Currently my thesis plan contains outlines for a number of Case Studies of the townships around Barnsley comparing how they proposed, planned and funded their war memorials - and one of those studies might be about Darfield if I can find out more about their war memorials. I did want to at least mention ALL the war memorials I know about in each place, but finding out the background of some of them has been less than easy. When examining local history you can't help but realise that people were not only members of their town or village community but also of communities within them, extended families, schools, places of work and of worship, clubs and pubs, sports teams or political organisations. Each of those places may have planned their own memorial(s).
The main First World War memorial in the church at Darfield is not a problem, as I have seen some archival documents relating to the application for permission to erect the memorial in the church. Its unveiling and dedication, along with a good description of the materials used in its design appear in several old newspaper reports.
 |
| Darfield All Saints Church, War Memorial Tablet - unveiled 1921 Photo taken 10 March 2014 by Linda Hutton |
Also in the church, and mentioned in the local newspapers, are some other FWW memorials, a processional cross dedicated to the Bible Class and memorial plaques for two individual men, Charles M. C. Sorby (the vicar's son, who also has a stained glass window in his memory) and Eric F. H. Taylor (the local landowner's son), plus a stained glass 'Thanksgiving' window subscribed to by 'Members of the Mothers' Union and other Parishioners' in order to commemorate the safe return of 'those from this parish' from the war. (Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express (PSHE), 13 January 1923, p. 7.) We even found a war memorial table in the church hall with a little plaque commemorating a single man killed in the war. All of these memorials are recorded on the Barnsley & District War Memorials website with photos taken by myself, my husband or by members of the Darfield History Society. There is also a good section on these war memorials in the book, Darfield Remembers: The First World War (Darfield History Society, 2016) written by Michael Smith and Kay Valentine for the Darfield History Society.
The Darfield Cenotaph in the Miners' Welfare Square (a little park laid out in the 1920s with money from the Miners' Welfare Scheme) was unveiled on 5 July 1930. (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 7 July 1930, p. 3.) This was a few years later than the others had appeared and I hope to explain more about that in my thesis, as the ins and outs of that are all quite well documented in the local newspapers. But I do still hope to find local primary sources, maybe council records or even (if I am really lucky) the minutes of the local British Legion who eventually facilitated it. The history of this memorial is also summarised in the Darfield Remembers book.
The following chronological selection of map snips are taken from the Old Maps website.
 |
| Darfield High Street, showing the place where the Cenotaph was eventually installed From left to right: 1892, 1906, 1930, 1962 |
In the fourth and final snip, which is from 1962, the 'War Mem' has appeared in the centre of the park laid out some years previously (and is visible in the 1930 snip). One of the newspapers reports had noted, 'It was not that there was no place in Darfield for a war memorial. [...] When the miners' welfare scheme was opened in 1923, it was suggested that the ornamental garden opposite the council offices would make an ideal site for a war memorial, and the central portion was reserved for that purpose'. (Sheffield Independent, 24 November 1928, p. 10.)
What I am having more trouble with is the various clubs in the village and their memorials and a niggling feeling that the Methodist Chapels in Darfield would probably have also had their own war memorials based on what we know about other places in Barnsley such as Cudworth (where I live) which had two Methodist Churches, both with memorials.
The most impressive of the other memorials is in Darfield Village Club. When we went to photograph it back in 2014 we found it was in a very narrow corridor and impossible to capture straight on. My husband took lots of oblique photos and photographs of each of the individual men close up. I did manage to edit one of the photos and get it fairly straight, using Adobe Photoshop, and posted that onto the Barnsley War Memorials Project website (now Barnsley & District War Memorials). I created a gallery of the individual images (split into two sections) and put links to them on the post as well. Just a few months later a local lady, JD, got in touch with me to say that a gentleman she knew had been able to tell her more about the Village Club memorial. It seems that the one in the club now is not the original - which is, instead, in the Maurice Dobson Museum & Heritage Centre in Darfield. It had become damaged so a new memorial was created and when the museum opened the old memorial was donated. JD was able to send me a small photo with permission from the museum.
 |
| Darfield Village W.M.C. & District Roll of Honour Left: the original Roll of Honour. Right: the current Roll of Honour |
As you can see, there is a resemblance. The title looks as if it has been carefully copied, although there is one flag rather than a collection between the lines. The images are laid out on foliage rather than poppies, and in a decorative pattern rather than lines. JDs photo (on the left) is quite small and I can't tell whether the photos are any clearer on the original than on the newer version. I wonder if the poppies are a clue that the replacement was made in the time of the British Legion in the building. Poppies were particularly connected with the Earl Haig Fund after 1921 and later with the British Legion. I also wonder if the men who lost their lives are grouped on the first version, the individual images are arranged differently. This was often a feature of Rolls of Honour created after the war, the dead would be shown in a separate section or highlighted in some way to differentiate them from the men who returned.
The building now known as the Darfield Village Club changed hands and names several times in the 20th century. It appears that there was a group meeting somewhere else using that name before the current building was erected.
My newspaper research has shown that there were at least two Working Men's Clubs in Darfield. In April 1903 the Darfield Working Men's Club had bought a property in Darfield known as the Post Office which consisted of a shop and a house along with 723 square yards of land. (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 28 April 1903, p.11.) Only a few days later, in what the newspaper called an 'amusing action', Darfield Village Working Men's Club were taken to court by the Great Central Railway Company because a barrel of beer had been delivered to them by mistake when it should have gone to the Darfield Club in Low Valley. By the time the mistake was discovered two days later the good people at the Village Club had 'supped' the beer and refused to pay for it saying that they thought it had been a gift from Smith's Tadcaster Brewery Co. connected to the Coronation. They had even written a letter of thanks to the Brewery and placed an order for more beer. The verdict went against the Club who were directed to pay for the beer. (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 9 May 1903, p. 12.)
As the Coronation of Edward VII was on 9 August 1902 this incident must have referred to a previous property owned by the Darfield Village Club.
In 1911 it was reported that building had commenced on the site of the old Darfield Post Office on behalf of the Darfield Village Working Men's Club. (Barnsley Chronicle, 15 April 1911, p. 8.) They must still have been meeting somewhere else as in July 1911 they were reported as holding elections for their committee at their club. (Barnsley Chronicle, 15 July 1911, p. 8.) The current building couldn't have been built in just three months, could it? I haven't found a report on the opening of the new club.
 |
| Darfield Village Club from Google Maps with the Maurice Dobson Museum in the left background |
There is a date stone at the very top of the front facade - 1911.
The following chronological selection of map snips are taken from the Old Maps website.
 |
| Showing the site of the Darfield Village Club From left to right: 1892, 1906, 1930, 1962 |
In the first map section from 1892 a Post Office is indicated with P.O. although its location is not very precise. In the next snip, from 1906, the P.O. has gone but although there don't appear to be any changes in the buildings in the centre of the snip, a row of terraced houses has appeared centre towards the top. In the third snip, from 1930, a Club has appeared in the previously empty ground in the centre of the area shown adjacent to the terraced houses. In the final snip, from 1962, this building is labelled 'British Legion Club' and the area to the south of it has been cleared of buildings. That is the area which is now a car park.
 |
| MST, 7 January 1927, p. 4. |
Only 16 years after the building of the new club was reported something drastic must have happened because in 1927 the building and all of the fixtures, fittings, furnishings and trade utensils of the Darfield Village Club were put up for sale. (Mexborough & Swinton Times (MST), 7 January 1927, p. 4.)
Maybe the club had been over-ambitious with their new building and after the war and going into the depression of the 1920s they just couldn't keep it going as it was.
Everything was put up for sale, even (oddly to my eyes) the 'upholstered and 3-ply seating throughout the club', possibly the seating which was 'built-in' to the club, and which appeared listed separately to the tables and chairs and stools in the bar, along with a large bookcase containing 416 books, a baby grand piano and two full sized mahogany billiard tables. All the items needed to run a club or pub are included, beer pumps, pint and half pint glasses and mugs, pewter measures and spirit kegs.
There is no mention of any pictures or framed items that might have been the Roll of Honour, so we can only assume that was taken out for safe-keeping.
The sale was to be on 20 January 1927 'on the premises', that is, actually in the club.
 |
| PSHE, 15 January 1927, p. 4. |
I can see that the same or similar advertisements appeared in the Sheffield and Barnsley newspapers. The one on the right here is from the Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express (PSHE) on 15 January 1927, p. 4.
There is a vast amount of detail given here, on the ground floor there was an Entrance Hall, Games Room, Snug, large Billiards Hall, Bar and Lavatories, and on the first floor: Club Room, Secretary's Office, Bath Room with hot and cold water, and Lavatories.
There was also living accomodation adjoining, but built of stone - so could that have been some of the older buildings which were later cleared away?
I have not found any reports of the result of the sales, yet ... but ...
On 8 August 1928 the building was officially opened as the Darfield British Legion Club by Lord Lascelles, husband of Princess Mary. (PSHE, 11 August 1928, p. 5.) According to a report in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph the Darfield Branch had been formed twelve months previously and already had 300 members. (13 July 1928, p. 3.)
The article I referred to earlier, from the Sheffield Independent, 24 November 1928, which mentions the little park, and which was printed just a few months after the British Legion took over their new premises, commented that now the Legion had a fine, well equipped club, 'that the question of a war memorial ought ... to come next'. It is odd how the reporter omits to mention that there was already a memorial, with the local men's names listed upon it, in the church. As we have seen, the Darfield Cenotaph was unveiled in July 1930, so it didn't take very much longer to finally bring that particular project to its conclusion.
So I have several questions:
Where were the Darfield Working Men's Club (as opposed to the Low Valley Darfield Club) who bought the Post Office site meeting before the grand 1911 building was completed?
What about the club on Snape Hill that is mentioned a few times? Any connections?
Why was the Village Club and all its fittings and fixtures sold in 1927?
Where had the Darfield British Legion been meeting for the twelve months prior to the opening of their new club?
Who was in the British Legion committee and did they have any connection to the Village Club?
AND mainly ...
When was that original Roll of Honour created and hung in the Darfield Village Club?
That will be for another day.
Thanks for reading.