Margaret Drinkall is a writer and historian who lives in Rotherham. Having now retired she is concentrating on writing full time. She has an interest in local history, and true crime and has managed to combine these two interests very successfully into her books.
Margaret has written numerous books, one of the most popular (and the first published) being the Rotherham Workhouse book, which still sells remarkably well many years later.
However, even though Margaret is still writing books for publishers, she has embraced the concept of Self-Published works, via the rapidly growing eBook industry. This has enabled her to produce books that traditional publishers would have been unable or unwilling to accept, and tell stories which might have been lost in the fog of time forever.
To this day, Margaret is still writing books in both formats, and has an established facebook page where other people can connect and stay in touch with developments, and be the first to hear about the occasional free book which is released.
Hello Margaret
I am on the committee of Rawmarsh and Parkgate Local History Group and we are looking for new speakers for our meetings.Having read your book on the Workhouse and couldn’t put it down until I had read it I congratulate you on the book and know that you have recently given a talk for Thorpe Hesley which was enjoyed by the people I have spoken to.You can email me on the above email address
Hello Anne. Thank you for your very kind comments on the workhouse book. I have had such a good response to its publication and never get tired of people who still remember the workhouse, coming up and talking to me about it. I will of course contact you regarding a talk for the Rawmarsh and Parkgate Local History group. Thank you for your comments. Margaret
Hello Yorkie. I did answer your email although nothing is showing on my computer to say that I havent researched that particular murder for the same reasons to John above. Let me know if you find anyhting and I apologise if it seems that I have not replied.
Hello! Tony Beesley was good enough to pass on your email but I keep getting ‘message failed’… Please confirm your email. I’d love to hear more about your Sheffield project!
Hello Neil,
Yes this is my email address, I dont know why it is saying message failed. I will contact you on my personal email address.
Best wishes, Margaret
I have been doing some research into my wife’s family tree and this has uncovered a tale of murder, unknown to all existing family members. By internet search your recent book came up and indeed one of the stories covered in your book covers the full story, indeed some of the people mentioned are family members, though very young at the time, but who had no idea of the incident. Please could you kindly contact on the email address given and possible help out with the location of and where specific newpaper reports and other accounts, you may have researched can be found, in archives,etc. The older family members have no idea of this incident, though my wife and I have read the book and it all fits in with documentation we have already. Thanks in anticipation.
Hello,
I see you have a book about murders in Rotherham in 20C, I have an ancestor convicted of manslaughter during a drunken brawl in Rotherham in 1861. Subsequently sentenced at York to 20 years transportation.
I have all the newspaper articles on the events. I’d love to view the court transcripts, have you any idea where I could look?
No one in York seems able to help.
Regards,
Glynn Cutts
Hello Glynn,
Sorry, but I am unable to help you. I presume your ancestor would have been tried at the assizes in either Leeds or York, but I have never been able to access court transcripts, mainly because they are not kept for any length of time. There are some websites which might tell you about which ship your ancestor was transported on, but thats really all that I could add to your search.
Good luck with it nevertheless
Margaret
Hello Margaret,
Just bought the Halifax Murders as I found a story that may relate to my Family. :- A canal side rescue.
Have you any idea of who the grand-parents were at the trial of Thomas Drake please.
I have looked at this story in many news papers and they all differ slightly in the tale. Yours gives a much fuller account and would like to know where all the information could be found. Where on the canal this took place and the Ship Inn area and Caddy Lane as I have been unable to trace anything on these area’s also. My enquiry originally comes from Australia through ancestry, as I was contacted from there for information.
Hope you can help? Thank you for a very interesting book.
Regards Beryl Moore (Nee Drake)
Hello Beryl,
I do apologise for the delay in getting back to you, only I have been spending quite a bit of time in the archives at the moment, working on a new book which is coming out next year. I have had a look at my note books for this case and most of the info I got from newspapers, which obviously wouldn’t give grand parents names as they were not included in the attempted murder. The newspapers which held details about the case are
Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, Dec 8th/9th & 10th 1864
Leeds Mercury, December 10th/15th 1864
As to your question regarding Caddy Lane and where abouts on the canal the incident took place, that is more confusing. Many of the accounts mention Caddy Fields, Caddy Lane and just to make things more difficult it was reported at the Assizes that the incident took place under Caddy Field Bridge. The only other reference I can give is to have a look at this website, which gives a reference to it and explains where the name came from:
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~calderdalecompanion/c.html#c2
I have no idea where the Ship Inn was, but I would imagine it is somewhere within the vicinity of the attempted murder, as the girls rescuers were trying to hold onto Drake until a policeman could be summoned.
Hope this helps and I am really glad that you are enjoying the book.
Best wishes
Margaret
Thank you Margaret for a quick reply.
I will have to keep researching. Thank you also for the references I will look them up and I intend to walk the path from the Halifax station to Salterhebble to see if anything fits the description. My knowledge of a canal in Halifax is from the watermill running to Elland to the left and Sowerby Bridge to the right. I have never known of one in Siddal only the Calder & Hebble river.
Happy hunting on your next project; I am sure you find history research as fascinating as I do.
Mine is only Halifax and no intentions of publishing.
Regards Beryl
Hello Margaret,
I have read the article in this week’s Advertiser and wonder if the Emily and Charles Andrew in it were actually my grandparents. Although I know nothing of any such incident, (or much else as it seems to be somewhat ‘hush-hush’), the dates,places and some other things make me wonder if this was her first pregnancy of many. I don’t want to write publicly about it further, but wonder if you could contact me on the above email to see if more information is available from the archive you used.
Although I am not family tree fan, it would be interesting to fill in any gaps in what I do know.
Regards,
David
Hello Margaret, are you the lovely lady who used to cook me dinners in Epworth .
Hello Avril – talk about the bolt from the blue how are you? Send me an email on mdrinkall.2009@gmail.com and we can talk in private. Lovely to hear from you!