The Great War. For some years before the War the Germans had been quietly buying up essential and pivotal business concerns in various parts of our county and country, and had they continued the like course five and twenty years longer we should have been as fast bound as Prometheus was to the rock. Fortunately, they were in too big a hurry, and ran, and fell, and great was their fall. We should, however, have hardly expected to find their penetration working in a quiet district like Scrooby, yet such was the case. In February, 1914, six months before the war, a statement appeared in the newspapers that one of the new collieries to be sunk in the South Yorkshire Coalfield, (though the actual site itself is over the Nottinghamshire border) was to be practically a German undertaking, and that the contracts for all the machinery, costing £200,000, had been let to a German firm at Essen. It was also stated that the capital to finance the scheme was being largely subscribed in Germany. That notice referred to the colliery to be sunk in Harworth, the parish adjoining Scrooby on its western side. Here then was German money, management, machinery, markets, influence, coming right into our midst, and for what ultimate purpose? Now, thank God ! the purpose has been frustrated, and Harworth Colliery has been acquired by Messrs. Barber, Walker & Co. Ltd., of Eastwood Collieries, and is now an all British enterprise.
"The awful tragedy, a world convulsed,
A struggle herculean, the like the world Hath never seen,
and never shall again."A.W. Crampton.
In the War. According to the Roll of Honour, thirty-three men and boys went to the War from Scrooby, of whom four were killed. The proportion of men who joined the forces was very large, and indicates the public spirit shewn, involving, as it must have done, much dislocation of the ordinary farming routine, and much family anxiety for the safety and welfare of the brave lads who went and risked their all to save their country, and let us thank God that it was saved, for life would not have been worth living had Germany conquered. Gratitude is, however, insufficient for the occasion. The enormous losses sustained of life and limb demand our sympathy. The huge debts incurred call for economy, hard work, and active co-operation in order to recover our national finances. Our personal advantage should for the time being be made subordinate to the public good.
It is scarcely necessary to say that all values and conveniences were by the War completely revolutionized. The selling price of corn, hay, roots, horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, fowls, fruit; the cost of all domestic and business requisites; the wages of labourers and servants; the scarcity of labour; the impossibility of obtaining many articles at any price; the rationing of food; the interference with the cultivation of land; the control of the railways by the Government; the limitation of all vehicular traffic; the extinguishment of lights at night; the special constables; the introduction of German prisoners; the use of mansions as hospitals; and many other wondrous changes have occurred, and not all for the best.
Hay Dump. A remarkable feature introduced by the War was the Hay Dump. Farmers were put on rations in regard to the hay they required and retained to be used for their cattle, and all the rest was commandeered by the Government for the Army, at fixed prices. It was then trussed, compressed, put on rails, and sent from all parts within a certain range to the Dump at the north of Scrooby, called the Bawtry Dump. The Dump adjoined the branch line passing from the main G.N. Railway to the New Pits of Messrs. Barber, Walker & Co., at Harworth. Unfortunately, sparks from some of the engines passing set fire to some of the hay, and it was said eighteen stacks, worth £7,500, were burnt. From the Dump, hay was sent either to seaports, to go thence to the seat of war, or to distant railway stations for the horses in war service.
The New Vicarate. The ideal state in the English village is for the squire and the parson to reside in the village, for this is in many ways helpful, but Scrooby has in this respect beenunfortunate. The Bishop of Southwell on the living becoming vacant in 1918 very properly decided to sever the connection with Sutton. The difficulty, however, was that the income belonging to Scrooby living was wretchedly small. Arrangements have been made whereby Viscount Galway, who is now the patron and principal landowner, joins Scrooby Church with the Chaplaincy of Serlby Hall, and the minimum stipend is to be £200 a year. 1920 marks the first appointment. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are lords of the manor. The Order in Council was dated October 23rd, 1918.
The English Village.The English Village is unlike the village in any other country. It may not be better, but it differs, and go to any other part of the world and you will not see its counterpart. Scrooby is a good example of our country villages. There is the parish church, built centuries ago by the piety of men long past, with its spire, like a finger pointing to the heavens, suggesting to men that there is something in life of higher importance than cows and crops, for man does not live by bread alone, while the sounding bells produce a response in the soul. There are the farmhouses and buildings, stackyards and orchards, cottages with honeysuckle and garden, the land divided by hedges into fields, in which a park-like grass abounds, and studded with trees—oak. ash, elm, sycamore, willow. Cows are grazing, and small flocks of sheep are grouped about; birds are everywhere, and their morning song cheers the lonely worker. The ploughman returns, the cows come home to be milked; the lambs, the pigs, the dogs, all join in an unnoticed chorus as the curling smoke from the cottage chimney dissolves with the changing clouds. It is a picture that settles on the brain of the lad who goes to the distant town, or emigrates to the foreign shore; but, far off, he mentally gazes on that scene, and when occasion offers he will spare no expense to return and look on the old home.
A Model Village. A large modern Colliery, such as Harworth, finds employment for something like four thousand to five thousand hands, and with such an influx of workers into what was hitherto a quiet rural area, will bring with it the necessity for extensive building. With this object in view, the Colliery Company has acquired three hundred and fifty acres of land at Plumtree, where fourteen hundred houses are to be built, and no doubt this number will be added to as the number of employees increases. Plumtree town is mentioned earlier in this paper as existing nearly 750 years ago, but that term referred to a group of cottages long since passed away, now apparently likely to be replaced by houses differing very greatly in number and quality.
Dates. A word of caution with regard to the dates of items relating to three hundred years ago is necessary. New Style, introduced since that time, makes a difference of ten or eleven days, and the year which commenced on March 25th occasioned events occurring before that day to be dated as if in the previous year.