Rawlings Yard

We recently were told about your web pages covering the above places.

We found the pages extremely interesting and very nostalgic; we would like to add a few more details.

Margaret's parents moved into No.13 in 1930. The house had gas lighting until the early 1950's when they paid for the installation of electricity. My wife Margaret lived in Bagnall terrace (No. 13) from her birth until 1956, when we married.

The back doors of the Terrace houses looked out onto Rawlings yard. The nearest part of which was known as the 'Pipe yard'.

The two houses at the top of Rawlings Yard looked down towards Stanley Road. One of the houses was occupied by a family called Dennison and before them by their grandfather, Mr. Stringer.

The narrow passage at the side of these two houses that linked Greenhill Road, through Rawlings yard, to Stanley Road was known as the 'The ginnel'. The surface of the Ginnel was made up with ashes, or similar, and following any heavy rain a deep little channels were formed; these channel made cycling or running down the Ginnel a very hairy experience- the cuts and bruises are still remembered.!!

The old houses in Rawlings Yard were pulled down in the 1930's. Once again cuts and bruises are remembered, all acquired when playing in the derelict houses.

My wife, Margaret, remembers one of your previous contributors, Necia Potter and also her parents' Radio shop. Margaret and Necia were friends, being of an age. Margaret recalls playing with Necia in the garden behind what was the Post Office on Stanley Road. The tree in the garden, Necia mentioned, is well remembered.

The Post Office was originally run by Mr S. Hardwick later assisted by Mr Thewlis. Mr Thewlis took over the Post Office presumably when Mr Hardwick retired. We believe that the Post Office moved in the early 1950's to a smaller shop on Stanley Road adjacent to Mr and Mrs Price's post-war new house.

BEST WISHES .............TONY THORP.

- Tony Thorp

Residents of Bagnall St & Terrace circa 1943

Hello Richard,

We have pondered , at length, to remember the residents of both addresses.

Bearing in mind both memory and nostalgia can play tricks, our best thoughts are as follows,

The Terrace:- numbered from 1 to 17, i.e 9 houses.

• No 1 ?;
• No 3 Mr & Mrs Hemmingway;
• No 5 ?;
• No 7 Mr & Mrs Snowden;
• No 9 Mr Farrer;
• No 11 Mr & Mrs Collins;
• No 13 Mr & Mrs Duce;
• No 15 Mrs Golding;
• No 17 Mr & Mrs Buckberry

The Street:-

• No 2 Mrs Davis;
• No 4 Mrs Wood;
• No 6 ?;
• No 8 Mr & Mrs Hardy;
• No 10 Mr & Mrs Hemmingway- we believe they may have been late 40's early 50's;
• No 12 Mr & Mrs Batley;
• No 14 Mr & Mrs Rowley.

The two houses at the top of Rawlings Yard originally belonged to a Mr Stringer. He later lived in the left hand house with a relative. Mr & Mrs Firth lived in the left hand house and Mr & Mrs Dennison lived in the right hand house.

The 1911 census records for Rawlings Yard, houses numbered 1 to 18 - I did not check the occupants' names.

We hope the foregoing is of help/interest/amusement etc !!

best wishes

Tony thorp

- Tony Thorp

Bagnall Street had 14 houses that is 7 each side, the odd numbered side was Bagnall Terrace and the even numbered side was Bagnall Street, it was not a through road as the back gardens of Greenhill Road cut across the top of the street, all the houses had 2 bedrooms and the outside toilets were in a row at the end of the terrace.

A compulsory purchase order was put on the street and everyone was rehoused into council houses, My mother lived at number 14 and she was the last one to leave when all the other houses were empty and I know this was in 1973, after that the street was demolished.

The city engineer may have taken photos of the street before demolition. (RB: Indeed the website www.twixtaireandcalder.org.uk (type "greenhill" in the search box) shows some old photographs of houses on Greenhill Road before they were demolished)

The picture on your website of Stanley Road with the Co-op and the bay windowed house, well Bagnall Sreet was just to the right of that up an unsurfaced road.

Bagnall Terrace was at the north side of Bagnall Street as shown on the 1914 map, there seems to be 9 houses on Bagnall Terrace but there was definitely only 7 on our side of the street being numbered 2 to number 14.

When my family lived in Bagnall street in the 1960s and early 70s the Co - Op store on Stanley Road was still there and just to the right of it was the Post Office then to the right of the Post Office was a big house with stone steps leading up to the front door and a bay window, the house had a long back garden with a high wall surrounding it and a big tree in the garden, this house was at the bottom left of the entrance to Bagnall Street and it is the only house which seems grand enough to be named Moor Villa. If you visit Wakefield you will see Kev's fish shop on Stanley Road and that is where Bagnall Street went up and the tree was still there but I don't know if it is now I will look next time I pass there.

I have been to the Rex Cinema many times and if you look on the 1914 map for the Butchers Arms public house which is still there today well the Rex Cinema now the Rex snooker hall was built just north of the Butchers Arms situated aprox the rectangle that is numbered 137-5.

The Post Office was to the left of Moor villa the postmaster Mr Thewlis lived in the big house and when you went in the Post Office the door bell rang and Mr Thewlis came out of a door inside the Post Office from the house down about 4 steps to serve you behind the old fashioned counter, this could have been the radio shop you mentioned but it was definitely attached to the house and the Co- Op was to the left of the Post Office I used to shop at the Eastmoor Co-Op and used the Eastmoor Post Office regularly.

I remember seeing 'Gone With The Wind' at the Rex Cinema, not on it's release may I add but a few years later when it was doing the rounds again.

You mention Rawling Yard I must say I have no recollection of it at all but I have a lot of books about Wakefield and I looked at the book'Aspects of Wakefield 3' because it has a list of all the yards in Wakefield and it said Rawling Yard location Greenhill Road and that's all.

You are right about Bagnall Street being the Easterley 7 block the other block of 6 houses had been demolished probably in the 1930's because there was a shop built there facing Stanley Road called Billy Price's it was a newsagent and barber's shop combined.

- Mary Hanscombe