11/08/2026
*Broken Legs and Identity Crises: From the Diaries of F***Y STENTON, the Bible Woman of WORKSOP*
Every now and again we can mix up people’s names, and the Bible Woman was no exception! Two such cases in her diaries are Henry/John Smith and Mary/Sarah Cheetham, both of whom, by coincidence, broke their legs.
Henry Smith of ‘Low Town Street’ (now Lowtown Street) was visited on Friday 23rd September 1864, and F***y Stenton found him ‘going on well’ after he ‘got his leg broke on Sparken Hill’.
A week later, the confusion begins. Stenton returned to Lowtown Street on Friday 30th September and wrote that ‘John Smith goes on favourably with his broken leg, and seems penitent’. The gentleman has the same address and ailment, but has somehow changed his first name! This is kept in his last appearance, on Friday 7th October, when ‘John Smith goes on well of the leg’.
But which name is correct?
The repeat of ‘John’ may suggest that ‘Henry’ was the error, but despite several Henry and John Smiths in Worksop in the 1861 and 1871 Censuses, there were none at Lowtown Street!
There is, however, one potential candidate.
The 1861 Census lists a 58-year-old ‘Labourer’ called John Smith at 103 Netherton Road, which Lowtown Street becomes south of the turn for Newgate Street. This address is relatively close to where this long street changes its name, so ‘Low Town Street’ may be another error in the diary. Nevertheless, F***y Stenton frequently used both street names in the diaries.
Alternatively, there are several instances where someone the Bible Woman visited in 1864-5, even with a distinctive surname, fails to appear on either Census for Worksop. Effectively, without these diaries their lives in Worksop could become almost ‘invisible’ to the historical record.
Whatever the case may be with Mr Smith’s name or address, a more concrete case can be built around Mrs Cheetham.
She first appeared as Mary Cheetham in the entry for Saturday 17th June 1865, after she ‘met with an accident and broke her leg’. F***y Stenton returned the following Saturday and found that ‘Mary Cheetham is better of her lameness’.
The gradual recovery continued on Saturday 1st July, when Stenton noted that ‘Sarah Cheetham is doing well’, but there is a key difference – Mary is now Sarah!
Our first instinct is to assume Sarah Cheetham is another woman, but the next two entries prove she had the same injury and was thus the same lady. On Friday 7th July, F***y Stenton ‘Went up Gateford Road, saw Sarah Cheetham who is getting better of her lameness’. The next visit a few weeks later, on Saturday 22nd July, found that Sarah ‘mends slowly of her leg’.
In all, Mrs Cheetham appeared 10 times in the diary for her broken leg: 4 times as Mary, 5 as Sarah and one as ‘Mrs’. So which name should we believe?
While there are several Mary Cheethams in Worksop in both the 1861 and 1871 Censuses, there is not a single Sarah Cheetham. Interestingly, one Mary, a widow (thus ‘Mrs’) appearing only in the 1871 Census, lived at Number 5 of No.2 Court Gateford Road – the same street as the diary’s Mrs Cheetham.
Could this be the Mary Cheetham F***y Stenton visited? Like with Henry/John Smith, we cannot say with any surety which name was correct in the diaries.
Instead, we should focus on how these errors better bring the Bible Woman to life. Her immaculately-written diaries provide very few personal opinions among the meticulous record of individuals’ addresses, names and conditions, but, after a busy day of serving her Worksop community, even she could make mistakes and mix up people’s names.
