Discovering More War Memorials - and more people who care! Jump, Bolton on Dearne and Hood Green

Yesterday at Barnsley Archives I met and chatted to two people who are also very interested in recording and preserving the information on our local war memorials.  One was a lady whom I've seen there many times, working hard transcribing and indexing for the Archives as a volunteer, the other a gentleman whom I've not talked to before.


The Jump & Hemingfield War Memorial
(photo from BWM - WW2)

Jump and Hemingfield War Memorial is located on the edge of the cemetery on Cemetery Road in Jump.  SP has researched nearly all of the names on the memorial and is hoping to deposit her work in the Barnsley Archives in due course.  Anyone who has an ancestor on the memorial is welcome to contact SP to find out more.  There is a page for this memorial with a list of names and her contact information on the new Barnsley War Memorials Project.  The page also includes links to the memorials listings on other sites.  This memorial lists 54 names from the First World War and 21 from the Second World War. 

Later I was handed a little booklet entitled "Barnsley and District War Memorials Calendar Book 2014".  This has been produced by the Dearne Memorial Group to raise funds for the Dearne Renaissance Centre.  The Dearne Memorial Group has indexed all of the cemeteries in the Barnsley area and made the records easily searchable online with results available for a very small fee.  If you don't know where your ancestors were buried I would recommend a visit to this site.  Remember it includes cemeteries, not churchyards, but there again most churchyards filled up pretty quickly in the 19th century so ancestors who died after about 1860 are quite likely to be on here.

Bolton upon Dearne has two existing War Memorials, one in the church and one in a school playground.  This second memorial was recently featured in the Barnsley Chronicle, as it is under threat because the area is to be redeveloped now the school has relocated.  It lists just 45 names, men who had been pupils at the Bolton upon Dearne Board School who lost their lives in the First World War.  It is a wonderfully different design, looking like an inglenook fireplace, the names of the men are listed on the beam above the opening.  I will have put the pictures and links I have found for it onto a page on the Barnsley War Memorials Project - with all due thanks to the Barnsley Chronicle, the Dearne Memorial Group and the Mexborough and District Heritage Society (incidentally their site has a brilliant list and photos of all the memorials in their area).

Close up of the Bolton upon Dearne Old School Memorial
(from Mexborough and District Heritage Society's site)

The gentleman who had brought in the booklets, PF, told me all about their most recent project - to raise funds to erect a new memorial to the fallen men and women of Bolton Upon Dearne, Goldthorpe and Highgate which will be placed in Bolton upon Dearne Cemetery.  They have already collected nearly 300 names from the First, Second and Falklands wars.  They do need more donations, which can be made to The Dearne Towns War Memorial Appeal - contact Peter Shields or go to the Dearne Memorials site to make a donation online.

Finally, as I browsed through the little booklet (I've sent you a donation PF and PS!) I found a picture of a memorial that had not appeared on any of my lists up to now. 

Hood Green War Memorial on Google Maps

Funnily enough the OH and I passed through Hood Green on one of our drives around Barnsley to photograph pubs and war memorials only a couple of weeks ago, but as I hadn't known about this one I have no actual photograph of my own yet. The above is from Google Streetview - but of course it's not clear enough to make out the names!  As far as I can make out from the picture in the Dearne Memorials calendar there are between 15 and 20 names on this memorial - which, when you consider how small Hood Green is, is quite shocking. I look forward to the next time the OH and I are out and about - I know where we are going!

Yesterday was a very interesting day and it was lovely to meet other people who are as keen as myself, JA and GB to preserve and record these memorials.

Mysterious Worsborough Heroes - Barnsley Chronicle 6th November 1920

Header from Barnsley Chronicle early 20th century (from Barnsley Archives)

As I work my way through the digitised Barnsley Chronicle in Barnsley Archives looking for mentions of war memorials in the post First World War years the story of the commemoration of the men of Barnsley gets more and more complex.
I have already mentioned that some villages erected their memorials much quicker than others, and in some places there was a lot of discussion about the proper form of such memorials.  Last week I found a mention of a plaque in Worsborough Parish Church which was unveiled on 31st October 1920.  I copied the cutting because it included a list of names, any list of names is like gold to a family and local historian, no matter what the context!

It's the first one I have looked at this evening and it has given me a new mystery.  Now it is possible that someone who attends the Worsbrough church(es) may well be able to help me out with this straight away, but getting in churches isn't the easiest thing these days so I would appreciate any help.

Barnsley Chronicle 6 Nov 1920 (from Barnsley Archives)

There was an extra 'o' in Worsbrough until about 50 years ago when it was officially dropped, so both spellings are right and although mostly I see Worsbro' with the apostrophe at the end in hand written sources, it also appears in this newspaper cutting.

The piece mentions that the memorial is a "mural tablet" and that it's in the interior of the church.  I have photos of the  combined war memorial at Worsbrough St Thomas's and there is a transcription on the Worsbrough Local History Society's website.


This plaque appears to be an additional memorial, erected earlier than the war memorial in the churchyard which was unveiled on 24 December 1924 according to the Worsbrough Local History Society's page.

War memorial outside St Thomas's church,
Worsbrough Dale

I don't have a problem with there being two memorials, although the plaque does not appear on the Imperial War Museum (IWM) War Memorial Archive, whereas there is an entry for the war memorial itself.   I imagine the local people wanted to make the memorial more accessible and impressive and suitable for Remembrance Day wreath laying and so on.  Maybe they received further donations after the plaque was unveiled and so decided to erect the memorial as well.  Further investigations in the newspapers may help with this.

No, my problem is that some of the names in the newspaper piece are of men who are not on the memorial.  Given that the memorial is the later of the two I would have expected it to be the other way around, with additional names on the memorial, maybe of men who died of wounds after 1920 or whose families came forward with their names too late to be included on the plaque.

There are 46 names listed in the newspaper cutting and 112 on the memorial.  But only five of the names in the cutting are on the memorial!

Capt W Elmhirst,
Pte F Abrahams,
Pte J H Rodgers
Lieut E C Elmhirst
Pte W Rodgers

Forty-one of the names listed as being on the plaque in the church do not appear on the memorial.  This is very odd. 

York and Lancs: Capt G A G Hewitt, Sergt G Aimer, Sergt J T Draisy, L/Cpl W Rushworth, L/Cpl W H Whitehead, Pte O Sanderson, Pte A Naylor, Pte G Weldrick, Pte J A Walton, Pte J H T Skelton,  Pte W Booth, Pte L Bassender, Pte F Burkinshaw, Pte J Booth, Pte E Jackson.
Duke of Wellington’s:  Pte J Hargate, Pte R E Burkinshaw.
Notts and Derby: Pte F Waller
South Staffords: Pte H Waller
KOYLI: Pte J Richardson, Pte S J Mayes
Royal Fusiliers: L/Cpl E Fripp
Grenadier Guards: Tpr J Hayhurst
Royal West Kents: Pte H A Young
Durham Light Infantry: Pte J Carr
Coldstream Guards: L/Cpl T Spencer,  Pte G W Kellett
RAMC: Pte C D Thorpe, Pte N Skelton
Motor Transport (ASC): Cpl A Utley
Royal Engineers: Cpl J Gallagher, Spr L Smith
Manchesters: Pte F W Bartle
Northumberland Fusiliers: Sergt E B Moody, MM
Royal Artillery: Dvr J A Butcher
Connaught Rangers: Pte T Goodyear
Oxford and Bucks LI: Pte T Higgins
Lancs Fusiliers: Pte W F Bromich
Border Regiment: Pte T Clark
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve: A/B E T Carrington
Yorks Dragoons: Pte C Armitage

I know there are several churches in Worsbrough, so maybe these men appear on another memorial.  After all the newspaper cutting doesn't actually say which church the Parish Church is.  It could be St Mary's in Worsbrough Village.  But if that is the case why do five of them appear on the memorial at Worsbrough Dale?

1917 face of the memorial at St Luke's
church, Worsbrough Common

I have photos of the memorial at St Luke's church in Worsbrough Common.  Two of the names from the newspaper cutting are on that memorial.

Yorks Dragoons: Pte C Armitage
York and Lancs: Capt G A G Hewitt

But that still leaves thirty-eight men somewhere else maybe?

I'm confused.

I've tried looking  a couple of the names up on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site.  GW Kellett was from Birdwell and RE Burkinshaw is actually buried in St Mary's churchyard in Worsbrough.  J Hayhurst is also from Birdwell as is O Sanderson - is this a pattern?  Should I be looking for another memorial in Birdwell or in Worsbrough Village somewhere?

Some of the names don't even appear on the CWGC.  Aimer and Draisy and Bassender for example, I didn't search the whole list - have they been misspelt in the newspaper article?

Can anyone help me?