Martha Ellen Bancroft and the Mayday celebrations

 

Martha Ellen Bancroft is second from right

Some time ago I wrote an article for the blog about a lady called Martha Ellen Bancroft, who's details I found on one of my many trips to the local reference library. It was only recently that I came across lots more information and photographs which gave more details about her and the photograph of her taking part in what looks like Mayday celebrations in the Sutton-in-Craven area, a village between Keighley and Skipton.

Martha Ellen was the daughter of Smith and Mary J Bancroft and was born on 13/3/1905 in the Crosshills area. She had 3 siblings, Emily,Florence and John.

 

Her father Smith Bancroft died at an early age in 1914 when she was about 9 years old, which must have meant a struggle for her mother Jane bring up 4 young children.

The picture at the top of the page shows Martha Ellen around 1911 taking part with the other village girls in the local Mayday celebrations. The occasion marked a resurgence of interest in England country dance and folk music. Some years later, a Maypole was erected in the park and pupils at the Church of England school did Maypole dancing. This annual celebration seems to have started around the time of Edward VII's coronation in 1902 and continued up around 1960 when the village Maypole was removed.

 

Martha Ellen, along with her two sisters all worked as weavers in a local mill as the 1939 census shows, and she seems to have remained a single lady all her life.

Here's the story about finding her details and the poem I wrote some time ago:

I have for a long time been writing poetry, just really as a bit of a hobby, and only when I have come across something that inspires me to put pen to paper, and this was one of those occasions

Some time ago while doing some research at the local Reference Library, I came across an old dusty box file which had been deposited there by the family of a lady called Martha Ellen Bancroft, after her death. The box was full of lots of little things which this lady had obviously treasured throughout her life not just photographs and letters, but some personal items such as glasses and nail scissors. I began to build up a picture in my mind, while going through the contents, of what this lady must have been like, and how she led her life. I felt a little sad that this lady’s whole life now seemed to be represented by just a box full of old papers left to gather dust on a shelf in the Library, and was moved to write a poem about this experience.

Anyway, on with the story….I sent this poem to a local magazine, which has a family history section, and was lucky enough to have it published, and that was the end of the story as far as I was concerned…..but then out of the blue I was contacted by a lady from Cowling near Skipton, who recognised the person who the poem was written about and sent me more information about this lady and her family.

Martha Ellen Bancroft lived all her adult life in Cowling area, and had worshipped at at Ickornshaw Methodist Chapel, and when it closed in 1985, the remaining members transferred to St Andrews Methodist Church Cowling.
In memory of her and her sisters, the Church later named their meeting room as “The Bancroft Room”.

The Local History Group meet monthly in The Bancroft Room at St Andrew's, and at their last meeting they read out my poem to the audience, some of whom had known Martha Ellen….. I wish I could have been there to read it out in person !!

Here's the poem:

Memories of Martha Ellen
It was just a box of old papers
Left for all to see
What was hidden there waiting
Had it been left for me

So many pictures to look at
Scraps of paper, nothing else
Momentoes of some happy times
Memories now, nothing left

Her life, just a bundle of papers
Laid bare to be viewed by all
Was it a life full of interest
Or just a sorry tale

So many items to look at
So many thoughts left unsaid
Was she this quite gentle soul
Or lively and outgoing instead

All these items…..treasured memories
Made happy times, I’ll bet
Did this lady live her life
With such a gregarious set

Pictures of that bonny babe
Holding her mother’s hand
And later in life….a maiden lady
Abroad in a foreign land

How strange it feels, just looking
Invading her private life
These photos of her twilight years
Why was she never a wife

So what was her life made up of
Would she have changed if she could
Or was she content with the way it was spent
Did she live life to the full
And who will remember her passing

The following picture taken around 1911 shows all the girls in full  Mayday outfits which must have been taken around the same time as the pic from the top of the page.

And another picture of the girls in costume at the official Sutton Park opening.

 

[It is unclear as to who or why someone deposited Martha Ellen's papers in the local library but I'm glad they did!]