Reminiscences of Rotherham by Alderman Geo. Gummer, J.P.
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JAIL BRIDGE
An old Rotherham man, born and bred in the town, wrote
me a few days ago about the bridge. He says ‘‘Just a few lines respecting old Rotherham. In the early fifties I remember going over the old Jail Bridge and seeing prisoners calling and beckoning to their friends through the bars of the jail to bring
them tobacco. I also remember my father, carrying me on his back over the bridge to the old British School in Greasbro’ road, now occupied by Mappin’s Brewery Company. I was unable to walk, as the river had overflowed its banks and the bridge was covered, and. in addition, the Red Lion yard and College street were under water.” He goes on to say , I remember the old Lord Nelson Inn, which stood on the site now occupied by Gough’s shop in Bridgegate.’’
My informant also adds “on the Masbro’ side of the bridge a fire was lighted once a year and a man demanded toll for each head of cattle or sheep that passed over.”
This is confirmed by another old resident who was born in 1843. In a letter I have from his son he says:-
My father distinctly remembers a fire each
year on the Jail Bridge and a man collecting tolls. He has no idea what became of the money, but this happened once each year. He was thirteen years of age at the time, and the tolls were abolished when he was a young man. At this period (1856) there were two constables in Rotherham, one named Timms and the other Hanley. They wore tall hats, blue cloth clothing with broad red cuffs and collars, with large brass buttons. There were also 2 special constables, one named Benjamin Twigg, who lived in Primrose Valley, near Clough House, and followed the occupation of a quarryman; and the other named Wilson , who lived at Old Holland. Masbro’. His occupation was that of a butcher.”
The foregoing interesting accounts give a glimpse ten years farther back than I remember, in the days referred to, there was no Howard street, Effingham or Frederick street. In College street, where shops now exist, there were thatched houses. A stream ran down Wellgate, and opposite the Mail Coach Inn there stood a pump to supply the domestic needs of the neighbourhood.
Sixty years ago Doncaster Gate was a lonely road; a farmhouse and, two villas at the bottom of Clifton lane formed the only break in the fields, that extended from Pigeon lane, where the last gas lamp stood, to Eastwood House.
GATES
Writing of Doncaster Gate reminds me of the number of gates in the town, such as Millgate, Bridgegate, Westgate, Wellgate, Moorgate, and formerly Jesus Gate. The term “ gate,’’ we are told by one writer, is applied to the obstruction placed across a path or road instead of the road itself. The explanation is not far to seek. In the days of the walled cities, the closing of the movable obstruction placed across the road, or gate, meant the prevention of traffic into or out of the town, and in this way the term “ closing the gate “ came gradually to be misapplied and the name “ gate “ was transferred to the obstruction across it.
The word Millgate is a compound word, the latter portion, “ gate,” originally meaning way or road leading to the mill; Bridgegate, leading to the bridge; Wellgate to the wells from which the town obtained its supply of water; Westgate, leading to the West; and Jesus Gate, to the College of Jesus. » next
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