Mexborough & Swinton Times, October 21, 1927
A Birthday Gift.
Wireless for Mexborough Hospital.
Mr. Fred Woffinden’s Thank-Offering.
Mr. Fred Woffinden, of Church Street, Mexborough, celebrated his 70th birthday on Wednesday, and celebrated it well and worthily with a decision to present to the Montagu Hospital a complete wireless outfit, at a cost of about £200.
When we saw him and congratulated him on his birthday and the excellent method he had chosen for celebrating it, he said: ” It is only a little return for what the people of this place have done for me. I was born in Mexborough and am proud of it. I have to thank the public of Mexborough and district for putting me where I am. It is through the grace of God and them that I have got to my present position, and I shall never forget it.”
Mr. Woffinden for the greater part of his life was closely associated with an industry which was once very important to Mex-borough—the canal carrying trade. He was bred to the canal as many families are bred to the sea. His father was a boatman, and all three grandfathers—for he had three, his parental grandmother marrying a second time. This old lady had nine children by the first marriage, and nine by the second, or, as Mr. Woffinden says, “she had nine Woffindens and nine Middletons.” Her second husband, Richard Middleton, kept a little public-house on the Leach, the licence of which was afterwards transferred to the Montagu Arms.
Mr. Woffinden’s father, John Woffinden, was a boatman, and kept the Ship Inn in Church Street, the licence of which was extinguished some years ago. His son, Fred, was born in the public-house on October 19th, 1857, and kept it for eight years, after his father.
He has a vivid recollection of Mexborough as it was in his childhood days. He was only seven at the time of the Sheffield Flood, and particularly remembers it because on that morning he was sent in great haste to a midwife, and forgot the errand completely in the excitement and the rush and swirl of the swollen Don it bore away the waters of the flood. “There is,” he says, “an impression that the flood waters spread all over this district. As a matter of fact, it raised the level here not much more than four or 5 feet, and the water was back within the banks by the time it reached Mexborough; but it was a sight I shall never forget. The stream was packed with furniture and a brief of every kind.”
Mr. Wotlinden got a little education at the Swinton National School, and afterwards at a private school at Mexborough, kept by the late Mr. W. P. Holmes. In between two spells of School he worked at a couple of the local potteries, the Don Pottery at Swinton, under Matthew Athron, father of the late Councillor Tom Athron, and at the Rock Pottery under a man named John Hulley. He was thirteen when he took to the canal trade and three years later he suffered a grievous accident at Tinsley, while mate of a barge skippered by another Mexborough man, Hebert Squires. His foot became entangled in a haulage rope and was practically wrenched off. He was taken to the Rotherham infirmary, where the limb was amputated and he was kept there for thirteen weeks.
Just fifty years later, the prosperous man remember the service done by the hospital to the poor and needy boy, and sent the Rotherham Hospital, a cheque for £50 as a thank-offering and as representing a subcription of £1 a year throughout the interval since the accident.
In the same way, his gift to the Montagu Hospital is tinged with gratitude, not only generally for the health and prosperity and happiness he has enjoyed during his long residence in the town, but for the skill and attention bestowed by the staff of the Montagu Hospital on his only son, Mr. John Woffindeu, who has twice been an inmate.
Mr. Fred Woffinden, after his accident, left the canal for a time, invested in a little huckstering business, which he carried on for two years, and, having made a little money, returned to the canal trade, this time as wharfinger. He built himself a house on what is called Strawberry Island, near Church Street, and there he plied the trade of a wharfinger for about thirty years.
He retired from the canal business about twenty years ago, and has since then, in partnership with his son, acquired extensive interests in local cinema theatres. He and his son are the principals of the Mexboro’ Electric Theatres Limited, which owns all the three cinema theatres in Mexborough.
In spite of a long life of hard work and thrift, time has dealt kindly with the old gentleman, who looks as hale and robust as a man half his years. Prosperity has not spoiled him. He delights as ever in simple things and in simple folk, particularly in old folk. One of the great interests of his life is the annual old folk’s treat, a fixture which he helped to revive, and through which he has tried to give happiness to the aged and the poor of the town. He was for a short time a member of the Urban Council, but public life never appealed to him, and after one term he did not seek re-election.
He is as quaint a mixture of shrewdness and simplicity, of benevolence and practical good sense, as is to be found in the pages of Dickens. A long and consistent course of generosity and good nature in all his social relations has brought him troops of friends, and in wishing him “many happy returns,” we know we are expressing the sentiments of all in this district who know him.