The 1930s

Subjects in this section:
Doncaster/Stainforth area between the wars
What was it like, knowing that your parents had already fought "The war to end all wars", and yet another war was brewing in Europe?
Did the advancement of the German army throughout Europe cause any alarm to those living in the Doncaster area?
Who were the characters of Stainforth in the 1930's+1940's and Why?
Gala Day memories.
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1920s - 1930s

Prior to the sinking of Hatfield Main colliery, which took place between the cutting of the first sod in 1911 and the first production of coal in 1916, Stainforth had been a quiet little farming hamlet. The population of the village during the Great War was a little over one and a half thousand, but during the 1920s the village was "invaded" by itinerant labourers from all over the British Isles, seeking work at the new mine.

For the new inhabitants of Stainforth, who had left everything they had known behind in an attempt to secure a new life with a better standard of living, the upheaval must been terrifying. Many of these "invaders" had been young men who had left their families to cope alone, while they secured meagre lodgings and sought work at the mine.

By the early part of the 1920s the population had risen to over five thousand and the influx of people brought a demand and a need for modernisation. Prior to this time most of the people in Stainforth had drawn their water from communal wells, or even from the canal, and sanitation for most was just a hole in the ground. With the building of the new village a sewerage and fresh water system was installed and this was extended to the old village. For the first time ever the streets were lit at night with the implementation of electricity. Many of the families who came to Stainforth did so from mines which had shut in the north-east, or even further north, from across the Scottish border. To some, the new houses in Stainforth with their running water and electricity supplies, must have seemed like luxury beyond belief.

Unfortunately, the shadow of war once again loomed over the horizon of Europe. For those who were old enough to have survived the Great War, "the war to end all wars", the prospect of seeing their sons leave for the battlefields of Europe, as they themselves had done twenty years earlier, must have been a heart rending experience.

As most of the young men of Stainforth left to fight the German threat in far away lands, life in the village continued as normal. Apart from the obvious shortages of certain foods, the events unfolding in Europe had little effect on everyday life. Children from nearby Hull were evacuated and came to live with families in the village and air raid shelters were erected in many gardens around Stainforth, but these were soon accepted.
There were miners who remained to work at the colliery, (coal mining was considered an essential part of the war effort), and for most of the young boys leaving school at that time the colliery was their first experience of work.

It was shortly before Christmas in 1939 that the residents of Stainforth found out the Hitler wasn't the only threat to their men and boys. At 1.45pm on the 12th of December an appalling accident occurred at Hatfield colliery. During the shift change while men were being wound up the shaft and men on the following shift were being wound down, something caused the engine to overwind, making the downwards travelling cage crash into the pit bottom and the upward travelling cage to smash into the pit headgear. It hung there precariously, until the injured men could be cut free. Incredibly only one man lost his life but many of the men and boys involved suffered horrible injuries and amputations. Steve Nesbitt was only 14 years old when he was injured in the cage crash. See Hatfield Colliery 1939 or click here Steve Nesbitt 1939 to listen to Steve's recollection of the incident.

As the 1940s arrived, and while the Luftwaffe paid particular attention to Britain's cities and ports, life in Stainforth went on with more than a semblance of normality. People still went to the pubs to drink in the evenings and children went school, the insistence that they carry a gas mask the only clue that that there was any threat to them and their homeland. At the local sports stadium on Station Road, greyhound and whippet racing took place for the first time. Workers from other coal fields continued to arrive in Stainforth, joining their comrades in the mine to assist in the war effort.

Far to south, on the coast of England which overlooked the White Cliffs of Dover, a group was organising themselves into a force which could protect England against Hitler's forces which were amassing in France. The following year a call went out for men all over the country to form similar groups and the LDV (Local Defence Volunteers), later to be known as The Home Guard, came into existence.