MillersMAD Crash Pad

[CTMilller]

There must be some sort of 6 degrees of separation here. About 5 years ago, we were at resort in Cabo St. Lucas watching a Michael Jackson tribute act. We were sat at a table with a couple we didn't know and as he was speaking to his wife I turned to Mrs. CA and said "It sounds like he's from South Yorkshire". In the interval we got talking and asked the obligatory "Where are you from question?". "Yorkshire" came the reply. "So am I" I said. "Whereabouts?" "Doncaster" he said. "I'm from Rawmarsh" I said. "Actually, we own a chip shop in Rawmarsh" he said, "the one on the corner of Dale Road and Green Lane". "That's the chip shop we use whenever we are back there" I said. Small world! Turns out his wife was brought up just about 1/2 mile from where we lived, in the same street where Matt Hamshaw's Dad lived.

That is quite remarkable, CAM. (That you choose to see Michael Jackson tribute acts at Mexican holiday resorts is pretty weird, too!)

I only found out about my connection with the place by chance. I inherited a family photograph taken in a backyard in about 1900. After a lot of detective work, I discovered it was taken in the yard formed by the backs of the Dale Road chippy and the first few houses at the top of Green Lane.. On a UK visit a few years back, I did a recce and found that the yard is still there and pretty much as it was more than a century ago. (There's a passage way to it from Dale Road - to the side of the chippy building - which you can also in the photo.)

My great uncle, the proprietor of the confectioners that became the chippy is in the picture as well as his daughter who lived just round the corner at 10 Green Lane as well as my great-grandmother from down the road at 112 Green Lane (which I think must have been demolished since I couldn't find it.) An amazing feeling to stand where your ancestors gathered...

The chippy building and the first few houses on Green Lane were built in 1872 and were called Sycamore Buildings. (There's a plaque above the door on the corner.)

Obviously, all this was decades before the chippy came into existence but interesting that the building has been used continuously as a food outlet. (I believe it's a pizza place now.)