Stories from Dore Churchyard - Heroic Sheep Rescuer

The rescue of 'Fiona' the sheep from the Cromarty Firth has been much in the news this month. Research into the life of George Stone, who is buried in Dore, shows it's nothing new. He rescued sheep not once but three times!

The First Rescue

The Sheffield Independent, on the 14th of October 1929, printed a photo of George, a rope tied around him, with a headline that read:

Lives Risked for Sheep

Plucky Rescue at Grindleford

Cliff Thrill

George Stone of Piper House, who was keeper to Sir Charles Clifford, and Benjamin Buxton, a motor mechanic of Fox House Garage, 'risked their lives in a thrilling rescue of a year old Scotch sheep from a ledge half way down a 100 foot cliff on the Burbage moor.'

George had noticed its bleating just before dark but it was too hazardous to attempt a rescue. The ledge was only 18 inches wide and was 50 feet from the top of the cliff. The next morning George and Benjamin set out with Edward Rowarth of Fox House, the two sons of the owner of the sheep - Howard and John Priestly of Burbage House Farm, PC Knapp of the Sheffield police and, rather worringly it seems, Sgt Major Lapper of the St John's Ambulance.

George and Benjamin were slowly lowered down the cliff face, one either side of the sheep. When they had tied a rope around the exhausted sheep it was lowered down and finally George and Benjamin were also lowered the fifty feet to the ground. It took two hours in all.

The Second Rescue

The second rescue was reported in the Derbyshire Times on the 16th October 1936. The RSPCA were in attendance and this rescue sounds even more hazardous than the first.

'Courageous Rescue From Quarry at Nether Padley.'

Mr S Osborn, of Nether Padley, phoned RSPCA Inspector Fitzgerald of Chesterfield to say there were four sheep at the back of his house on the quarry face. The owner of the sheep, Mr T. Rowarth of Yarncliffe Lodge, Grindleford, was unaware of their plight. The face of the quarry was about 120 feet high and the ledge was about 35 or 40 feet from the top. How they got there was a mystery.

First a rope ladder was tried but it was too short. So it was George again who ended up getting lowered down on a rope. He managed to tie a rope around two of the sheep and they were hauled up. He was unable to catch the other two so Inspector Fitzgerald was lowered down too and they managed to haul up one more.

The fourth caused trouble and there was a a continual danger of falling stones. Eventually it was lowered to a lower ledge where Joseph Outram of Fern Cottage, Grindleford reached it by ladder and it was lowered safely down. It laid on the ground as though dead but had evidently only 'fainted' and thankfully revived.

1946: Even More Sheep Rescued!

George Stone was awarded a bronze medal by the RSPCA for ‘courage and humanity’ in rescuing sheep trapped in a deep gulley on Burbage Moor on the 27th of October 1946.

Stories From Dore Churchyard - Langley

The Langley Grave

In memory of:
Flight Lieutenant J.C.D Langley killed in action July 22nd 1942.
Ida Langley January 10th 1928. ‘Mummie Darling’.
J.K.B. Langley died October 10th 1949.
Also in Memory of Lieutenant R.D. Berry killed in action May 12th 1917.

Who were they all?

Flight Lieutenant John Charles Douglas LANGLEY, born 1919 in Dore.
Ida LANGLEY née BERRY, born 1892, mother of Flight Lieutenant Langley.
John Kidger Batty LANGLEY, born 1892, Ida’s husband.
Lieutenant Reginald Douglas BERRY, born 1894, Ida’s youngest brother.

Both John Charles Douglas Langley and Reginald Douglas Berry died tragically young.

Lieutenant R.D. Berry

Reginald Berry was in the 12th Yorks and Lancs Regiment (the Sheffield Pals–27162). He died during one of the constantly fought over offensives of the First World War, at Gavrelle Windmill, which was described as a charnel house for both sides. A quotation from War records shows that he was caught up in particularly gruesome action based round Arras.

‘Gavrelle proved to be one of the most unpleasant and unhealthy places in the entire British line. Between 9th and 13th May diary entries from fighting soldiers were monosyllabic – Hell. Both sides kept up constant fire and the artillery joined in. There was also the continual danger of gas attacks. The situation at night was even worse, with darkness hiding a multitude of unseen dangers.’

Casualties mounted. The heaviest losses were on the 11th and 12th May. On the 12th May Lieutenant Berry and three men were killed and Second Lieutenant Jarvis and 23 OR’s were wounded. Relief came only on the 14th May.

Reginald BERRY is buried in Albuera Cemetery, Bailleul-Sire-Berthoult. (South C.6.) He was just 22 years old.

Albuera Cemetery, Bailleul-Sire-Berthoult (courtesy of CWGC)

Flight Lieutenant J. C. D. Langley

John Charles Douglas Langley had attended Repton Public School. In 1939 he passed his Intermediate Part 1 of the professional examinations of the Chartered Surveyors Institute - a future cut short by the outbreak of war.

In World War Two John was a pilot with Bomber Command, 12 Squadron, number 45429. All the Bomber Command Aircrew were volunteers. More than 44% were killed whilst serving and their average age of death was only 23.

On the night of the 21st July 1942 he took off from R.A.F. Binbrook on night operations to Duisburg flying in a Vickers Wellington II, serial number Z8420. His aircraft was shot down by night fighter ace Oblt Ludwig Becker, one of his 46 victories, crashing at Spierdijk near Hoorn in northern Holland on 22 July 1942.

John Charles Douglas Langley is buried in Bergen General Cemetery, Bergen Municipality, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. Plot 1¸Row B, Coll. Grave 12-16. He too was just 22 years old.

Bergen General Cemetery (courtesy of CWGC)

Ida Langley née Berry

Ida and her husband John Kidger Batty Langley had two children - John Charles Douglas Langley and Gillian who was born in 1925.

Ida has, beneath her name on the grave, the words ‘Mummie darling’. This may well reflect that her own mother, Elizabeth was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland where ‘Mummie’ is a common form of endearment. Her father, William H. Berry is recorded in the 1901 Census as a Common Brewer and a Company Director, and they were living at this time in Brincliffe House on Osborne Road, Sheffield. Ida was the oldest of five children with Reginald being her youngest brother.

John Kidger Batty Langley

John K B Langley, Ida's husband, was born in Sheffield to John Batty Langley and Mary Eleanor Kidger. John K B's father, who was born in 1865 in Sheffield, was a Timber Merchant and Importer. The family business, of some repute, was based in three sites in Sheffield. In 1901 John K B, aged nine, was living with his family at 13 Sale Hill in Broomhill. By 1911 they had moved to Hooton Roberts near Rotherham.

It was as Major John Kidger Batty Langley that he married Ida Berry in 1917 at St John's Church in Ranmoor. He served in the Royal Engineers and fought in Egypt. By 1921 John and Ida and their son John Charles Douglas were living at The Elders, Drury Lane in Dore. John K B was Managing Director of Western Traders Limited of Norfolk Street – a Coal and Timber merchants.

In 1932, after the death of Ida, he married Kathleen Margaret DEWHURST. The 1939 register shows that Kathleen and John were living in Bubnell Cottage in Baslow. John and Kathleen did not have any children.

Kathleen had been born in 1908 at Crimicar Lane in Fulwood. Her father was an engineer. By 1910 the Dewhurst family were living at Ashfurlong, Dore. She had two brothers neither of whom continued to live in Dore, and she herself died in Suffolk in 1988.

John Batty Langley

John Batty Langley was born in 1834 in Uffingham in Rutland. He was apprenticed to his Uncle John who was a cabinetmaker and auctioneer. John Batty Langley moved to Sheffield in the 1850s and rose to own the Sheaf Saw Mills. He was a prominent Non-Conformist.

He had an illustrious career culminating as a Liberal Party MP for Attercliffe from 1894 to 1909. He was made an Alderman in 1890 and became Lord Mayor of Sheffield in 1892 – the year Sheffield became a city. He died in 1914 in Bournemouth, after a long period of ill-health, and was buried in Sheffield’s General Cemetery.

Gillian M. Slater

The memorials on the grave surround now include Gillian SLATER. She was John Kidger Batty Langley and Ida’s daughter born in 1925. Gillian was sister to John Charles Douglas Langley. She married Warren F. Slater in Bakewell in 1950. She died in 2012 and was interred in Dore churchyard.

Dore Archives Research Team are currently researching the people memorialised in Dore churchyard who died in conflicts. The LANGLEY grave will, in future, be included in a graveyard trail.