Church of All Saints
Aston-cum-Aughton, Rotherham, Yorkshire
Circa 1960-63 I lived in the village of Todwick near Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. Todwick is located alongside the A57 trunk road midway between Sheffield and Worksop. A few miles further along the A57 towards Sheffield lies the village of Aston-cum-Aughton. I remember little about Aston, as a teenager I had little reason to visit the village other than passing through whilst making frequent journeys to Sheffield where most of my immediate family lived. What I do remember is that from the top deck of the bus when not idly gazing out of the bus window dreaming teenage dreams, one had rather a good view of Aston Hall, at street level the hall is obscured by a tall boundary wall.
Yesterday we met some friends from Grimsby and spent a pleasant day at Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire. Our return journey meant taking the A57 around Worksop, passing by Todwick, before taking the M1 motorway (this section of the M1 motorway had yet to be built when I lived at Todwick) at the Aston-cum-Aughton intersection. Since it was a beautiful sunny evening I decided to take a detour, drive through Aston, and reminisce.
It must be at least 25 years since I last drove through Aston and it took a little while to get my 'bearings', partly due to a 'new' by-pass that I have never had reason to travel before. Eventually we found the old road through from Swallownest to Aston; some places have changed and of course there are lots of awful new housing and industrial developments, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the old Pavilion Cinema still standing, though now a snooker hall.
On reaching the older parts of Aston I was amazed at how little had changed and had little problem locating All Saints Church. Unfortunately a long day had left us feeling rather tired, so I just grabbed the camera, wandered down Church Lane, and took a few photographs for theses pages. Church of All Saints is not the easiest to photograph from the street due to the surrounding buildings and trees and with a low evening sun I had few options as to which way I could point the lens. So unsurprsingly the results are not too brilliant but I will return under more favourable conditions and explore some more.
Like most teenagers I had little interest in family history so it was only recently when I became interested in my family's history that I realised my grandfather and great grandfather JACKLIN had associations with this village.