The Place and It's People

Maltby is a former mining town and civil parish of 16, 856 inhabitants in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It was, historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire and is located about 6 miles (10km) east of Rotherham town centre and 10 miles (16km) north-east of Sheffield city centre. It forms a continuous urban area with Hellaby, separated from the rest of Rotherham by the M18 motorway ... ...

So goes the information that we usually get when we look up references to Maltby in books and more often on Google and other sources on the Internet.
"We"of course, know this as we are the inhabitants of the place or at some point in our lives we have been. These pages are about the other information about Maltby that is more personal to us - the experiences we have had and the memories that we still have of the place and it's people, with a little bit of history to accompany them.
For some of us the history of Maltby is embedded into our lives in all that we do and for others, it is a learning experience that is for ever ongoing. Going back to our 'roots' is something that we all feel the need for at some time and in doing so we can keep connected with the past and prepare for the future.

The extent of the changes that have occurred in the world in the last 100 years never fail to amaze me. Technology, industry and population continue to increase at what seems sometimes to be alarming speeds. "Blink and you have missed it" is true in many situations. Majority of the changes have been for the better, but it is good for us to know how our parents, grandparents and great grandparents lived.

In 1911, for example out of every 1 000 babies born, 130 died before reaching their first birthday. About one death in every four in the whole population was of an infant before its first birthday.
Life was short compared to today with infectious diseases being the main cause of death. Life expectancy at birth in 1911 was 49 years for men and 53 years for women. Almost impossible to believe when today we are such young things at those ages !

In Maltby the changes have been as extensive as anywhere else.

In 1953 the population had risen to 13,000 with 3,340 houses.

In 1908 the population was about 900, with only 300 to 400 houses.

A plan of Maltby as it was in 1853 shows how extensively the land use changed with the coming of the industrial revolution, much of the land being pasture, common land and meadow before this.

The shoemaker, the ropemaker, the blacksmith, the wheelwright and many others have long since gone from the town. Even the Swan Inn is no longer a public house. 

There are still some parts of Maltby that are the same as they have been for a couple of hundred years, though they are becoming fewer with the building of more houses to accommodate us. 

Who knows what this will be in another hundred years time. But at least we have a record of it as it is now before any further changes.

Eunice Winstanley Davies remembers ...

Hello, I think my mother's family were instrumental in starting the fish and chip businesses in 

Maltby. 


My grandfather brought his family to Maltby in the early 1900's. He came to work at the pit as a  
deputy but he also started a fish and chip shop in Morrel street called J Eyre & sons. 


My mother and his sons worked in this shop. She later started Manor Road Fisheries and 

she was then Evelyn Winstanley. She taught her son Jack Woolhouse the business and he took 

over Manor Road Fisheries.

She also taught her step children Lawrence Winstanley who had bought the chip shop on 


Morrel street and Dorothy Pugh who had a chip shop on Cliff Hills and the one on Rotherham 


Road opposite the grammar school.



At one time Jack owned 4 chip shops being 3 in Maltby and one in Rotherham area.



My mother had very interesting life. Her father Joe Eyre was a bit of a tyrant and she went into

 "service" to get away from home. She worked at Sandbeck and at the Queens and later on in

 Bournemoth and Blackpool. 


She was married and widowed 3 times and had to support herself and her children. 

When she married my dad Tom Winstanley he had 5 children and she had 2. 

She had compensation money from the pit for the death of her 2nd husband and she set my dad

 up in business buying and selling cars until they had enough money to have the Manor Road

 Fisheries built. 


I was the only child of their marriage and grew up in the fish shop. Those were happy days and

I look back on them with great fondness. 


I didn't know what I wanted to do when I left school, so I tried Byfords and only lasted

 two weeks. Then I worked at our shop for while and wanted something different so went and

got a job at the toy shop called Heaths in Maltby. 

My other half sister called Dorothy had emigrated to South Africa and came home for a nine 

month working holiday. She and her husband persuaded my parents and his parents to allow 

his sister and me to return with them to South Africa as they said we were both spoilt and they

 were going to get us right! 

Well, we came by ship and had a wonderful trip and landed in Cape Town and then travelled 

by road to Johannesburg a very long journey to this dusty city with gold mine dumps and sky 

scrapers and wondered what we had come to. 

We didn't like it and were very homesick but we both got jobs and both eventually met our 

husbands. The weather was great, a lot of outdoors life and tennis 

and going away for weekends to resorts with cottages with thatched roofs and game reserves 

and lots of swimming . So we had a very different lifestyle. 


We both married and never went back to England for years - because we couldn't afford it.


(Photos to follow)

Local Businesses - Byfords

There have been many local businesses over the years that many of us have fond memories of. A few are still with us in Maltby - Lawrence Bros, Saunders Butchers, Pete's Garage (now Manor Nurseries) and Bowyers which has sadly just closed this year.

I  realised that of course when you ask the question "Which businesses have been in Maltby for a long time"  you obviously get varying answers depending on the age of the person you are asking. So different places are remembered by different people from different times.

But one business that is remembered is Byfords, which was situated where the new Police Station is now. 

Donald Byford opened his own business in 1919 in Leicester. By 1922, his sock business was flourishing and by 1951 he branched out into manufacturing knitwear. We are still tryng to find out the date that Byfords came to Maltby, but by this time it was well known for "men's sweaters and knitted shirts".

Many Maltby people worked in  Byfords and almost everyone's mother, father, aunt, uncle, grandparent or friend worked there at some time or other, often whole families at once. Some left to work elsewhere over the years and returned later. One lady worked on the press for thirty years and never had a day off.

These were the days when you could leave one job and walk into another - unlike today.

Jobs at Byfords were in the Yarn Store, handfinishing, Press, Rib Knitter, Seamer and of course Supervisor. There were also mechanics working there as obviously the machines needed maintaining.

Jack Marriott worked at Byford in Leicester before transferring to Maltby in late 60's.

Doreen Raynor's first job was working as a shorthand/ty[ist in the Personnel Office of D.Byford &Son when the Personnel Officer was Mrs Allen. She started there in 1955 when she was 17 years old on £3 5s a week. By the time she had paid out expenses she was left with only about 10s for herself. Some of Doreen's friends who were working in the factory on piece work could earn as much as £12. 

There were 2 shifts - days and afters - and when  teams joined up on long days they had such fun that it didn't feel like going to work. Am not sure if the Supervisors saw it this way too ! 

Christmas parties were loved by everyone, especially the children, and many remember going and having a great time.

Janet Richardson Miles' daughter remembers her mother telling her a sad story about their team coach on a night out being involved in an accident with a mini on the motorway. Not all memories are fond ones and the tragic things we usually remember more easily.

But in general, Byfords will go down in history as a good employer of Maltby people and one where work was a pleasure to go to. 

http://www.byford.com/