Fishlake’s Past Findings. 

What the newspapers were reporting about the village two centuries ago.

 

 

 

 

Old man reading a newspaper. Thanks to Alamy.com

 

 

These examples  have been found and collected from the British Newspaper Archive website. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ 

Acknowledgement to the BNA.

It will be noticed that all these reports have appeared in papers from many different parts of the country. Unfortunately, so far, the vast majority of our local paper, The Doncaster Gazette, has yet to be scanned and made easily available to the public. Although the following reports appear in other newspapers I presume that these stories would have appeared in the Doncaster Gazette first before being shared among other news agencies nationwide.

 

 

From Stamford Mercury of Friday 01 January 1841.

At Fishlake near a Doncaster, the population of which is about 600, there are now living one man aged 98, ten persons aged 86 and twenty whose united ages average 80 each. The old man of 98 partook of tea on Whit Monday last with the teachers of the Sabbath school and was in excellent at health and high spirits. In this same village there are now living 11 women who have had 157 children, thus averaging more than 14 each. Doubtless they ‘have done the State some service and they know it’.

Note from 1841 census returns this 98 year old man turns out to be William Kelshaw.

 

From Birmingham Journal of Saturday 10 September 1842.

A REMARKABLE CASE OF TRANCE. One of the most singular circumstance we have heard of for many years, took place at Fishlake a short time ago. A married female being in the meridian of life, and whose name is Ann Wraith, residing in the above township. had been ill for some time, and, on Thursday the 4 th inst. her friends and family assembled around her, and took their last mournful farewell. She appeared to expire about five o'clock, the same afternoon. The ceremonies of the lying out of the dead were duly performed-the bandages were placed beneath her chin to her head, and every preparation was made for the solemn rites of the burial ground.

The sexton tolled his bell; but, at half past eight o'clock, some minutes before his work was accomplished, she reared her head in astonishment, and was amazed to find, that she was enabled to partake of the refreshments for her funereal. The above facts are well authenticated.

 

From North Wales Chronicle of Tuesday 26 January 1847.

Three skeletons--those of two adults and a child, were discovered, last week, in a field near Fishlake Church-yard, by some men who were making a drain.

They were about a foot below the surface, and are supposed to have been in the ground for half a century.

 

From York Herald Saturday of 19 July 1862.

Thomas Cleaver (33) for burglary in the dwelling house of Geo. Ormsby, (Rev George Ornsby) and stealing therein two pair of drawers, a shirt, three foreign coins, and a farthing, at Fishlake on the 6th of March last.

 

From Nottingham Guardian of Friday 29 June 1866.

Suicide by an old man. An inquest has been held at the Hare and Hounds Inn, Fishlake, to inquire into the cause of the death of George Greenfield, 75 years of age, who committed suicide by throwing himself into a Well. The deceased lived with his sister-in-law, Sarah Hirst, a single woman, and on Saturday morning left her in the house and went into the garden.

A short distance from the house door there is a Well, and a short distance further there are a number of cow-houses. When he had been in the yard a short time, Miss Hirst heard a noise in the yard, and thinking that it was the deceased who had fallen against some of the doors, she went out to see, not in the least suspecting that he had contemplated suicide previous to leaving the house, and when she got into the yard, the first thing that attracted her attention was seeing the Well uncovered and the deceased's boots and stick by the side of it. She immediately looked into the Well and saw the deceased, head downwards, in it. She got assistance, and when Greenfield was got out he was found to be quite dead. Miss Hirst informed the jury that about thirty-four years ago the deceased suffered from a nervous weakness in his mind, but he soon recovered from it. Latterly he had been receiving parish pay; but she never had any idea that the deceased was so far mentally affected as to contemplate suicide. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased drowned himself whilst in a state of temporary insanity.

Note from the census returns Sarah Hirst lived at Hay green in 1871. 

 

From Shields Daily Gazette of Thursday 21 February 1867. Information probably gathered from Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England And The Borders by William Henderson.

Death Omens in Northumberland. Three raps given by no human hand are said to give warning of death.

Those curious to know about the death of their fellow parishioners must keep watch in a church porch on St Mark’s Eve, for an hour on each side of midnight for three successive years. On the third year they will see the form of those doomed to die within the twelvemonths passing one by one into the church.

If the watcher falls asleep during his vigil he will die himself during the year. An old man who recently died in Fishlake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was in the habit of keeping these vigils, and was in consequence an object of some dread to his neighbours. 

Note that in Fishlake St Mark’s Day was Bylaw Day when the Bylaw Court met yearly to elect the Bylaw officers for the coming year.

 

From Stamford Mercury of Friday 03 May 1867.

A few days ago, a lady residing at Fishlake near Thorne, spread out in her orchard a quantity of things to bleach and dry. Amongst these was a piece of lace nearly 26 feet in length, which shortly afterwards disappeared in a most mysterious manner, and was presumed to have been stolen until a few days afterwards, when a boy discovered it in a stormoock's nest, built in a poplar tree. The lace was not tacked together, and the ingenious and persevering bird converted it into a lining for the nest.

Note a stormcock is a country name for a Mistle Thrush.

 

From Newcastle Courant of Saturday 19 September 1891.

Death OF The Oldest Woman In England born in Fishlake.

On Wednesday morning at half past three there passed quietly away at her residence in Market Street, Mexborough, a small town nine miles from Sheffield, Mrs Henry Kilham in her 104 th year. The old lady had occupied the house in which she died for more than 70 years. During the past nine months she has been compelled to remain in her bedroom, though she has occasionally sat up. Although she grew gradually weaker, her mental faculties remained unimpaired to the end. Latterly she suffers from a slight attack of bronchitis and on Sunday her appetite, which had high to been good, failed her and medical aid was called in. It was exactly on hundred years since her mother died. Mrs Kilham was born in Fishlake near Doncaster on 2 nd March 1788. The register of Fishlake Church was examined in 1887 by the Rev HGB Lemoine, then curate of Mexborough, who duly attested these facts. Mrs Kilham had a vivid recollection of the event which transpired in her youth. She spoke frequently of the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo, and of the American War of Independence. Her home was, however, her chief concerns, and to the last she took a keen interest in its management. many of her descendants live in Mexborough and other parts of Yorkshire.

 

From Eastern Morning News of Tuesday 17 January 1899.

FIRE. The Fire Brigade was called out to blaze at Fishlake on Saturday.

During a high wind a paraffin lamp exploded in a bedroom at the Anchor Inn. The bedroom was quickly in flames, and before the fire could be checked part of the building was destroyed. The damage is estimated at over £100.