John Mellor (b. 1898) m. Florence Ellis (b. 1893)

Whether there was a stoppage on the week of the wedding or not I don’t know, but I heard that Dad and Uncle Willie, his best man, travelled from Huddersfield to Barnsley on a bus. According to a family story, during the journey, Willie was bursting for a pee and persuaded the driver to stop as they approached a viaduct round the wall of which he disappeared. The bus driver got impatient and set off again, but Willie spotted that the road went a fair way down the valley before coming back under the viaduct at the other side of the valley. He ran down the slope, being cheered on by the passengers, waded the shallow river and waved the bus to stop as it reached him, and had to be restricted from throwing the driver off, annoyed at the state of his best boots and trousers. Looking back, I can’t imagine my Dad being a party to this unless he too had to get off with Willie or he was annoyed with him for perhaps early boozing and determined not to be late at his own wedding. However the wedding went as planned , Grandad Smith giving his step-daughter away, Willie as best man, Aunty Doris as Bridesmaid and Uncle Sil signing as Witness. Both Mum and Dad registered their address as No. 4 High Street.

Aunty Doris was courting Gilbert at that time and they were married about 18 months later. They probably met while Doris was working in Blackpool. He was a wagon driver from Halifax and after their marriage they lived at his parents house in Pellon. Before Jack was born they had moved to Highroad Well into a pebble-dashed terrace house, 111 Sandhall Lane, and soon afterwards Gilbert's father Saul Ward and his wife bought the house next door. Jack would be born in 1926 and Roy in 1932. Mum and Doris remained close friends and our families visited each other frequently, 111 becoming like a second home to me in school holidays, and Jack was more like a brother than a cousin.

In April 1921 the miners were locked out by the owners, but the TUC backed down and refused to call a general strike. Hopes for a better wage increased when Ramsey McDonald became the first Labour Prime Minister. (22nd January 1924). He had to hire a morning dress suit from Moss Bros. for his presentation to the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace. But even a Labour Government were unable to ease the economic muddle the country was in. Further strikes and stoppages were in the offing and when Dad was offered the chance of a start with his brother Harry at Mallinson’s quarry in 1925 it was decided to move the family to Crosland Hill.