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  1. I am currently doing some work on the Woodthorpe estate in Sheff, I’ve become quite intrigued by stories of a pit that used to exist in the area. I was aware that an old colliery used to exist up there and when I’ve had the chance I’ve mentioned the issue whilst chatting to older residents.Info is vague, but it seems to have been situated at the very top of Woodthorpe, between there and Manor Top – the area is currently derelict, apart from one brick “shed” which could possibly be the shaft top – there is also another area which I’ve noticed is always given a wide berth by the grass cutters – they never go anywhere close to a circular indentation of wild scrub. I’ve been told that the pit buildings were situate behind the fire station on Manor Top and that a spoil heap was on the other side of Mansfield/City Rd where the TA Centre is now. Another story is that the old house on Applegarth (just off Manor Top/Mansfld Rd) was the manager’s house. It seems sometimes to be referred to as Manor Pit, but more usually Woodthorpe Pit. I know that that the whole Manor/Woodthorpe area is riddled with old bell-pits, however, this pit seems to have been a more recognisable deep-mine colliery in the late 19th/20thC sense. Does anyone know more about it?– No one I’ve met seems able to put a date on opening or closure. Certainly closed well before nationalisation I believe – most people who know of it seem to be talking about it as if they themselves were told about it – although many seem to definitely remember the spoil heap, a tramway to it under the Mansfld Rd and also the shaft top(s) before capping off and the colliery buildings which (according to stories told to me) stood years after use before demolition. Be interesting to know if it was rail/tramway connected too (unlikely) – or maybe it just supplied the local steel industry or domestic market by cart/lorry? There’s also a “Pit Lane” which is off Mansfield Rd, Manor Top, at the side of the Fire Station – goes nowhere now of course, other than down to the area of grass which must be the old site of the pit. I’ve done a bit of research and it seems that the pit was owned by the Nunnery Colliery Co. and seems to have been working in the 1920s, with a decent sized workforce - but little reference after that time. Can anyone tell me more about it? Particularly opening and closing dates and how long the pit stayed intact after closure. A photo would be great, but that’s probably hoping for too much!
  2. The railways goods/coal yard or depot on Queen's Road was the home of, or base for, a number of well-known Sheffield coal merchants up to sometime in the late 1950s or early 60s. I can remember W H Hewitt's, Ward & Longbottom's (?), etc. It was a very busy place at one time. Does anyone have any memories of the place? I have searched for some pictures, showing the coal waggons, the coal lorries and the row of coal merchants' offices, but I have never found one. The entrance faced across to Duchess Road (?).
  3. Ponytail

    Plumpers Hotel

    The (old) Plumpers Hotel sited at the junction with Bawtry Road was rather a sharp turn and I remember as a child when travelling in the car with my parents, my mother always used to pipe up with a very nervous, "Careful Bob! it's a bad turning." which made me duck down in the back seat in fear of impending doom. In later years I don't think that turning was as nerve wracking as turning off Tinsley Roundabout when drivers realise they're in the wrong lane for Bawtry Road and others are gathering speed for the M1 slipway. Or coming from Bawtry Road drivers who think they can slip into the traffic on the island. After the demise of the steelworks in the area during the 1980's and being in rather an isolated position the Plumpers experienced a big fall off in trade and closed.
  4. Ponytail

    Woodthorpe Colliery

    Link to images restored: Mansfield Road looking towards the junction with Hurlfield Road with spoil tip on the right. 6th June 1955. u04511 Photographer: City Engineers and Surveyors Office. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u04511&pos=1&action=zoom&id=40008 https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u04510&pos=1&action=zoom&id=40007 Also: Queen Mary Road, showing former Colliery tip at back of road (former Woodthorpe Colliery)s18968 Photographer: Press Photo Agency. Queen Mary Road, showing colliery tip (former Woodthorpe Colliery). s18969 Photographer: Press Photo Agency. Map of Richmond, Spring Wood and Woodthorpe, c. 1855. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02931&pos=5&action=zoom&id=93426 From a volume of maps of the parish of Handsworth, based on the enclosure award maps (1805) and corrected up to 1855. Marked: Richmond; Richmond Road; Lamb Hill; Woodthorpe Common; Woodthorpe; Intake;Turnpike Road; Springwood Cottage; Woodthorpe Colliery; Coal Pit; Spring Wood; Parish Boundary. Woodthorpe Colliery 1854-1930. https://www.mindat.org/loc-383123.html Nunnery Woodthorpe Pit 1854-1928. https://www.mindat.org/loc-380201.html Sheffield Collieries (Sheffield, Handsworth, Woodthorpe, High Green, Chapeltown) Wm. Stobart. Section of the several beds of coal and ironstone. 1817. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/c98cc644-645e-4203-9b6b-e3a7aea127c6
  5. My first thought Fir Croft House was connected to farming, but it appears not; unless anyone knows different. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;v00719&pos=1&action=zoom&id=42527 Bryan Woodriff in his book, "Shire Green, Wincobank and Ecclesfield, writes, "It is said that Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn Law Rhymer, lived here for a while when he left Masboro (Masbrough, Rotherham) He wrote some wonderful verses about Wincobank Hill." A statue of Elliott (1781-1849) was first erected in Market Place, Sheffield but later removed to Weston Park 1875. t03901 Photographer: Michael Beach. Situated at the S.E. corner of Bellhouse Road and Shiregreen Lane, Fir Croft House was not too far from Wincobank Hill. Shown on the OS Map of 1850 marked Fir Croft Cottage but not identified in the 1856 or 1862 Directories. Whites 1879 Directory records Thomas Tweedale, colliery proprietor, Brightside and Grimesthorpe, living at Fir Croft House. By the Directories of 1901, 1905 & 1911, Luther Heaton Drabble (b.1857), dental surgeon is resident at Fir Croft. y08254 1911 identifies Fir Croft, Shiregreen Lane, Shiregreen and Luther Heaton, Drabble has a dental surgery, 69 Wicker, Sheffield. OS Map CCLXXXVIII 1924. Marked Fir Croft House. Bryan Woodriff recounts Drabble was the last owner of Fir Croft House. Later demolished, the Graves Trust Houses were built on the site. Shiregreen Lane looking towards Bellhouse Road, showing clear vista into Concord Park after removal of privet hedges with the Graves Trust Houses visible on the left. 9th September 1954. s19450 A Dentist Surgery was in operation from one of the houses further back down Shiregreen Lane. Although a patient in the 1960's my memory fails me as to the name of the dentist. On the former House site at the junction of Bellhouse Road /Shiregreen Lane there used to be a big tree, fenced off shrubbery and a well used telephone box (at least up until the late 1960's early 70's) with Hoskins chip shop and Slaters grocery shop, (later incorporated the P. O.) Bellhouse Road, below the Trust Houses. Google It's probably my memory playing tricks with me but these aren't the Graves Trust Houses I remember; perhaps they were demolished? I'd like to discover when and who built Fir Croft House and any information connected with the property or the residents, especially the possible Ebenezer Elliott connection. Some years ago I researched Thomas Badger, solictors Bill Books and found his accounts related to various business he carried out over a number of years for Elliott in both Rotherham area and Sheffield but I don't remember coming across a reference to Fir Croft.
  6. Hello everyone! I'm doing research on behalf of Tapton Hall about their history for the upcoming Heritage Day events. I'm mainly focusing on the Shore/Nightingale Family. Vickers Family and Wilson Family alongside the Masonic history. I have most of the information, but thought it was worth asking to see if there was anything I could add! If anyone has any information about these families, or any personal connection to the Hall then please let me know. Especially looking for photographs, maps or items which could be displayed.
  7. Gez

    Plumpers Hotel

    Steel workers Pub, bottom of Shepcote Lane.
  8. Gez

    BSC Shepcote Lane

    © GEZ

  9. Were these premises part of Queens Road Coal Depot? T. W. Ward, Coal Offices, (Queens Road?) 23rd September 1936.s07237
  10. Not really changed that much as you can see but here's a photo of Dykes Lane shops from the 1960's if anyone knows where that is Just up from Malin Bridge school
  11. THE FAIRBANKS OF SHEFFIELD From early in the 18th century, there was no name better known in Sheffield than Fairbank; and although the family seems to have left the town nearly a hundred years ago, the name is yet known to Sheffield antiquaries, lawyers and surveyors, through what has for many years been called The Fairbank Collection, which consists of thousands of maps, plans, sections, elevations, surveys, field-books, letters, diaries, account-books, office-drafts and papers; left, at the death of William Fairbank Fairbank in 1848, for disposal by his executors. In tracing the descent of the Sheffield branch of the Fairbank family, we shall also make clear the origin and devolution of The Fairbank Collection, which passed into the safe keeping of Mr Reginald D. Bennett, surveyor of Sheffield, on the death of his predecessor in business, the late Mr Alfred Smith Denton, in 1927. In The Fairbank Collection, we find much Sheffield history, extending for about a hundred and fifty years from Queen Anne to Queen Victoria, written not in words but in maps; and this form of local history brings into prominence many topographical facts and interesting events, which are not to be found elsewhere. Such a comprehensive collection of cartographic material, available for the history of a circumscribed area and period, is probably unique; and it invites the fullest examination. The four generations of Fairbank, shown in the above pedigree, were the men who brought the collection into existence, and at the same time made their name famous in the 18th and 19th centuries, first in Sheffield and later throughout England. William at the head of the pedigree, his son, grandsons and great-grandson surveyed the whole of Sheffield and many miles round, together with other landed estates in neighbouring and also distant counties. The work of surveying innumerable small holdings in Sheffield extended over many years; and was undertaken for private landowners and public bodies at a time when little, if any, land surveying had been attempted in the district; and it is evident that the land owners in and around Sheffield gladly availed themselves of the opportunity provided by the coming of the Fairbanks, to have their lands surveyed for the first time. The surveys of Sheffield properties, made prior to 1771, were so numerous and comprehensive that they enabled the second William Fairbank to publish a street-map in 1771, which he revised, and extended in 1797; and, as the town expanded in every direction, a third street map of Sheffield was published in 1808 by the brothers William and Josiah. These three maps are full of interest, they are yet in use and for many purposes are constantly referred to; they were prepared from exact measurements, taken mostly by the second William and his son Josiah. These outlined dimensions with notes and dates were sketched in field-books carried in the pocket; and all measurements were entered with great accuracy, when working on the land. The field books were paper covered pocket books, which they sometimes called Dimension Books; but more usually Field-Books. A half-tone illustration of one of these Field-Books is here reproduced. Nearly three hundred of these Field Books, containing, several thousand separate surveys, now form part of The Fairbank Collection. In some of the earlier field-books the buildings are shown in what was then a new method of drawing, called isometrical projection, by which the elevation and ground-plan of a building are represented in one view. Another series of note-books, extending from 1752 to 1800, contains full particulars of' buildings, either erected or altered by a Fairbank ; these building-books are full of interesting detail as to the cost of work by masons, carpenters; slaters, glaziers, painters, decorators and others; this series also contains many plans, sections and elevations of buildings in Sheffield and the outlying district. FROM WESTMORLAND TO YORKSHIRE. The earliest record of the Fairbank family is to be found in the will of Richard Fayrbank of Heptonstall near Halifax, dated the 20th August 1517. He was born at Kendal in Westmorland about 1470, and his wife was Alice daughter of John Colcroft, a member of a well known Yorkshire family. Richard, by his will, left a sum of iii s. iv d. to his `Fader at Kendall ; and he directed An Order to be said at the chapel in Kendal, where he was born. This makes it clear that, the family, whose name is variously spelt but for convenience throughout these notes is referred to as Fairbank, came from Westmorland shortly before 1517 and settled in and around Halifax in Yorkshire, where records of the family are to be found, covering two centuries or more. From the Halifax stock many branches spread far afield, some reaching Sheffield in the second half of the 16th century, when we find a Robert Fairbank of Sheffield. In his will, dated the 23rd September, 1585, he is described as of Sheffield in the county of York draper; and he expressed a wish to be buried in the parish church there. He left v s. to the poor man's box in the church and amongst the legacies was iii l. vi s. viii d. to his apprentice Mark Fairbank; x s. for his godson George Fairbank and one black doublet for John son of George Fairbank. His two brothers-in-law, Henry and Lawrence Hall, were legatees; and another apprentice John Vicars was to receive iii s. iv d.; the residue of his estate he left to his wife Alice, who proved his will at York on the 5th November 1585. He was buried on the 1st October 1585 at Sheffield parish church, as appears from the Sheffield parish register. If, in accordance with his wish, he was buried inside the church, some monumental inscription might have now existed; but no trace of such inscription can be found. As he had two brothers-in-law named Hall, his wife presumably was Alice Hall; and there is some trace of two Lawrence Halls, father and son, living at Fulwood about that time. It will be seen that in Robert Fairbank's will, there is no reference to a son or daughter, and we must assume that no children survived him; but from the Sheffield parish register it appears that he buried a daughter Alice on the 15th October 1579. That being so, William at the head of the pedigree was not descended from Robert the draper and we must look elsewhere for his ancestors. As disclosed by the will, there were other Fairbanks living in Sheffield during Robert's lifetime and an examination of the Sheffield parish register, from its commencement in 1560 to 1700, only discloses two Fairbanks in addition to those already mentioned; namely, 1574-5 January lst Elizabeth Fayrebanckes (sic) buried; and 1589 August 18th George Hawe married Alice Fayrebanckes (sic). Of Elizabeth nothing is known, but Alice who married George Hawe may have been the widow of Robert the draper. In 1566 Robert Fairbank paid a fee-farm rent of three pence for church-land in Sheffield, due to the lord of the manor; and in 1569 there was a Sheffield assessment `for makynge of soulders' as follows, xx s. for the equipment of Robert Fairbank. In 1668 the Society of Friends was founded in London and in later years the Sheffield Fairbanks joined or formed a local branch. From that time we find no more records of the family in the register of the parish church, as the Friends kept their own records of births marriages and deaths; and those of the Sheffield branch begin at too late a date to throw any light on the family connexion between the first William Fairbank the schoolmaster and the Sheffield Fairbanks of the 16th century. Perhaps, however, sufficient has been said to show that the Fairbanks of Sheffield were descended from the 15th century Westmorland stock and that they first settled around Halifax and then moved south to Sheffield and elsewhere. AMERICA. One group of the Halifax branch, before the days of William the Sheffield schoolmaster, left England for America, where the name Fairbank is yet known and honoured; the tradition being, that two brothers Richard and Jonathan Fairbank, of Sowerby near Halifax York¬shire, with their wives Elizabeth and Grace sailed for Boston Massachusetts U.S.A. in the `Griffin' and landed there in 1633. Richard soon identified himself with public affairs in Boston and held many important public offices in the town; he was a member of the Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company and was the first Postmaster of the Colony. His house in Boston was the post office and he served the Colony well until 1667 when he died, his two children having predeceased him; his brother Jonathan, after prospecting around Boston for three years, settled in 1636 with his wife and six children at Dedham, about ten miles south-west of Boston. We are told that Jonathan was possessed of ample means and that he brought with him from England the frame of a house, the timbers of which lay for three years in Boston, until he found a settlement at Dedham. There, he obtained the grant of a twelve-acre plot of land and on it built his house, to which he added more land in later years. He and his family lived in this house until 1648 when he enlarged it to meet the requirements of his family; and this old frame-house with all its extensions, after the lapse of nearly three centuries, yet stands. It is now known as Ye Olde Fayerbanke House and is said to be the oldest existing frame-house in the United States. It was occupied by the descendants of Jonathan until 1903 or shortly after, when Miss Rebecca Fairbank left it and removed to Boston, the old house being purchased by the Fairbank Family Association, a trust formed for the purpose of preserving it for all time, as a place of historic and antiquarian interest. It is visited every year by thousands of tourists and travellers, who come from all parts of the world. An illustrated pamphlet of thirty pages is published for the use of visitors; and this shows the out side of the house from many points of view, both in summer and winter; also the living-room, a bedroom and kitchens, each containing its old furniture; with spinning- wheels, rocking-chairs, trundle-beds, gate-legged tables; warmingpans, pewter dishes and cider-press. An inventory of the goods of Jonathan Fairbank is printed in full; also a copy of his will, dated 1668, ,and a copy of the will of his kinsman and benefactor George Fairbank of Sowerby in Yorkshire clothier, dated 1650. The frontispiece reproduces a picture of President and Mrs. Henry Irving Fairbank in picturesque costume of the period; they are described as of ‘The Ninth Generation of the Fayerbanke family.’ Perhaps now that Ye Olde Fayerbanke House is open to the public, Sheffield visitors to Boston will be tempted to make the short journey to Dedham, to see what was for nearly three hundred years the home of the American branch of a family, once so well known in Sheffield. THE FIRST WILLIAM FAIRBANK. We must now examine, in some detail, the history of the four generations of Fairbank who lived in Sheffield from the close of the 17th century to about 1850. The earliest record of the first William, the schoolmaster and land-surveyor, is his signature on the inside cover of A Record Book of the Society of Friends in Sheffield, bearing date 1723. It is below a motto in both Greek and Latin, which betrays the schoolmaster and shows that he had joined the Quakers in Sheffield before 1723. The next mention of this William is in 1725, when he gave formal notice to the Sheffield branch of the Society of Friends of his intention to marry Emma Broadhead, the widow of William Broadhead deceased and the daughter of John Clark of Swinton near Rotherham; the marriage taking place on the 9th December 1725, at the Friends' Meeting House in Sheffield. In 1733 he was appointed by the Sheffield branch to represent it, at a meeting of the Balby branch near Doncaster; and in the same year, for conscientious reasons, he refused to pay tithe; and his goods were distrained. His ledgers and account-books show that many Sheffield boys and girls attended his school from 1753 or earlier to 1773. One book, marked `School Wages', contains the names of hundreds of scholars and their parents, which include, Aldam, Barlow, Barnard, Bennett, Binney, Bright, Broadbent, Brownell, Cadman, Chorley, Dale, Doncaster, Eyre, Fenton, Firth, Girdler, Goddard, Hall, Hallam, Heathcott, Holy, Ibberson, Marsh, Newbould, Nodder, Palfreeman, Rawson, Roberts, Roebuck, Rotherham, Skelton, Swallow, Trickett, IJnwin, Vickers, Withers, Woolhouse, Worrall and Wreaks, with many interesting details. There is, however, nothing to indicate in what part of Sheffield the school was, nor is there any information from other sources which enables us to fix its site with any certainty. A possible clue may be gathered from the fact that the first William paid 'a guinea a year for a field at White House' in, Bramall Lane, about a hundreds yards north of Sheaf House; also twenty shillings for a stable. As he would rent the stable for his horse, it seems probable that this stable would not be far from his house; for in those days he would be dependent on his saddle-horse for getting to distant points, where he was surveying. Only a few maps and plans in The Fairbank Collection can be attributed to the first William, and these are on parchment, being dated between 1737 and 1750. If few maps in the collection can be credited to him, it must not be assumed that his output of work as a surveyor was small, on the contrary his day-books show a splendid record of surveying both in Sheffield and at a distance. He had a son, also called William, and two daughters; he died on the 5th December 1759 as the result of an accident, the circumstances of which are fully described in a letter which his son wrote to Josiah Forster a schoolmaster and surveyor of Tottenham near London, his father-in-law, which reads as follows: ‘ It was on the 4th day, about five in the evening, that he was returning from brother Hirst's on horseback;[1] and in as good health as he had enjoyed for several weeks, and just at the entrance to the town (as we were informed, for none of us were with him) the mare stumbled, whether on the ice or some stone we know not; but on recovering herself, she struck into a brisk pace and he, endeavouring to stop her with the curb bridle, broke the bit in her mouth; by which accident he lost the command of her and his own seat and fell with so much violence on the side of his head, which was exceedingly bruised, that the surgeon told us he got a concussion in his brains, tho' his skull was not fractured. The neighbourhood was immediately alarmed and he carried into a little alehouse, from whence we were immediately sent for and went to him; we found him discharging abundance of blood from his wound and mouth and altogether insensible, as he remained to the time of his death; which was on the 5th day about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, notwithstanding all the surgeon could do for him; and indeed he remained quite motionless till his death...... I need not tell thee we shall never more use the mare. The Coroner's Inquest brought her in the Bane, tho' it seems in a great measure chargeable on the weakness of the bridle bits. She however is forfeited to the lord of the manor, the Duke of Norfolk, and valued by the jury at six pounds, which we believe he, will not [take] nor any more than a small acknowldgement, which will serve to keep up his superstitious claim to Deodands (so called), warranted by custom or law. The letter was dated Sheffield 12th Mo. 15th 1759 and is now at the central Offices of the Society of Friends, Euston Road, London. This the first William was buried in the Quakers' Burial Ground at Sheffield; he died intestate and his wife Emma predeceased him. The claim to a deodand was prima facie by the King; it arose when a man, through misfortune, was killed by a horse or cart or any moving thing, called a bane, which was forfeited to the King's Almoner, to dispose of in alms and deeds of charity. It seems that by special custom of the manor of Sheffield, deodands were claimed by its lord. The mare which caused the death of William was probably the one he bought from John Lee of Thrift House Ecclesall for £7, two years before the accident; a note of which appears in his cash-book. THE SECOND WILLIAM. On the death of the head of the family in 1759, his son William continued the school, of which he had kept the accounts since 1757 or earlier; he also continued the surveying business, for which he had been trained by his father and in which he had taken an active part for some years before his father's death. He administered his father's estate; and his well kept account-books, which form part of The Fairbank Collection, give much information as to his life and work. During the father's lifetime William the son had married Mary the daughter of Josiah Forster of Tottenham above mentioned, whose grandson we are told was the right honourable William Edward Forster M.P. for Bradford and chief secretary for Ireland in 1880.The Forsters were also members of the Society of Friends and the letter of the 15th December 1759 was written by the second William to his wife's father. In 1760, a year after his father's death, the second William bought land in Coal Pit Lane Sheffield, now known as Cambridge Street, on which he erected a dwelling-house for his own occupation, with ample accommodation for his scholars. In 1770 M. Oddie, perhaps a pupil, made a very perfect plan of this property, which is in the collection. The second William continued at Coal Pit Lane for several years and during this period, the daily entries in his books show a curious mixture of charges for schooling and surveying; he obviously must have had help in the school, when away from home surveying land at a distance. In 1798 he took a lease from the Duke of Norfolk of a piece of land containing 32 perches in Lee's Croft, with a frontage of about 220 yards to Broomhall Lane, near the corner of what is now Broom¬hall Street and West Street. On this piece of land he had built some years previously, as a residence for himself, a house with a garden and orchard which he called West Hill, the site of which had prior to 1768 been part of what was then known as Black Lands. In 1798 the Duke seems to have granted William Fairbank a lease of West Hill, as it is then referred to in the Duke's maps and rentals as leasehold; but, although the lease was granted in 1798, it is clear that William Fairbank was living at West Hill as early as 1794 and probably eight years earlier, as he appears to have left Coal Pit Lane and given up the school about 1774. After this he presumably devoted his whole time and energy to land surveying. The Fairbank Collection contains many of his office diaries and account-books, among which is a printed pocket-diary for the year 1785, which is full of interesting notes of work done, which are beautifully written and clearly expressed. It contains many items which explain and supplement the maps in the field-books. This daily record gives a good idea of the professional life and work of the second William Fairbank, who died at West Hill on the 9th August 1801, aged 70 years. By his will, dated the 14th May 1800, he gave his leasehold house, which would be West Hill, and two closes then known as Well Field and the Croft, held of the Duke of Norfolk, to his wife for life, with the remainder to his two sons William and Josiah and their sisters; but William had the right to have the house, on making certain payments to the others; the testator gave all his instruments used for the land surveying business and his copper-plates and plans of Sheffield and the parish of Sheffield to his two sons; but his household goods furniture and books he gave to his wife, who with her eldest son William proved the will at York, on the 15th February 1802. The Fairbank Collection bears witness to an extraordinary amount of work done by this very assiduous and energetic member of the family, the second William; nearly two hundred of the field-books are in his handwriting. From ‘The Records of the Burgery of Sheffield' by John Daniel Leader 1897, it appears that he did much work for the Town Trustees. One of his great achievements was the laying out, construction and engineering of main roads in and around Sheffield. In 1757, two years before his father's death, he constructed the Sheffield to Buxton turnpike road; and about the same time he widened and improved the entire length of the road from Sheffield to Wakefield. In 1760 he made the road from Lady's Bridge to Bridgehouses; in 1763 he was engaged on the Worksop Road through Aston and Gateford; and about the same time he improved the turnpike road to Derby. In 1764 he constructed the road from Tinsley to Doncaster and two years later was engaged on the road from Orgreave,Common to Attercliffe via Catcliffe. During 1768 the road from Holmesfield to Curbar Head was completed under his supervision; also the turnpike road from Grindleford Bridge to Penistone. This gives some idea of the work he undertook and completed; but it is only part of his work on the roads, which again is exclusive of the more general work of land surveying for private clients, of whom he had many. Like his father; he travelled about the country to his work on horseback; and he must have spent many hours every week in the saddle and no doubt kept his own horse; but in his accounts the cost of horse-hire constantly occurs. We have evidence of his journeys in the saddle, for days to, gether, in his journals and cash books. In 1757, during his father's lifetime, he was engaged in a survey for Parson Stacey of Stow Park, about five miles south-east of Gainsborough, and not less than thirty-six miles from Sheffield. His first stop was at Woodhouse to have his horse's shoe removed, for which he paid four pence; he had dinner at Gateford, which cost including ale seven pence; supper and liquor at Retford thirteen pence, where he stayed the night and paid a further eight pence for his breakfast with ale. At North Leverton he stopped for dinner, paying ten pence; and there he secured a guide to show him the road to Dunham Ferry, for whose services he paid two pence; next day he had his midday dinner at Gainsborough and supped at Wheatley. The following day he had J. Johnson as his guest at dinner and this was probably Parson Stacey's agent, who would point out the land to be surveyed. He seems to have taken the journey very leisurely, perhaps he was riding his own horse on that occasion? The concluding item for this journey shows that his professional fee was five shillings a day, the entry being `My wages 7 days at 5s = £l - 15 - 0d.' About the same time he was measuring the road from Sheffield to Chesterfield, to fix milestones for the Turnpike Commissioners. In that case his charge for one day and horse was six shillings. No doubt many of the surveys, which he made from home, took more than a week and the open air life in all weathers that he led must have been very strenuous. In 1760 he repaved High Street Sheffield and in 1762 he began a complete survey of the Duke of Norfolk's Sheffield estate. The following year he was working in Cheshire and in 1765 he undertook work on the Don, to increase the water-power for mills and wheels. Two years later he completed the aqueduct from Crookes Moor to the New Spring at Leavy Greave and thence to Broomhall Lane. During the twenty years following 1770, he seems to have further increased his work, not only as a surveyor and engineer but also as an architect; during that period, it included the erection of The Tontine Inn, the Shambles in Market Place; the Friends' Meeting House and private residences; including Meersbrook' House, Page Hall and many others. THE THIRD WILLIAM. After the death of the second William in 1801, either his executors or his two sons seem to have purchased the freehold reversion of the leasehold house at West Hill from the Duke; and William the son took up his residence there. The two sons, William and Josiah, who for some time previously had been helping their father in the business, carried it on in partnership under the style of W. & J. Fairbank at West Hill; but later Josiah took the sole control until his son, some years later, joined him in partnership. The third William, who apparently never married, died in 1848, aged seventy four. He does not appear to have ever taken a very active part in the business and more than seven years before his death the business under the style of Josiah Fairbank & Son had been removed from West Hill to offices in East Parade, in the centre of the town; and at that time Josiah was living at Wilkinson Street. By the will of the third William, dated the 30th June 1846, his `printed books and engraved maps' were left to his friend Edward Smith of Fir Vale near Sheffield esquire. To his nephew William Fairbank Fairbank, the eldest son of his deceased brother Josiah, he gave all his drawn maps, field-books and other writings relating thereto and his drawings and surveying instruments. The residue of his estate was to be divided between his sister Mary, the wife of William Hodgson of German Town near Philadelphia U.S.A. and his sister-in-law Sarah, the widow of his brother Josiah: Mr John Wheat solicitor of Sheffield was appointed sole executor, but he renounced probate and Sarah Fairbank administered the estate, shortly after the death of the testator, which occurred on the 15th July 1846. JOSIAH FAIRBANK. We must now return to Josiah, the second son of the second William, who was born on the 14th December 1777 and died two years before his elder brother. Josiah married Sarah Carbutt of Leeds, who survived him; they had sons and daughters. Three of his sons were brought up as surveyors in their father's office in Sheffield. Shortly before his death Josiah severed his connexion with the Society of Friends and was by them `disunited.' His death occurred in 1844, at a time when he was over¬whelmed with work in connexion with the promotion of Bills in Parliament for the construction of railways. He died in his sixty-sixth year and apparently left no will; neither was administration to his estate granted at York or Somerset House. There are no books or papers in the collection relating to his estate or its distribution after his death. In the year 1800, Josiah assumed control at his father's office and during the following forty years or more he got through a very great amount of important work; amongst other things, he valued the whole of the Sheffield area for rating purposes, he found time to do the same for the township of Halifax, his ancestral home; and he had much to do with the Rivelin and Redmires reservoirs. In 1819 he undertook and carried through the construction of the road from Townhead in Sheffield to Glossop, along what is now West Street, Glossop Road, Manchester Road, Moscar, Ashopton and Snake. Prior to 1819, West Street was very limited in extent; it only existed between what is now Holly Street and Broomhall Street. Buildings blocked the east end of West Street, at the Holly Street crossing; and all incoming traffic turned along Holly Street either north to Trippet Lane or south to Balm Green and Coal Pit Lane now Cambridge Street. At the other end West Street became a footpath; and all traffic, other than pedestrians, had to turn south down Broomhall Lane now Broomhall Street. This costly undertaking could only be carried out with the authority of Parliament; but when the work was completed in 1820, the town had acquired one of its finest approach roads from the west; a new and more direct route between Sheffield and Manchester was opened for wagons, postchaises and mail coaches. On the death of Josiah in 1844, his eldest son William Fairbank Fairbank continued the Sheffield business, where he had been helping his father for some years, the firm of Josiah Fairbank and Son being at East Parade, as early as 1833. WILLIAM FAIRBANK FAIRBANK. William Fairbank Fairbank was born in 1805 and married Frances Royston Fisher of Chesterfield. From a Sheffield Directory, we find him living at South Street in 1841. He was trained as a surveyor by his father and was a partner at the time of the latter's death. His two brothers John Tertius Fairbank and Josiah Forster Fairbank were also for some time at their father's office in East Parade. At the death of his father, William Fairbank Fairbank was left with much Parliamentary work on hand; and the disaster which befell the great railway enterprises of 1844-5 with the panic which followed, proved too much for his strength; and his health completely gave way. While in London on Parliamentary work in 1846 he had a stroke of paralysis and was taken to his home in Sheffield; but he only partially recovered and for two years he confined his work solely to what he could transact in his own office at Sheffield. In 1848 he had a further seizure and died in his garden on the 29th May, at the early age of 43 years. By his will he left the whole of his estate to his wife Frances, whom he appointed sole executrix; and she proved the will at York. With the death of William Fairbank Fairbank, the we11-known Sheffield firm of surveyors, that had flourished through four generations, came to an end. THE FAIRBANK COLLECTION: At this time the two surviving sons of Josiah Fairbank, John Tertius and Josiah Forster, both surveyors, were not living in Sheffield; and a friend of the family Mr Marcus Smith of Sheffield a surveyor and the sub-agent to the Duke of Norfolk, helped the widow to wind up the affairs of the office and bring the work of the Fairbanks in Sheffield to a close. The maps plans field-books drafts letters account-books and office-papers were included in the valuation for probate, and the Capital Burgesses bought some of the maps relating to their lands; other clients of the office seized the opportunity of doing the same. What remained were bought by Mr Marcus Smith, and these now constitute The Fairbank Collection. Mr Smith kept it in his room at the Duke's office in Sheffield, until his death in 1882, when it passed to his widow Mrs Sarah Smith, the aunt of the late Mr Alfred Smith Denton of ` Raisin Hall near Sheffield surveyor, to whom she presented the collection in her lifetime; and it remained in his office at The Hartshead Sheffield, until his death in 1927. Whilst in his possession, the maps were always available for reference or production in court, and often proved of the greatest value in disputes as to rights of way or the boundaries of land or buildings; such as the ease heard at Leeds Assizes in March 1893, concerning an alleged right of way along the Angel Inn yard in Sheffield, when the question turned on evidence provided by a Fairbank plan, produced by Mr Denton. After his death, the collection was purchased by Mr Bennett, together with a share in Mr Denton's business of a surveyor of land and minerals. With the close of the Fairbanks' office in East Parade the story of the Fairbanks and their work in Sheffield comes to an end; but the family tradition of the Sheffield branch has been maintained in other parts of Yorkshire. JOSIAH FORSTER FAIRBANK AND HIS DESCENDANTS. During the years before the death of Josiah Fairbank in 1844, his son Josiah Forster Fairbank had been assisting him in his professional duties; and at his father's death he was residing in Sheffield; but when the railway `bubble' burst, followed by a period of great trade depression, Josiah Forster Fairbank decided to obtain some official appointment, and in 1847 he was elected engineer and secretary to the Pudsey Gas Company out of one hundred and fifty applicants; he removed from Sheffield to Pudsey in April 1847; this appointment he held until 1850, when he became engineer and secretary to the Scarborough Gas Company. While there he designed and constructed the Filey Gas and Waterworks and the Scarborough public baths. He was elected a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1857; and resigned his position at Scarborough in 1860, moving to London where he had offices in Parliament Street Westminster and practised there for many years, during which time he designed and constructed a large number of works all over the country. In 1885 he, like his father, had a stroke of paralysis, from which he recovered sufficiently to take his son Frank Graham Fairbank into partnership, opening an office in Driffield, where he then had work in hand; and this branch-office was subsequently transferred to York, the London offices of the firm being given up. Josiah Forster Fairbank died in 1899 and his son Frank Graham Fairbank, who reside at York, continued his professional work as a civil engineer in partnership with his son Mr Alan Carbutt Fairbank under the style of Fairbank and Son, at The Tudor House, Stonegate, York, where the great tradition of the Sheffield Fairbanks is yet maintained. Among the family papers, now in the possession of Mr F. Graham Fairbank at York is a memoir by his father, containing much information as to his branch of the family; with it, are many silhouette family portraits, including those of the first and second William and Josiah; and through the kindness of Mr Fairbank and his son these silhouettes are here reproduced. THE FUTURE OF THE COLLECTION. With regard to The Fairbank Collection, there can be no question as to its extraordinary interest and especial value to the city of Sheffield. From it, complete and accurate information can be obtained as to ancient highways, bridle-sties, footpaths, turnpikes, canals, railways, reservoirs, aqueducts, water-courses, streets, bridges, wells, weirs, fords, leppings, water-wheels, windmills, gibbets, jails, stocks, markets, inns, theatres, assembly-rooms, churches, chapels, schools, crosses, pinfolds, burial-grounds, stiles, orchards, market-gardens, nurseries and coal-pits, with in many cases the date of construction. From it, we also get the names of landowners, their lessees or tenants and other material of use to the topographer and historian. This unique collection of maps and field-books, descriptive for the most part of lands and buildings within the extended boundaries of the city of Sheffield, has been since 1932, through the generosity and public spirit of Mr Bennett, the valued possession of the city to which it relates; and, as The Fairbank Collection, it is safely housed in the archives at the Sheffield Public Library, where it is accessible to those, most likely to make use of it, both now and in years to come. [1] At this date John Hirst lived at Neepsend.
  12. Old Zion Chapel, Zion Lane, Attercliffe erected 1805. s04904 I believe this may be a Plan of the original chapel, can anyone confirm it? David Deakin's leasehold at Attercliffe taken for Calvinist Chapel, 1806. Surveyors: William and Josiah Fairbank. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02674&pos=56&action=zoom&id=91479 Marked: Land held by Robert Deakin; Ground demised to David Deakin. 1806. (another plot) Formerly devised to William R Deakin and William Hutchinson; Turnpike Road from Sheffield to Rotherham. Original chapel opened 1805, new chapel opened 4th February 1863. Zion Congregational Church, Zion Lane, Attercliffe this building opened 4th February 1863. s04902 Zion is a Hebrew word meaning fortress and was the name given to a hill south west of Jerusalem on which lay older and higher part of the Holy City, the portion often referred to as the 'City of David'. The hill served as a fortress. The Zion whose story we seek ... is no hill with a city on it but a chapel hiding down the dingiest street in all Sheffield. Hidden away at the back right off the main street and only approached by the narrowest of lanes As Canon Sydney Smith used to say 'in all my parishes I have never had a finer or more worthy folk than the people of Attercliffe, but the beggars won't come to Church.' Information from: The Gates of Zion by P.G.S. Hopwood Local Studies Ref: 285.8 SST. 22nd September 1904.s04901 Interior of Zion Congregational Church, u04918 Photographer: L. Havenhand, Attercliffe. Organ, Zion Congregational Church. u04917 t04583 Newspaper Cutting under the heading, Praiseworthy Work at Zion Congregational Church, Attercliffe. 30th March 1912. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u01072&pos=34&action=zoom&id=36799 A practical effort is being made at Zion Congregational Church to relieve some of the distress in the city. The schoolroom has been devoted to the work, and through out the day is thronged by men who are out of work. Dinner and tea were served yesterday to 350 men. (1) Playing dominoes and draughts during the day. (2) The willing kitchen helpers (3) Dinner-time. Zion Congregational Church, Zion Lane looking towards Church Lane. 29th May 1980.s27037 The Sabbath School was probably built 1805-1806.The first Sunday School Anniversary Sermon 25 Jun 1809. Zion Sabbath School, Zion Lane. t03190 Interior of Sabbath School, Zion Lane. t01392 t03191 About 1935/6 Zion Sabbath School became F. Melling Ltd, Chapel Printing Works. Autostart, former Zion Sabbath School, No.10 Zion Lane, Attercliffe. 2013. c04612 Photographer: Alex Ekins. Autostart Sheffield (formerly the Zion Sabbath School), No.10 Zion Lane and junction with Lawrence Street. 2003. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;t10447&pos=9&action=zoom&id=91408 Commemorative book mark sold in aid of church funds showing Rev. J. E. Williams and Attercliffe Zion Congregational Church. y05680 Original at Local Studies MP 4501 S. Fire at Mathews Warehouse (former Zion Congregational Chapel), Zion Lane, Attercliffe. 22nd June 1987.u07048 Photographer: SCC Engineers and Surveyors The church was demolished soon after a fire in 1987. Plan of a plot on Attercliffe Road, bounded by Zion Lane, Church Lane and High Street.1881. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02675&pos=42&action=zoom&id=91514 Marked: Zion Lane; High Street; Church Lane; Attercliffe Church Yard.
  13. dunsbyowl1867

    Bagley Dyke

    I've long been intrigued by this brook/dyke as I used to hang around in Longley Park in my youth and walk through the woodland , through which it meanders by the Northern General Hospital, on my way to School. It then seems to disappear (into a culvert) in Fir Vale? travels down Owler Lane appearing briefly either side of Upwell Street by the Wesleyan Methodist Church before eventually joining the Don. I assume it rises in Longley Park ? Hers is an old photo of Longley Lane Bridge from Picture Sheffield before the woodland had grown and the bridge is much more obvious Here is a photo looking from the other side of the road Picture Sheffiled http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s14784 Here's a photo of the dyke in 2008 A green audit of the woodland and dyke by the NG Hospital http://www.burngreavemessenger.org.uk/gree..._bagleydyke.pdf A couple of photos Wincobank Hill side of Upwell Street complete with rat! And a couple the other side of the road There is a Bagley Road adjoining Skinnerthorpe Road - soon to be demolished. Peter Harvey in his Street Names of Sheffield states ' from the old Bagley Lane which appears in Harrison's survey of 1637 three times and is spelt differently each time - Bagaley Lane, Baggalye Lane and Bagalie lane. Whatever the correct spelling it is belived to come from the name of a former resident of the area. Bagley Lane is still marked on maps of 1855 and would appear to be what became Upwell Street. Anyone have any further information or thoughts.
  14. Sheffield Boys Working Home for Destitute Boys, 82 Broomspring Lane. 1889. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;q00003&pos=110&action=zoom&id=26303 Detail from Ordnance Survey Map, sheet no. Yorkshire 294-7-24. Sheffield Red Book, 1912 (page 207): The Sheffield Boy's Working Home was founded in 1881 to provide a home for boys in a state of physical or moral destitution, the relief of mothers of fatherless children; and to afford a measure of education and give the boys an opportunity of earning an honest livelihood; there is accommodation in the home for 40 boys; there is no workhouse atmosphere about the place, and boys are allowed to visit their friends on Sundays .. the home is supported by subscriptions, and by the earnings of the boys. No. 105, Upper Hanover Street (left) and Nos. 86-82, Broomspring Lane with Springfield School in the background. February 1974 82 Broomspring Lane was formerly the Sheffield Boys' Working Home. w01745 Nos. 82-88, Broomspring Lane, February 1974. w01743
  15. Oughtibridge Hall Farm, c.1910. t05322 Dates from the 16th century Plan of Oughtibridge Hall Farm, in the Chapelry of Bradfield [and] the property of the Duke of Norfolk, 1770. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04453&pos=21&action=zoom&id=152230 Marked Wharncliff [Wharncliffe] Wood, The Countess of Bute's land, the Duke of Norfolk's land, common, River Don, Slitting Mill weyre [weir], breach [in the river bank], forge weyre [weir], Oughtibridge [bridge], orchard, gardens, Little Hollings Wood, Far Hollings Wood, Prior Wood, footways, Oughtibridge Lane, Stony Bank Spring, Beeley Wood, Wilson Spring, [?Lyster's] Land, Dungworth's land. Fields numbered, but no list. Neatly coloured. Small cartouche. Plan extends from the River Dun (Don) in the south west to Oughtibridge Lane. Oughtibridge Hall and Outbuildings Grade II Listed. https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/IOE01/01854/35
  16. Not sure of the year for this photo, pre 1974 as I believe they were building the South Stand then.
  17. T. W. Sorby, Esquire - "Storthfield," Storth Lane (renamed Graham Road) Trade Directory of 1905, Thomas William Sorby lived at Storthfield, No. 237 Graham Road of Thomas Sorby & Sons, iron merchants, steel convertors and importers of Swedish Iron & Steel, Mowbray Street. 1879 Directory, Thomas William Sorby, (Thomas Sorby & Sons) 269 Western Bank. Thomas & Sons, steel manufacturers, English & foreign iron merchants (and Swedish iron merchants) Boro Steel Works, Mowbray Street. The following Plans of "Storforth" by Architects, (plans before 1901) Flockton Gibbs & Flockton, (after) Gibbs & Flockton, 15 St. James Row. Also names building etc. contractors. T. W. Sorby, Esquire - Storthfield - Details for Bay Window. 30th April 87. Marked with signatures: Edward Proctor; H. Loxley & Sons; John Cullabine; Charles Chadwick. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02973&pos=11&action=zoom&id=94104 1905 Directory, John Cullabine, gas lamp manufacturers, plumbers & gas fitters, 96 Devonshire Street & 61 Machon Bank Road. Edward Proctor, ? H. Loxley & Sons,? Additions to Storthfield House, Ranmoor - Plan of Drains. February 1897. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02977&pos=12&action=zoom&id=94105 Office Copy: Additions to Storthfield House, Ranmoor - Ground Floor and Chamber Plan. 1897. Chamber Plan: Bedroom, Wardrobe; showing you 3 other Bedrooms; Bath & W.C.; Nursery; Ornamental Screen. Ground Plan: Dining Room; Drawing Room; Breakfast Room; Lavatory; W.C.; Kitchen; Scullery; Butlers Pantry; Cooks Pantry; Tool House. Marked with signatures: James Richerby; J B. Corrie & Sons; John T. Robertson; Edmund Smith; C. Chadwick & Sons. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02974&pos=10&action=zoom&id=36178 1905 JT. Robertson, joiner, builder & undertaker, 85 William Street. 1905 James Richerby & Sons, builders & contractors, 45 Stalker Lees Road. 1905 JB Corrie & Sons, plumbers, glaziers & gas fitters, 33/35 Carver Street. 1905 Charles Chadwick & Sons, slaters, plasterers & painters & paper hangers, builders contractors & concrete floor layers etc. Victoria Street. 1901 180 & 182 Devonshire Street & Victoria Street. Additions to Storthfield House, Ranmoor - Elevation and Sections. February 1897. Front Elevation; End Elevation; Elevation of Ornamental Arches. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02976&pos=14&action=zoom&id=94141 Office Copy: Additions to Storthfield House. Basement, Attic and Roof Plans and Sections. Feb.1897. Basement Plan: open old opening from stable; Marked with signatures: James Richerby; J B. Corrie & Sons; John T Robertson; Edmund Smith; C. Chadwick & Sons. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02975&pos=13&action=zoom&id=94140 T.W. Sorby, Esquire - "Storthfield", - Site Plan. Jan. 21st.1901. Marked: Storth Lane. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02976&pos=14&action=zoom&id=94141 Office Copy: New Stable and Coach House, Elevation and Section. Feb. 1901. Musgrave's Patent Bricks; Hayloft; Loose Box; Harness Room; Carriage House; Washing Space. Marked with signatures: B. Powell & Son; John T Robertson; S W. Braithwaite &? Co?; Chas. Chadwick. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02972&pos=3&action=zoom&id=94103 1905 B Powell & Sons, builders, 37 Cavendish Street. S W Braithwaite & Co. ? Office Copy: New Stable and Coach House, Elevation and Section. Feb. 1901. Musgrave's Patent Bricks. Marked with signatures: B. Powell & Son; John T Robertson; S W. Braithwaite &? Co?; Chas. Chadwick. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02971&pos=2&action=zoom&id=94102 1/2 Detail for New Billiard Room. May 1903. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02982&pos=8&action=zoom&id=94147 Office Copy: 1/2 Detail for New Billiard Room. May 1903. Marked with signatures: ? (possibly Exors?) of P. Robertson; Richerby & Sons; Ellis & Wetherill; J B. Corrie & Sons; John Fox; John Walsh Ltd. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02981&pos=7&action=zoom&id=94146 1905 John Walsh Ltd., 44 - 64 High Street 1905 Eliis & Wetherill, slaters & slate merchants.48-50 Fitzwilliam Street. John Fox, ? T W. Sorby "Storthfield" Ranmoor. Office Copy: Ground Floor Plan, Roof Plan and Sections. May 1903. Elevation to Lane; Plan of Basement showing Cycle Room; Plan of Ground Floor Level: Scullery; Coals; W.C.; Lavty (Lavatory); Billiard Room; Conservatory. Marked with Signatures: The E(xors?) of JT Robertson; J. Richerby & Sons; Ellis & Wetherill; J B. Corrie & Son; John Fox; John Walsh Ltd. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02978&pos=4&action=zoom&id=94143 Clerk of Works Copy: Ground Floor Plan, Roof Plan and Sections. May 1903. Elevation to Lane; Plan of Basement showing Cycle Room; Plan of Ground Floor Level: Scullery; Coals; W.C.; Lavty (Lavatory); Billiard Room; Conservatory. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02979&pos=14&action=zoom&id=94144 Mr Sorby's Copy: Ground Floor Plan, Roof Plan and Sections. May 1903. Elevation to Lane; Plan of Basement showing Cycle Room; Plan of Ground Floor Level: Scullery; Coals; W.C; Lavty (Lavatory); Billiard Room; Conservatory. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02980&pos=6&action=zoom&id=94145 Plan of Existing Outbuildings. March 1903. Plan at Ground Floor Level: Coals; Conservatory. Plan of Basement. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02983&pos=9&action=zoom&id=94148 Storthfield name changed to Ranmoor House. Ranmoor House, No. 237 Graham Road. 15th March 1989.u12340 https://themovemarket.com/tools/propertyprices/ranmoor-house-237-graham-road-sheffield-s10-3gs Now the premises of Peter Hoare & Co. (Insurance Brokers)
  18. Ponytail

    Lydgate Lane School

    Plans of Lydgate Lane School. 1905. Architect: W. J. Hale, FRIBA, St. James Row, Sheffield. Elevations (South West, North West and South East) . https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc06816&pos=8&action=zoom&id=106212 Elevation (North East) https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc06817&pos=9&action=zoom&id=106213 Sections https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc06818&pos=10&action=zoom&id=106214 Floor Plans (ground and first floor) https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc06819&pos=11&action=zoom&id=106215 Originally Lydgate Council School formally opened Nov. 1907 by Lord Mayor, Alderman H.P. Marsh J.P. See: City of Sheffield, Education Committee, Handbook of Information, 1964/65. Local Studies Ref. 379.4274 S Lydgate Infant School, Lydgate Lane. 3rd March 2012 c04322 Photographer: Alex Ekins Carved stonework above the entrance to Lydgate Infant School, Lydgate Lane. 2003 https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;t10770&pos=2&action=zoom&id=92430 Caretakers House and Lydgate Lane Infant School. 29th January 1979. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s24993&pos=9&action=zoom&id=27773 Playshed, Lydgate Lane School. 1989.t10120
  19. Plan of freehold premises in Forge Lane agreed to be purchased by William Gregson Hinde, Thomas Marrian and Henry Bolsover of William Webster. September 1837. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc03568&pos=178&action=zoom&id=98910 "A right of Road from Forge Lane through the covered passage into the yard at the back of the Public House is sold to these Premises and which road is to be used in Common with the other Premises of William Webster." Marked: Forge Lane; Golden Lion Public House; covered passage; joint wall; grate; midden; privy; passage & brewhouse. Also marked: John Grundy & late James Shemeld. A Map of the dams, goights and other works belonging to the Pond Forge Co together with some other intermediate properties. 1820. Shows Forge Lane and Premises marked T Rawson & Co., probably the Golden Lion. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04213&pos=22&action=zoom&id=105197 Forge Lane later named Shude Hill. Golden Lion situated next to Ponds Works and backed onto Ponds Dam. Shude Lane, derelict premises, opposite Ponds Works, building on extreme left was No 2, Golden Lion public house. s02113 Shude Lane, Left Image, Shude Lane from junction of Shude Hill and Pond Street, Marsh Brother's Pond Works, right, second building on left, No 2, Golden Lion public house, Right Image, Shude Lane looking towards Shude Hill from junction with Shemeld Croft. 1889. s02112 Photographer: Marsh Brothers Chimney belongs to Electric Light Works. Buildings on right were demolished several years later. Shude Lane, derelict premises, looking towards Shude Hill, premises on right include No 2, former Golden Lion public house. s02114 Shude Lane, derelict premises, opposite Marsh Brother's Ponds Works, No 2, former Golden Lion public house, left. s02115 Sheffield History A-Z Public Houses. Golden Lion 3 or 5 Forge Lane (also 2 Shude Hill) Open. 1822 Closed. Comments. 1882 Old Golden Lion 1822 Mary Webster 1825 Mary Webster 1828 George Greaves 1830 William Swallow 1833 William Swallow 1834 James Askam 1837 Samuel Gray 1839 James Bland 1841 John Branch 1845 John Askham 1846 John Askham 1849 Alfred Denial 1851 Alfred Denial (5, Forge Lane - census) 1852 Alfred Denial 1854 George Elliott 1856 J. Staniforth 1859 F. Middleton 1862 William Etches 1864 Mary Baxter Alfred Denial - 1851 census. 5 Forge Lane.
  20. This article first appeared in the Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society, Vol 10, and is reproduced here by kind permission of the Society, and with the assistance of Gramps.(References in [] are listed at the end.) ROAD DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH YORKSHIRE AND NORTH DERBYSHIRE, 1700-1850 By G. G. HOPKINSON, M.A. [ This was the last of the articles which Mr. Hopkinson had left with me before his untimely death. Apart from checking the typing and a few references, I have left it as he wrote it.—Ed. ] THE PARISH ROADS 1700-60 In the early eighteenth century, there were only four places of any size in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire—Sheffield, Chesterfield, Rotherham and Barnsley. Each of these towns owed something of its importance to the fact that it stood at a point where a main road connecting the North with the Midlands and with London crossed one or more of the routes traversing the district from east to west. Each of these two road systems had its own particular importance. In general, although this generalisation must not be pressed too far, it may be said that the trunk routes were important primarily for passenger traffic and the cross country routes for the transport of goods. From the purely economic standpoint, the latter system was much more vital to the life of the region than the former, as it not only tied together the different geological formations in this area with their variety of products, but also connected it with the increasingly valuable markets of South Lancashire and with navigable water at Nottingham on the Trent, Bawtry on the Idle and with Doncaster—and after the river was improved to that point, with Rotherham—on the Don. The most important trunk route crossing the district during the reign of George the First was that linking Nottingham with the woollen towns of the West Riding.[1] This entered Derbyshire at Pleasley. It then crossed the magnesian limestone ridge with its well-drained soils and easy gradients to within a few miles of Rotherham, where it bridged the Don. The road then climbed out of the valley to Barnsley, before crossing the moors to Huddersfield. The southern portion of this road carried a certain amount of packhorse and waggon traffic conveying Sheffield goods southwards[2] Much more important, however, was the passenger traffic between the West Riding and such towns as Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton and London. The correspondence of the Spencer family of Cannon Hall, Cawthorne, shows that, when they journeyed south they invariably rode along this road to Nottingham, where they hired a coach to their destination. In addition, their letters and diaries make clear to what extent this route was used in the second quarter of the century—by London merchants visiting the West Riding on business; by Yorkshire ironmasters travelling to the capital in search of orders; by partners in the Derbyshire lead mines journeying to London for conferences with capitalists financially interested in the soughs which drained the Peak; by local lawyers and their witnesses en route for Westminster and by the gentry of the region travelling to Town on pleasure. It is probable that this road was at the height of its importance during the early decades of this century, as it was soon to lose much of its goods traffic to the Don Navigation and much of its passenger traffic to turnpikes giving more direct access to the south. The second road linking north and south was that from Leeds, through Wakefield, Barnsley, Sheffield, Chesterfield and Duffield to Derby.[3] Compared with the route further to the east, it was a bad road, clinging to the ridges wherever possible and characterised by hills of remarkable steepness where it was compelled to descend to the valleys. Goods traffic on the section between the river port of Wakefield and the Barnsley district was heavy. English timber was brought by river from the Yorkshire plain; charcoal and Cumberland ore for Barnby Furnace; Knottingley lime for the thin, poor soils of the grits and the coalfield; groceries and luxury goods from London—all were carried along this road. Store cattle and sheep, bought at the Fairs at Ripley and Stagshawe Bank in the north, were driven in considerable numbers along this road, to be fattened before sale to the butchers in the towns. South of Barnsley, traffic does not seem to have been so heavy, as other places on this section of the road had independent connections with other river ports, nearer to them than Wakefield. Traffic on this part of the road seems to have been short distance—farmers attending markets at Chesterfield, Sheffield and Barnsley; merchants travelling to the Fairs there or people having business with the lawyers or estate offices in those towns. At Barnsley, where these two trunk roads met, they were crossed by the most northerly of the longitudinal roads traversing the district. This entered Yorkshire from Manchester at Saltersbrook. It then crossed six miles of open moor and heath to Penistone. After passing through Barnsley, it headed for navigable water at Doncaster. Another road diverged from this route at Hartcliffe Hill in Penistone, continued past the two forges at Wortley and then ran through the heart of the nailing country to Rotherham, the head of navigation on the Don from 1733 to 1751. Both roads carried a considerable volume of coal traffic. In addition, they carried cheese, salt and Manchester goods eastwards. The waggons and packhorses which brought these goods returned laden with hemp, flax and linen yarn.[4] The most important road centre in the region was Sheffield.[5] On the northeastern side of the town, three roads converged on Lady's Bridge; the first, through Attercliffe from Worksop, the second from the inland port of Bawtry on the Idle, and the third from Doncaster and Rotherham. Along the Worksop road, building stone and English timber entered Sheffield. From Bawtry, Rotherham and Doncaster came German steel, wainscotting from the Baltic, Dutch linens and groceries from London. The packhorses and waggons which brought these commodities to Sheffield, returned with the products of its industry—forge iron, nails, tools and cutlery. On the west, Sheffield was linked with Lancashire by a road which climbed up to Crookes, ran over the moors to Redmires and Stanage, dropped down into the Derwent Valley near Hathersage and continued through Chapel and Manchester. Eastwards, this road carried Manchester goods and Derbyshire dairy produce to Sheffield and millstones and lead from the quarries and smelting mills around Hathersage, through to Rotherham and Bawtry. Westwards went a greater variety of products—timber for the lead mines, corn and groceries for the mining population, coal from the pits at Attercliffe and Wadsley, brought to Lydgate to be collected by teams from the Peak, linen yarn imported from the Continent up the Don and scythes from Norton to be sold across the Pennines. This road, despite its heavy gradients and lack of metalling over the moors, was also used by the coaches of the gentry on their way to Buxton.6 Chesterfield, the chief town of the Hundred of Scarsdale, was a road centre almost as important as Sheffield. Three roads entered the town on the east: the first from Bawtry and Worksop, the second from Bolsover and the third from Mansfield. On the Worksop road, waggons laden with lead, forge iron and bags of nails set off from the town to Bawtry, returning with foreign timber and groceries.[7] The Bolsover road connected the town with the main Nottingham road from Sheffield and after 1708 was used by a direct waggon service to London.[8] On the Mansfield road, the heaviest traffic westwards was in malt, made from the barley grown on the magnesian limestone ridge, separating Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, which was transported through the town by packhorse across the East Moor to Stoney Middleton in the Peak, where the carriers were met by packhorses from Manchester to take the malt into Lancashire and Cheshire. Eastwards, the most important traffic was coal carried from the pits lying at the foot of the magnesian limestone ridge in Derbyshire, to Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. On the west, Chesterfield was connected with tracks across the moors with the bridges over the Derwent at Matlock, Darley and Rowsley. Lead ore from the mines at Winster and Wensley was carried along these to be smelted at Kelstedge and Ashover. Sheep and cattle were driven along these three routes over the East Moor to feed on the limestone pastures of the Peak in summer, returning in autumn to be fattened near the towns, before sale to the butcher. The most southerly of the cross country routes climbed out of the Derwent valley near Matlock up to the East Moor, before descending to Oakerthorpe, where at Kendall's Inn, it crossed the main road from Derby to Chesterfield. At this point, it was joined by another road, running through the lead mining districts around Crich and Wirksworth to Ashbourne. From Oakerthorpe, this road headed for navigable water at Nottingham, through Alfreton, up the steep hill out of the Erewash valley and onwards through Watnall and Nuttall. The familiar traffic pattern of lead moving eastwards and coal and malt westwards was repeated on this road.[9] In addition to the long distance traffic through the district, there was a heavy volume of internal traffic, particularly connected with the iron industry. Iron ore and charcoal were carried in large quantities to the blast furnaces at Rockley, Chapeltown and Barnby in Yorkshire and at Wingerworth, Staveley, Foxbrooke and Whaley in Derbyshire. Pig iron from these was distributed to the forges at Attercliffe, Sheffield, Wadsley, Roche, Staveley and Carburton. From these, forge iron was sold to the many edge tool out-workers in the area as well as to the slitting mills at Rotherham, Renishaw and Wortley. These latter supplied bunches of rod to warehouses at Eckington, Ecclesfield, Hoyland, Howbrooke and Chapeltown, from which they were distributed to nailers in the vicinity. After the bags of nails had been collected, they were then transported, together with pig and forge iron, to Bawtry or Rotherham, to be forwarded down river to Hull. If the figure of 20,000 outworkers employed in the Hallamshire trades in 1725 be accepted, the number of pack animals and waggons employed in distributing their raw materials and collecting the finished articles must have been large indeed.[10] Topographically, the district with its rapid alternation of ridge and valley was a difficult one for road construction. Geologically, neither the Coal Measures nor the Magnesian Limestone formation provided good road making material for maintenance. Blast furnace slag, favoured by many village Surveyors of the Highways, although cheap and easily available, broke up quickly under the stress of heavy traffic. Again the whole area, apart from near the four towns, was thinly populated. This fact, combined with a small rateable value and long mileage of road in many parishes, especially those on the East Moor, made it inevitable that, so long as each parish remained responsible for the roads within its own boundaries under the Act of 1555, long sections of the cross country routes should be nothing better than mere tracks. These difficulties were often accentuated by a narrow localism, which could not see beyond the immediate interest of its own township. In Derbyshire, the Minutes of Quarter Sessions at the end of the seventeenth century, record a number of cases in which townships protested against performing Statute Labour in their own particular part of the parish. Across the Yorkshire border, this same spirit can be seen at work in Ecclesfield.[11] In this parish, admittedly a large one—it stretched from Howbrooke Dyke to Blackburn Bridge, a distance of seven miles and from White Lane to Malin Bridge, a distance of six miles—there were no less than sixteen highway authorities and although only one warrant was issued by the West Riding Quarter Sessions for the appointment of a Surveyor, there were, in fact, twenty to thirty officials acting under this one warrant. In 1751, the inhabitants of this parish expressed their opinion that this was the most suitable system as the parish was too large to be administered as a single unit. They defended this extreme sub-division on the grounds that the Surveyors "may attend the repairs of them [the roads] without neglecting their own private concerns"—a sentiment as to the duties of parish officers which would certainly have won universal approbation throughout the whole area. Supervision by the Justices, with such excessive decentralisation, seems to have been extremely lax, as it was admitted that "Officers always kept the assessments themselves and either lost or destroyed them afterwards". Again, when Nether Lane, the old main road from Sheffield to Chapeltown, was indicted in 1752, the parish of Ecclesfield repudiated all responsibility for its condition, thrusting it back on the township, which excused itself for its failure to keep the road in good condition on the grounds that the road was but little used by its inhabitants but "was perpetually torn up by Heavy Carriages with Coals for the use of the other parts of the Parish". This narrow localism also expressed itself in a reluctance to spend money on the roads, a fact made very obvious by the few Surveyors' accounts remaining for this period, which contain little beyond a list of names of persons liable for Statute Duty, with crosses opposite these to represent the number of days worked. Apart from Chesterfield and its neighbouring townships—Newbold, Tapton and Hasland—no North Derbyshire parish consistently levied Highway Rates over any number of years during this period. Road presentments before the Derbyshire and West Riding Quarter Sessions show that many of these main roads were in bad condition at this time. The township of Brightside Bierlow was indicted in 1700, 1729, 1734 and 1736 for the disrepair of the road out of Sheffield to Doncaster; in 1726, Nether Hallam was presented for the poor condition of the road' from Sheffield to Halifax; nine years later, the town of Rotherham was prosecuted .for its failure to repair its roads.[12] In Derbyshire, Somercotes was indicted in 1738 and in 1746 on account of the road from Nottingham to Alfreton being "ruinous". The township of Palterton was presented in 1741 for the bad condition of the Chesterfield to Mansfield road. Three years later, Dore was prosecuted for the disrepair of the Sheffield to Manchester road. The parish of Brampton was indicted in 1749 for its failure to keep the main road linking Bakewell and Chesterfield in good condition.[13] The general practice was for Quarter Sessions to levy a fine on the parish which was remitted when a certificate was furnished by a Justice to the effect that the road had been repaired. Petitions to Parliament initiating turnpike legislation are unfortunately couched in the stilted jargon of the lawyer and convey little of value to the historian. Nevertheless, the persistent references to the difficulty of vehicles passing each other on the roads of the district and of using the roads in the winter, probably convey a general truth. It is, indeed, likely that with the exception of such winters as those of 1739-40 and of 1747, when the roads were frozen as hard as iron, so that they were as good as in summer—the phrase is that used by the South Yorkshire ironmaster, William Spencer[14]—there was comparatively little traffic on the roads in winter. The account books of coalmasters show that coal was heavily stocked during the winter months and that it only began to move freely in May. The same conclusion may be arrived at from a study of the correspondence of various business men during this period. In the third week of August, 1735, Richard Dalton, a Sheffield timber merchant, wrote to the Hull importers with whom he did business, asking them to forward the deals he had ordered "before ye roads grow bad". At the same time, he was in communication with an Amsterdam firm from which he purchased wainscotting, informing them that as it had been shipped up the Idle to Bawtry, it would probably have to be brought to Sheffield in bad weather "which will be a great Inconvenience to me as well as more charge as I told you before wee have part Land Carriage and Carters will have more wages when Roads are bad". In November, he wrote to Hull, complaining to the importers about a shipment of Russian and Swedish iron and Stockholm deals which had arrived at Aldwark on the Don—"I am afraid they must remain there till Spring". Simultaneously, he wrote to Amsterdam that some of the boards had arrived in Sheffield but "I don't expect any more of them this Winter the roads are grown so bad". Later letters show him refusing offers to supply deals in October 1738 and in the same month two years after "for they will come up heavily now as we have near five miles land carriage most of them as bad as any in England".[15] As late in this period as 1758, Anthony Tissington, the manager of one of the most important collieries in north-east Derbyshire, at Swanwick, could write to its owner that heavy rains in October had damaged the roads to such an extent that coal traffic had become impossible.[16] A pamphlet supporting the turnpiking of the road from Chesterfield to Mansfield shows that from Pleasley, the road into Derbyshire was built from slippery flags or simply consisted of heaps of loose stones "thrown together in a chance manner without gravel to bind or cover them" with the result that waggon traffic on this road was impossible in winter.[17] Heavy summer rains could reduce the roads to a quagmire, as can be seen from a letter written by Thomas Simpson, a Doncaster merchant, to Mrs. Copley of Sprotborough Hall, asking permission to hale boats through her land on the grounds that "by reason of ye great rains yt have happened this summer ye roads have been and still are almost impossible for Carts and Carriages which have occassioned a great Scarcity of Coals at and below Doncaster".[18] Bad road conditions naturally increased the cost of road transport to such an extent that it was out of all proportion to the freight charges on the inland navigations. An undated memorandum drawn up by William Spencer—probably in the thirties— shows that despite the difference in distance, the cost of sending bar iron by road from Wortley Forge to Rotherham and from there to Hull by water was approximately the same.[19] In winter, transport costs doubled, as carriers attempted to recoup themselves for the loss of time resulting from delays on the unmetalled roads of the period, badly broken by rain and heavy traffic. [19] It is therefore apparent that the roads in this district, as maintained under the Act of 1555, severely handicapped its economic development. This system had failed to provide anything more than moorland tracks on vital lines of communication and nowhere had it resulted in roads which could be used all the year round. The expansion in coal mining, the increase in the output of lead, the growth of the secondary metallurgical industries, the development of the manufacture of glass and pottery and the continuous increase in food production, were all placing a growing burden upon a method of road maintenance ill-prepared to sustain it. TURNPIKE LEGISLATION This situation was not, of course, peculiar to this area. It was, in fact, general throughout the country. The solution to the problem was everywhere the same—the adoption of the principle of making road users pay for road repairs through tolls paid to Turnpike Trusts. The first roads in the region to be turnpiked were the cross country roads carrying the heaviest volume of goods traffic. In 1739, an Act was obtained to turnpike the road from Bakewell, through Chesterfield, to Worksop, primarily with the object of improving the route from the lead mining districts in the High Peak through the river port of Bawtry on the Idle. However, little use was made of the Act and when it was renewed in 1758, no attempt had been made to turnpike the road from Bakewell to Chesterfield and despite an expenditure of £5,225, only some six miles of the Worksop road had been repaired, the remainder being "founderous". [20] The most northerly of the cross country routes, that from Doncaster, through Barnsley and Penistone, to the boundary of the West Riding at Saltersbrook, was made into a turnpike in 1740, thereby giving through communication with Manchester, as the road on the other side of the Pennines had been turnpiked in 1732. Although it had been no part of the original scheme, a clause was added to the Bill in the Committee stage whereby the Hartcliffe Hill road to Rotherham, then temporarily the head of navigation on the Don, was made into a turnpike, largely to facilitate the distribution of goods from Aldwark. Between the beginning of the War of Austrian Succession and the opening of the Seven Years' War there was a lull in turnpike development in the district. During the next eight years, there was a spate of Acts, by which almost all the cross country routes were made into turnpikes. In 1758, the road from Little Sheffield over the moors to Hathersage, through Castleton to Sparrow Pit Gate on the Chapel-en-le-Frith Road was turnpiked. This Act also turnpiked another road which crossed the county boundary near Barbers Field Cupola, dropped down to Grindleford Bridge, climbed steeply up the Sir William Hill, continued past the important group of lead mines on Eyam Edge, clung to the narrow ridge overlooking the moors on every side towards Hucklow, dropped to Tideswell and continued forward through Fairfield to Buxton. [21] Both these roads joined branches of the Sherbrooke Hill Trust's roads into Lancashire, turnpiked some years earlier. To contemporaries, they were "the finest roads imaginable"; made from small stones covered with clay, sand and fine gravel, consolidated by frost and winter weather. [22] In the following year, three more important cross country routes were turnpiked. To the east of Chesterfield, the road through Heath and Glapwell was turnpiked to Mansfield. Despite an expenditure of some £4,000 on its repair, the road was in wretched condition in 1780, threatened with indictment with a falling income at a time when heavy expenditure was essential.[23] To the west of the town, the main road through Brampton, over the East Moor to Curbar Gap— where the Trust constructed a new road, straight as an arrow, totally ignoring all gradients—down the precipitous slope into the Derwent valley, up Middleton Dale to Hernstone Lane Head, where it met the turnpikes from Buxton, Sheffield and Manchester, was also turnpiked. In addition, this Act authorised the Trust to turnpike the roads between Calver and Baslow bridges and from the latter through Hassop and Great Longstone to rejoin the main road at Wardlow Mires. Finally, in that year the most southerly of the cross country roads from the lead mining areas around Crich and Winster to the Trent at Nottingham was turnpiked by the Newhaven Trust. By 1777vthis authority had spent £8,465 on repairing the road and three years later, they, claimed to have expended a total of some £17,000 on putting this and other roads connecting it with the turnpike linking Ashbourne and Buxton into repair.[24] In the following year, the road from Chesterfield to Matlock was turnpiked, largely through the efforts of Thomas Holland of Ford Hall, Higham, who did much to raise an interest in the scheme and to solicit subscriptions for it from local landowners and lead merchants. This Act also turnpiked two branch roads across the East Moor, both constructed by the Trust with almost Roman directness, down to the bridges at Rowsley and Darley, thereby improving communications between the lead mining areas to the west of the Derwent and the smelting plants at Kelstedge and Bowers Mill. In South Yorkshire, the road linking the two river ports at Tinsley and Bawtry were turnpiked in that year. Four years later, an Act was passed turnpiking the road from Tinsley to Rotherham, then along the magnesian limestone ridge east of the Don, past Conisborough and its Norman castle, through Warmsworth into Doncaster. Arthur Young, with his customary forthright language, condemned the part from Tinsley to Rotherham as "execrably bad, very stony and excessively full of holes".[25] In the same year, another Act turnpiked the road from Attercliffe, through Handsworth and Anston to Worksop. Turnpiking cannot have improved this road very much as twenty-two years later, the first two miles out of Sheffield were denounced as "execrable", the next two as "so cut up and bad as hardly to be safe" and the remainder as "all rugged and jumbling".[26] Finally, in that year, an Act set up the High Moors Trust, which "turnpiked a series of secondary roads connecting the turnpikes running out of Chesterfield to Worksop, Sheffield, Hernstone Lane Head, Rowsley, Darley and Matlock. In less than a decade, the main east to west roads out of Sheffield, Chesterfield and Alfreton had been turnpiked, so that the lead mining areas of the Peak, the coalfield, the agricultural districts of the magnesian limestone ridge and the river ports serving them were linked by a number of turnpikes, spaced at intervals of about twelve miles distance from one another. It is, however, obvious from the reports of travellers that turnpiking did not mean any automatic improvement in condition and that comparatively large sums of money might be expended on repairs with few results. These years also saw the turnpiking of the main trunk routes from north to south. In 1756, the road from Derby to Sheffield through Chesterfield was made into a turnpike. In the following year, largely through the influence of Lord Strafford, the road linking Wakefield with Sheffield was turnpiked. At first, the weight of tolls was resented by its users, but the Trustees defended their scale of charges by the assertion that its critics "must own the vast amendment it is, from'the uncommon badness and inconvenience of the Road before the Turnpike was established "and by what undoubtedly was true, that many of the existing turnpikes were at that date in bad repair through failure to charge adequate tolls.[27] These roads not only opened up a new route to Bath, Bristol and the West of England but also to the capital, reducing the old trunk route through Mansfield and Rotherham by the end of the century to the status of a mere country highway, of purely local importance. By 1764, the framework of the turnpike system in the region had been built up. The Trusts created by Parliament had, however, in general only taken over the existing roads and repaired them. As wherever possible the preturnpiked roads had followed the ridges which dominate so much of this countryside, the turnpikes inherited the severe gradients where these roads descended into the valleys. Even where the Trusts had been compelled to build new lines of road to replace the tracks across the East Moor, these roads terminated in hills of exceptional severity. Such slopes could be negotiated by packhorses but the expansion of wheeled traffic in the shape of mail coach and stage waggon demanded the easing of these gradients. As a result, the War of American Independence saw the passing of a number of Acts to construct new turnpikes or to improve old ones with this object in view. Communication between Hallamshire, with its important cutlery and edge tool industries and Liverpool, through which a considerable part of its produce was exported to America, was still, despite the turnpiking of the roads through Sparrow Pit and Tideswell, extremely difficult, as traffic had to negotiate such hills as the Sir William or the Winnats. In 1781, an Act constituting the Greenhill Moor Trust, authorised it to turnpike an easier route off the Chesterfield Turnpike through Holmesfield, past Owler Bar to Hathersage Booth, down the steep slope to Hazelford Bridge, and on to Hathersage. Forward from Hathersage, the road remained a difficult one, as a Frenchman discovered riding along it one fine autumn day at the end of the century, when his experiences prompted him to write that travelling along it was as disagreeable and as tiring as riding along ordinary roads in the depth of winter. In 1809, the Sparrow Pit Trustees prepared estimates to expend some £9,000 on improving their road on Dore Moor, near the Odin Mine at Castleton and at Mam Tor through to Chapel-en-le-Frith. Two years later, they obtained the necessary statutory powers to effect these improvements whereby the long hauls up from Hazleford Bridge and through the Winnats were at last eliminated. The main road from Duffield northwards, through Chesterfield to Sheffield, was characterised by no less than eleven hills with gradients more severe than one in nine, on which ten horses were required to drag waggons. The section between Sheffield and Chesterfield was largely rebuilt under an Act of 1795, which empowered the Trust to abandon long stretches of the road, notorious for their poor condition—they were immediately indicted once the Trust had abandoned them—above the River Drone, around Coal Aston and Old Whittington and to construct new roads down the valley, thereby both decreasing the gradient and straightening the course of the turnpike.[29] South of Higham, a new road, running across less undulating country than the old Derby Turnpike, had been built under an Act of 1786, through Shirland and Alfreton to Swanwick, from where in 1802, a new turnpike had been constructed past Butterley Works, through Ripley down to Derby. Although this new route from Sheffield to Derby was still very hilly, it was so much superior to the old road, turnpiked in 1756, that it speedily superseded it as the main artery of north to south traffic. North of Sheffield, the Wakefield Turnpike had difficult hills at Chapeltown, Tankersley and Hoyland. A somewhat easier road northward was obtained by turn-piking the road to Penistone in 1777. In 1805, another Act authorised the turnpiking of the road from Wadsley to Langsett, giving northbound traffic access to the woollen towns of the West Riding and traffic heading west into Lancashire an easier route to the Saltersbrook turnpike. By Waterloo, little remained to be done in the way of turnpiking. With one exception, the schemes carried out were small and of little consequence. Revenue in all cases proved disappointing. Almost all proved from the standpoint of their shareholders abortive investments. In 1818, an Act was obtained to turnpike the road from Brampton Bierlow on the Tankersley to Rotherham road with Hooton Roberts on the main road from Doncaster to Rotherham. Three years later, constructed across 23 miles of open moorland, with what contemporaries considered to be a remarkably easy rise and fall—it was even described as a "level road"[30] —a new turnpike was opened from Sheffield to Glossop, to facilitate communication from the former town to Manchester. In 1826, the road from Barnby Moor on the Great North Road near Blyth was turnpiked through to Maltby on the turnpike linking Sheffield and Bawtry. In the following year, another short road connecting two turnpikes out of Mansfield— those to Chesterfield and Ashover—was made into a turnpike from Tibshelf to Temple Norrhanton.[31] A decade later, the construction of a new road from the obelisk on Birdwell Common to Ruggen House linked the Wakefield and Penistone turnpikes out of Sheffield, thereby giving traffic to the former town the advantage of a road with much smaller gradients than that turnpiked in 1757. Three years later, a series of lanes in the triangle between the Worksop and the Sheffield roads out of Chesterfield and the main road from Sheffield to Worksop was turnpiked.[32] In 1841, the Tinsley and Doncaster Trust obtained an Act empowering them to build a new road from Swinton Station on the North Midland Railway through to their road at Conisborough. The object of this branch was partly to open up a new line of road to the railway, partly to supersede an old road, down in the Don valley, always liable to floods and partly to divert traffic from Swinton to Doncaster on to the Tinsley to Doncaster Turnpike, thereby increasing its revenue.[33] The last turnpike authority to be created in this area was for the road from Tinsley to Doncaster, set up in 1849. Peculiarly enough, this same road was the subject of the first turnpike legislation in the district, as the Don Navigation in their Act of 1726 received powers to make a road from Lady's Bridge to Tinsley "either sett and pitched with boulders or trench'd thrown up and gravelled at least seven yards wide". In return, the Navigation was to levy a toll of a penny per ton for the use of the road. Although the need for this road arose in 1751 when the river had been improved as far up as Tinsley, the Company proved very dilatory in building it and it was not until 1758 that the contract was awarded for its construction. The road soon proved a financial liability to the Navigation, costing £3,500 a year more to maintain than was received in tolls, as the road was badly cut up by many narrow wheeled vehicles on their way to the wharfs at Tinsley. As a result, when in 1760, an attempt was made to turnpike the road from Bawtry to Tinsley, the Navigation eagerly seized the opportunity to petition Parliament that their road should become part of the new turnpike. The Bawtry Trust, naturally, had no wish to bear this burden and successfully resisted this plan of the Don Company to shift part of their legal liabilities on to shoulders much less able to bear it. [34] A second opportunity came for the Navigation to rid itself of the road when it was proposed to construct a canal from the terminus of the Don Navigation at Tinsley into Sheffield in 1815. Using every opportunity to intimidate the Canal Company by threatening it with prolonged opposition in Committee, the Navigation was successful in its efforts to compel the Canal Company to take over the responsibility for the road. Its new owners soon found that it was costing them oves £1,600 a year to maintain. Further, in 1828 the road was indicted and the Canal Company forced to tear up the boulders and macadamise it. With the opening of the railway from Rotherham to Sheffield and the consequent decrease in their revenue, the Canal Company decided that there was no necessity for them to continue to repair the road. Soon, it developed ruts so large that it was alleged that a man might lie down in them and not be seen. Naturally, the road was indicted and much to their surprise the townships along the road—Brightside Bierlow, Attercliffe and Tinsley—found that, despite the various Acts of Parliament concerning the road, they were legally still responsible for its maintenance. Faced by such a verdict, they sued the Canal Company, which by a turn of the wheel of fortune, had ironically enough once more become the property of the Don Company. As the latter was adamant in its determination to have finished with the road and the parishes equally obstinate in their belief that they had no responsibility for it, the ensuing litigation proved costly. Finally, the two parties were persuaded to meet at Pontefract Sessions in April, 1849, and in the following month, with Sheffield Town Council, the Doncaster to Tinsley Trust and Earl Fitzwilliam holding watching briefs—they were equally interested in the provision of a good road with low tolls between Sheffield and Tinsley—it was agreed that a new Trust should be set up. The Navigation, however, had to pay £2,000 towards putting the road into good repair and to give the townships compensation for their legal expenses. Once the Bill had gone through Parliament, the Trust had to negotiate with the Midland Railway Company as to the siting of the toll bar at the Sheffield end of the turnpike, the Railway Company finally making an annual ex-gratia payment of £100 to prevent it being positioned between their station and the town. [35] It is thus evident that the smooth passage of a Turnpike Bill through Parliament was dependent upon the success of the preliminary negotiations between the various parties interested in a particular road—local corporate bodies, business interests concerned, other Trusts and above all the local landowners. Particularly vital was the support of the aristocracy, whose capital, territorial power and political influence in Parliament were all essential at each stage in the promotion of a Bill. In South Yorkshire, the most important of all families were the owners of the Wentworth property. Their interference can be discerned in a number of turnpike schemes. In 1764, a group of merchants and landowners in and around Sheffield planned to turnpike the road from Rotherham to Pleasley. In view of the importance of this road at this time and that the roads northward out of Barnsley had already been made into turnpikes, it was hoped that the intervening section from Barnsley to Rotherham, then in poor condition, might also be made a turnpike road. While the Bill was in the Committee stage, Fenton, the Marquis of Rockingham's able lawyer and agent, suggested that a clause might be added to it, turnpiking the road from Rotherham to Tankersley, on the main Sheffield to Wakefield road. As this road ran through the Wentworth property, its value might be expected to increase with the improvement of communications. As this was a much longer road than the more usual route between the two towns through Wombwell, Fenton attempted to quieten opposition to the project by calling in Metcalfe to survey the two roads to prove that the longer road would actually be cheaper to put into good condition, as part of it was "already a Road thrown up & Covered in the Manner of a Turnpike". Fenton also arranged to supply witnesses to give the required evidence before the Committee and despite local hostility to the scheme, a clause was tacked on to the Pleasley Bill, authorising the turnpiking of the road through the Rockingham property.[36] In the same year, another Bill was introduced to turnpike the road from Doncaster to Tinsley, avoiding Hooton Roberts on the Wentworth estate. On Fenton pointing out the disadvantage of this to the Marquis, he intervened to persuade the promoters of the Trust to restore the road to its original line. In 1801, when it was proposed to extend the Greenhill Moor Turnpike through to Sheffield by a road branching off the turnpike to Chesterfield, a mile outside the town, through Abbeydale and Ecclesall Woods, thereby opening up a route competitive with the Sparrow Pit Road, the Trust sought the support of Earl Fitzwilliam, who had property along the new road in Ecclesall. In promoting the Bill, they had aroused the hostility of the Duke of Norfolk, one of the largest shareholders in the Sparrow Pit Road, as the new road would render a large section of the older turnpike "almost useless and unprofitable". While the Greenhill Moor Trustees were appealing to the public spirit of earl Fitzwilliam by assuring him that their new road would be "a much leveller as well as a more warmer road and with better materials than the present mountainous and exposed road over the High Moors", the Sparrow Pit Trust were appealing to the Dukes of Norfolk and of Devonshire for their support in the rejection of "this idle project" in Committee and considering how to draw the attention of Members interested in road questions to their case.[37] Finally, a compromise was agreed upon whereby the Greenhill Moor Trust were to pay the Sparrow Pit Road £100 annually as compensation for the loss of traffic. In 1840, the promoters of a Bill to turnpike the road from Greenhill Moor to Eckington wrote to the fifth Earl, who owned a small detached property along this road, asking for his vote in the Lords, which he agreed to give in this particular case, although expressing his dislike for turnpikes in general. [38] The political influence of the nobility could be sufficient to block turnpike Bills which they considered to be detrimental to their own interests. In 1780, the Gander Lane Trust considered carrying forward their turnpike from Sheffield to Clowne as far as Budby, on the main road from Worksop to Kelham. They employed the Sheffield firm of Fairbank to make the plans; and in 1782, advertisements were inserted in the local papers to the effect that the Trust intended to apply for an Act to turnpike two roads from Clowne and Renishaw Bridge to Budby and in addition, what was notoriously a bad road, that from Bolsover to Chesterfield.[39] No application was, however, made to Parliament at this time. Eight years later the project was revived. It was asserted that the turnpiking of these roads would serve many ends. It would give through communication by turnpike between Lancashire, the Great North Road and Lincolnshire; it would improve transport between the newly established cotton and woollen mills at Cuckney, their suppliers and customers in Lincolnshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire; it would enable malt made for the Lancashire market at Newark to reach its destination more rapidly and it would facilitate the supply of lime from the magnesian limestone ridge to farms on the poor sandy soil around Cuckney.[40] Although the project received support from Sheffield, Rotherham and Newark and from the Duke of Kingston and Lord Bathurst, it was opposed from the beginning by the Duke of Portland. Unfortunately, the correspondence fails to disclose any reason for his attitude, although it may have been connected with the petition of the Mansfield to Rotherham Trust against the Bill, alleging that the proposed extension ran parallel to their own road for many miles, that their turnpike was in good condition, that their tolls were moderate and that subscribers had invested their capital "on the implied Faith of Parliament, that no needless new Road should at any Time be made to their Detriment"[41] The Bill was lost by a large majority as a result of "the formidable and united Exertions of the Portland, Devonshire and Bedford families "supported by such"auxiliary troops—as Edmund Burke and Michael Angela Taylor" who attended "not only to vote but to make Speeches". A second attempt made in 1811 was more successful, as although some sections of the road had to be sacrificed to the opposition of the Duke of Portland, power was obtained to turnpike the road from Clowne through Cuckney to Budby.[42] Second only to the interests of the nobility to be considered were those of the gentry. In 1758, the Sheffield promoters of the turnpike to Buxton, with their minds fixed on the through traffic to Manchester, naturally wished the road to be as straight as possible across Tideswell Moor. To achieve this they planned to avoid Tideswell itself and to route their road through Wheston. The former proposal alarmed the gentry who lived in the town, as they had no wish to see Tideswell left a rural backwater. The latter proposal angered Robert Freeman, the most important landowner in Wheston, who was completely antagonistic to the idea of a turnpike cutting through his land. This opposition proved so strong that the Trust was forced to re-route the road through Tideswell and to avoid Wheston, with the result that the turnpike ran up and down Monksdale, with particularly atrocious gradients.[43] In the same year, when the Hernstone Lane Head Turnpike was being considered, it was feared in Tideswell that it would result in tolls being imposed at the junction of the three turnpikes on the moors, on coal led from Cheshire. Pressure brought by the local gentry was sufficient to secure a promise that no such tolls would be exacted.[44] In the last decade of the century, the line of the Sheffield to Chesterfield Turnpike through Norton Park was laid down according to the wishes of the Shore family, the most important landowners in the village, who had no wish to have the road too near their home.[45] Nor could the interest of the business community be neglected. In 1740, Cavendish Neville of Chevet, a landowner with property south of Wakefield, wrote to William Spencer of Cannon Hall, asking him for his support for the proposed Saltersbrook Turnpike over the moors to Lancashire. Spencer replied that his backing was assured as the advantages it would bring would more than outweigh the sole disadvantage he could foresee—that improved communication would enable wheat grown on the Yorkshire Plain to be sold around Barnsley, thereby lowering farm rents in that district.[48] The Influence of the Cutlers' Company, with an eye to better roads linking Hallamshire with Lancashire and the desire of the Wortley family to improve the roads through their property, were responsible for the inclusion in this Bill of a clause whereby the road from Hartcliffe Hill in Penistone, past the forges at Wortley, was to be turnpiked.[47] Nevertheless, despite these preliminary negotiations, a fierce wrangle arose in Committee between Wortley and the Earl of Effingham, on whose Rotherham property there were collieries, as to where the toll gates were to be placed on the Hartcliffe Hill road, Effingham naturally wishing them to be so sited as to cause the minimum interference with coal traffic. [48] The Act turnpiking the road from Newhaven House to Nottingham, passed in 1759, contained clauses giving concessionary tolls to coal and lead. The lowered tolls on coal were probably the result of a letter from Anthony Tissington, the manager of Swanwick Colliery, much of the production of which was sold as fuel for the Newcomen engines at the Winster lead mines on this road, to Thomas Thoroton, M.P., the owner of the property, asking him to press for this in the House. The concession given to lead probably resulted from correspondence between Nicholas Twigg, the leading lead merchant in mid-eighteenth century Derbyshire, and Isaac Bonne, agent to Robert Banks Hodgkinson of Overton Hall, Ashover. Twigg, who had shares in both the Winster mines and in the Ashover smelting plant, wrote to Bonne to appeal to Hodgkinson, then living in London, to use his influence with Members of Parliament to secure the incorporation-of a clause in the Act, lowering tolls on lead ore carried over Darley Bridge, in order to prevent an increase in the production costs of pig lead. TURNPIKE FINANCE Shareholders in the various Trusts in the area, so far as can be ascertained from the somewhat scanty number of lists of subscribers available, were almost exclusively local landowners, coalmasters and merchants, all of whom might expect to benefit financially by the improvement of communications around Sheffield. Complete lists of shareholders exist for four Trusts controlling roads to the east of the town. The chief subscribers to the Rotherham and Pleasley Turnpike were the Dukes of Portland and of Leeds; the Earl of Holderness; Gilbert Rhodes of Barlborough Hall; E. Sacheverall Pole of Park Hall, Barlborough, and John Hewett of Shireoaks. The Earl of Holderness, Rhodes and Hewett were also shareholders in the Attercliffe to Worksop Turnpike. Other subscribers were the Duke of Norfolk, William Mellish of Blyth Hall, Henry Athorpe of Dinnington Hall, Noble Champion of Worksop and the Rev. John Stacey of Ballifield. The Duke of Leeds, the Earl of Surrey and Rhodes were included amongst the principal shareholders in the Gander Lane Trust. Other subscribers were the Duke of Devonshire, Francis Sitwell of Renishaw and John Parker of Woodthorpe. Three other shareholders in this Trust were John Inkersall, one of the most important edge tool makers in the district; George Townshend, the lessee of the Norfolk collieries in the Park; and Samuel Peach, a Sheffield coach proprietor. The Sitwell, Rhodes and Parker families were shareholders in the Clowne and Budby Turnpike. Other subscribers included the Duke of Portland, Earl Manvers, the Bowdens of Southgate House and Appleby, Walker and Company of Renishaw Ironworks[49] The chief shareholders in the Sheffield to Penistone Trust were the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Bute, the Town of Sheffield and the Company of Cutlers. Other subscribers were Thomas Steade of Onseacre; Thomas Rawson of Wardsend, the leading tanner in the district; J. and G. Kenyon, edge tool and steel manufacturers; and Thomas Broadbent, the lessee of a number of grinding wheels on the Norfolk property in Sheffield.[50] When the road was improved in 1825, over half the additional capital was provided by the Wortley family and the Thorncliffe ironmasters, Newton, Chambers and Company. Capital for the parallel road from Sheffield to Wakefield was largely provided by the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Strafford, the Marquis of Rockingham and Sir Thomas Wentworth.[51] Another South Yorkshire Turnpike Trust, set up in 1809 to improve the road from the north end of Rotherham to Pottery Lane in Swinton was largely financed by Earl Fitzwilliam and his heir Lord Milton. The remainder of the shares were taken up by such local families as the Walkers of Masborough, the Rents and the Bingleys, all interested in one way or another in. heavy industry and coalmining. On the west of Sheffield, the Dukes of Norfolk, Rutland and Devonshire were the most important shareholders in the Sparrow Pit Trust. Other subscribers were Vincent Eyre, the Duke of Norfolk's agent, and the Reverend William Bagshawe, a member of a family owning estates at both ends of the road.[52] When, in 1812, the Trust was empowered to construct a new road from Fox House to Banner Cross, the Duke of Devonshire lent it £6,000 for this purpose. He and the Duke of Norfolk were chiefly responsible for making it possible to finance the Glossop Turnpike, as when it proved impossible to raise the necessary capital, the two Dukes gave their personal security that interest due would be met—a step which induced investors to lend the necessary finance. Two roads joined Ashover, with its lead mines and smelting plants, with the coalfield. Most of the capital for these Trusts was provided by local landowners, partners in the lead mines and in the lead mining cupolas. Prominent amongst them were the Duke of Devonshire, Godfrey Clarke of Somersall, John Woodyeare of Walton and Robert Banks Hodgkinson, all of whom had property adjacent to the roads. Amongst the shareholders in nearby lead mines or cupolas were Peter Nightingale, Richard Wilkinson, Isaac Bowne, John Twigge, William Milnes and various members of the Bourne, Towndrow, Allen and Willamot families, the latter group all connected with the most famous of eighteenth century Derbyshire lead mines, the Gregory Mine beneath Ravenstor in Ashover. Information as to shareholders in other roads is fragmentary. The Duke of Devonshire, as befitted his position as the most important landowner in North Derbyshire, subscribed liberally to the Trusts controlling the roads from Sheffield to Duffield, from Nottingham to Newhaven and from Chesterfield to Hernstone Lane Head. When, in 1812, the latter Trust constructed a new road connecting Chesterfield with Baslow, planned to eliminate the worst of the gradients over the East Moor, the capital for this was provided by the Duke. When the Third District of the Newhaven Trust turnpiked the road from Wirksworth Moor to Longstone in 1759, the money necessary was provided by John Barker of Bakewell, lead merchant, and by two Chesterfield men, Francis Slater, a merchant, and Bernard Lucas, a grocer. Few owners of Turnpike securities can have congratulated themselves upon their choice of investment.[53] The exceptions were shares in Trusts controlling long stretches of road, such as the fifty-eight miles long Hernstone Lane Head Trust, the thirty-one miles long Nottingham to Newhaven Road, the Sheffield to Wakefield Trust with its twenty-two miles of main road or the Tinsley to Doncaster Trust with its thirteen miles of trunk road, all of which paid regular dividends of about 5% until the early Railway Age. These bodies could meet the heavy administrative and legal expenses inevitable in running such organisations, which could easily bankrupt a short Road with a small revenue from tolls—for example, the Tinsley to Doncaster Trust spent well over £1,100 in 1841 in obtaining powers to turnpike four and a half miles of road between Swinton and Conisborough. Inadequate income resulting from control of too small a length of road must be ascribed as the cause of financial situations such as that of the four-mile-long Temple Normanton to Tibshelf road, which, turnpiked in 1827, converted £1,261 of unpaid interest into capital eight years later, or that of the Rotherham to Swinton Trust, set up in 1809 to turnpike three miles of road, which in 1821 similarly converted £1,733. Indeed, in too many cases, shareholders must have re-echoed the words of a Sheffield lawyer, Bernard Wake, written in 1817, that money invested in Turnpikes was "in innumerable instances, after the lapse of time—considered as lost to their original lenders and their families for ever or is treated as a Property of little value".[54] This accusation was levelled specifically at the Attercliffe to Worksop Trust, controlling some sixteen miles of road, which had a deplorable financial record. After borrowing £4,000 in 1767, it raised another £3,000 in loans over the next three years. In 1817, with arrears of interest, the debt of this Trust amounted to £12,500. This position was not the result of too short a road, nor of corruption, malpractice or incompetence on the part of the Trustees. It arose solely out of selfishness of the business community of Sheffield. When the Trust was set up initially, an agreement was made with the Town that no toll bar was to operate nearer to Attercliffe than Blacksmith's Smithy. The consequence was that a large volume of traffic used a part of the road without payment. In 1782 the Trustees, realising the danger of this to their finances, decided to introduce a Bill to put up another bar nearer Attercliffe. This provoked the Master Cutler to attend a meeting of the Trust to remind it of the previous agreement. Two years later, the Trustees once again reconsidered this step, but the idea was abandoned when it was realised that their financial position was so desperate that they could not afford the luxury of opposition from the Town when their Bill came up for renewal. In 1786, another attempt was made, supported by Vincent Eyre, agent of the Duke of Norfolk. Once more the Master Cutler intervened, vigorously denouncing the proposal at a meeting at which it was asserted that any such step would increase the price of coal from the pits at Attercliffe, that other collieries would follow suit and that, in all, a new toll bar would cost the Sheffield cutlery trade another £500 annually in fuel. Hence, the continued failure of the Trust to meet its obligations and the revolt of its shareholders against the diversion—or so they considered it—of tolls from the payment of interest to the repair of the road. Their protest was, in fact, successful, as an agreement was made between them and the Trustees whereby, when the Tolls amounted to over £1,000 a year, 5°/c was to be paid to them as current dividend and another 5 % to wipe out arrears.[55] Another road with a similar financial history was the Gander Lane Trust, controlling thirteen miles of road between Sheffield and Killamarsh. In 1831, it was paying interest due in 1820; by 1840, it had converted £2,543 of unpaid interest into capital. Once more, the same reason—traffic which paid no tolls—was the cause of this unhappy plight. When the Trust was formed, it took over the road from Intake through the Park into Sheffield, which formerly had been a private road owned by the Duke of Norfolk. In return, the Trust agreed that no tolls should be collected nearer Sheffield than the entrance to the Park or from coal mined on the Norfolk property at Woodthorpe and Gleadless. In 1821, the Trust decided to introduce a Bill to authorise it to place a new toll bar between the Deep Pits and the town. The lessees of the Norfolk collieries immediately petitioned the Duke against this proposal on the grounds that it would increase the price of their coal in Sheffield at a time when they were beginning to feel the competition of coal mined in the Dearne Valley brought in by the newly opened Tinsley Canal. The influence of the Duke was such that the Act contained a clause explicitly confirming the complete exemption of coal mined on the Norfolk property from payment of toll.[56] Economic decay was yet another factor in the financial plight of a number of Trusts. Most of the turnpikes around Ashover had been made either to facilitate the transport of coal to that place or of lead away from it. While the Gregory Mine there was prosperous, the Mansfield Road paid an annual dividend of 5% from the time it was formed to 1780. With the decline in lead production, so its traffic slackened and by 1823 the Trust was twelve years behind in the payment of interest. The record of the Chesterfield to Matlock Trust was even worse. It had encountered difficulties even when lead output was high, as its Act gave exceptions and concessions to various articles transported on the road. As lead output fell, revenue decreased so seriously that it was only paying interest due in 1804 in 1828. The High Moors Trust, which crossed the various arms of the Matlock and Hernstone Lane Head Turnpikes, was another road to suffer not only from the decay of the lead industry in Ashover, but also from the general depression in that industry throughout Derbyshire in the early thirties, caused by the competition of the much cheaper Spanish metal. As the demand for coal for smelting and pumping declined, its tolls fell off so much that by 1843 the Trust owed £4,500 in unpaid interest. Some Trusts owed their precarious financial position to competition from other roads. The Hartcliffe Hill road was one of the first turnpikes to lose its through traffic by the opening of a competitive road. Turnpiked when the Don had been made navigable to Aldwark, its importance disappeared when the river was improved to Tinsley and the Sparrow Pit Road offered more direct communication with Manchester. By 1762, its tolls were insufficient to keep the road in repair, much of it, indeed, having relapsed into the hands of the parishes through which it ran.[57] The Sparrow Pit road, in its turn, lost much of its Lancashire traffic when through communication was established with the West Riding. Heavy traffic in coal and lead kept the Trust solvent until the opening of the French Revolutionary Wars. The collapse of lead mining in Eyam, competition first from the Greenhill Moor Turnpike and later from the Snake Road, however, placed the Trust in such a difficult position that by 1840 it owed its shareholders £4,476 in back interest. Many of the Trusts were, therefore, insolvent on the eve of the Railway Age. The abolition of Statute Labour, with the loss of income derived from its composition, only drove them nearer to complete bankruptcy. Then came the competition of the railways, which in a decade reduced the income of the Tinsley to Doncaster Trust to a sixth of what it had been in 1840; caused the Treasurer of the Sheffield to Wakefield Trust to suspend payment of interest the day the North Midland Railway was opened; led to such a diversion of traffic from the Worksop to Attercliffe Turnpike to the Chesterfield Canal between Worksop and Eckington, where goods could be transferred to the North Midland line, that it proved impossible to let the toll bars by auction; almost ruined the section of road controlled by the Sheffield to Duffield Trust which ran parallel to the railway from Chesterfield southwards and plunged the Glossop Road so deep in the morass of bankruptcy that, by 1849, the two Dukes in fulfilment of their guarantee, had been compelled to advance £10,700 to pay off the arrears of interest. The Trust was so badly hit by railway competition that at a time when it cost £2,900 annually to repair the road, its income dropped to between £300 and £500 a year. Indeed, Sir George Grey of the Road Office proposed that in view of "the hopeless financial position" of the authority in the middle of the century, the road should revert to the public, a suggestion which naturally found no favour with the shareholders, so' that the Trust dragged on another twenty-five years before it was abolished. [58] THE CONDITION OF THE TURNPIKE ROADS In view of the financial weakness of so many Trusts, it is reasonable to suppose that many of their roads were in poor condition. Aiken, a competent witness, writing in 1795, of the turnpikes in the Sheffield district, asserted that the majority of them were bad and damned fifty years of turnpike maintenance when he wrote that "more attention is now beginning to be paid to them than formerly".[59] Across the county boundary in Derbyshire, the turnpikes seem to have been in better condition at this period, as Thomas Brown, the Reporter of the Board of Agriculture, found them to be good—a verdict substantiated by the most reliable of all witnesses on Derbyshire at this period, Farey, who wrote that, in general, its turnpikes were above the average in the country.[60] Nevertheless, he had a number of criticisms of roads badly repaired. The High Moors Turnpike, mended with pottery refuse, was in a poor state of repair. The road into Sheffield near Intake Bar on the Gander Lane Turnpike was repaired with such big pieces of ganister that even the heavy coal carts using it were heavily jolted about. Another road in a similar condition was that from Chesterfield to Matlock. All three of these roads were hard hit financially. In 1824, the Trustees of the Worksop to Attercliffe Turnpike admitted in their Minutes that their road needed reconstruction from end to end. In 1829, the Post Office complained bitterly about the condition of the road from Derby to Alfreton, alleging that coaches on it threaded their way, like ships at sea amongst shoals. In 1840, the western part of the Saltersbrook Turnpike was under indictment, as was part of the road from Swinton into Rotherham. It is, therefore, plain that some Trusts were in no financial position to maintain their roads in good condition. Harsh criticism was also expressed as to the condition of the main trunk route through from Wakefield to Derby, controlled by only two Trusts, one of which was at least as strong financially as any in the area. In 1829, a Surveyor's report on the section from Wakefield to Sheffield, referring to the appalling gradients at Mount Vernon and Chapeltown, asserted that only a small mileage on this road was "compatible with the present rapid method of travelling in this country".[61] Another accurate witness, Sir Richard Phillips, writing in the same year made the same point when he wrote of the Barnsley Road out of Sheffield that "Postillions and stage coachmen execrate it as the worst stage for horses in the Kingdom".[62] On the eve of the Railway Age, the whole route from Derby to Wakefield was "reckoned one of the worst roads in England by travellers and coachmen".[63] To appraise the condition of the turnpike roads in this district with any degree of accuracy is, however, an impossibility. Too many records have vanished; without them it is impossible to feel the pulse of the system, to assess its vitality. Nevertheless; the weight of evidence suggests that there was dissatisfaction with many roads. In addition to financial difficulties, the organisation of the Trusts was not conducive to the construction of good roads. Too often, the clerk, a lawyer such as John Charge of Chesterfield or Bernard Wake of Sheffield, seems to have been the dominating personality on many Trusts, who inevitably looked at things through legal glasses, being ignorant of engineering matters. There, too, seems to have been a dearth of men trained in the science of civil engineering. The Glossop Trust employed the younger J. L. McAdam for a period but his services were soon dispensed with on the grounds that the Trust could not afford them. Men like Thomas Fall, a brickyard owner, the Surveyor of the Sheffield to Chesterfield Trust in the forties were probably representative of the general run of Turnpike Engineers at this time. Turnpike Trusts found it difficult to retain the loyalty of their Trustees, it often being difficult to obtain a quorum to hold the statutory meetings. When they were held, men such as John Gorell Barnes of Ashgate, chairman of the Mansfield Trust, Malkin, a banker who served on the Committee of the Duffield Trust, and W. A. Ashby, the agent at Chatsworth of the Duke of Devonshire, however interested they might be in this work, could not supply the place of the professional engineer. Many Trusts found it difficult to make arrangements to maintain their roads. As an example, the Attercliffe to Worksop Trust, between 1788 and 1810 let contracts for repairing its roads to three different contractors, each of whom left the road in worse condition than he found it, so that finally it was threatened with indictment. Some Trusts, trembling on the verge of bankruptcy, solved this problem and eased their finances by handing over a portion of their tolls to the village Surveyors of the Highways along the Turnpike, who then assumed responsibility for its repair. Nevertheless, despite all these defects, a century of turnpiking left its mark on the economic life of Hallamshire and Scarsdale. Enclosure came rapidly on the heels of turnpiking, as the huge wastes of the Peak and the extensive commons on the Coalfield were crossed by them. Enclosure, too, paid its debt to turnpiking, as many Enclosure Acts made provision for straightening the course of turnpikes and for a system of secondary roads serving them. The great decade of turnpiking during the Seven Years' War was accompanied by the inauguration of a large number of new fairs and markets for beasts and cereals. Many of the major ironworks, such as the Adelphi Works near Duckmanton and the Chapeltown Works, were wholly dependent upon roads for the assembly of their raw materials and the distribution of their products. The production of lime in the Peak was stimulated by turnpiking as was the output of coal on the western edge of the field. Business was facilitated by the coach services linking Sheffield with London, Manchester, Selby, Leeds, Birmingham and the intermediate towns. Whatever may have been the defects of the turnpike system, a comparison of the district in 1740 and a hundred years later, shows such a difference in the scale of economic development in every field—ruling out the contribution made by the inland waterways—as to justify, from the national standpoint, what capital was invested in the Trusts. No doubt, too, many a landowner with minerals on his estate, contemplating his rent books and his royalty accounts, felt that after all, his turnpike shares, however far behind they were in the payment of interest, were one of the soundest long term investments he had made. I should like to thank all who have made this article possible. The Trustees of the Chatsworth Settled Estates kindly gave permission for research at Hardwick. The Clerks of the Peace facilitated research in the archives of the Derbyshire County Council and of the West Riding County Council. As always, Miss Meredith and her staff gave every possible assistance in work on the various collections in the Local History Department of the Sheffield Central Library. Finally, I wish to thank the Earl of Wharncliffe and the Trustees of the Fitzwilliam Settled Estates for permission to use their manuscripts deposited in the Sheffield Central Library. 1 H. Moll. A Set of 50 New and Correct Maps of England and Wales. 1724. Plates, 30, 40 and 41. 2 Journals of the House of Commons. XXIII, 302: 3 The northern section of this road is shown on Dickinson's "New and Current Map of the South Part of the County of York", 1750. 4 Journals of the House of Commons. XXIII, 613. 5 R. E. Leader, "Our Old Roads", H.A.S. Tram., vol. 2, pp. 7-23. 6 Case against the Inhabitants of Sheffield for not repairing part of the road to Hope. 1777 Tibbitts Collection Nos. 413/9170. Sheffield Central Library. 7 Journals of the House of Commons. XIX. 222, 226, 230 and 233. 8 The Diary of Benjamin Granger of Bolsover. D.A.J., vol. IX. 9 Journals of the House of Commons. XII, 493; XIX, 223. 10 A Case in relation to the improving and completing the Navigation of the River Dun. H.A.S. Tram., vol. 5, p. 248. 11 Case against the Inhabitants of Ecdesfield for not repairing Nether Lane 1752. Tibbitts Collection. 413/J-8, Sheffield Central Library. 12 Highway Index, West Riding County Council Offices, Wakefield. 13 Portfolio K. Presentments of Highways. Derbyshire County Council Offices, Derby. (Now Matlock—Ed.) 14 Letter dated 18 Jan., 1740. Letter Book of William Spencer re forges, woods etc. No. 3, Spencer of Cannon Hall Correspondence. Sheffield Central Library. 15 Letter Books of Richard Dalton. Bagshawe Collection 5/4/1-3. John Rylands Library, Manchester. 16 Turner MSS. Flintham Hall, Notts. Letter dated 12 Oct., 1758. 17 Case on behalf of the Bill—for repairing the Roads from Chesterfield to the town of Mansfield, n.d. 18 Letter dated 10 Oct., 1724. Copley MSS. Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Leeds. 19 Winding up Wortley Forge business. No. II. Spencer of Cannon Hall Correspondence. Sheffield Central Library. 20 Journals of the House of Commons. XXIII, 60. 21 Sheffield and Buxton Turpike Road. 1758. Road from Sheffield to Tideswell: F.B. 13, pp. 38-49; and F.B. 14, pp. 36-37. Fairbank Collection. Sheffield Central Library. 22 Travels in England (1761), pp. 65. M.D. 1769, Sheffield Central Library. 23 Journals of the House of Commons. XXXVII, 566. 24 Journals of the House of Commons. XXXVI, 250; XXXVII, 566. 25 Arthur Young "A Six Months Tour Through the North of England" (1770), vol. I, p. 132. 26 Rev. T. Twining "A Country Clergyman of the Eighteenth Century" (1776), p. 47. 27 Sheffield and Wakefield Turnpike Trust. Letters, Tibbitts Collection 363/16. Sheffield Central Library. 28 B. Fauyas Saint Fond "Travels in England, Scotland and the Hebrides" (1799), vol. 2, p. 309. [No marker for note 28 found in the original text] 29 Sheffield and Derby Turnpike. Part of the Road from Sheffield to Chesterfield. 1797. Fairbank Collection, ERO 109 R. 30 Derby Mercury, 5 Sept., 1821, col. II. 31 A map of the intended Turnpike Road from . . . Temple Normanton ... to the Mansfield and Tibshelf Road at Tibshelf Side Gate. 1825. Jackson Collection. No. 1786. Sheffield Central Library. 32 Greenhill Moor and Eckington Turnpike Road. C.P. 20 (128-200). Fairbank Collection. Sheffield Central Library. 33 Tinsley to Doncaster Road. New Line. C.P. 22 (127-227). Fairbank Collection. Sheffield Central Library. Tinsley and Doncaster Branch Roads. Minute Book No. 1. West Riding County Council Offices, Wakefield. 34 Journals of the House of Commons. XXVIII, 808, 828, 857, 860, 890, 900, 908 and 914. 35 Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, Feb. 17, 1849; March 17, 1849; April 14, 1849; July 14, 1849, and Dec. 8, 1849. 36 Miscellaneous Letters, Feb. to April, 1764. R.5. Wentworth Woodhouse MSS. Sheffield Central Library. 37 Turnpikes (Baslow). F.106.G. Wentworth Woodhouse MSS. Wheat Collection. 1273/1. Sheffield Central Library. 38 C.P. 20 (30). Fairbank Collection. Sheffield Central Library. 39 Derby Mercury, 3 Oct., 1782, col. 10. 40 Reasons for supporting the Bill for the intended turnpike road from Clowne ... to Budby. Barlborough Hall MSS. 41 Journals of the House of Commons. XLVI, 167. 42 Journals of the House of Commons. LXV, 61; LXVI, 71. 43 Turnpike Road Papers. Tibbitts Collection Nos. 362 and 404. Sheffield Central Library. 44 Letter dated 27 Jan., 1759. Bagshawc Collection 13/3/296. 45 Letter dated 19 Dec., 1794. Correspondence of John Bagshawe with Shore family. Bagshawc Collection 8/4. 46 Letter dated 12 Dec., 1740. Letter Book of William Spencer No. 4. Spencer of Cannon Hall Correspondence. 47 Doncaster to Saltersbrook Turnpike. 1747. Wharncliffe MSS. No. 111. Sheffield Central Library. 48 Letter dated 26 Feb., 1741. Letters from William Marjden. No. 10. Spencer of Cannon Hall Correspondence. 49 Barlborough Hall MSS. 50 Beauchief Muniments 198. Papers relating to the estate of Thomas Steade. Sheffield Central Library. 51 A. W. Goodfellow "Sheffield Turnpikes in the Eighteenth Century". H.A.S. Trans., vol. V, p. 78. 52 Beauchief Muniments 85. Papers relating to Turnpike Roads. Sheffield Central Library. 53 Turnpike Accounts at Derbyshire and West Riding County Council Offices returned under I. Geo. IV. cap. 95. 54 Observations Intended to show that the Mortgagees of the Tolls of Turnpike Road have a right to dear payment of their interest. By a Mortgagee. 1817. 55 Minute Book. Attercliffe to Worksop Trust. W.R.C.C., Wakefield. 56 Deed Box 25, Norfolk Estate Office, Sheffield—now in the Sheffield Central Library, S246. 57 Journals of the House of Commons, XXIX, 159. 58 Glossop Road. C.P.G. 12/16. Parliamentary Business. Fairbank Collection. Sheffield Central Library. 59 J. Aiken "A Description of the Country from 30 to 40 miles round Manchester", p. 551. 60-4. Farey "Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire", vol. 3 (1817), pp. 206-279. 61 Printed Report of James Mills on the Sheffield to Barnsley Turnpike Road 1829. 62 A Picture of England, p. 326. 63 A Few General Observations on the Principal Railways Executed in the Midland Counties—with the Author's Opinion on them as Investments, p. II (1838).
  21. When was the course of the river in the Ponds and the Dixon Lane area covered over ? I'm talking about the stretch from Pond Hill to the junction of the River Don When open to view, were any photos taken ? Remains of the bridge over the river at the bottom of Dixon Lane were discovered when the new building at that location was being constructed. Time wasn't allowed by contractors for a detailed examination, what a shame !
  22. Ponytail

    Bruce Springsteen - Spare Parts

    Yes, it was loud!! Living at Brinsworth at the time, we thought the lad who lived over the back was having a loud party outside while his parents were away on holiday. Then realised it was the Springsteen Concert. It was louder than the Def Leppard Concert at Don Valley Stadium some years later, that after the Sound Check the day before was turned down a few notches. Set List: Tunnel of Love Express Tour Bramall Lane 9th July 1988 https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bruce-springsteen/1988/bramall-lane-sheffield-england-7bd7b294.html
  23. Ponytail

    Norton Hall

    Norton Estate as Allotted for Sale. 1849 https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;y10811&pos=87&action=zoom&id=72807 Includes: A floor plan of Norton Hall (see also y11091); Little London Works; Meersbrook; Cliff Field; Four Lane Ends; Norton Lees; Norton Woodseats; Bolehill; Little Norton; Lightwood; Coal Aston; Land near Coal Aston & the Coal under; Greenhill; National School. Enlarged Plan of Maugheray. Sheffield Local Studies Library: S (25) 6A L.
  24. Has anyone got any information etc on when the housing in that area of Sheffield was built, and by who. The area is private housing and a combination of detached, semi-detached and bungalows. It is quite a large area stretching from Abbey Lane upto the borders with Bradway, inc Westwick Road, Crescent. Old Park Road, Avenue, Cockshutt Road, Crescent etc. Any info would be welcome
  25. Plan of Joseph Fenton and William Butcher's premises in Pinstone Lane and Norfolk Street, 1847. 'Doe dem: Fenton versus Butcher. Plaintiff's plan' https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04177&pos=115&action=zoom&id=104518 Shows: Pinstone Lane, Norfolk Street, Union Street, Charles Street and Cross Burgess Street. Shows houses, kitchen, workshops, brewhouse, and Crown Public House. Also marked is the site of premises formerly of George Fisher. Also: Plan of Joseph Fenton and William Butcher's premises in Pinstone Lane and Norfolk Street. 1847. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04176&pos=23&action=zoom&id=104517 'Plotted from dimensions along with Charles Unwin in order to test the accuracy of the plan made for the sale of Birks's premises in 1826, so that we might be able to give evidence thereon at the trial of the action of ejectment Doe dem: Fenton versus Butcher.' Shows Pinstone Lane and Norfolk Street. Marked are premises of Joseph Fenton (including brewhouse, privies and new shop) and premises of William Butcher. This plan arc04176 is the same area and names as plan arc04177 only Brewhouse marked but probably named Crown Public House. From Sheffield History A-Z Public Houses List: Crown Inn/Old Crown, 21 Pinstone Street. Open 1796; Closed 1898; Span 102 Comments: 1822 10, Pinstone Street Earlier 1818 (Pigots) William Hutchinson [Pinstone Lane] 1822 William Hutchinson 1825 William Hutchinson 1830 William Hutchinson 1833 William Hutchinson [ 11 Pinstone Street ] 1834 Joseph Outram 1837 Joseph Outram 1839 S Heath [ 21 Pinstone Street ] 1841 Samuel Heath 1846 George Fitzpatrick 1849 J Smith 1851 Thomas Puyer (census) (Ancestry entry corrected from Payer) 1852 Thomas Puyer 1854 Thomas Puyer 1856 Thomas Puyer 1859 Thomas Puyer 1862 to 1865 Sarah Allen (Old Crown) 1868 Sarah Allen 1871 Mrs Allen 1876 Sarah Allen [ 21 Pinstone Street ] 1879 Sarah Allen 1881 Edwin Allen A-Z also records 1881 & 1851 Census: 1881 Census: Edwin Allen aged 38, Publican born Sheffield. 1851 Census: Link broken. Can anybody find any more information about: Crown/Crown Inn/Old Crown, Pinstone Lane/Street.
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