Anston North/South
Updated!! Vagrant found dead - Anston Stones.
We received a fantastic email from a gentleman called Alan Pollard, I resident in his younger days of Anston. Alan was one of the two boys that found the body of the vagrant in around 1963! A scary experiance for two 10 yr old's
Here is his story below;
"I can remember it was like yesterday you don t forget something at that age, we (Graham and I) found him September or October he was not a pretty sight, his nose had been eaten away and some other parts which I dare to mention.
Where we found him? well the best place I can describe it to you is ;
if you go on the road towards worksop the field on the left hand where the wood is there is a big oak tree in the corner just down from there is a set of crags and shallow cave on the face of it - that’s where we found him!"
"We reported the police, the policeman at the time was PC Cannings , I think the deadmans name was George Hartley from Worksop but don’t quote me on that".
We would like to sincerly thank Alan for his story, and would like to let readers know that we have Anston to reinvestigate with the help of this account
Copyrighted to Alan
A History
Mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, it was then under the control of Roger De Busli. Anston is derived from 'an stan' or single stone (usually the suffix 'ton' means town in saxon english). Wherever the site of the single stone was, it is now unknown.
Anston is really two more or less separate villages separated by the boggy land around Ryton Brook (aka Anston Brook), the busy A57 road, and a railway line. There was once a colliery within the parish called Harry Croft (1924-1930), and there is still an active Harry Croft quarry: There were once 15 quarries in the parish. 8,000 year old flint knives have been found around here.
North Anston has also merged into the town of Dinnington, although South Anston is still a distinct village with an old core of stone building orbited by new red brick housing estates. North Anston over Ryton Brook also has an old centre close to lots of new private housing and some pre WW1 terraces built for coal miners when Dinnington Pit was opened in 1908.
The very busy A57 (Lincoln - Liverpool) road goes right through South Anston on an east-west axis. Going north-south is the road connecting North and South Anston. The crossroads is dominated by a transport company HQ.
Haunting's in Anston
I lived in this area for many a years, and will relay a few urban legends that I know of myself along with a few personal experiences..
Anston Stones wood (Main Part).
This is said to be haunted by a vagrant who spent the latter end of his life living in the woods, he was found dead around 1950 and is still said to wander the woods today.
A padfoot is said to guard the site of Dead Man's Cave in Anston stones, this is a kind of guardian of sacred places.
Anston Stones wood (The path leading behind the school to South Anston)
There is a field there and the footpath takes you down the side of the field across a small bridge over the stream and under the railway bridge.
The field is said to be haunted by a long forgotten battle from the civil war and every year around June / July this is re-enacted.
Monks are said to roam these woods near the railway tracks as they use to use the same route to travel from Roche Abbey to Worksop Priory.
I was once walking home along the foot path with a good friend of mine when I was around 13 years of age, laughing and joking around as teenagers do... We heard a rustling in the trees and saw to our horror a figure of a monk, we could see no face just the glow of his eyes, we ran so fast we could not speak we could not laugh cry or do anything!! An experience I will never forget.
A friend of mine lived with his parents on a street just off Ryton Road... His parents were terrified by poltageist activity including a light bulb unscrewing and hovering in the air for a moment before smashing on the ground.
I also had a friend that lived in the converted to houses and flats of Anston Hall, near Greenlands park (this use to be the old Quarry). The court yard that is still there is said to be haunted by a horse and carriage. These houses are beautiful and the ceilings are so high inside the houses.
Greenlands park (the back part of the park) is a golf course, with a football pitch use to be part of the Quarry's, this is a route I use to take when delivering newspapers - I hated a certain part of the park and always felt like I was being watched.
My maternal relatives use to work in the nearby pit of Dinnington, back in the days of pit ponies and oil lanterns. My Great Great Uncle was killed at around 17 years old by a runaway coal cart, the ropes had snapped that was holding it too the pony, he was crushed to death... He is buried in Anston Park Cemetary this happened around 1930's and his surname is Cope.
Talking about Dinnington Pit... Many miners have reported talking to a strange looking miner near the coal face, after having general chit chat he simply walks through a wall!
This is said to be a bad look omen, my father after seeing this fellow had an accident where a piece of machinery pulled him up and broke his leg in two places.
Spooky story from nearby Rotherham...In 1969 I was a probationer constable in the Sheffield and Rotherham Police. On my first shift I was accompanied by an old Sergeant who, whilst we were walking along Moorgate, introduced me too a man called Bob Moodle, Moodle had been an old timer when my Sergeant was starting out, so Bob must have been a copper in the 20s/30s. When he had gone The Sergeant told me a story of how Moodle had one night been having a smoke at the rear of a small chapel off Moorgate (still there, behind the monumemntal masons shop), he was stood in the chapel yard near some gravestones, when from behind a gravestone a dwarf dressed in a top hat came out and attacked him! Moodle ran away to the old Frederick Street police station. Moodle served for many more years in Rotherham and had a distinguished record. He always refused to work Moorgate beat at night however.
I worked Moorgate beat for a number of years and often went for a fag in the chapel yard, whilst i was aware of the story i often felt drawn to the place and was never afraid until one night in about 1974 I was looking out over Canklow and heard a noise behind me, turning i caught the sight of a very small man walking away from me towards Moorgate, he appeared to have a stove pipe type hat on, aware of the story of Moodles ghost I followed and as I turned into Moorgate found no one. I did not take the matter further as i was about to resign from the Police service and did not want the hassle.
Whether what I saw was my imagination running wild i dont know, but i had been down to the chapel yard numerous times and seen nothing, all I know is that the man walked from the direction of a gravestone that bears the inscription " Lord Billy Lee erected by his friends from the circus"
The Quarry's
In 1840 some 500,000 cubic feet of limestone were dug up from around these parts and carted off to London via the Chesterfield Canal, where it was used to build the houses of parliament - The Palace of Westminster. in the memorial garden next to the Leeds Arms is a pinnacle from the Houses of Parliament, possibly removed during the 1902 repair.
A further 800,000 cubic feet were taken in 1902 for repair work - the original cut price job resulted in the stone being laid without due regard to its strata ('grain') and it started to crumble.
Although there are several old, quarries next to the canal, and the still in production, such as the Harry Croft quarry between the A57 and the canal, the source of the Palace of Westminter's limestone was in North Anston. It's not obvious where it was today as 170 years later it's partly overgrown, and partly built upon by private housing. Opposite the Cutler pub though is a clue: the street is called Quarry Lane.
You can walk around a scar in the hillside covered with very expensive private houses, in a space vacated by 500,000 cubic feet of limestone that is now the place where our politicians argue.
The canal and railway line lie a mile to the south of the quarry site, and the residents of South Anston had to endure 15 years of stone being hauled through there on the way to the canal, the river Trent, and by sea going ship to the Thames in London .
