Charles Linley "Len" Marcroft

Len Marcroft with "Peggy" and trap at 14 The Quadrant, 1925

From TI-346

I read with interest the article concerning the Marcroft family. As a little girl I remember visiting (Great) Uncle Len and Auntie Ethel at their home in The Quadrant, with my grandmother. My mother was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Robert Smart Marcroft, the brother of Charles Linley. I have a vague memory of meeting Betty and remember her photograph at the wedding of my Uncle Maurice. If Michael Kirby is interested I would be delighted to give him more information should he care to contact me.

Pamela Dolby

Reference Michael Kirby's letter in the July/August 2011 of Totley Independent. He asks for memories of his great uncle, Len Marcroft, builder of Totley. I only knew him through my father, Harry Jackson, who was with Len a member of the Totley Bowling Club. They played on a crown green of irregular shape at the back of The Cross Scythes Hotel. Len was a rather rotund gentlemen with florid features. He enjoyed the game and a drink. The Club had an annual Ladies Day, the only day that ladies (and children) were allowed on the hallowed grass. On that day there were games of skittles etc, lucky dips and an ice-cream man with a large tub. He was a club member and I think his name was Jack Purdy. He was very popular with the children. It was wartime and any visits to Cross Scythes on the Totley bus were a treat for my brother Derek and my mother Doris as well as for me. My father's main club was at the side of The Beauchief Hotel, now a car park. The pub then was the Abbeydale Station Hotel. No bedrooms, only 2 snooker tables, 2 bars and a large bowling green. I learnt to play there in wartime (1939-45) and first played a league match in 1945 when Abbeydale were one short at Metro-Vicks in Bawtry Road. 66 years playing bowls and I am still learning! One other memory of the Cross Scythes green. The players went down 2-3 steps onto the green. The entrance was guarded by 2 brown stone recumbent lions. I wonder where they are now? 

Robert Jackson