SCULPTURE HOUSE FIREPLACE
22 FEBRUARY 2006
After
recently reading the Knottingley and Ferrybridge edition of the Digest, I
was prompted to inform you that I was living at Sculpture House when the
fireplace was removed. I would have been aged about seven at the time and
I am now 83 years old.
A
Mr. Tommy Sides, who at one time was Mayor of Pontefract, owned the house
and it was he who employed my father, Sydney Wise, at Carter’s brewery
in Knottingley, which gave us the opportunity to rent the house. My mother
informed me that the fireplace was sold by Mr. Sides to an American
gentleman and was shipped out there. I don’t know the address, but that
is what I understand to be the case. Mr. Roger Ellis’s grandmother was
quite right in her assumption.
It
may be of interest to know that my father came from Ripon and walked from
there to Byram Park Estate, seeking his father and brother who were
lumberjacks working for Sir John Ramsden who lived at Byram Hall. In his
search he was directed to Knottingley where he understood his father and
brother were lodging. He mistakenly knocked on the door at the household
of a young widow named Mary Wilcock who had three children. Sydney was
immediately smitten by Mary and so he decided to stay on in Knottingley
where he found work at Carter’s Brewery. He and Mary were eventually
married and I was their first-born child, followed by my sister Margaret
(Peggy).
During
his time at Carter’s, my father was sent to Goole to manage a public
house called, by strange coincidence, the Sydney Hotel, where he stayed
for a year. After his time at Carter’s, my father became a self-employed
coal merchant and the family moved from Knottingley to Sutton Lane,
Brotherton. I remember my father delivering coal from Brotherton to
Boroughbridge and the surrounding areas for one shilling a bag.
Whilst
living at Sutton Lane, I met and married Roy Eaton who was the only son of
Percy and Mary Eaton, the licensee’s of the Punch Bowl Inn, Brotherton.
We had two daughters; Diane, followed two years later by Helen.
Sadly,
in July 1944, Roy, an airman in the RAF was killed in action. Married a
second time to Ronald Daniel we had two children, Andrew and Christine. I
trust that this brief story will be of interest to the readers of your
excellent publication.
Barbara Daniel (nee Wise)
22 February 2006
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