September has been a busy month for us! Not only have we worked on the Union Jack Garden at Wentworth Castle Gardens, but we also hosted our annual Heritage Open Days weekend!
On Friday 13th and Saturday 14th September, we opened the Community Hub (chapel) doors and showed off all of our research and information. This year, to fit the theme of 'Routes, Networks & Connections', we had displays of information all about the street names of Wombwell and where, or who, they came from; we covered the forgotten train station of Station Road; researched the trams and buses that once rumbled through the High Street; and even took a look at the Wombwell Main Junction box that is sadly no more.
Our street names are something that a lot of people overlook, but it's fascinating to know where the names came from. A lot of them were named after people who are buried at Wombwell Cemetery, who made Wombwell the place it is today. Some have interesting stories behind them, such as Stonyford Road, named after a stony ford of all things. Situated in between Wombwell and Darfield, before Wombwell Cemetery was a thing, funeral hearses would stop at this stony ford with their Wombwellian passengers and salute before venturing to Darfield on their final journey. Whereas Kelvin Grove is believed to have been named by a builder who liked the song 'Kelvin Grove'.
I won't go into the history behind the buses, trams, and trains as there's far too much! But if you want to know anything at all, drop us an email. We have all of the information we researched stored on file and would be happy to share.
At the event itself, we had an array of guests, new and old faces alike. Faces we'd never met, but had chatted to via email over five years ago, and faces we see daily as we patrol the cemetery on our evening walks (usually with a dog each!) And to top it off, we had absolutely gorgeous weather, and we managed to fundraise quite a bit for the group which is always a bonus! Thank you to everybody that came to support our event and the group, and to Mrs Hudson's for being open at lunch and having some gorgeous cakes on sale!
We didn't actually take any photos of the event as we were in the midst of it all, but we did create a little promotional video for TikTok. Check it out below and give us a follow if you're over there.
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