For “Lincolnshire Within Living Memory – 1900 to 1960.<\/p>\n
My name is Mary Briggs. I was born in Crowle in 1923, so my account \u00a0of what life was like before 1923 is based on what I.was told by my \u00a0parents and grand-parents. After that date my own memory comes into \u00a0play. I was asked to do this because, believe it or not, among the \u00a0members of Crowle W.I. I am the only person who was actually born in \u00a0Crowle and has lived here all my life. So, here goes:-<\/p>\n
Home and Family <\/strong><\/p>\n Houses ranged from small four-roomed cottages to larger houses \u00a0to late Victorian Villas and a few rather larger houses. There was \u00a0also farm houses of varying sizes in and around Crowle. There was\u00a0no mains water in Crowle until about 1936\/37 so there were no bathrooms \u00a0except in a few of the larger houses, here the rain water was collected in a tank and then “force-ptimped’ lip to another tank in the roof so\u00a0that it could, circulate through-the bathroom taps and down to the \u00a0kitchen sink. I remember by my grandfather used to give 500 pumps daily \u00a0to keep the tank in the roof full of water. Drinking water was \u00a0mainly from underground springs and there was usually a pump in the \u00a0back yard for this purpose. Rain water was also collected in tubs \u00a0for general use. Water for wash days was heated in a copper set in \u00a0brickwork with a fire box underneath. Clothes were washed in a tub using)”dolly-legs” of a “posser”\u2022and a scrubbing board. Heating in \u00a0houses was by coal and wood fires. Lighting was by. oil lamps or in\u00a0some cases by gas. Crowle had its own Gas Works at that time but this\u00a0ceased to exist about about 1940. Electricity arrived round about \u00a01934\/35. Toilets were outside and the pans were emptied once a. week\u00a0in the night by “night-soil” men. Quite an unpleasant occupation. There was very little building of new houses until the late 1920’s \u00a0and 1930’s, then quite a lot of Council owned and private houses were \u00a0built. Building stopped during War II and then slowily picked up\u00a0again and is now going ahead rapidly.<\/p>\n Work<\/strong> – for men in this area was mainly on farms or at the local\u00a0Brickworks.(now gone) I believe there was a small Flaxmill and\u00a0and a small Brewery. A fair number of men were’employed on the\u00a0Railways. Crowle Central Station (the Doncaster to Cleethorpes line)\u00a0is about 1 miles south of Crowle. In 1903 the “Axholme Joint Light\u00a0Railway” was opened and this gave a line from Goole through to Haxey.\u00a0This Station was situated at the northern end of Crowle. This does\u00a0not now exist. For women’ who worked, and many did not in those days,\u00a0it was mainly seasonal in the land or in “service’ as maids in larger\u00a0houses.<\/p>\n Religion and Education Crowle had :-<\/p>\n (a) a C. of E. Church (d) a Primitive Methodist Chapel The latter (f) was just functioning when my grand-parents came to \u00a0Crowle. in 1903, but soon after that it became defunct.) There is\u00a0also a small-Methodist Chapel in Ealand, a small village just over a\u00a0mile from Crowle and included in the Parish of Crowle. (a) (b) and\u00a0(e) still exist, but (c) and (d) amalgamated and use (c) Chapel,\u00a0(d) has now been sold. Services at all places were,_and still are,\u00a0held on a very regular basis and all had a thriving Sunday School.<\/p>\n At the time of my school days, which started in 1928, there were\u00a0three schools in Crowle – the C.of E. School, the Council School\u00a0and a Roman Catholic School. In those days a Scholarship system\u00a0existed, in two parts, taken at the age of 11. If both parts were\u00a0passed one went to the Scunthorpe Grammar School. If the first part\u00a0only was passed one went to the Scunthorpe Secondary Modern School – \u00a0this eventually became a Technical High School. If no pass was\u00a0obtained one stayed at the local schools and left at the age of 14. Wars.<\/strong> Health and Disease.<\/strong> Food and Drink.<\/strong> Floods, Fires etc.<\/strong> Entertainment.<\/strong><\/p>\n In the early days people had to make their own entertainment (dealt\u00a0with later on) There was a Cinema here in Crowle from the ‘Silent’\u00a0days, and this ,naturally, developed into “Talkies”. This was in the\u00a0Market Hall upstairs. Below was a Club. In 1936 a new Cinema was\u00a0built and the upstairs of the Market Hall became a Ballroom. The \u00a0advent of T.V.was the death knell of small local Cinemas and it was turned into a Bingo\u00a0Hall. This, too, faded away and it became a Motor Museum. This did not\u00a0last long and it became a Garage and finally, now the Cinema is a Food\u00a0Market.<\/p>\n Schooldays (mainly covered under religion)<\/strong><\/p>\n School clothes at the Grammar Schools were “uniform” of Gym-slips\u00a0and blouses, blazers and caps or hats, which always had to be worn.\u00a0Boys always wore short trousers until they were 13 or 14, and they\u00a0always had to wear school caps. Local schools did not have uniforms\u00a0and children wore they ordinairy cleithes. Best clothes were always\u00a0worn on Sundays and special occasions<\/p>\n Grand Occasions.<\/strong><\/p>\n Coming under this heading would be the Coronation of Edward VII\u00a0and the Coronation of George -V and Queen Mary. I am sure there would\u00a0be some special calibrations of some sort. I do remember a great\u00a0day of a Carnival nature for the Silver Jubilee of King George V and\u00a0Queen Mary in 1935 or 36?. The same sort of festivities took place\u00a0for the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937?<\/p>\n At the end of World War II there were celebration parties and dances.<\/p>\n Celebrations throughout the Year.<\/strong><\/p>\n The things I remember most are the two local Fags, one in May and\u00a0one in November. These were “Hiring Fairs” where farm workers were \u00a0hired for the coming year. This, ,course, died out between the two Wars, but the fairs kept on These have now faded into oblivion,.<\/p>\n Another annual event was the Crowle Show. Between the Wars this was\u00a0a two-evening event and co-incided with the Crowle Fair held in May.\u00a0On the Monday evening it consisted of Athletics and Cycling and other\u00a0events and on the Tuesday evelking it was the turn of Shire Horses and\u00a0Show Jumping events. The evening ended with a Horse Race round the\u00a0outside of the ring with the spectators in the middle. This Show\u00a0eventually evolved into a one-day affair on the last Saturday in\u00a0May. The Cycling events disappeared and the serious Athletics, but\u00a0other attractions were brought in, including a very popular Dog Show,\u00a0and this format carries on to this day. In fact, 1995 will be the\u00a0100th. Show. Another annual event of my childhood days was the\u00a0“Hospital Carnival”, held on August Bank Holiday Monday, (then the 1st.\u00a0Monday in August), to raise money for Scunthorpe Hospital. This\u00a0consisted of a parade of decorated Floats headedi.by a Carnival Queen\u00a0and her Retinue, and added in ,a tfield-where there were all sorts of\u00a0activities and games. The first one took place in 1933 and carried on\u00a0until War II It start: id again after the ear, but slowly faded into\u00a0oblivion. Most of these Events ended with a Grand Dance in the\u00a0Market Hall. In 1903 the Axholme Joint Light Railway was opened and this provided\u00a0rail transport or goods and farm produce between Goole and Haxey.\u00a0There was also a passenger service and this provided a good connection\u00a0at Goole for Hull, so a day out at Hull was quite an event. The\u00a0passenger service came to an end about 1933 but the goods service\u00a0continued until after War II. Finally this also ended and the line\u00a0became defunct in the early 60’s. The service from Crowle’s other\u00a0station was on the Doncaster through to Scunthorpe and Cleethorpes.<\/p>\n During the summer months special excursion trains to Cleethorpeks were\u00a0a feature and cheap evening excursions to Clethorpes became very\u00a0popular, particularly with the younger generation. In the Fishing\u00a0Season special trains were run to bring hundreds of fishermen for\u00a0fishing in the Canal, which runs parallel to the railway. Important\u00a0fishing Competitions were often-held, and still are held. Nowadays\u00a0the fishermen come in cars and coaches. The proprietor of the\u00a0White Hart Hotel, in Crowle, owned a horse-drawn bus, seating about\u00a010 people and he used to go the 1 miles to Crowle Central Station to\u00a0meet each passenger train and this saved people the long walk to and\u00a0from Crowle to the station. Eventually he bought a small 20-seater\u00a0motor bus to replace the horse-bus. I cannot personally remember the\u00a0Horse-bus, but I can remember the Motor-bus because as a child I rode\u00a0in it many times. The Fare was 2p. for adults and 1p. for children.\u00a0(old money). This valuable service finally came to an end in the\u00a0early 30’s.<\/p>\n Until 1916 the only way over the River Trent at Keadby was by the\u00a0old Rail Bridge. , The only road bridge over the Trent was at Gainsbro’\u00a0so Scunthorpe was not very accessible from Crowle,except by rail.\u00a0There were several little ferries across the Trent, by row_,boat, but\u00a0I think that would be rather a risky journey. In 1916 the new\u00a0Keadby Road and Rail Bridge was opened and this opened up the way to\u00a0Scunthorpe for people on the West Bank of the Trent. Soon a regular\u00a0bus service Was established from Scunthorpe to Crowle and other villages.\u00a0As the Scunthorpe Steel Works expanded many local men,found work there.\u00a0In the early days most of them cycled the 10 miles to and from work.\u00a0Eventually “shift” buses were run but as people became more affluent\u00a0and were able to afford cars these “shift” buses eventually stopped.\u00a0The way to Cleethorpes by bus was now possible and I remember in \u00a0particular our Sunday School annual Summer Trip to Cleethorpes. This\u00a0was a great event.<\/p>\n Sports and Pastimes<\/strong><\/p>\n Naturally, Crowle had its local Football Club and Cricket Club.\u00a0There was a Tennis Club, with 3 courts and regular Tournaments were\u00a0held. All these Clubs held their Annual Dances, so in the Winter\u00a0Season there could be a Dance almost every week, with other organisations\u00a0holding their Annual Dances also. There was an Amateur Dramatic\u00a0Society and they produced Plays. Various other groups put on Concerts. As long as I can rmember there has been a Library in Crowle. It \u00a0used to be a large cupboad in one of the schools. and open one night\u00a0a week. Then in the middle 50’s an empty shop was taken over and\u00a0transformed into a proper Library. Eventually a new purpose-built\u00a0Library was opened.<\/p>\n Best Wishes and Good Luck with the book.<\/p>\n Mary Briggs, 30 Crowle Wharf,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For “Lincolnshire Within Living Memory – 1900 to 1960. My name is Mary Briggs. I was born in Crowle in 1923, so my account \u00a0of what life was like before 1923 is based on what I.was told by my \u00a0parents and grand-parents. After that date my own memory comes into \u00a0play. I was asked to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crowle-memories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crowle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4147,"href":"https:\/\/crowle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4146\/revisions\/4147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n(b) a Roman Catholic Church (e) a Baptist Chapel
\n(c) a Weslyan Chapel (f) a Congregational Chapel<\/p>\n
\nIn 1957 a Secondary School was built in Crowle (now a Comprehensive)\u00a0and this served C.rowle schoOls and schools from the surrounding villages\u00a0for all children from 11 years upwards to 16. I am not sure which\u00a0year “scholarships” ended and Comprehensive Education became the norm .
\nThe C.of E. School is now closed down and the building became a Youth Centre.<\/p>\n
\nNaturally the two World Wars affected many families in Crowle, \u00a0particularly the First World War. Many young men were killed in’ this \u00a0War and not many families escaped the loss or wounding of someone. \u00a0There is a brass memorial plaque with the names of all who were killed \u00a0in the Parish Church and another in the Weslyan Chapel. There is also\u00a0a War Memorial in the centre of Crowle with all the names on it. The \u00a0numbers killed in World War II was considerably less than in War I, \u00a0and their names are also on the War Memorial.<\/p>\n
\nIn the early 1900’s Diptheria was very prevalent and many young \u00a0children died from it. T.B.\u2022 or Consumption as it was then called, \u00a0was also quite common and often fatal. There were two Doctors, each \u00a0one running his own Practice. There was a District Nurse who got \u00a0around, the area on a bicycle. There was also one or two women who\u00a0acted as Midwives and who would ‘lay out” people who died. These \u00a0ways were dying out by the 1940’s. In the early days the nearest \u00a0hospital was in Doncaster or Goole, accessible by road, (see section \u00a0on Transport). There was a small hospital In Scunthorpe until the\u00a0new larger one was built round about 1933. There is now a Group \u00a0Practice in Crowle with a purpose built surgery.<\/p>\n
\nCrowle was well supplied with shops in those days. In my early \u00a0lifetime I can remember several general grocery shops, bakers shops,\u00a0shoe shops,\u00a0clothing shops, newsagents, sweet shops, fruit and vegetable \u00a0shops, fish and chip shops and 8 butchers shops. Now there are 2 \u00a0butchers shops, no shoe or clothing shops and a very diminished number \u00a0of the others. The drink side was very well catered. for with 10 public \u00a0houses and 3 clubs. Now there are 6 pubs and 2 clubs.<\/p>\n
\nFortunately this is an area which does not easily flood, so there \u00a0no disasters on that front There has always been a Fire Station \u00a0and\u00a0Engine\u00a0in Crowle, dating from the horse-drawn days to motorised\u00a0vehicles right up to the present day. The Firemen have always been\u00a0able to cope with anything they have been called upon the deal with,\u00a0quickly and efficiently.<\/p>\n
\nTransport and Travel.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nAll these attracted full audiences. In the late 30’s a local girl\u00a0ran Dance Classes and produced Revue style concerts and produced\u00a0pantomimes. The Crowle Town Silver Prize Band was well supported\u00a0and played at many functions and attended Brass Band Competitions, \u00a0and sometimes came away with a Prize. The War II seemed to put an\u00a0end to that and it was never able to get going again. Eventually\u00a0the North Axholme School took over some of the instruments and that \u00a0was the start of the School Band.
\nAfter War II the people of Ealand, the village just over 1 mile\u00a0from Crowle and included in the Parish of Crowle, started to raise\u00a0funds to build themselves a Village Hall. Crowle people supported\u00a0them in this project and the Hall was finally built and called the\u00a0“Ealand Victory Hall” in commemoration of the end of World War II.<\/p>\n