Frank’s father was called Horatio and was a stone mason with his brother, Favell, who lived at Gilleyfield Farm in Dore. He carved a number of gravestones in the local churchyard but, unfortunately, developed the bad chest of a stone worker. Therefore, he came out of retirement to work on Totley All Saints Church in 1924. Gathering around him all the old masons, Horatio and his team set about carving the many stone details. He was also responsible for the finely worked stone on the old Totley Branch Library - a small building next to Totley Bridge Garage.
Frank himself started school at Totley but was soon thrown out for swearing at the teacher - one aspect of his character, he admits, that hasn’t changed very much. At Dore School, he got on fairly well, especially at drawing, being chosen to sit for a Fanshawe Scholarship, but having to withdraw because his father had arranged for him to start work at Cannon Hall Farm for old George Creswick.
So, a few days after his thirteenth birthday, Frank started as a milk lad for half-a-crown a week (12½p). Whilst there, he gained a proud second prize in the Milking Competition in the Dore & Totley Ploughing Association's event. After a month at Cannon Hall, he chose his moment, during a milking session in the cowhouse, to ask Fred, Manager and son of George, for a raise. As a result, he gained a sixpence a week increase and went on to work as a milk lad for a further two years until he was given the chance to work with the horses, ploughing and such.
After five very happy and contented years, Frank left, earning nine shillings per week, and went to work for Jimmy Gledhill. Mr. Gledhill called him 'Horatio' after his father, shortening it to 'Raysher'. The wage was top money in Totley, for man or lad, and the young teenager took home 24 shillings. Frank remembers his mother's astonishment and was more than pleased when, with two outstretched fingers, she pushed two two-bob pieces back across the table, keeping the sovereign for his contribution to the household.
Whereas Cannon Hall had three working horses on ploughing, Mr. Gledhill had only one old horse. He grew rhubarb and cauliflowers on part of the Monkey Gardens, named after the menagerie at the Victoria Gardens, which stood on the area between Mickley Lane, Glover Road, and Baslow Road, late in the 19th century. One of Frank's jobs was to clear manure from under the Wicker Arches, the welcome produce of the many Duncan Gilmour brewery horses. It took just an hour to the Wicker from Totley by four-wheel dray. There, the young lad would pick up a mug of tea and a sandwich for sixpence at Kidders Cafe in the Market. When the manure was brought to Totley, Frank would drive slowly down Mickley Lane, throwing the manure over the hedge as he went. Often, there was as much as 6 inch depth of manure - "No wonder we had such wonderful stuff” . The farm produced huge Autumn Giant cauliflowers which mostly went to Castlefolds Market.
Frank gave up the work to go down the 4 ft. high workings of the ganister mine in Shorts Lane. Later, he worked down the coal pit at Hurst Hollow, Holmesfield. Frank says he gave up Gledhills because he wanted Saturday afternoons off to play cricket. He had, by now, made the Totley first team, under "that fine player, Jim Green", and remained in that team for a long time, helping them win the League Championship and, eventually, representing the League itself. Later, Frank helped to form a branch of Sheffield United Harriers, which went on to win the Branch Championship.
One of the athletes under Frank's care was the local champion, Archie Thomas, who still often recalls Frank's coaching with fondness.
In the 1920s, after his marriage, Frank went to work in Totley Tunnel. At that time, he lived on Summer Lane. To add to his sporting record, he took up training of the Totley Football Club and later raced pigeons. Frank had given up a job with Derbyshire County Council (£2. 1s. weekly) when he got married in 1919.
That July he wed Dorothy Jane Booker of Holmesfield where he had lived for a brief spell. Her father was Wood Steward to the Duke of Rutland who owned much of the surrounding land. The Bookers were great singers - at that time they had no fewer than eleven members in the Holmesfield Church choir - and the organist. Frank and Dorothy would spend hours singing under the oak tree at home and the Grouse Inn at Totley Bents was a popular venue for his friends. "It was nowt of a pub but we liked going." With Joe Marshall, Willis Pearson, Dennis Marshall and his wife from Dore, Percy Smith, Ken Turner and his wife Vera from the Bents, and a few others, they would go round singing carols for the old folks.
Modestly Frank remarks, "We weren't bad, you know". Then he launches into a stout rendering of "Awake My Harp" a Dore carol by Richard Furniss. This was obviously a firm favourite of Frank and Dorothy. Sadly the day the Grouse closed its doors, they never really got together again. Although some say that these local carols are still to be heard in the Cricket round about Christmas.
It was in 1922 when Frank went to work in Totley Tunnel and there he stayed toiling until 1934 when he worked on the 'permanent way’ between there and Dore Station. Meanwhile in 1928 he became Trainer for Totley Football Club and during a good spell they won the Hope Valley and Bakewell leagues several times. For some years he was on the football, cricket and Sports Club committees.
On a matter of principle, he resigned when they joined the local Amateur League and later turned his interest to pigeons. Frank always had a "leaning towards those birds" and had helped Mr. Broome of Merryfields on Victoria Road (now Queen Victoria Road) with his racing pigeons. Frank had a stroke of look when the President of Manchester Racing Club gave him a pied hen which was then paired with his own cock. "Every young 'un was a good 'un. We gave 'em a reet clouting in the T'owd Bird and Young Bird Cups of the Hope Valley." One bird won the race from Banff in Scotland and after great successes at Woodseats and the Hope Valley, winning all the cups at both places and two outright, he gave up because of a thrombosis.
