A request was made by a local resident for me to locate the home of Robert and Martha Rowley of Common End, even if you know where Common End is, there is no modern map that shows such a street. Many will know of Rowley Lane, but it isn’t that simple.

Baptism records from Milford show that Robert, son of John and Eliza, was baptised on the 8th of September 1850 and was born on the 18th of August 1850. John Rowley married Eliza Newsam on the 21st of February 1846 in Sherburn, as per marriage records. The 1851 census finds John and Eliza lived in Sherburn, John was a wheelwright. Also in the household are children Mary (4), John (2) and Robert (7 months).

In the 1861 census Robert is recorded as being the son of John (46 years old) and Eliza (38 years old), he was 10 years old. Robert was one of a number of siblings noted, including Mary (14), John (12), Elizabeth (5), Ann (2) and Charlotte (7 months). Robert was a scholar, his father was a carpenter, also born in South Milford. The family were recorded as living on Common End. By the 1871 census Robert was still living with his parents, along with siblings Mary (24), Charlotte (10), Peter W (8) and Jane E (7). By this stage the 20 year old Robert was a labourer.

In the 1881 census Robert Rowley was by now married to Martha, and still lived on Common End and had children Martha Ann (5), Arthur (3) and Herbert (1). Robert was a maltster by trade. By the 1891 census Robert and Martha still lived on Common End and had children Arthur (13), Herbert B (11), Florence (8), Eliza (6), George (3) and Sarah (1). The 1901 census confirms that Robert was now a widow and still lived on Common End, along with children Arthur (23), George (13), Sarah (11), John (8) and Richard (8), presumably twins. Also in the household were his daughter Martha (25) and her husband and children. By now Robert was working for the colliery, repairing coal wagons. The 1911 census shows that Robert had re-married to Emma (aged 51) and lived with children George (23), John and Richard (18). Their address was given as Fern Cottages on Doncaster Road. Neighbours on this same census are on Rowley Lane and Common End. Robert still worked for the colliery, repairing wagons.

On Friday the 11th of October 1929 the South Yorkshire Times and Mexborough & Swinton Times reported the death of Herbert James Oldale of Fern Cottages, Doncaster Road. He was “one of South Elmsall’s oldest residents” and had lived in the village since 1882. One of the mourners was sister in law Mrs J. Palmer, meaning that Herbert James’ wife must have been either a Palmer or a Rowley. The 1911 census confirmed that the Oldale family lived in Fern Cottages, Doncaster Road, next door to the Rowleys. Next door to the Oldale family was Rowley Lane, showing that Fern Cottages must have been where Rowley Lane emerged onto Doncaster Road. Peter William Rowley (brother of Robert) lived on Rowley Lane at this time, as per the very same 1911 census. Overlaying old maps onto modern maps, along with the various information collected here, gives us two possible locations for Fern Cottages. It is clear that this must have been the cluster of stone buildings that were located where Rowley Lane meets Doncaster Road that have all but been demolished, and largely this area is now Knightscroft Parade. If you look closely you will find a number of stone walls embedded into garden walls and other structures of modern homes, and the sole remaining building of this earlier era is number 2 Rowley Lane, though it’s front elevation has been rendered and painted the stonework is visible to the sides.

The South Yorkshire Times and Mexborough & Swinton Times, on Friday the 21st of August 1931, reported that Peter William’s most recent address was 42 Doncaster Road, and he “came from South Milford to South Elmsall as a lad of nine” and “had occupied the same cottage for 55 years” and was “a member of a family which has owned property in the village for 150 years”. Indeed, the various census records show that a separate Rowley family were already living in the Common End of South Elmsall when John and Eliza brought their children to the area from South Milford. Peter William was an active member of the church, locally, and had held a number of positions within the church community.

Many times in census records the Rowley family lived next door to the Palmer family, on Common End, and at various times siblings from each family intermarried. For example, Jane Eliza (sister of Robert Rowley) married John Bunyan Palmer. When she died, in 1936, her passing was reported on by the South Yorkshire Times and Mexborough & Swinton Times on Friday the 20th of November. In this report it was confirmed that Jane Eliza was the sister of Peter William Rowley and that the family were “natives” of South Elmsall, having been of Rowley Lane for many years. Her final address was 32 Doncaster Road. The same report noted that the late John Bunyan Palmer was a retired farmer who owned extensive property in South Elmsall, and he had dropped dead in South Elmsall market, nine months before. The report also noted that late brother Peter William Rowley had been “one of the oldest and most familiar residents of South Elmsall”. In a lovely twist of fate a number of children of Jane Rowley and John Palmer went on to live on both Palmer’s Avenue and Rowley Lane.

Rowley Lane, as it is today, was not always known as such. The earliest Ordnance Survey map of South Elmsall, from 1854, records Rowley Lane as Top Of Common Lane. Similarly Doncaster Road underwent a transition from Common Lane, as it was recorded on the 1854 Ordnance Survey Maps, to Doncaster Road. The whole area is recorded on maps of the era as ‘Common End’ and in some early documents as “the bottom end of…” Palmer’s Avenue does not appear as a named street on the earliest maps, when it was nothing more than a simple footpath. Even as late as the 1948 Ordnance Survey map of the area this naming convention remained, yet we know that by 1911 at the earliest Rowley Lane was used as the name locally for Top of Common Lane!