Now in her 80’s, Mrs Bos (nee Gilthorpe) lives in Frome but has very fond memories of Tickhill and has written these memories for us  for which we are really grateful.

The photograph shows Marjorie in her school days. She lived at 20 Castlegate - the Fish and Chip shop.

I was about eight years old when my parents, Rose and Joe Gilthorpe and my Granddad, George Gilthrorpe, moved to the fish and chip shop at 20, Castlegate, Tickhill together with myself, my eldest sisters, Joyce, Doreen and my younger sister, Josephine. We moved from Bircotes as my Dad had been working in Harworth Colliery. We used to attend Tickhill Church School close by.  I think my sister Joyce started work at 14 at a Lady Dentist who had 2 large Russian Boza dogs.  Joyce then went to work at a transport café as a trainee cook, I think near Worksop Road, Tickhill.

I used to be in the Brownies and Brown Owl lived in a big house at Tickhill Spital where we had meetings and games. At Tickhill School we used to grow vegetables and keep some chickens. When the farmer cut the corn he allowed the class to glean the bits of corn that had fallen off the sheafs and we fed the chickens.  The farm was across the road from the school and when the threshing machine was working the boys used to go out at playtime and catch some of the mice in the corn and put them in their pockets and let them loose near the teacher as she passed the desk.  She was frightened of the mice and we all laughed.  We used to walk from school to church and I used to laugh at the vicar. I think he was called Mr Cook. When he was in the pulpit he used to rock backwards and forwards and I thought he should be on a rocking horse. It made me laugh!

The back entrance to the fish and chip shop was via a driveway of a modern house close to the church gate.  I had a friend called Mary who lived with her Dad, Mum and sister in the cottages on St. Mary’s Gate.  I had another friend who lived near the Co-op shop on Castlegate. We could go through a yard in which they kept a gander. We thought it was OK so we climbed over the wall but the gander, with neck and wings outstretched, came at us and we quickly jumped back on the wall.  I also had a friend at Brookfield farm. 

I also remember that we danced around the maypole. I think it was in a field behind the vicarage which was near the Buttercross.  I always remember the field full of cowslips there and as years went by and I’ve moved a lot.  When possible I used to do a detour to Tickhill and was shocked that the cowslips had gone when they built the motorway over the field. I always used to go and spend some time by the mill pond.  I used to take my Dad there when he was in the nursing home at Bircotes.

We used to have a pony and trap which we kept in a stable opposite the Mill pond pub.  During the war years,  fish was only allocated by the amount from the previous years but to increase the business we bought the  surplus fish from Bawtry fish and chip shop which we collected in the pony and trap. We later moved to the Bawtry  shop and my dad’s sister and husband moved to the Tickhill shop. That was Emily Haynes nee Blackford and Jack Haynes with stepdaughter Jean Blackford and daughter Noreen Haynes.

I remember the church bells playing different tunes quarterly and Sunday hymns.  If anyone has a CD of it I would love to have it.  Are they still in working order? 

My sister Doreen, on moving from Tickhill to Bawtry, became a trainee hairdresser at Bircotes and later had her own shop in Shepley, Huddersfield where she lived with her husband, Sid White from Bawtry.  Doreen died some years ago and also my sister Joyce.  

I had to go into a sanatorium in Rotherham  at some time as my parents and sister  Josephine moved to Shepley in Huddersfield working a textile mill.  Josephine and husband Ernest White, still live there, their only son now living in Hereford.

In 1955 I married Isaac Bos, a Dutch man. We divorced in 1983. He was a horticulturist. Our 2 sons, Richard and Terry were born in Huddersfield. Later, we bought land etc and started a horticultural wholesale business in Surry, My eldest son, Richard, took over that business in 1988 when Isaac died.  My son, Terry, is a welder fabricator in Frome, Somerset where I now live in a retirement complex.  I’m gradually losing my sight with Macular degeneration.  I also have hearing problems and am awaiting hearing aids.  I have very happy memories of Tickhill, I think the Colbecks had a daughter Mary?  Our other neighbours were an old couple, Mr & Mrs Powell.  Oh, I remember the earth closet with 3 holes – one for a small child.  We also had a water pump. Potatoes had to be washed by hand and peeled by hand to make the chips.

I’ve moved to Moorends, Thorne, Bircotes, Tickhill, Bawtry, Thorpe Arch nursing home, Rotherham sanatorium, Shepley- Huddersflield, Surrey, Spalding Lincs, Frome, Back to Doncaster, Spalding – now for good – Frome, Somerset.

I can’t see and have never learned to use a computer so I would appreciate news by letter.  I have always bought books relating to Tickhill and Bawtry and photos and cards. In Yorkshire Life magazine 1988 they had some excellent sketches of the church and mill dam which I have kept. 

At school I had a nickname – either Chippy or Specky!  I am sending a photograph of myself at 8 years old.