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    SteveHB

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    Ponytail

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    Edmund

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    Lysanderix

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Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation since 29/03/23 in all areas

  1. Enhanced version of the Tram Ride Through Sheffield in 1902.
    6 points
  2. https://twitter.com/showtownhistory/status/1263545380911931397/photo/1
    5 points
  3. Possibly Gledhow Mount Mansion, Roxholme Grove, Leeds? https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5158034
    5 points
  4. Another interesting website: https://historyfuzz.com/kerbstone-symbols
    5 points
  5. It could be Hang Bank Wood. Comparing the OS 1830s-1880s 6" map the wood has encroached on pasture which was continuous with Heeley common. The area is now occupied by Callow Road, round about SK 365 844
    4 points
  6. My guess (not being a tram afficionado) is Blackpool, the vehicle is an English Electric Tram, number 204, photo here:
    4 points
  7. Here's the Nickel Blanks building on Chester Street in a post blitz photo of what's now Devonshire Green.
    4 points
  8. Bramall Lane Bridge has been placed on the latest Local Heritage List. I've had a bit of back and forth over the last few months as there were some doubts expressed that the remains are the original structure, and the listing hedges its bets over Bramall Lane Bridge/Culvert! I'm pleased to have got some recognition especially with planning applications going on next door to the site. https://local-heritage-list.org.uk/south-yorkshire/asset/13007
    4 points
  9. The Vulcan Bomber was a delta-winged wonder, which I was very lucky enough to have gone down the runway at RAF Waddington (late 1970s) in the co-pilot seat when I was working at RAF Waddington, an experience I've treasured since and will never be forgtton. There were 5 men sat in the front of the Vulcan. For me it was a sad day when they were retired. Interestingly XH558 (in the pic) pilot was Ft Lt Martin Withers he was the pilot of XM607 on the first sortie to bomb the runway at the Falkland Isles back in 1982.
    4 points
  10. Sheffield Home of Football became a registered Charity on 21st August 2023 with a new board of trustees and the aim of establishing Sheffield’s first Footballing Heritage Museum and also to celebrate the city’s proud football heritage. Please check out our fledgling site https://sheffieldhomeoffootball.org/ We're looking for memorabilia related to any of the Sheffield clubs and of course. looking for volunteers to get involved!
    3 points
  11. This is that section now
    3 points
  12. One of the best features in one of the culverts on the Bagley Dyke (photo by me) 4ft Waterfall down into old brick pipe, its quite a beautiful sight! It is under/inside the Upwell street Viaduct.
    3 points
  13. Had a walk down to Dore & Totley Station last weekend to see how things are progressing on the platform upgrade. Link to Friends of Dore & Totley Station website: http://www.fodats.net/html/hv_capacity.html
    3 points
  14. I think that the ones marked on the old map in the post actually are in the ‘timepix’ database? You can search the map and bring up the images, clicking for a full size image of each.... https://www.timepix.uk/Collection-galleries/Attercliffe-Sheffield (I won't paste the actual images in here, as don't want to flout any copyright restrictions, but here are the links) https://www.timepix.uk/Collection-galleries/Attercliffe-Sheffield/i-h6Zf8F6 https://www.timepix.uk/Collection-galleries/Attercliffe-Sheffield/i-K4fXCJZ This photo actually shows your 'arches' in the bottom of the brick buttress https://www.timepix.uk/Collection-galleries/Attercliffe-Sheffield/i-7S44fnP/A Just a guess, but these arches may have been incorporated into the brick buttress as 'weep holes', to allow the ground water in the steelworks above to permeate through the wall and into the canal? I wouldn't imagine there was much by way of pipework drainage built into the groundworks, so this would allow the water to escape and possibly prevent any issues with the wall buckling under the pressure of waterlogged ground? (Just relating this to an issue I had with my garden wall, albeit on a far smaller scale?!) These 114 photos of Attercliffe on Timepix are a great find! I'll be bookmarking this site and checking back when they load more of the 'rp' reference point photos on there. Always some new discovery, from an unlikely topic of conversation?! Thanks!
    3 points
  15. Picture Sheffield link: https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?action=printdetails&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc03980&prevUrl= Fairbanks 1846 plan and survey of an estate at Newfield Green, indicates that Hang Bank Wood had been in the ownership of past Master Cutler Peter Brownhill (1807) and his widow Marianne. Peters father Luke Brownhill a scythsmith at Newfield Green, reputedly paid the highest premium ever received by the Cutler's Company of Sheffield to put Peter through an apprenticeship. John Williams in his 1637 survey of Sheffield Manor with other lands mentions a "pasture abutteth upon Newfield greene North and a common called Hanbanke south"
    3 points
  16. When I was born after the war my parents and brother were living in a little caravan on a field at Holmsfield and that was my house until it burnt down one winter. My birth certificate has on it an address of a relatives house where we never lived. We then moved into my Gran's house at Heeley, a bit crowded but lovely place to live, pulled down "because of flooding" , they then built on the same site. Not all the houses that were cleared were unfit, we lost two good houses that were demolished in the councils mass demolition. One problem was that many of the landlords ( some were councilors ) would not do repairs. This could have been enforced or they could have been compulsorily purchased by the council and renovated or offered for sale. I would sooner live in the terraced houses ( outside toilet and all ) that we lived in than the rabbit hutches that some people are forced to live in now. People are too fond of showing pictures of Sheffield houses when they were already empty, derelict, and ready for demolition though my memory is of scrubbed steps, cleaned windows and front room kept spotless with us kids not even allowed in. We lost whole communities because of mass demolition/destruction and modern Sheffield shows the results.
    3 points
  17. Lots of information on the above, maps and photographs in these fantastic books!….
    3 points
  18. Advertisement for Black-Jacks! Union Cockroach Paste from J. P. Hewitt, Division Street. 1916. y05255 Note the reference to the Sheffield Union Workhouse. Image from Sheffield Telegraph Year Book 1916 (page 85) (Local Studies 032.74 S).
    3 points
  19. Introduced in 1969: By 1980 they could be made out of Lego:
    3 points
  20. And a Very Happy and Prosperous 2024 to Everyone.
    3 points
  21. John Banners, Attercliffe, 1962 Fargate 1966
    3 points
  22. As this topic has popped up again I thought I would shed some light (!) on the subject from years gone by. I worked on them during the 1970's and 80's from time to time. We started putting them up in October, usually Sundays as there was no Sunday shopping back then. One of the things that always needed work on was the Goodwin fountain, checking the lights and replacing lamps and the coloured glasses, so it was emptied for us to do that. The Christmas tree was at the top of Fargate next to the fountain, so that needed stringing with festoon lights which usually involved a couple of cherry pickers working from each side and passing the cabling from one to the other while wrapping it around the tree. The larger items which spanned the roads were usually in various parts, so were put together on site and lifted and fixed to cables strung across to existing wall anchors. The electricity supplies came from some of the lamp posts along the roads, they had timeswitches which turned on late afternoon and off about midnight. We had to sort out how much electricity was being used for them, so when they were running we used to check the current in each switch post with a clamp around ammeter. Once when we were doing this we were approached by two plain clothes policemen. Apparently there was a visiting dignitary, and they were concerned we were planting bombs in lamp posts, that took some explaining.
    3 points
  23. 3 points
  24. Not exactly body snatchers Ponytail! But there were some strange goings-on in Norton Churchyard according to this Sheffied Independent article from 1860.
    3 points
  25. Welcome Samuel Gillatt, son of George (scissor forger) and Caroline, was born on 27th August 1867. His main career was as a file cutter, but he may have started catching rats to be worried by dogs. By 1901 Welcome and his wife Ada were at 165 Woodside Lane with 5 children, one of whom was Welcome junior aged 4. His first newspaper advert appears to be in the Mexborough & Swinton Times of 3rd December 1897: WELCOME GILLAT. Ratcatcher, open for engagements. Dealer in Ferrets. Ferrets lent on hire, ratting or rabitting. :- 25 Court, 2 house, Woodside Lane, Sheffield. In December 1901 as well as his ratcatching services, he advertised "Ship rats for sale" - an unusual Christmas present, or for worrying by dogs? In February 1919 Welcome was appointed "Official Ratcatcher to the City". This was the first time such an officer had been needed, but was due to the plague of rats which had grown during the war, mainly due to the increase in land under cultivation. Then as the winter weather arrived, they migrated to built up areas. Welcome had been catching rats for forty years, catching them alive with ferrets and a wire cage. Applications for his services had to be made through the Cleansing Department Superintendent. In March he caught 1,050 rats in four weeks, beating all previous records. Yorkshire County Council were granting 2d per rat killed to Sheffield City Council. In October 1919, Welcome had a great success in catching a wily old rat that frequented the Cathedral neighbourhood. This rat was fancied to be 'a grand old man' with a long grey beard and a splendid voice despite his years. Supposedly the rat danced on the Cathedral tombstones, and was a politician, addressing mass meetings of his tribe in Paradise Square each night. Welcome set out to 'bag him' and after a successful and exciting hunt declared "Yes, he's a beauty - he weighs just over a pound and will be one of the biggest we have in England". Welcome was so successful in his work that a bag of 40 rats a day was now considered a good one. In the "good old days" a bag of 375 in a day was possible. In August 1922 Welcome caught an outstanding specimen weighing 1 lb 5 oz at Mr Simmerson's house, 100 Nottingham Street. Mr Gillatt had netted the entrance to several holes when the rat was discovered in a fowlhouse. It jumped one of the nets and as it was making its escape Welcome grabbed it and captured it alive. He took it to the Telegraph offices to show it off, whereupon it attempted to snap at its captor. Welcome intended to have it stuffed, as "the finest specimen I have ever captured". He estimated that over his career he had killed tens of thousands in Sheffield alone, plus those in outlying districts. In 1927 he tamed and trained a fox, with the intention of using it to catch rats. In 1939, still the Corporation rat-catcher, he was living with Ada at Firshill Terrace. Welcome died in 1940. Welcome junior joined the Royal Navy in June 1915 as an armourer and was discharged in November 1921. He married Elsie McKay, also of Woodside Lane, in November 1919 and they had two girls, Edna and Joyce. Welcome junior died, a 33 year old bus conductor, at Lodge Moor Hospital in February 1930. Welcome senior's son Ernest, a fireman, married Frances Brayshaw in September 1927 and they named their son (born early in 1931) as Welcome. Welcome died in Sheffield in Oct/Nov/Dec 1996, and his wife Lilian Anita in 2018. Presumably this chap was the licensee on the photo of the unidentified licensed premises.
    3 points
  26. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.3489052,-1.4405904,
    3 points
  27. This photo shows children playing outside the Far Lees on Leighton Road.
    3 points
  28. I nominate the Bulls Head Inn, Monsal Dale. The modern building is very different. But the 1897 map has similarities. George Lowe was the landlord until his death after a long illness on Saturday afternoon, 1st August 1896 (maybe his wake was the reason for the photograph?) The sign does look like a bull's head to me. The inn was more popularly known as the Edgestone Head, and was a noted destination for trippers from Sheffield. Mr Lowe was good company and had a good many anecdotes and witty repartee. He was 52 and left a widow and six children, mostly grown up. He was buried at the family plot in Holmesfield. The licence was transferred to his widow, Mrs Alice Lowe - but in granting it, the Chairman of Bakewell Petty Sessions asked her to stop Sunday afternoon visitors from sitting under the veranda and jeering local church goers. (Note the veranda on the photograph). Alice died on Sunday afternoon 12th February 1899.
    3 points
  29. I think there may be one or more Porticos - this is the source I found https://crosthwaitecommercial.com/property-files/sheffield - infirmary road - heritage park.pdf
    3 points
  30. 3 points
  31. This painting showing Abbeydale House (the building with smoke coming out from the chimney) was more than likely painted in the early 1850s. John Rodgers moved into his newly built property in 1850, from his old home Hillsborough Hall.
    3 points
  32. Lord Mayor's Parade Saturday 5th June 1971. Parade Theme: City on the Move. Organised by the Sheffield Junior Chamber of Commerce. Lord Mayor, Harold Hebblethwaite. The President, Roger K. Cooke Parade Chairman, Peter M. Gauntlett Organisers of the 1971 Parade: Mike J. Brown; Brian W. Hudson; Tony Cross; Stuart T. Goff; Howard Culley; Gordon W. Oades; Alan M. Thompson; Gerry E. Bermingham; David Everingham; John Howard. Not pictured: D. C. Brammer & R. K. Cooke. Pauldens Ltd. (became Debenhams that year) winners of the Sheffield Chamber of Trade Trophy for best entry typifying service in Sheffield. The Display Department spent weeks cutting out polystyrene flowers on a hot wire (the smell was awful and if you weren't careful, burnt fingers) then painted in vibrant colours. If I remember correctly an Electric Organ was a main feature of the design, (Display Manager Gary Ellinger was determined for it to feature) Other than that my memory fails me about the float. 1970 Lord Mayor's Parade Photographs About the The Sheffield Junior Chamber of Commerce. These are just the main pages of the Souvenir Brochure, there were many pages of advertisements.
    3 points
  33. The precursor firm to Hawksworth and Eyre were established in 1796 and bought out in 1833 by Charles Hawksworth and John Eyre. Charles Hawksworth died aged 78 in March 1874 and the White Rails factory with 10 attached dwellings were sold, as was his residence at Rock Rise, Pitsmoor (109 Burngreave Road, corner with Rock Street). Mr Hawksworth had been a member of the first Town Council and had been Guardian of the Poor. In 1872 the partnership between James Bembridge, Thomas Hall and George Woolhouse (trading as Hawksworth and Eyre) was dissolved following Hall and Woolhouses' retirement. Under Bembridge's guidance the firm became a limited liability company in 1873. In 1875 the firm moved to 60 Rockingham Street. Originally they made Old Sheffield Plate but progressed into high class silver and electro-plate, including candelabras, candlesticks, tea service, cake baskets, bowls etc. Most of their holloware was sold in London. Hawksworth and Eyre exhibited at the 1930 "Sheffield Industries Week" held at Cole Brothers, but they ceased trading in November 1932 due to the Depression.
    3 points
  34. In 1910 the tramway was made two-way working. Previously (see 1905 map above) the line reduced to a single line at the end of Endcliffe Crescent.
    3 points
  35. 1950s/60s famous Radio Broadcaster Henry FRANKLIN ENGELMANN, was in Sheffield in 1958, being the celebrity guest at an O.A.P concert. ( It was at a school on Richmond Road I think! You got to the end of Richmond Hall Road and turned down left, school was down a driveway on the opposite side. My Gran & Grandpa used to go to the O.A.P club there, living on Spinkhill Road it was only a short walk away.) Gran was an avid listener to Franklin's radio shows, 'DESERT ISLAND DISCS' and 'DOWN YOUR WAY', and when she found he was to be at the concert, she couldn't wait to meet him. As it happened! the Telegraph photographer was there, and Gran & Grandpa got there pic taken with Franklin. Don't know HOW many pics Gran ordered, but the whole family, all friends & neighbours got one, she was so over the moon.
    3 points
  36. Front end loading box skip https://www.skipunits.com/
    3 points
  37. I had a walk along this footpath today. There are several small stone walls (photos below). My guess would be that they are the remains of footbridges across the conduit, the notches being to allow pedestrian access along the line of the conduit, and the foot high barriers in the notches to prevent any excess/flood water overflowing onto the bridges. Perhaps. Any better ideas?
    3 points
  38. Today I've explored the conduit route from Blackbrook Rd out to Redmires and there is loads of it intact at that end - I had no idea, but a few people have pointed me in good directions! A remarkable thing and something I'd only read about before, a new piece of Sheffield history for me - love it
    3 points
  39. I have started to digistise my old 35mm slides and film strips, not many of Sheffield unfortunately, but I thought these might be of interest. A show jumping event at Owlerton stadium in 1968. Not that I had an interest in the event but went with a few from school (just left) to gain a little photography experience. I have just featured those that also have an interesting backdrop. You can see how much smokey industry was around at the time. Noteable are shots of Burdalls and the towers. In one shot you can see the newly built Shirecliffe College, I believe 1968 was it's completion. I went to Shirecliffe College same year after leaving school but it hadn't been quite completed or was not ready for students so we started life at the old City School on Leopold Street. It's likely then that we all moved up there for the September term 1969. There is a shot of a lecture on picturesheffield (Ref Noy03422) taken from the back of the room which I am in. 2nd left by the window.
    3 points
  40. One of a series of aerial photographs I took in 2007
    3 points
  41. Firth Brown Photographic unit It may come as a surprise to some that, at one time, large companies had their own photographic departments – pre digital of course - and the Sheffield steel industry was no exception. Both English Steel (now Sheffield Forgemasters) and Firth Brown Ltd had their own photographers and printers. That at English Steel was headed up by one Alan Faulkner-Taylor and Firth Brown's by Stan Thorpe, later, by the very likeable Mr. Jack Dalton. Initially this unit was concerned with producing photo prints from the negatives made within the research laboratories via microscopy &c and were always under the jurisdiction of the Brown Firth Research labs. As the company grew, and many satellites added, then the need for a more comprehensive facility, allied to their publicity department's requirements, became obvious and thus the department grew into a full-blown studio, film making and colour printing set up. (see the Yorkshire film archive https://www.yfanefa.com/record/6573) There was a small well-equipped cinema in the old research labs building on Princes Street before the then new laboratory was built on Attercliffe Road (and opened by the chairman of Rolls Royce). At the time of writing,this building, in a rather sorry state, remains to let. Over the years a vast and priceless collection of photographs was built up which showed the steel making processes and their finished products. Moreover, the company produced it's own in-house magazine "Firth Brown News" which catered for the staff and also acted as a link with the company's customers. Many of the more important of these negatives and plates were, I believe, rescued by Kelham Island Industrial Museum but of the thousands available I guess they only retained a small proportion of the most historically important of these. The department was located off Norroy Street (between Princes Street and Saville Street) and was underground, which prevented any problems with daylight! Unlike the Firth Brown Medical Centre, on Carlise Street, which has been the subject of many Urban explorer videos which reside on YouTube, (and which, incidentally, had the company's small bore .22 rifle range above it - wonderful!) the photographic department was once a casualty clearing centre in the war and was a rabbit warren of rooms, part of which housed the research lab's creep laboratory as a separate entity. There was an escape hatch, replete with iron ladder in the cine editing suit which emerged in what was the director’s garage above! Access to the department was by a steeply sloping ramp, large enough to allow trucks to back down, so necessary when large items of lighting equipment had to be moved to filming and photography locations both in Sheffield and elsewhere. The latter included Firth Brown Tools, Firth Vickers Stainless Steels, Firth Brown Castings (Scunthorpe), Firth Derihon Stampings (which had a factory on Dunlop Street and later, next to the old tram sheds on Attercliffe Road and also at Darley Dale, this being a "shadow factory" in the war and hence out in Derbyshire, and which produced forgings for Rolls Royce for Spitfires &c), and Shepcote Lane Rolling Mills. Darley Dale plant is still operational, albeit under foreign ownership – surprise! When I joined the department in 1963, from Photofinishers at Nether Edge (see:https://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topic/15196-photo-finishers-sheffield-ltd-50-years-ago/#comment-129921) there were eight or nine working here. The large studio was custom designed for the photography of stainless steel products and painted all white with recessed lighting in the ceiling, the better to shoot cutlery and associated kitchenware produced from Firth Vickers's steels. The latter company also had a house magazine (curiously named "Enchiridion") which required our photographic content. One of the more onerous jobs – albeit fairly rare – was photography of accident scenes, which is no surprise when one looks at the shop floor employees on film displaying not a trace of PPE gear we are so used to seeing these days. Usually, we were called out early in the mornings when breakfast had not been thoroughly digested! The odd fingertip in a machine was tolerable but there were some really nasty ones. There were essentially four darkrooms, one for processing film and plates, one for making contact prints from the main research labs' microscopy and one for making enlargements: another for the colour processing. There was also a large room housing an impressive Barcro camera on rails, for copying material up to something like six by eight feet, which was backlit as well as having two trough lights. All this with the requisite huge stainless wash sinks, glazing machine and trimming table. As for equipment, this included some fine old Gandolfi plate cameras from half plate up to whole plate in size (8.5" x 6.5"), MPP 5" x 4" technical cameras, Rollieflex and Rolliecord film cameras. The cine department depended on Bolex 16mm cameras together with the necessary editing gear. The only out of house process was the professionally produced narration. The resultant films were a tribute to Reg Frost who specialized in this film making operation. A POW in the war he amusingly came up at work with the odd German exclamations learnt at the camp and which I can recall to this day. Sadly, he was, one day, found hanging half out of his VW Beetle, having suffered a fatal heart attack on the way to work. The magnificent main entrance area to the Firth Brown offices on Savile Street displayed 60"x40" colour transparencies, suitable mounted within custom made back lit cabinets (from the joiners' shop) and which were printed in the department. Notable too, was the beautifully panelled entrance hall at Firth Vickers, on Weedon Street, whole whole area now a sad cleared area. The centre of the works was bisected by the railway to the Wicker goods yard, but upon the latter’s demise, this was reinstated as a roadway. The modern Special Melted Products Ltd appears to remain the last survivor on site from those days of yesteryear. I worked there for 17 years and in 1980 when I left, the company was more or less finished, mainly as the result of a takeover by a man - who will remain nameless- who was regarded as an asset stripper, the "Old guard" having slowly left by degrees. This was perhaps expedited by a very serious accident in a newly completed electric melting shop, which resulted in rivers of liquid steel escaping and the resultant fire which quickly followed. It is probable that in some form this underground complex still exists because the old red sliding entrance doors have been replaced with a modern roller shutter type and what used to be the directors garage area round the corner both have a notice that the property belongs to Castle Brooke Tools (carbide). Moreover, around the corner on Saville Street is a blue doorway which used to be the entrance the handy Saville Street post office. Of the Lord Nelson pub on Norroy street, adjacent to the photo lab entrance, and watering hole for many a thirsty furnaceman, unsurprisingly not a trace remains!
    3 points
  42. A couple of Picture Sheffield photographs showing the row of cottages in the ownership of the Brownells, (No 5 on the plan!)
    2 points
  43. Looking towards Blonk Street Bridge
    2 points
  44. Like Heartshome I fished for mussels at Wire Mill Dam (though always putting them back, usually at speed, in the direction of the ducks). Aged about 10 my Dad used to take me and my inflatable dinghy there, and I would row up and down. I used to imagine that I could see lots of sunken model boats on the bottom, and day-dreamed about using a long pole with a hook to "raise the Titanics". Thomas Boulsover started construction of the dam and goits in 1761. Originally it was a saw-mill with two dams. By 1794 it was a rolling-mill, with 8 troughs, and employed 8 men. After Boulsover's death, a Mrs Hutton is named as occupier in the rate books, and after 1800 Hutton & Mitchell operated it. After 1817 Mitchell Wreaks and Co. advertised as manufacturers of scythes, saws and edge-tools, though they also had premises in town. In 1826 there were still two water wheels, comprising four saw troughs with glazers, and six edge-tool troughs with glazers. On Samuel Mitchell's bankruptcy in 1832 half the works was put up for sale and the advert included a rolling mill, emery mill and circular saw mill as well as troughs. The Silcocks took over the Hall and works, Phoebe Silcock being Thomas Boulsover's grand-daughter. The 1841 rate book lists three wheels (probably buildings rather than water wheels) - an Emery wheel, a Saw wheel and a Cutler wheel. The emery wheel was often unoccupied. Possibly around 1855 the dam was was converted from two to one, and one wheel dismantled the remaining wheel driving a wire-mill. The final occupier was Charles Ramsden who advertised in 1865 as a "manufacturer of all kinds of cast steel wire, for crinoline, ropes, fish hooks, needles &c" In 1896 the Parks Committee purchased the Dam and adjacent property, as an addition to the existing Endcliffe Woods public park. The property was in two parts (25 and 16 acres) and cost £6,100.
    2 points
  45. This map shows the location of the well. Link to Friends group Friends of Graves Park
    2 points
  46. Hi all! The day was brilliant! Met some great people, real friendly locals in Tickhill + sold lots of things for our Charity 👍 😁
    2 points
  47. Mr Henry Carr Booth of Spring Leigh Rundle Road What was a magnificent entrance can be found at 47 Rundle Road, the house was originally named Spring Leigh, this was well before houses gained numbers and it was one of the first properties built if not the first on Rundle Road. The now dilapidated house which was built in 1881 by Sheffield cutlery manufacturer Mr Henry Carr Booth and it must have been fabulous when it was finished. Henry was first mentioned in directories in 1851 as working out of Norfolk Lane premises, he was listed as a table knife manufacturer but prior to this he was in partnership with a Samuel Bocking but they parted company in 1850, in the 1851 census Henry Carr Booth & Company employed twenty workers and at that time he was living in 129 Fitzwilliam Street. By the year 1856 he’s listed as a maker of table knives, Bowie knives, daggers and razors, his business was on the up and up as by 1861 he was now employing thirty one men, nine boys and four girls, seems his Norfolk Lane shop had become to small for his growing business so in 1876 he had moved into the Norfolk Works at 109 Arundel Street, by this time he’s added table forks, spear point knives and butchers knives to his range of production, he was also exporting his goods around the world. His products and his workers made him a very wealthy man so much so he was able to buy a sizable a plot of land on Rundle Road and he built his dream house, Spring Leigh, no expense was spared, his front gate had a cast iron track set into the stone path to ensure the gate always opened correctly. On November 1st 1882 Henrys wife Mary died aged 62, she was laid to rest in Ecclesall All Saints churchyard, her loss severely affected Henry after all those years together, I would only be speculating by saying that Mary’s death brought Henry to an early grave as he died just a few months later on the 27th of March 1883 and he joined his love of his life in the same grave in the All Saints churchyard. I couldn’t say that the building of Spring Leigh used up a sizable part of his fortune as in his will he only left £2,370 a great deal at that time but so much less than his counterparts had left, his business had ceased to be by the end of the 1890s as his address on Arundel street was taken over by H. H. Vivian & Co. Limited, German silver, brass & copper manufacturers & nickel refiners. This area of Sheffield was just a collection of fields bounded by Psalter Lane, Abbeydale Road and Sharrow Lane, there was a bridleway which existed between Sharrow Lane and Cherry Tree Road, the man who was really responsible for the development of the area was Cutlery Manufacturer, George Wostenholm, while visiting Kenwood in America close to Oneida Lake in New York State, the views he saw fired him to create his own Kenwood in Sharrow, Robert Marnock drew up a plan for the area, the project took place between 1851 and 1853, Marnock was assisted by local builder Thomas Steade, Steade Road was named after him, he did live for a while in Chipping House, Marnock designed tree lined roads with Steade building houses along these roads, today you can see the result of these three men’s vision, sadly building outside of the town sent Steade into bankruptcy. Robert Marnock was born on the 12th of March 1800 in Kintore, Aberdeenshire, he was working as a gardener at Bretton Hall, Wakefield, in 1834 he entered a competition to design a Botanical Garden in Sheffield, his design won the competition and he duly supervised the setting out of the gardens on completion he was appointed its first curator, for a time after leaving Sheffield he had a business as a Nurseryman in Hackney but after laying out the garden of the Royal Botanical Garden in Regents Park, he was appointed curator in 1840. After his retirement in 1869, he returned to garden design. Among his later commissions were Weston Park, Sheffield; Alexandra Park, Hastings; Rousdon, Devon; and Warwick Castle. Robert Marnock died at the Oxford & Cambridge Mansions in London on the 16th of November 1889, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered at Kensal Green Cemetery London. Spring Leigh, is now in a very sad state but you can see it was a beautiful house when it was first built, today the house is still occupied by the solitary owner, his mother died some years ago and left him the house, his family fortunes have declined and he doesn’t have the money to restore the house to what it should be, he is very concerned what will happen to it when he finally leaves the house, I’ve read that he doesn’t want it demolished or altered in any way. It contains many original features and is unusual in having that glass observation structure on top. The estate was formerly much larger but the present owner’s family had to sell off land for other housing as they finances declined. You can walk past any time day or night and you will see a single light bulb burning on what may be the landing of the house, this light never goes out. A friend of mine, Phil Glew, who lives close to the house, told me that his elderly neighbour informed him that when Yorkshire Cricket team played matches at Bramall Lane, it was Spring Leigh where they came to practice as it was reported that it had a full size cricket pitch at the rear. For further information see Geoff Tweedale's Directory of Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers 1740 / 2013
    2 points
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