Jump - The Former Mining Village

Jump: a small, former mining village on the outskirts of Barnsley, South Yorkshire,England, sandwiched between the larger settlements of Wombwell, Hoyland and Elsecar. 

A relatively new village compared to its neighbours, there are records of Jump’s existence in the1700s, though it only officially came to being in the mid -19 th century, circa 1845/50. The village name has eternally raised eyebrows, being the cause of both amusement and intrigueas generations of locals and those not so pondered upon the nature of its origin. Those born and bred in the village are in no doubt where the name of our marvellous village came from. If you wished to enter Jump from the direction of Hoyland, you would need to hurdle a small stream, which still separates the two settlements to this day. Yes, you’ve got it: you had to Jump the water to avoid getting wet, spawning the famous village name. During the past decade, however, some people have seen fit to question the derivative, dismissing it as nothing more than a myth. Which is fair enough; it’s a free country. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and it wouldn’t be right to dismiss their beliefs out of hand. So, let’s give these an airing, shall we? Let you make your own mind up? Yorkshire Place Names refer to the place name Jump as a jumble or jumble hole, meaning hollow, which fits the village perfectly, seeing as it’s located a concave. Another theory is that it was once a hunting ground, where men on horseback chased game down a locally steep valley onto flat, levelled out ground. If the chase continued, it meant the hunters would either jump or fall. The Danish word gump and Swedish name gumpa both mean to cross over by leaping, presumably relating to the stream, meaning the village could have got its name from centuries old historical invasions, which ruthlessly plundered the area. Other theories also exist, but come with little interest or credibility, however one prominent explanation is that the village name derives from a farm or hall once situated off Greenside Lane, which what is now Cumberland Road, Platts Common. This theory of this is based upon the Court Roll from Wentworth Manor dated 1577. Thomas Lodge, born 1911, lived in the farm in his early years. He recalled to Peter Marsh, presumably a friend, that as a boy he remembered a farm lintel dated 1510, or latterly 1513, as described in a separate transcript. These are the only two pieces of evidence put forward to show that the village name originated from the old farm, not taking into account Thomas Lodge mentioned two different dates of the lintel. Though such stones do on most occasions commemorate the year of construction, this is, however, not always a reliable source of dating a building. It was common practice that previously demolished homestead stone work was used for construction of new builds, with old lintels used for additional support and employed as part of obvious cost saving measures. Another Court Roll suggests 1577 but with little evidence, indicating this could refer to a completely different build. Additionally, the Court Roll itself doesn’t offer much in sense of evidence and could easily suggest that fitting text had been selected to match the narrative. One thing we do know for certain and that’s that the village had no given name prior to the 1841census. Records of 1851, however, showed for the first time the village name of Jump, making it circa 175 years old in 2023. Jump Board Council School, nowadays Jump Primary School, was built in 1880, opening a year later, catering for pupils aged 5 years to 10years, with most of the children born twenty plus years after the village was named. The origin of how the village name derived was taught at the school from day one alongside the descriptions of the introduction of a small bridge, enabling visitors to safely walk over the stream instead of jumping. This was well documented over decades by the school and pupils, meaning well educated schoolteachers and villagers themselves would have most likely dismissed other derivative theories put forward. The Cusworth family originated from Staffordshire, laying their roots in Elsecar, circa1810. Between 1827 and 1863, Cusworth family members moved to a small hamlet, which later became known as Jump village. Records show that in the village in 1867 lived Mary Ann Cusworth, aged 14, who in later years would become the unofficial midwife of the village. In1873, Albert Cusworth, Mary Ann’s brother, was living at Kit-Royd with his parents. He later had a son, Horace Cusworth, who was born in 1897. Horace married Ethel Tomlinson, her uncle being Sir Thomas Tomlinson, after whom Tomlinson Road was eventually named. They had a daughter, Dorothy, who was born in 1925. Most from the village will know her today as Dorothy Renshaw and she is still very aware and active as she approaches her 100 th year. Like many senior citizens in the village, Dorothy has heard nothing of the various theories raised with reference to the naming of the village, believing the long-established explanation passed down to by our forefathers. As previously described, we know the village gained its official identity in the mid1800s.This could have been decided by village consensus or possibly an elected committee. Unfortunately, however, there are no records or documentation as record of this judgement. It was very common in rural hamlets and settlements during these periods that meetings were held in barns or outbuildings and, in most cases, decisions were usually made by a show of hands. In later years, such meetings were held in village halls and public houses, of which Jump soon had many. It’s also worth noting that most decisions and public local meetings were never documented or filed. The only documented evidence regarding the village name was in 1901 when a Mr William Allott petitioned to Wombwell Urban Council to change to change the name of Jump to the infinitely more subtle name of Woodlands, with the view of giving the village a new start and ridding it of its negative past. After a public meeting, the council decided to put the petition to a ballot amongst village resident. The outcome was 159 versus 59 in favour of keeping Jump as the village name. Those in favour of the name change were so confident of achieving their goal, mainly by their status within the village and the threat of eviction of those who opposed it, that they conceitedly had the name plate Woodland erected on village shops on Church Street. Evidence of the initiative remarkably still survives to this day, though one thing is certain: the centuries old name of Jump is here to stay. Reverting to the question of the old farm, in time this eventually became Jump Old Farm. Fair enough; but that doesn’t explain where the Jump bit come from? The build was originally called Hall Farm. It was only in later years it become known as Jump Hall Farm. Was this because neighbouring folk had to jump over the stream to get to the farm to visit occupants or buy or sell their wares? Is it possible that, after centuries of undertaking an speaking of the action required to gain access to the farm, it quite naturally and affectionately became known as Jump Hall Farm? Or did it simply attain its name when the village officially gained its name in the 1800s? As the author, I prefer to believe the story as passed down by our forefathers; not based upon nostalgia but simple logic. Quite often, simplistic theories are looked upon with scepticism and, in most cases, dismissed in favour of more intricate, complex and elaborate theories in fitting with a particular narrative. In essence, the only basis and logic of the theory that the village was named after the farm is based on one man’s recollection of a dated lintel and nothing more. There’s no hard evidence of the much-discussed lintel, even though the farm wasn’t demolished until the 1950s. With this in mind, I would have thought that such a piece of local history would have been extremely well documented indeed.

The excellent Journal of the Life and times of an Industrial Village 1858-1958, compiled by Keith Hopkinson, states that the village name did not exist on the 1841 census, but Kit-Royd did. It wasn’t until the 1851 census that the village name first appeared. Taken from the old English word rod, a royd was a small area of land cleared by farming families and then traditionally enclosed by a hedge, the legal name of which was asserting. Kit-Royd remains one of the mysteries of the village, with no valid documentation of the build of the ensuing