ children.
Family connections
The only Ostcliffe heirlooms we have are two ceramic men on horseback, which are of little monetary value especially as one was broken and repaired.
These were a present to Fanny from her parents and they took pride of place on the mantelpiece of her marital home. I inherited them when my father died in 2002.
Delving deeper
Jane would love to make contact with other Ostcliffe relations, please do get in touch email:
Jane Ainsworth (janemaa @ hotmail.co.uk)
©Jane Ainsworth – 2024
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