Memories of Warsop - Orchard Yard - An ongoing saga of the wherabouts of this place and its residents!
From: Tammie Wood Email:
<pete4tammie@hotmail.com> Posted on: Friday, January 03, 2003, 04:32
PM
Does anybody know where Orchard Yard is or even was?
From: Joan Dunstan Email:
<joan@paperspublishing.co.uk> Posted on: Friday, January 10, 2003, 04:15
PM
I remember Orchard Yard as being on Church Street. There was a row of stone
cottages on the corner of the junction with Hetts Lane and IOrchard Yard was
at the back of these cottages - at least that's how I remeber it. It is years
since I left the area but still return at least once a month to visit my parents
in Old Church Warsop.
From: Tammie Wood Email:
<pete4tammie@hotmail.com> Posted on: Friday, January 10, 2003, 04:45
PM
Thanks Joan, I read somewhere that it used to be on the Mansfield - Worksop
road, but wasn't sure if that was before or after the road was done up and
the High St was no longer the main road.
From: Peter Jones Email:
<peter.jones34@ntlworld.com>Posted on: Thursday, February 06, 2003,
04:11 PM
My dad was born in Orchard Yard , he always told me that it was located where
the Roman Catholic church now stands on Dawney Hill. I was born in Spion Kop
in 1939, if anyone remembers me and my family I'd be pleased to hear from
them.
From: Tammie Wood Email:
<pete4tammie@hotmail.com> Posted on: Friday, February 07, 2003, 09:29
AM
Thanks Peter, I remember my gran saying it was at the top of Downey Hill near
the cottage thats just been done up, My grandad was born in Orchard Yd in
1916 which is why I was looking for it. So Thank You again you have been a
great help.
From: Harry Bletcher Email:
<Bletcher@csolve.net> Posted on: Monday, March 03, 2003, 04:18 PM
Hello to Tammie Wood and Joan Dunstan,there was a Orchard Yard off Church
street and you went up a gennel between stone houses into a back yard lined
with a few stone houses,this was just below the PloughInn.Ther was also a
Orchard Yard at the top of Dawney hill next to Cobbler Jacks shoe repair shop.
This is described in the book Warsop Remembered that Mr Frank Blythman wrote
in his memoirs that was put out by the Old Warsop Society in 1991. I have
Old Warsop in pictures and Warsop, a book of verse by A R Scott which I enjoyed
reading.My sister sent these books to me and came from the Old Warsop Society.Hello
Joan,are you Derek Dunstans brother?,he was at school with me,I wonder what
happened to a lot of my school friends.Write to me if you wish. Nice talking,
Harry,
From: Joan Dunstan Email:
<joan@paperspublishing.co.uk> Posted on: Friday, March 14, 2003, 11:49
AM
Thank you, Harry, for your information about Orchard Yard - I never realised
there were two of them. Joan is a girl's name so I'm no one's brother. I went
to school in Welbeck, sorry, Meden Vale.
ORCHARD YARD
Orchard Yard was not in Church Street as Joan Dunstan suggests. The buildings
from Hetts Lane on Church Street were the barn belonging to Hetts Lane Farm
and then the farmhouse. This took them up to the pair of brick built semi-detached
houses which still stand. Just down from the Plough Inn was Topham’s
Yard and this was the only yard on Church Street. Peter Jones is probably
correct in placing Orchard Yard where the Roman Catholic Church now stands
at the top of Dawney Hill. There were two shops fronting the A60, the last
occupier being Mr. Barlow with his ‘Warsop Free Press’ enterprise
and at the lower end of the shops was a flight of steps which lead to a row
of cottages at right angles to the A60 and which faced the orchard shown on
Mr Frank Blythman’s plan on the centre pages of his booklet ‘Warsop
Remembered’. I remember one tenant of the cottages was ‘Hokey Pokey’
Smith who sold ice cream from his home made trolley around the village with
his cry of ‘Hokey Pokey’. - Mr Fredrick Flint
I was interested to read the letters about Orchard Yard in the April issue. I live in Manchester and only receive copies of your publication every 4-5 weeks, hence the late reply.
Hokey Pokey Smith referred to by Mr Flint was in fact my grandfather. I remember my late mother, Winifred, talking of her father and his venture into ice cream amongst other schemes. My grandparents brought up 10 children in the small cottage in that yard and of the 3 surviving relatives, Phil, Dennis and Rita, the latter confirmed the location and her father's "business interests". My Aunt Rita remembers huge blocks of ice being delivered, carried through the yard to the shed at the bottom, and being broken up and placed under its floor. The ice surrounded the tubs that held the ice cream. My grandfather also recruited the help of one of his other daughters Edith (who died just before Christmas) to sell the ice cream around the village from their wooden barrow.
Rita also remembers her father owning a pig at one point, which he sat alongside him on the wall to watch the carnival procession pass down Dawney Hill. She believes that this earned him a second nickname for a while of Piggy Smith! Rita thinks that at the end of the yard, down a short flight of steps, was another small cottage inhabited by a Mrs Blecher. Would that have been Harry's mother?
I understand that my grandfather was a bit of a character but unfortunately he died when I was only 1 year old so I never knew him. My mother, who died in 1998 was the last survivor of the family to still be living in Warsop, but my father still lives in the village, hence my connection and source of local news.
It was most interesting to read those letters, I just wish I'd noted more of my mother's many stories over the years. As they say, you never know what you've missed until it's too late! I enjoy your magazine, please keep up the good work.
Regards - John Bodicoat - John.Bodicoat@tesco.net
