The Forfeit Feast & The Barrack Tavern

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This article first appeared in the Transactions of The Hunter Archaeological Society and is reproduced by kind permission of the Society

THE FORFEIT FEAST AND THE BARRACK TAVERN.

On the menu for the Forfeit Feast, sometimes called the "Little Feast," held on June 29th 1926, the Master Cutler, Mr. Thomas R. Ellin, gave some interesting information concerning this function. This information, with much additional matter, is given below. Mr. Ellin has kindly provided the illustrations which accompany these notes.

Mr. R. E. Leader in his History of the Cutlers' Company, states that the Forfeit Feast was first held in 1814 and seems to have proved so agreeable to the Company that by a resolution of February 24th 1815, it was made a permanent institution.

The resolution set forth that the holding of regular monthly meetings was no longer necessary (in consequence of the Act passed in the previous year) the Company should in future assemble on the summons of the Master, the names to be called three times, with a forfeit of a shilling for absence at each call, “and that the monies thus forfeited be expended in a dinner to be ordered at such place and time within the month of August as he may think proper:"

The Diary of Thomas Asline Ward, Peeps into the Past, suggests an earlier year than 1814 for the inauguration of the Forfeit Feast. Under the date of August 16th 1810, he records his presence at the Barrack Tavern, "it being the day for expending the forfeits incurred for non-attendance."

At an earlier date, August 6th 1806, he mentions that his father "went to a dinner of the Cutlers' Company at the Barrack Tavern."

The Editors of the Diary have placed the words "Forfeit Feast," in brackets, against this entry.

In his reference to the dinner on August 21st 1815, Mr. Ward wrote "I dined at the Barrack Tavern with the Cutlers' Company, it being the Annual Forfeit Feast."

On August 22nd 1816, Mr. Ward was elected Master Cutler and on the following day he attended the Forfeit Feast held at the Barrack Tavern. He was sworn in and presided at the Cutlers' Feast early in the following month.

In 1821 it was resolved to hold the Forfeit Feast on August 22nd "at Mr. Saynor's the new Bowling Green," which the Sheffield Mercury of August 25th 1821, described as being "near to the pleasant village of Upperthorpe."

The description of the opening of the Bowling Green and of the Forfeit Feast is such an excellent example of the journalistic style of the day that it may be quoted in full; it runs :

The opening of the new Bowling Green, near to the pleasant village of Upperthorpe, was recently celebrated by the friends and subscribers thereto, in the very spacious room that extends throughout the front of the handsome house, which has been built by Mr. John Saynor, on the ground adjoining. A company, consisting of nearly fifty persons, partook of a dinner, distinguished for its excellence, on the occasion. Mr. Furniss, in Westbar-green, presided, and with good wine and good company promoted a spirit of conviviality, that did not subside till a late hour. A band of music attended and contributed much to the enjoyment of the day.

On Wednesday last the Cutlers' Company had their annual forfeit feast, at the above mentioned house, which is likely to become a popular place of resort for dinner, &c., parties in the summer season, both the situation and accommodation being, as we are informed, of the most favourable description. The gentlemanly deportment of the Master Cutler, J. D. Skelton, Esq., in the chair, added to a very good dinner, and choice wines produced a feeling of enjoyment the influence of which kept the company together, and seemingly most happy, till night's late warning gave the signal to depart.

Reproductions are given of invitation cards to two Forfeit Feasts to be held at Mr. Saynor's Bowling Green. Both have embossed ornamental borders but neither bears the year of issue.

The one having Mr. Colley's name as Master Cutler was for 1822, the other only bears the name of the recipient who was invited to the "Forfeit Dinner" on "Wednesday the 6th inst." As August was the month fixed for this function it probably refers to 1823 or 1828 as August 6th fell on a Wednesday in those years.

Mr. Leader states that the last Forfeit Feast to be held at Mr. Saynor's was that of 1831. He says that "For two years during the building of the new Hall no forfeits were collected," nor were the Feasts held, and that from 1834 the Company dined on its own premises.

In 1882 the date of the Forfeit Feast was changed from August to June 29th, Thomas Hanbey's birthday, and was combined with the dinner held on that anniversary.

In 1883 ladies graced the tables for the first time instead of being relegated to the Ladies' Gallery where they first appeared in 1864.

John Saynor was a member of a family of cutlers whose premises were in Bank Street on the site occupied later by the Union Bank. The Sheffield Directory of 1817 describes him as - Saynor, John, Vitualler, Pea Croft; that of 1821 gives - Saynor, John, Hawke Inn, 62 Solly Street.

In a Directory of the West Riding, printed in 1822, he is described as of the Falcon Inn, 62 Pea Croft. The same Directory gives Samuel Turner as tenant of the Barrack Tavern Hill Foot.

The Directory of 1825 gives John Saynor as of the Bowling Green, Barrack Tavern, or alternatively as of the Barrack Tavern, Hill Foot, and Joseph Cooper as tenant of the Falcon Inn, 63 Pea Croft.

By 1833 John Saynor had removed to the Paul Pry, 64 Pea Croft, and Samuel Frith had succeeded him at the Barrack Tavern.

The Directory of 1837 does not contain the name of John Saynor; William Ashforth is given as the tenant of the Falcon, 64 Pea Croft, and Samuel Frith as that of the Barrack Tavern.

The entries in the Directories are somewhat confusing. John Saynor was evidently in occupation of the house he had erected adjoining the "new Bowling Green" in August 1821, yet in the Directories of that and the following year he is given as of Pea Croft or Solly Street. Either he combined the Bowling Green with his older business in Pea Croft or the Directories were not up to date; probably the latter is the correct solution.

Fairbank's Map of Sheffield, 1808, shows the Barrack Tavern as a detached, oblong building, set back slightly from Penistone Road and with a projection or bay window on the side towards Barrack Lane.

It occupies the northern angle of the site and on the south is a large open space or garden with a sloping bank next Penistone Road. To the south-west, and divided from the Tavern grounds by a wall, there was a bowling green. This abutted upon Barrack Lane and between the green and Walkley Road, now Infirmary Road, were gardens.

Within these, on the side adjoining the green, is a building, possibly a garden house or may be a pavilion connected with the green. On the north-west side of Barrack Lane were the Barracks; these were erected in 1794 and had accommodation for two troops of cavalry. These old Barracks, "rendered conspicuous by their whitewashed walls," were superseded by the present Barracks in 1850 although the buildings are shown on the Ordnance Map of 1853.

The Plan of Sheffield by John Leather issued in 1823, and that by John Tayler in 1832, show the same arrangement of tavern, bowling green, garden and garden house as appear on Fairbank's Map of 1808.

The Ordnance Map of 1853 shows an enlarged Barrack Tavern, extended towards the south-west, but still retaining the bay window towards Barrack Lane. A new bowling green is shown to the south-east, covering the ground next Penistone Road. The old green, the gardens next Walkley Road and part of the Tavern grounds are at this date formed into a cricket ground.

In 1855 the Tavern was sold, shorn of its garden and green, and a new road, now Balaclava Road, is shown upon a deed of this date, which may be regarded as that when the land was "developed."

The accompanying photograph shows the Barrack Tavern practically as it stands to-day; it is no longer a licensed house. The three-storey building, with the square shaped attic windows, is the oldest portion and probably dates from the early years of the nineteenth century; there is still evidence of a former bay window on the right of the larger doorway.

The projecting wing on the left and the one storey shops were built after 1855. The extension on the right may have been part of the building shown on the Ordnance Map of 1853, but it is not part of the original house.

It is not possible to say with certainty whether the "handsome house" erected by John Saynor adjoining his "new Bowling Green" was the Barrack Tavern, or whether it was an enlarged pavilion next the green; his name has not been found upon the deeds connected with the property.

An Abstract of Title shows that up to 1803 the land belonged to the Duke of Norfolk and that on the lst and 2nd of April of that year, by an Indenture of Lease and Release, Thomas Wybergh of Clifton Hall and Vincent Henry Eyre, Trustees under an Act of Parliament, 42 George III, made an absolute sale of the property to Thomas Rawson of Wardsend. The land was described as:

All those three closes or parcels of Land situate lying and being in the township of Nether Hallam in the parish of Sheffield aforesaid on the South East side of the Barracks and commonly called or known by the several names and containing the separate quantities following that is to say The Far Close la. 3r. 3p. The Tavern Close 2a. 2r. 35p. and The Tavern Piece 30p.

The Far Close was resold in 1804.

A hundred years ago the Barrack Tavern was a country inn and one which, as the Mercury suggested, "was likely to be a favourite resort for dinner, &c., parties." But it was a dining resort before 1821.

Arthur Elliott, extracts from whose diary are given on pp. 171-185, supra, records that he dined there with Dr. Browne on June 21st 1799 "and afterwards visited the Infirmary."

The Iris of September 11th 1810, records that Mr. Barton of the Barrack Tavern served an "elegant and sumptuous" dinner in the "best manner" to about eighty gentlemen who dined with the Cutlers' Company in their Hall. This was in lieu of the Feast which was not held in that year.

Mr. Asline Ward wrote of the Tavern in 1811 as a "very private place where some friends resided," and in 1824 he recorded that on July 19th he dined there "with the Committee of the Gas Company, of which I was elected a member this day."