In the interview below Mrs Joyce Durdy (nee Macintosh) describes her early years on the Hill Farm, Old Brodsworth (part of the Brodsworth Estate) and then her marriage to Jack, which took her to the farm cottage in Stancil.

She talks about the Roman remains found at Stancil.

Finally, she talks of her move to Tickhill and comments on how much Tickhill has changed.

Interview with Mrs Joyce Durdy - November 2014

Name: Joyce Durdy    
Date of Birth: 11.03.1925

Place of Birth: Hill Farm Old Brodsworth (part of the Brodsworth Estate).

Family details: 1 younger sister, Father's Occupation Farmer, Mother Housewife. There was always another man living in the house. He looked after the horses on the farm. Mum had to feed him as well.

Early Family Life: I spent most of my time helping dad on the farm especially at lambing time. Some lambs were like pets and I fed them with a bottle and they would follow you everywhere.

The Farm: The farm was 300 acres in size. We grew corn, potatoes and turnips for cattle and sheep. The sheep were put into the turnips and rotated in strips. I remember an incident when I was 6 years old. I went to find father in the turnip field but it was foggy and I could not see him anywhere. I became very frightened.

Early Childhood: I had a very happy childhood. I attended the local school near Brodsworth at 5 lanes end in Pickburn. There were two teachers - Miss Davis who taught the juniors and Miss Hutton, the seniors. My sister's memory of the latter was someone with "big hands slapping her legs".

Links to Brodsworth Hall: Father was a tenant farmer. He went there in 1903 when he was 21 with two sisters. One soon was married but the other stayed at the farm for some time. He paid rent each year to an agent at the estate office. The owner of the hall, Captain Grant-Dalton, rode around the estate on horseback. Everyone had to respect him and greet him with a "good morning sir". There were no tractors but six horses did all of the work. When I was old enough and working I helped at harvest time when I came home from work putting wheat sheaves on top of the stack.

Post School: I left school when I was 16 with a school certificate. I did a 1 year full time secretarial course at Doncaster Technical College. The course was composed of shorthand typing, commercial arithmetic, commercial geography etc. The course helped me to find a job - two interviews, one with Bell and Watson, estate agents and the other with an accountant. One offered 30 shillings a week and the other 35. Just after the war, there was no social life in Brodsworth and we started the "Doncaster Young Farmers Club". It was there that I met Jack my future husband. He was the chairman and I was the secretary.

Stancil Farm: We were married in 1947and should have moved to the farm cottage in Stancil. The first time that Jack took me to Stancil, I wondered wherever he was taking me along a long lonely road with high hedges on either side. Stephen Toulson owned the cottage but there was a problem. A farm man who lived in the cottage had been sacked but would not leave. We therefore had to live with my husband's family for 18 months until we could move into the cottage. We had to get the bailiff to move the man out. Our eldest son John was born the year after. The other cottages were occupied by farm workers. There was no electricity on the farm. There were calor gas lamps in the kitchen and living room but elsewhere, lighting was by paraffin lamps and candles. I have fond memories of the candles flickering but there was no heating and it was very difficult with a newly born child. We bought the farm quite a while afterwards.

Farming at Stancil: We had a cow which gave us milk and cream. We made butter. Otherwise we grew similar things to what we did before. Jack's father saved special cauliflower seed. Jack drove a lorry taking cauliflowers to Newcastle market and Manchester etc. setting off very early in the morning. We grew potatoes and stored them outside, covered in separate layers of soil and straw.

There are photographs of women bagging potatoes up in very cold weather (see the photograph at the foot of this page). We bought some more land at Clifton where a foreman was in charge. We sold that eventually and purchased Wadworth Bar Farm after we moved to the cottage in 1949. I remember the thrashing days in winter when large machines thrashed the corn. We had to feed the driver and his mate breakfast - fat bacon from one of our own pigs, large bucket of tea and cheese and corned beef sandwiches. Jack's mother made the bread (unsliced).

There were 10 labourers working on the farm. Most were men but there were 2 women. One was Theresa Dale who still lives on Wong lane. Their job for example was to hoe the sugar beet etc. All the workers cycled to work as did the post lady who cycled to the farm each and every day.

Mineral rights: Toulsons We had to rent 1 field from them just in case they decided to extract the gravel which was available in abundance there. We were very worried that this would happen but in the end, they decided that the road was not good enough to take heavy lorries.

Roman Remains: We have a booklet about this. It had been excavated before the war. They found skulls and it seemed as if there had been an epidemic. Some of the skulls went to Doncaster museum. We could not grow crops on the site but grassland and later barley crops were allowed as long as they were re seeded.. Bradford University were interested in excavating the site again but this did not happen. We have found items including a broach in other fields using metal detectors. Occasionally, historians come to ask questions.

Move to Tickhill: Before we moved, I used to come into Tickhill only once a week. An order was taken by Jarvis the grocers one week and the goods delivered the next week. Jack's father went to market on Tuesday and Saturday and brought fish back. His brother in law was a butcher who brought us a joint each week. We ate some at the week end, had it cold on a Monday and made mince on a Tuesday. Jack's mother was a domestic science teacher in Sheffield, a wonderful cook, baker etc. Therefore all together, there was really no need to go into Tickhill.

But I always knew about Tickhill. My uncle lived at Eastfeld farm and I used to visit him frequently. My mother lived at Limpool farm near Hesley (off Stripe Road) and she was married from there. My grandparents are buried in Tickhill church yard and therefore it felt right to move to Tickhill when the time came. In 1988, we moved to Tickhill. It was difficult to find a house for us as nothing seemed to be right but then we happened lucky to find the house that I live in now. Framptons (the owner of the jewellers), put the house up for sale. They had done lots of alterations which suited us so we did not have to do anything else. We were pleased to live in Tickhill. We had lots of friends e.g. Mr and Mrs Hulley who we went to church with. Jack was church warden for 30 years and therefore attended church every Sunday. Unfortunately, Jack my husband died at the age of 66 just 6 months after moving.

Changes in Tickhill: Tickhill has changed a lot. I remember Taylors who had a little shop when we first married. We had a field behind the bowling green. Once, some cattle got out on to the bowling green. There were footprints and damage everywhere which we had to pay to repair.
There was one infant school on Tithes lane and a junior school on St Mary's Road. John went there. The old garage was owned by 2 brothers but now it has improved vastly. Geoff Haith owned a farm machinery business.

Below is a photograph of potato grading taken in the 1950s