Local Hamlets Part Three - Almholme

White House Farm at Almholme

Almholme

There are many hamlets in the north Doncaster area, mostly made up of farming communities. They usually consist of a few farms and maybe a few houses, but usually there are no public amenities and are often without a bus service. 

Arksey has four satellite hamlets, Shaftholme, Tilts, Almholme and Stockbridge. All these places came under the enumeration district of Bentley-with-Arksey, along with some others which satellite Bentley.

This third in a series of four articles focuses on Almholme; Shaftholme being part one, while Tilts is part two, and Stockbridge is part four, see bottom of page for links.

Contents

• Locating Almholme
• Old Roads and Old Maps
• Early History
• Early Inhabitants
• Notable People and Families
• Robert Cooke
• John Revell
• Richard Adwicke Gent.
• The Addeman Family
• The Crawshaw Family
• Properties and Later Inhabitants
• Census Returns
• Electoral Registers
• The Massarella Family

Locating Almholme

Almholme aerial view, Google Earth

Almholme lies just over a mile north east of Arksey, and can be reached by leaving Arksey via Almholme Lane and following its entire length up and into Almholme. The main road past Almholme is called Fordstead Lane, which leads to the Lift Bridge at the edge of Barnby Dun.

Almholme consists of a triangle of lanes, two of which are called Almholme Lane. They join up with Common Lane which heads south east out of the hamlet.

Common Lane eventually leads back to Arksey and also joins up with other straight lanes across Arksey Ings. These lanes were set out at the time of Enclosure in 1759.

For more on the Acts of Enclosure go to A Brief History of Arksey - Part One.

Modern map showing Almholme in relation to its surroundings

Old Roads and Old Maps

Map of Almholme 1854

Comparing this 1854 map (above) with the modern aerial photo (also above) shows that little has changed in the past 160 years, in fact, the village seems to have stood still in all that time. With the exception of the odd modern farm building and alterations to some properties, Almholme still retains its charm of yesteryear.

More apparent are the changes in road layouts around Almholme. For instance, it used to be quite a long journey to reach Barnby Dun from Almholme as Fordstead Lane didn't exist until the 1950's.

Almholme to Barnby Dun route c.1895

This 1895 map (above) shows the possible* route you had to take to reach Barnby Dun (in red). Using the old 'Enclosure' lanes, the route passed close to the River Don before crossing Grumble Hurst Drain via Grumble Hurst Bridge, then headed north east to the swing bridge at Barnby Dun. 

Almholme to Barnby Dun route c.1961

By 1959 Fordstead Lane had been built, so there now existed a more direct route to Barnby Dun (in red, above) which crossed fields to the north of Almholme.

The roads (or lanes) to Arksey and Shaftholme were more straightforward. Almholme Lane is still the main thoroughfare between Arksey and Almholme, and of course Shaftholme could be reached via Arksey too, but there was also a more direct route.

Almhome to Arksey and Shaftholme c.1895

Shaftholme could be reached by taking Carr Gap Lane and Riddings Lane, which looped round the edges of several fields. The lane is still there today, the full length of it now being called The Balk, and used by farm vehicles only.

*This is my interpretation of the route only, if you know better please get in touch.

Early History

Almholme is one of several hamlets north of the old manor of Bentley with Arksey which lie in previously uninhabited marsh lands.

Better drainage came with land reclamation and woodland clearances, allowing small islands to be settled in the medieval period. Among these islands was Almholme.

Almholme first appears in the Yorkshire Deeds (a land registry) in 1232 where it is recorded as Almholm. This name, like many others in the area went through many transitions before ending up as the Almholme we know today.

The name is derived from almr, holmr, and means 'Water-meadow growing with elms'.

As with other place names in the vicinity Almholme is recorded over time with a variety of spelling variations, such as:

• Almholm (e) - 1232 -7, 1535, 1595
• Almeholm (e) - 1232 - 7, 1453, 1551
• Albeholm - 1285
• Tomholm - 1379
• Awmholme - 1575
• Allneholmes - 1672

Early Inhabitants

It is unclear how many properties existed in Almholme in the early years, however it is possible to get some idea of how many families lived there in the latter half of the sixteenth century from the parish records.

Almholme people attended Arksey church for their regular services and it was also the church they were baptised, married in and buried at.

1569 is the year when place-names were first included in the entries for burials; and along with baptism entries from 1590, a picture of the inhabitants of Almholme can be gained. The surnames with one or more entries in the parish registers between 1569 and 1600 are as follows:

• Bradford
• Burton
• Cottingham (a servant in the Saile household)
• Crawshey (later 'Crawshaw')
• Crowser
• Healey
• Mascall
• Mawger
• Ranie
• Sayle (Saile)
• Ussher (Usher)
• Walker
• Whitacres (Whitaker)

From this list we can determine that there were about a dozen households which compares favourably with the Hearth Tax records of 1672, which lists eleven properties.

Notable People and Families

Despite the tiny size of Almholme it did have its share of interesting people and families. Whether through links to interesting historic events, noble families, or just long associations with the place, they are worth noting here.

Robert Cooke

Although almost nothing is known about Robert Cooke himself, he is the first recorded ancestor of the Cooke Baronets of Wheatley. 

Whether Robert was born at Almholme or not is not recorded, but he did live in the hamlet in the fifteenth century. His son Edward set up home at Arksey Hall and was Mayor of Doncaster between 1504 and 1508. Edward had two sons, William and Lawrence.

Lawrence Cooke became head of the Carmelite Priory in Doncaster and was famously embroiled in the Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536, which ultimately led to his imprisonment in the Tower of London and execution at Tyburn in 1540.  

William Cooke remained in the Doncaster area, and it was his Grandson Bryan Cooke Esq. who after being fined heavily in 1647 for supporting the Royalist cause in the Civil War, was eventually pardoned. His son George was awarded a baronetcy in 1661 for his father's loyalty to the crown. It was George Cooke who built the Almshouses and Endowed School in Arksey, and also bought the manor of Wheatley.  

The Cooke family arms

  

For more on the Cooke family go to Cooke Family History.

For more on the Pilgimage of Grace go to At The Foot Of The Bridge on sister site Bentley Village, A History.

John Revell

John Revell found himself in trouble during the Civil War. Originally of Arksey, Revell rented a dwelling house and land in Almholme from Sir Thomas Ingram, Kt. in the 1640's.

In 1646, while living at Almholme he found himself up before a Parliamentary Committee accused of raising forces against Parliament. He was charged with taking it upon himself to be a chief constable, contrary to order of law. It is said he then used his 'powers' to force men into battle. He also executed several warrants for raising money, provisions and arms against Parliament.

Revell took an 'oath of covenant', pledging not to take up arms against Parliament again, but was seized of lands in Aston and Norton, Derbyshire, and also of his wife's lands in Castleford. He was also fined £96.

It is very likely that Revell had his lands returned to him at the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660.

Richard Adwicke Gent.

The name 'Adwicke' first occurs in Arksey in 1252. This Adwicke was described as an 'outlander', coming from 'somewhere else'. 

Between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries Adwickes established themselves as tenant farmers in the Arksey area, but also as far away as Tickhill and Beverley. 

By the 1600's the Adwickes were regarded as minor gentry. Richard Adwicke of Almholme (1632 - 1672) being one such member of the Adwicke family to be regarded as a 'Gentleman'. Richard was a Yeoman farmer, meaning he owned the land he farmed. He was married to Elizabeth Bright of Sheffield in 1655 and they had seven children, the last one being born just two months after Richard's death. 

There were a few other branches of the Adwicke family scattered across the Arksey and Bentley areas, but trying to understand all the relationships is quite impossible from parish registers alone. 

Just on a parting note from this story though, there was a John Adwicke of Arksey who's daughter Theodosia (1669 - 1714) married Robert Seaton (1638 - 1716) in 1669. He built Grimethorpe Hall in 1670 for their family home. The Hall, on Brierley Road, Grimethope still stands. Although derelict, there is an ongoing campaign to save the building from being demolished.

For more on Grimethorpe Hall go to Save Grimethorpe Hall.

350 year old Grimethorpe Hall near Barnsley

The Addeman Family

The Addeman family (sometimes spelled Addiman) arrived in Almholme around 1626 with the arrival of Peter and Elizabeth Addiman. This farming family produced an impressive line of descendants who would go on to populate Shaftholme, Arksey and Bentley. 

The Almholme Addemans remained in the village until the 1840's, after which the entire family left the country for a new life in Ontario, Canada.

A genealogical history of the Almholme Addemans, including a family tree is available on request. Email arkvillhistory@yahoo.co.uk or use the contact form.

The Crawshaw Family

Crawshaws have lived in the Arksey area for centuries. They first appear as far back as the 1560's in the parish registers.

The greatest concentration of them seems to have been in Almholme where they were Yeoman farmers. 

The family is too complex to trace a full history of them, but one gravestone in Arksey churchyard tells a tragic story of one branch of the Almholme Crawshaws.

Grave of Robert and Ann Crawshaw's children

Robert and Ann Crawshaw lived in Almholme in the mid to late 1700's. Robert was a Yeoman farmer of some importance and regarded locally as a 'Gentleman'. 

He was born in Almholme in 1743 to another Yeoman farmer, Daniel Crawshaw and his wife Jane Tirwhitt (the Tirwhitt's being an important farming family in the area too).

Robert married his wife Ann Holme in Campsall on the 23rd of April 1776 and they made their home in Almholme.

The couple had eight children: 

1. Ann b.1777
2. Robert b.1778
3. Jane b.1780
4. Mary b.1783
5. Elizabeth b.1784
6. Sarah b.1787
7. Ann b.1789
8. Daniel b.1798

The year 1784 was a very tough year for the family as they suddenly lost their three eldest children in the same month of that year.

First to be taken was Ann on the fourth of June; she is aged at three years on the grave but as the only baptism listed for Ann is in 1777, it would suggest she was actually seven years old.

The next to be taken was Jane, who died on the tenth of June, she was five years old.

Nine days later, on the nineteenth of June their son Robert also died, aged seven.

What disease took these children so quickly can only be guessed at. Nothing is listed in the parish registers and there doesn't seem to be a high mortality rate among the population at that time, which might have suggested an outbreak of cholera for instance. Whether it was smallpox, whooping cough or some other childhood disease, it was a miracle that their baby sister Mary, who was around eighteen months old at the time, was spared.

The tragedy didn't end there for the family; six years later in 1800, their daughter Elizabeth died on the sixth of June of consumption, she was fifteen years old. Then just two years later, the couple's only surviving son Daniel died of unknown cause on May the eighteenth, he was eight years old.

In the space of eight years Robert and Ann had lost five of their eight children. The three surviving girls, Mary, Sarah and the second Ann (names were often re-used following the death of an older child), all went on to marry and probably have children of their own.

Robert Crawshaw died on the third of August 1799 at the age of fifty five. His widow Ann lived to the great age of ninety three, dying on the twelfth of April 1840.

The Crawshaw graves are to be found by the vicar's door at Arksey church (see below). There are three attributed to the Crawshaws and one to Nathan Workman who was related to them through marriage.   

Three of the above are Crawshaw graves

Properties and Later Inhabitants

Census Returns

The census returns give a real insight into the population of Almholme. Beginning in 1841 you get a real sense of just how many households there were, the family dynamics and the occupations of everyone living there.

1891 census of Almholme

Throughout most of the nineteenth century there were up to sixteen properties occupied at each census. It is quite tricky to work out from the census forms, but it appears that there were up to four farms in Almholme, all employing farm hands and servants. A number of cottages provided accommodation for the farm workers and their families.

Population numbers varied little during this time, mostly there were between sixty and seventy individuals (including children) resident in the village, rising to eighty five in 1861. By 1911 numbers were steady at seventy four.

Being a farming community the majority of occupations from 1841 to 1911 were as you would expect, farm related. From agricultural labourers to dairy maids, to handlers of livestock, they made up the backbone of the community. Some other occupations reflected other industry in the area too, like brick making, coal mining and the railways. Children were mostly classed as 'scholars' and would have walked the mile into Arksey every day for their lessons at the Endowed School.

Electoral Registers

1945 electoral register for Bentley with Arksey

To find out about Almholme residents after 1911, which was the last census to be released, we have to look at the electoral registers. These are useful as the properties listed are mostly named (from 1945 on), so we can determine who lived in each property. Unlike the census records though, it is impossible to count the population as a whole because children are not included, only those of voting age were named.

Below is an example of the properties and residents named in the 1945 electoral register:

Low Farm - Walter, Gertrude and Raymond Poskitt 

White House Farm - John, Mary, Alma and William Nicholson 

Almholme Cottage - Fred, Margaret and Harriet Undy

Farm Cottage - William and Winifred Abbott 

Almholme Grange - John and Elizabeth Massarella, also  Tom and Annie Rushworth

Farm Cottage - Florence Mack, also Margaret Walker

Those in un-named properties are as follows:

George Hewitt 

Elizabeth Wadsworth  

George H, Laura and George Senior

This 1904 map shows the locations of each farm

A few of the residents changed over the years, but many remained. Here is a list of residents in the last electoral register available to view online, that of 1962.

Low Farm - Frederick and Norah Taylor 

White House Farm - Stephen and Doris Dusi 

White Cottage, Fred and Harriet Undy 

Almholme Grange - John, Elizabeth and Penelope

Massarella, also John Doyle

Farm Cottage - Lilian Haigh

Farm Cottage - Charles and Margaret Balmforth 

Farm Cottage - Richard and Shirley Elden 

Almholme House - Arthur, Amy, Arthur and Jean Annis 

Farm Cottage - Joseph, William and Winifred Abbott

And in the un-named properties:

George Hewitt

Elizabeth Wadsworth

White House Farm and Cottages c.1950's

The photo above shows White House Farm in the 1950's. Adjacent to the farm were the Farm Cottages (as listed above). The photo was kindly donated by Russell Haigh whose Grandparents, Ernest and Lilian lived in one of the cottages.

 

Almholme House

The Massarella Family

Those with a sharp eye may have noticed the Massarella name among the above registers of electors. This Doncaster family famed for their ice cream first came to the UK from Italy in 1864. 

One branch of the family lived in Bentley where the ice cream business was based, while others lived in Almholme.

Massarella's ice cream vans in the 1960's

Andrew and Dorothy Massarella lived at Low Farm during the late 1940's and early 1950's, while John and Elizabeth Massarella (relationship to Andrew unestablished) lived at Almholme Grange.

Low Farm

Almholm Grange (part of)

It was John who owned the champion show-jumper Mister Softee, famously ridden by David Broome in the 1960's. 

Mister Softee was stabled at Almholme where he lived with his best friend, a donkey, and was a magnet for the local children who liked to feed him some grass or a carrot or two.

David Broome competing on Mister Softee at the 1968 Mexico Olympics where they won bronze

For more on Mister Softee go to The Ice Cream Horse.

For more on Massarella's ice cream business go to The Godfathers of Ice Cream on sister site Bentley Village, A History.

__________

For part one on Shaftholme go to Local Hamlets Part One - Shaftholme.

For part two on Tilts go to Local Hamlets Part Two - Tilts.

For part four on Stockbridge go to Local Hamlets Part Four - Stockbridge.

Alison Vainlo 

Written 2017, updated 2020