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  1. A DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN OF SHEFFIELD in my remembrance wrote in the year 1832 at the time the Cholera was raging in Sheffield. BY JOSEPH WOOLHOUSE. FORE WORD BY MR. HENRY RICHARDSON. The year 1832, when Joseph Woolhouse wrote his interesting paper on "Old Sheffield as I knew it," was a year of great importance. It saw the commencement of the Dispensary (now the Royal Hospital), the destruction of the old Cutlers' Hall, and the erection of the present building in Church Street, the first election of Parliamentary representation for the town, the enfranchisement of three thousand five hundred voters, and the visitation of "the Cholera," which played great havoc in the town. Whilst Woolhouse was writing in his spare moments, as timekeeper at Sheaf Works, the hundreds of pages in manuscript, which I possess, he took great pains to closely watch the developments of the town. It was early in the year 1832 when a proposal was made at the Meeting of Governors connected with the General Infirmary (now Royal Infirmary) to establish for the use of the town a Dispensary connected with the institution. The proposal was negatived by a large majority, the minority, under the leadership of several prominent medical men, including Dr. Arnold Knight, immediately called a meeting and decided to step forward in the dispensing of medicines for the poor and needy. At the meeting called by the minority it was decided to go forward with the movement, when Rules were adopted, and Dr. C. F. Favell, M.D., was elected Hon. Sec., premises were acquired in Tudor Place, and this useful work proceeded. Simultaneously with the opening of the Dispensary the town was visited with an outbreak of the Asiatic Cholera, not unexpected, as many writers have asserted. Preparations were already in hand, it having already appeared in other parts of the country. In the November previous a communication on this subject, from Dr. G. Calvert Holland, who had journeyed to Sunderland to investigate this awful disease, then raging in the country, had recently been elected Physician to the Infirmary. The Board of Health was formed to deal with the epidemic, on which Board James Montgomery was a distinct figure. It also included other prominent public men, including John Blake, Master Cutler, who fell a victim to the disease. The medical faculty was fully represented. A full and complete history of the epidemic is to be found in Dr. John Stokes' "History of the Cholera Epidemic," published in 1921, and is in the Reference Department of our Free Library. "Woolhouse" also mentions cases in which he refers "to the extreme careful skill of the medical profession." During the time "Woolhouse" was writing his interesting memoirs, the contractors were pulling down the old Cutlers' Hall, and in June, 1832, the corner stone of the new Cutlers' Hall was laid by John Blake, a filemaker of Upperthorpe, who died of Cholera, and was interred at Clay Wood. Underneath the corner stone of the Cutlers' Hall was placed a number of coins, specimens of cutlery, newspaper records, &c. "Woolhouse" in Gleanings, Vol. III, page 60, refers to the illuminating of St. Paul's Church Clock and the consternation it created. Of the local conditions we are assured of the liberality of the overseers, who "announce that the allowance made to landlords paying poor rates on cottage property, shall be reduced from 50°/0 to 33~, trade being very depressed, with little prospect of improvement, the poor rate costing 83;,~ per week as against 41;~ per week in 1831." The Debtors Gaol in Scotland Street was kept busy, whilst Little Sheffield Gaol (Ecclesall) was so full that personal execution was stayed. The Government of the town was represented by a selected body known as the Police Commissioners, under an Act passed in 1818. Close upon 100 persons formed this body politic, who elected a Treasurer, a Clerk, a Surveyor, a Collector, 50 watchmen and other officers, and were restricted to spend not more than 113 in the ~. The annual rentals in 1832 amounted to .,£5,073 7s. 6d.; and in that year they appointed " street keepers. " The Post Office was in Norfolk Street. in the shop at the corner of Arundel Street. Mr. Wreaks was Postmaster, and the postal work of the town was carried out by five letter carriers. The coaches went to and fro from the Tontine, King's Head, Angel, Commercial Hotels, whilst the carriers were mostly from stores and warehouses in Arundel Street. At this period in the valleys were forty Grinding Wheels (water), sixteen in Rivelin Valley, eight on the Loxley, and the remainder on the Rivers Don, Sheaf and Porter. It is now twenty years since I acquired a series of manuscripts written by Joseph Woolhouse between the years 1821 and 1842. They are in five sections, written upon foolscap paper and enclosed within wrappers or coverings of brown paper. A distant relative of the author informed me that they were written when Woolhouse was in reduced circumstances and that he lent them for a small charge to those interested, or read them aloud in various public houses in the town. Their thumbmarked condition is evidence of frequent use. Since the late Mr. R. E. Leader wrote the notes upon Woolhouse's "description" I have traced the following information concerning him. Woolhouse was born in 1778 and was the son of Joseph Woolhouse, cutler, to whom he was apprenticed. He obtained his freedom as a cutler in 1804, and in 1821, when living at 2 Newhall Street, was described as a Table Knife Cutler. About 1833 he found employment as timekeeper at Sheaf Works, and in his various writings he mentions certain events concerning these works. His connection with Sheaf Works has been traced to 1849, when he was 71 years of age, but no later information about him has been found. Woolhouse was present at the opening of the Cutlers' Hall in 1833, and also at the dinner given by the Master Cutler to the Freemen of the Company in celebration of that event. He left an interesting account of these gatherings in which he says that the Freemen were received by the Master and Mistress Cutler and on entering the Hall were regaled with "a bun and a glass of ale." At the dinner, he states, the Master Cutler had the oldest Freeman of the Company seated on his right. This was George Beardshaw of Wincobank, a relative of Woolhouse's, who was 93 years of age and who was brought to the dinner in the carriage of Mr. Thomas Dunn, the ex-Master Cutler. Amongst the toasts at the dinner he records the following: "May Yorkshire wives be like Sheffield knives, highly polished and well tempered," and "Eternal destruction to false marks on all Sheffield made goods." Apart from the "description" printed above this "true old Sheffield Blade" left many interesting jottings upon the old town. Amongst these is a list of the "wells" which supplied the populace with water, and a description of Sheffield streets and alleys in 1732, gleaned from various sources. Mr. Leader's annotations have added very materially to the value of Woolhouse's "description." In his last letter to me Mr. Leader asked what had been done with the MS., and when it would be published; my great regret is that it was not possible to issue it during Mr. Leader's lifetime. The fact that it is now printed in the Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society, would, I am sure, have afforded pleasure to Mr. Leader, for he took an intense interest in all the Society's work. In conclusion may I place on record my thanks for the valuable help Mr. Leader always gave to me in my researches into the history of "Old Sheffield." His help was given unsparingly, and not to me alone, but to all those who delved into the past of our old town. In offering and publishing this interesting brochure, I am urged to do so by many friends who, having read its publication in the Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society, suggested its publicity in book form and at a reasonable price, that the artisans of this important city may glean something of the city in its early days. The reader may note that "Woolhouse" in his Description deals with the streets and with buildings he remembers; with the industrial conditions of the period he says little, still he gives a vivid impression of the streets and walks that existed in our great-grandfathers days. It is my intention shortly to publish the list of wells which supplied the town with water, and his quaint statements concerning them. The paper was written when horse-less buses were unknown, when cabs were used, and which have since disappeared; when "hansom cabs," with the perched driver at the rear, with the "enquiry hole at the top" were unknown, and have since gone into oblivion. In the eighteenth century the "Sedan chair" was popular, and rows of them stood for hire in Norfolk Street, when the ladies of Sheffield held their Assemblies in the old building still existing. Much more may ~be written in this strain, but the progress and advancement of this city during my lifetime has been remarkable, and I dedicate this humble reproduction to one of Sheffield's leading citizens, who, having watched the progress and given untold ability to this advancement, I commend as an example to future generations. Fulwood, 1926. A DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN OF SHEFFIELD in my remembrance wrote in the year 1832 at the time the Cholera was raging in Sheffield. BY JOSEPH WOOLHOUSE. PREPATORY NOTE. Firsthand recollections of the former state of Sheffield which go back to the eighteenth century, are so rare that it may be reckoned a piece of good fortune that the following description "wrote in the year 1832" has come into the hands of Mr. Henry Richardson, the Treasurer of the Hunter Archaeological Society. In 1798 Joseph Hunter, then a boy of 15, began a series of "Perambulations" but he did not carry them far at least, as printed, they are only a fragment. Besides these, there have been published from time to time in the newspapers, the memories of venerable citizens, and these, up to the date of that book, have been embodied by me in Reminiscences of Old Sheffield. But few of them reached back, in actual personal knowledge, beyond the earlier years of the nineteenth century. And the value of the present jottings lies more in telling what the writer had himself actually seen, than in what reached him through hearsay. Reference to various authorities shows him to be singularly accurate as to the former. As regards the latter well, he reflects inbred popular myths. He confirms much already on record, and adds new items. There is not much known about him. His age when he wrote has not been ascertained, but there is internal evidence that points to about 1775 as the time of his birth. Thus he faintly remembered the old barns removed to build the Tontine Inn some time before it was opened in 1785, and he had been in the wooden Shambles replaced about the same time. He was a school-boy when Church Street was widened in 1785, and as a young man he served in the Sheffield Independent Volunteers during six of its eight years existence 1794 to 1802. He saw the fire at the Cotton Mill in 1792. So that he would be somewhere near fifty-seven years of age in 1832. That he had a true Sheffielder's affection for the town is evident, and that he had historic instincts is shown by the fact, of which Mr. Richardson informs me, that he left behind him the Manuscript. of "The History of Sheffield in the County of York, " in six parts, written between the years 1826-1842. This he was accustomed to lend out to readers, for a small payment. But judging from the first part, which alone I have seen, it has none of the personal interests of the "Description," being almost entirely copied from well-known publications. I have had some difficulty in restraining a pen trained in journalistic traditions, from interference with many sentences which might have been more clearly expressed. But in the main, and with some amendments of punctuation, it has seemed better to retain quaint language reflecting the manner in which those of the author's class would talk. That is to say, would talk on Sundays, not in the workshop, for while it is charged with Sheffield phrases, there is, unfortunately, a scarcity of dialectic words. Occasionally we get these as in the story of the lame man who was "frighted by the barghast," and whose escape was hindered because his wife had "the door made. " It will be noted, too, that people took "kits" and "flaskets" to the wells, for water. The constant use of "was" where grammar requires "were ", is, of course, characteristic of a period when people were accustomed to say "you was, " but the epithet "elegant" has an American flavour. It is rather surprising to find an old Sheffielder speaking, Yankee fashion, of "a very elegant bowling green"; "an elegant country house"; "a very elegant town pump," and so forth. I trust that my annotation may serve to remove certain obscurities and enable the reader to sift fiction from fact. R. E. LEADER. (Richard A. Brant note : Leaders comments are those which follow the number in round brackets) BEGINNING WITH THE OLD CHURCH YARD TAKING THE PARISH CHURCH FOR MY GUIDE. From the Church to Shales Moor coming from the Church, the first place of note was the old Town Hall, built in the year 1700. It stood at the South East Corner of the Church Yard. It was built of Stone for the use of the Town. The Sessions was held here, and the Magistrates used to do all their business in it. There was Steps went up on each Side the door on the North Side into the Hall, also a flight of Steps facing up Church Lane for the Magistrates and other Officers to go into the Hall. The prisons was underneath the Hall. The door was on the South Side and faced nearly up Fargate, so that when any person was Confined you had an opportunity of seeing them. I have peeped many a time when a boy thro' the small round hole to see persons whom perhaps I knew. Their friends had an opportunity of giving them Vituals, but people often gave them Liquors. I have heard many a drunken prisoner bawl there. There was 3 Prisons, 2 for men and 1 for women. There was a dwelling over the woman's prison; someone lived there to keep the hall clean etc. The Stocks was in front of the Building, facing down High Street. Lionel Smilter the Town Crier, lived in a dwelling under the Hall. There was some large Gates at the East Corner of the Hall and went in a slanting direction across to the corner of the house once occupied by Mr. Watkin [Walker] Confectioner. The Church yard was enclosed by a low Stone wall only on the North and South sides. There was a few old houses on the West side, built with no regularity. The road to the Church was on the South, fronting Cutlers' Hall and [the other, already mentioned] South East by the Town Hall. On the North Side, from the top of Paradise square was up a flight of perhaps 12 or 14 Steps out of Campo Lane opposite that Grocer's Shop, it was a Grocer's shop at that time. These steps had a rail in the middle. There was only one door on the North Side the Church, the same as now. These steps used to lead direct to that door, no St. James Street nor St. James Church. St. James Row and the East Parade is took from part of the Church yard. {1} Where the News Rooms are, used to be some very old buildings belonging to the Church where they once cast a Set of Bells for the Church. All mason work belonging to the Church was done here. {2} Church Lane was made wider in the year [1785] by taking a part of the Church yard. When a boy going to School and passing by the Church yard at the time when they was widening this street I have seen them dig up dead bodies very often, there was a deal of noise in the Town at that time about it. 1 The description of the Churchyard here given relates to the year 1785, when the widening of Church Street, and the making of St. James Row (originally called Virgins Row) by taking strips from the south and west sides led to the erection of iron railings. Similar palisading was added on the north side in 1791 - but East Parade was much later, dating from the time of the removal of the Town Hall in 1808. The walk opposite the Cutlers' Hall to the south door of the Church had been made in 1725 as a sort of safe approach for the Cutlers' Company, who paid for its construction and were responsible for its repair. Besides the steps at the north west corner, which remained after the St. James Row had been made, there were others at the north east corner into the Churchyard by the Boys' Charity School. The Girls' Charity School, now the offices of Messrs. Gibbs & Flockton, was the first building erected in St. James Row (1786) on part of the Vicarage Croft. Mr. Wigfull tells me that there is evidence of a north door into the Church, opening into the north aisle, opposite to the second bay from the west; and facing a similar entrance from the south. In the re-building, 1790-1805, other doors were substituted in a somewhat different position. These were closed in 1856, when the western entrance was made. Mr. Woolhouse was right in taking it for granted that everybody knew "that grocer's shop" at the corner of Paradise Street and Campo Lane; for there Thomas Newton and his successors did a large trade on small premises by supplying cutlers with emery, crocus and glue. Many of us remember it. 2 From 1722 the Capital Burgesses rented a "laith," or barn, on the property of the Heatons, for the accommodation of workmen during church repairs. In 1745, departing from the usual custom of obtaining bells from distant foundries a peal of eight was here cast, or recast, by one Daniel Hedderley, the metal being also locally supplied. The barn is always spoken of as "in the churchyard" until 1809 when, East Parade having been made, it "adjoined" the Churchyard, and having been used by the masons during recent rebuilding, its tenancy was then given up. It is possible that the Award relative to an alleged encroachment in 1636 quoted in H.A.S. Transactions, i. p. 74, related to this site. For the position of the East Parade News Room see H.A-S- Transactions. i. p 156- 10 The Town Hall was pulled down in the year 17‹-[1808] and the street made wider and in its present form. The High Street was composed of very low old-built houses, a many pulled down and others new fronted. I believe there was once, a little above the middle of this street, stood a Priory, and I believe that yard leading from Gales' Shop to High Street was once called Prior Row; and this Street, High Street, was then called Fryars Gate. {3} Where the present Shambles are built once stood the old Shambles built of wood and very dirty. I only remember seeing these old Wooden Shambles and being in them some several times. {4} There was a cross (the same was removed into Paradise Square) stood at the top of Pudding Lane (now King Street). A little lower down the Street stood the old Angel Inn, The most noted inn between London and Edinburg, kept then. by Mr. Samuel Peech, a very wicked but honest man. {5} A little lower, opposite the Sign of the Castle, once stood a Cross, (but before my time). {6} There was no Bank Street, nor do I believe that Street took its name from the Bank. But there was where the Bank now is, some very old houses stood as tho' they was upon a piece of rock or high bank, say 2 or 3 yards higher than the Street or road. As the Street was very imperfect at that time and a considerable deal higher than now, with a number of old houses all the way down Snig Hill. West Barr was in the same direction as now, only some new houses have been built and a number of old ones new-fronted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 I have on various occasions refuted, by the production of definite evidence, the fiction, persistent since the publication of Gosling's plan in 1736, that the original name of High Street was Prior Gate; and "Fryars Gate" is altogether mythical. Prior Row was never the passage between High Street and Hartshead now known (after many changes of name) as Aldine Court. It was the name of the houses along the north side‹that is, they were Prior Row in High Street. The houses on the south side were never described as Prior Row, but in High Street "over against Prior Row. " There is not the slightest historical basis for the statement that there was once a Priory in the street. "Shambles" has become so generally regarded as a synonym for slaughter- houses as to make it necessary to remember that Sheffield clung tenaciously to its primary, and etymological meaning a bench or stall, on which goods, and especially meat, were exposed for sale. When, in 1786, the butchers were relegated from the open street to better, but duller habitations within four walls, and with them the vendors of butter, eggs and poultry, the name was transferred with them it remained the Shambles, not the Market. Fruiterers and others continued outside until the demolition of the Debtors' Gaol in King Street, in 1818 (on the site now occupied by the Norris Deakin Buildings) made a void which they filled to the great relief of the congested streets but with some loss of picturesque but slovenly litter. (For Killing Shambles see Note 3). 5 The Irish Cross. The Castle Inn stood at the corner of Water Lane, facing Angel Street. 6 This somewhat confused paragraph seems to suggest that Bank Street took its name from the rather abrupt descent of the ground towards Snig Hill and the commencement of West Bar - apparent enough farther on, in Scargill Croft and New Street. But there is nothing more certain in Sheffield nomenclature than the fact that Bank Street, made in 1791, was run through "the orchard or garden " of the bankers, Shores, and took its name from their bank the structure of which is still seen behind and above the shop at the corner of Angel Street and Bank Street. It was originally intended to call the latter Shore Street. By 1793 it had become known as Bank Street. 11 There was an old Workhouse at the end of West Barr, at the Bottom of Workhouse Croft. This Workhouse was considerably enlarged in my time and was entirely pulled down in the year 1829. At the North side of this Workhouse stood a Quantity of old houses, upon West Barr green. They was pulled down to make the large opening Street at the west end of West Barr green. These houses proceeded nearly to the bottom of Lambert Croft. At the bottom corner of Lambert Croft stood a Public house kept by Charles Kelk.{7} It stood within the Street and was pulled down to make the Street uniform at the bottom. Gibraltar Street was a deal narrower in places than now, and there was a long walk on the right hand going on, and all was fields and Gardens to the Cotton Mill, a Mill which stood upon the ground where the Workhouse now stands. The Lancasterian School was then a Rolling Mill belonging to one Parkin. The Public house opposite the Lancasterian School, (Sign of the Greyhound) was kept by John Hinchcliffe, one of the acting Constables of Sheffield. This was the last house in Sheffield that way; beyond the Lancasterian School was all fields and gardens. On the right hand side and near to where Ebenezer Chapel now stands was a bowling Green, a very elegant one kept by John Hinchcliffe.{8} My father used to frequent this Green often and I have been many a time to accompany him home when a boy from this Green. The Shales Moor commenced here. It was a piece of Waste ground reaching from the bottom of Trinity Street to where the Roscoe Factory is built. It was there where the Farmers used to deposit the manure which they brought out of the Town. There was some Steps to go over into a Field called the Coach gate, this is now Hoyle Street, which led up to Mr. Hoyle's house. There was a Carriage road through this field up to Mr. Hoyle's House and a small brook of water run through it and from here this water was conducted underground into the river.{9} It goes just under the doors and windows of those houses in Cornish Street, thro' Green Lane into the river. It was what used to overflow at Crookes Moor dams. Proceeding on, now Cornish Street, was a very large and neat Bowling Green belonging to the Cleekham public house. Afterwards a large Steam grinding wheel was built and the green destroyed; then the wheel was destroyed, and Mr. Dixon's white metal manufactory built upon the ruins.{10} 7 Charles Kelk was dead in 1797, and the house was kept by his widow, and West Bar and West Bar Green so teemed with public houses that the sign of this is doubtful. 8 Hence Bowling Green Street. 9 Hence Watery Street. 10 Cornish Place. The main Turnpike road went on this way at that time up past Morton Wheel which is now Vulcan Works,{11} and a foot-road used to strike into the fields a little above Cleekham Inn on the left hand and come out again near the bottom of Pack Horse Lane (now the Lane leading up to the Barracks).{12} My GrandFather kept a public house in Green Lane and this Cleekham Inn was also one at that time. The large house (I don't know who dwells there now), with the Pallasades and Trees before it, was built upon the place where my GrandFather kept ale. I can remember the same workshops my GrandFather had; they was standing but not the house. The foot road at that time came up close by my GrandFather's house and kept up by the water side to the front of the Cleekham Inn. There was a long walk fenced on each side with a Stone wall, came from the end of Spring Street (or Spring Croft called at that time) up Long Croft to Green Lane, and not one house built between Spring Croft and Green Lane. My mother saw them building the first Silk Mill. The Contractor or overlooker for the building boarded at their house in Green Lane‹while the Mill was building. This Mill was burnt down several times, I saw it myself each time. The present Workhouse stands upon the same ground as the Mill used to do. Kelham Wheel was part belonging to the Mill. {13} We will now return to Gibraltar Street. On the left hand side as you proceed to Cupalo Street, there used to be a Cupalo at theTop. This Street is much as it were; same by Copper Street, and Trinity Street and Snow Lane. Smith Field has had a many houses built in it. Mr. Morton, Silversmith (Mr. Thomas Dunn, Table Knife Manufacturer, married his Daughter). I knew this Mr. Morton very well and he told me himself that he dug the first sod up in Smith Field to build his house upon, and he built the first house in ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Morton's Wheel was very ancient. Vulcan Works on its site have become Rutland Works. The Owlerton Road ran much nearer to the river than at present. 12 The old Barracks at Philadelphia. When the Langsett Road was widened it went through these. The present Barrack Lane indicates approximately their position. The last part of this sentence is rather obscure, but it probably means that the writer having followed the turnpike to Morton Wheel, returns to Cleckham Inn (Cornish Place), and describes a footpath leading thence on his left in the direction of the present Infirmary Road once rural Whitehouse Lane; whence Causey Lane led to Upperthorpe and Daniel Hill. Now it is interesting to find Mr. Woolhouse speaking of Pack Horse Lane hereabouts, because it suggests (and additionally in conjunction with "Causey Lane"), a connection with that Racker Way which Mr. T. Walter Hall traced from Walkley Hall to Stannington. H.A.S. Transections, i. p. 63. Nor is the interest removed if this interpretation be wrong, and the writer meant that Pack Horse Lane led to the old Barracks. Because there is thence also an approach to Daniel Hill, but from the other side, by what is now called Woollen Lane. Further, what has become Infirmary Road is marked, on early nineteenth century maps "Walkley Road." 13 The silk mill, built in 1758, became a cotton mill. It was burnt down in 179~, and again in 1810. 13 Smith Field. What is now Allen Street was a very deep narrow Lane. My mother used to come from Green Lane to Sheffield to School sometimes up this lane. It was then called Cuckoo Allen Lane because they generally heard the Cuckoo sing first in this lane as they went to School. The House now occupied by Mr. Hoyle was my GrandFather's nearest neighbour, as Green Lane was all Tanyards belonging to Mr. Aldam of Upperthorpe‹no house between this house (now Mr. Hoyle's) and Green Lane. This Elegant Country house as it was then, belonged to a very eminent Lawyer, called Redfern (oftener by the name of Devil Redfern). These Hoyles is descended from him. This House in my Time was situated in the midst of Fields, Gardens, and pleasure grounds. There was a row of Aspen trees from Allen Lane to Burnwell as high as most houses, used to shade the road as you approached to the house, also very elegant privet hedges, and a very large Rookery, a large Dove Cote, etc. etc., Stables, out-buildings, etc. etc. etc.{14} There was no road any higher than the passage from top of this Allen Lane into Scotland Street on the left hand; going up on the right hand was this walk over-shadowed by these fine trees I have just mentioned. Our servant girl used to fetch water from the Burnt Tree from Lambert Croft. In Summer time there was branches of water, only one in some streets, and a person (they used to call him Water John) used to come twice a week and blow a Horn at the lop of Lambert Street as there was one [branch] fixed there and you used to take your Kit or Flasket. He would have filled it twice for a penny. But then in Summer this water used to run short and you was compell'd to fetch it where it was most to be had. This Burnt Tree water was plentiful. I have gone with the servant girls on a Summers evening and I believe you would have met above 20 upon the same errand. The lasses used to be very fond of going there for water. 14 Mr. William Hoyle, attorney and Clerk to the Cutlers' Company from 1777 to 1792, married a daughter of John Redfearn whose wife was a Fretwell of Hooton Levett‹whence the later Fretwell Hoyles. Hoyle succeeded to Redfearn's practice and house, which latter is sometimes described as at Portmahon, at others as Netherthorpe. Portmahon has fallen into disuse, surviving in little more than the name of a Baptist Chapel. The position of Netherthorpe, the antithesis to Upperthorpe, is indicated by Netherthorpe Place. The house stood at the present corner of Hoyle Street and Meadow Street, the entrance to its grounds being in Burnt Tree Lane, which curved round them. The lane still exists between Meadow Street and Doncaster Street, but it has been straightened. Meadow Street is a comparatively modern improvement. 15 Brinsworth's (or more probably Brelsforth's, for the name is found in all manner of spellings Orchards became Orchard Street FROM THE OLD CHURCH TO CROOKES MOOR. I have mentioned what an old, low, dirty Street Church Lane was. Proceeding up, there was Brinsworth Orchards {15} on your left (this Street was not all built at that time). On your right is now Vicar Lane but there was no St. James Street, no Vicar Lane, no St. James Church. These places was the Vicarage Crofts. The next Street up Church Lane was Solomon's Row (now Smith Street). This Street used to be called Bloody Row. The following circumstancegave it that name. One Solomon Smith and his son going to Chesterfield Races, a Gentleman's carriage happened to be coming from Chesterfield to the Race Common, a little on this side of Stone Gravels (my Father has shewn me the place very often). The son, then a boy, threw a Stone and frightened the Gentleman's horses. The Gentleman ordered his Footman to horsewhip the boy for so doing. The boy got over a wall and run across the fields, the Footman in pursuit after him. There happened to be in one of the fields some old Coal Pits. The Footman overtaking him began of horsewhipping him and drove him into one of these old Coal pits, so that the boy was killed upon the place. The Father had the case investigated into; The Footman was committed to prison to take his trial. The Gentleman bargained with this Solomon Smith for so much money not to appear against the man at the Assizes, so by that means the man was acquitted. With this money he (Solomon Smith) sold his son's life, for he built Solomon 's Row or Bloody Row, as it was once called (it is now Smith Street). {16} When I was a Boy it was reported that this Street was haunted. My aunt used to live in it for a number of years, and I have heard her and the rest of the family say that they have heard dreadfull noises in the Street at midnight many a time. Past this street you proceeded (inclining rather to your right) on Pinfold Street (now Bow Street),{17} Pinfold Lane, very old low houses; the Pinfold same as now. On your left was Blind Lane, a very narrow old Street; the houses was unregular built, no West Street. All at the back of Blind Lane on your right hand was fields and Gardens. This Blind Lane continued a very narrow .street untill it came to the top of Coal Pitt Lane. The Balm Green, on your left hand; this Balm Green was composed of very old houses, but no regular Street. At the entrance of Blind Lane on your right hand was a foot road (in 16 Smith Street has been swallowed up in Leopold Street. This story of Miser Smith is one of many. It has been told before but not so fully as here. Local gossip fixed the sum left by Smith at his death at £60,000. He was reputed to have justified the omission of any provision for his housekeeper from his will by the remark: "Why should I ? She has had an easy place, she has earned a good deal of money by sewing at nights, and I found her a candle." 17 Bow Street was never Pinfold Lane or Pinfold Street. It was made in connection with Glossop Road in 1821, through old tenements and cutting across a narrow "jennel" called Sands Paviours, which ran from Orchard Lane to Pinfold Lane between Smith Street and Blind lane (Holly Street) 15 being now) at the back of the Brown Cow. {18} This footpath led into the fields to go to Broom Hall and Broomhall Spring and Crookes Moor that way. No Carver Street, where Carver Street Chapel now Stands was fields. I have exercised with the Regiment of Loyal Independent Sheffield Volunteers under Colonel Athorpe, in which Regiment I served for 6 years, upon the same place where the Chapel now Stands, very often. {19} From this Chapel to Sheffield Moor was all Fields. Proceeding on Trippett Lane, this was a narrow Street, nearly same as now. Bailey Field (now Street) was not complete. This was the last street on the right hand. Going forward, on your left hand was, (and is yet) a narrow passage which used to lead from Trippett Lane into the Fields, and a foot path leading from here over the fields into Back Fields, From the bottom of this narrow passage was a lane leading into the fields out of Trippet Lane to go to Broomhall Spring. {20} Forward on, Trippett Lane was a very deep narrow lane and rose up to a high hill at Portobello. No Bailey Lane; from where Bailey Lane now is to Crookes Moor, was all Fields and Gardens. Where St. George's Church now stands was a particular high hill, it was Gardens and supposed to be the pleasantest Gardens about Sheffield. Turning down Broad Lane on your right hand was all Cornfields as far as Bailey Field; on your left hand was houses but unregular built. No Red Hill Street. Proceeding down Broad Lane at the bottom on the left hand is Garden Street, this was not a Street at that time but partly Gardens, no road through into Red hill.{21} 18 'The writer, after a divergence along Blind Lane to Balm Green, here returns to the junction of Pinfold Lane with Trippett Lane. The footpath he speaks of still exists and is known as West Bank Lane. It emerges in West Street opposite to Carver Street, and has (or had) a branch to Rockingham Street. 19 The Loyal Independent Volunteers were in being from 179~ to 1802. Carver Street Chapel was built in 1805. 20 'This description of the footpath is not clear. No doubt there were several up the slope of the hill, leading towards the lane which became Broomhall Street and, on the right, towards Convent Walk. Back Fields, or Back Lands, often written Black Lands, was the whole region extending north to south from West Street to Sheffield Moor, east to west from Coal Pit Lane to Broomhall Street and Fitzwilliam Street. Coal Pit Lane marks the division between the Townships of Sheffield and Ecclesall, and along the Back Lands Division Street was run, across it Carver Street, Rockingham Street and Eldon Street. The populace converted Back Lands Lane (Broomhall Street) into Black Lambs Lane. 21 Garden Street Chapel was built in 1780, and there were not A few residents in Garden Walk, as it was usually called, by 1787 - Although there was no street at Red Hill there was access over its Waste to the Brocco Going up Townhead Street this was once the principal head of the Town. The Town at one time ranged very little higher than this Street. It was a deal more hilly than at present and a considerable deal narrower. There was formerly some very good public wells in this Street. On the left is Rotten Row. I believe this Street retains more of its ancientness than any other Street in Sheffield. The water course still continues to run in the middle of the Street, as most streets did 50 years ago. This was once a very populace street leading to the Town Head Cross, etc., it is not a very popular street at this time. {22} At the top of Town Head Street stood the old Grammar School, the road in front of this School was raised so as to be even with the roof. A little below in the yard was the old Writing School, John Eadon, Master.{23} I learnt at this school under Mr. John Eadon. The Grammar School is now removed into Charlotte Street at the top of Broad Lane. The first public Brewery was first established at the top of Townhead Street, the proprietor was Mr [John Taylor 1756]. {24} Going along Campo Lane is Holy Croft, {25} there is very little alterations in this Street except at the bottom which used to be very narrow and a good Stone house built in this Street. This large house (it was all in one) was untenanted a many years when I was a boy because say'd report in those days it was haunted and no one durst live in it ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (22) The popular name for Rotten, or Ratten Row, indicated the sordid neglect befalling a thoroughfare whose proper designation was Radford Row, so called from Thomas Radford, Redford, Radforth or Redforth, the principal owner who lived and had his works hard by. He was Master Cutler in 1725, the year of the rebuilding of the Cutlers' Hall, when he made a curious claim for compensation for the loss of certain perquisites his predecessors had enjoyed. His house was in recent times a well-known fishing tackle shop at the bottom of Broad Lane End. Like Red Croft, in Trippett Lane, the houses of Radford Row made an island, their backs to Broad Lane End, and ran from the bottom of Townhead Street (which Gosling marks as Well Street) to Tenter Street. The Town Trustees tinkered at this squalid purlieu in 1831; later, as one of the most noisome haunts of iniquity in the town. it was wholly swept away and its site makes the eastern side of the space at the bottom of the new Hawley Street. (23) John Eadon was Master of the Free Writing School from 1760 to his death in 1810. For many years he was also writing master at the Grammar School. Mr. Woolhouse's caligraphy is one of many proofs that penmanship was not the neglected art it seems to be in the schools of to-day, but Mr. Eadon does not appear to have had a great success in teaching him grammar. Eadon's Arithmetical and Mathematical Repository survives as testimony to the author's skill in figures. Like many other schoolmasters of his period he did some land-surveying. Sims Croft, now abolished, was made through land on which the two schools had stood. (24) The statement that John Taylor established in 1756 the first public brewery in the town, where afterwards was The Warm Hearthstone, is manifestly culled from 7 he Sheffield Local Register. But there was an earlier one in Scargill Croft, for in the Leeds Mercury for May 17th, 174g, Thomas Elliott vaunted the products of the "Sheffield Brew-house" there situate. (25) Sheffield could never make up its mind whether to call this Holy Croft, or Hawley Croft which is not, perhaps, surprising, since the earlier generations of the Holy wrote themselves Awley and Hawley. The old house referred to is apparently one described in Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century, p. 176, as bearing the date 1721, though there was another in the same street dated 1729. The former is believed to have been the residence of John Smith, Master Cutler in 1722. After that it became the Ball Inn, kept by Jonathan Beardshaw, following whom was Thomas, or as he was usually called, Squire, Bright. As he was one of the twelve persons designated in the directory of 1787 as "Gentleman," it is possible that he was a descendant of one of the Bright families of Whirlow, etc., although here he was a rate-collector. The initials on the 172g house were those of Jonathan Moor, Master Cutler in 1723. 17 (what a dark age). Proceeding on Campo Lane there is a few old houses pulled down and new ones built, but it is yet a very narrow Street. There is a remnant of a part of an ancient wall still standing on your right hand. I have no doubt but ere long this street will be made considerable wider to the top of Paradise Square. This square in my Parent's time was a Cornfield called Hicks Stile field. My mother has seen Corn grow in this Square. I will relate one circumstances to show what the 17 Century was. My GrandFather as I have said in the former part of this work, lived at Green Lane and kept a public house. He likewise carried on the Trade of Pocket Knives. One of his men was lame and compell 'd to have Crutches to assist him to travel for a number of Years. His residence was in Gregory Row. My mother has mentioned his name often. This person was out late one evening and had to come on Campo Lane, he saw (or fancied he saw) the Bargast (as it has been frequent]y called) Coming towards him on Campo Lane.{26} At that time the Paradise Square was a field and a Stile at the top to go over. When he first saw this goblin he thought within himself " If I can but get over this stile into the field I can go down the hill merrily. " Gregory Row was a very narrow Row or Street at the bottom of Paradise Square. This was a very high hill at that time. The bottom of the present Street has been raised 3 or 4 feet in my time. He managed over this Stile, but the fiend gained ground of him. Faster he went and faster it followed, he ran with his Crutches till his fears came thicker and faster, and this demon still getting nearer, when, being about the middle of this field (the Square) seeing this goblin close at his heels, he there dropt his Crutches and away went he without them, and never stopt or look'd behind him until he got home (he lived in Gregory Row, a very narrow thoroughfare out of West Bar Green and came out at the bottom of Silver Street at the back of the now Sign of the Little Tankard). The wife had the door made, but him being in such a fright had not patience to wait until she opened the door but burst it open. He told the wife what was at the door, but she was the worse frightened at him coming without his Crutches than at the Bargast. However they were a little reconciled and went to bed. He could not rest from fright etc., got up at daylight the next morning to go in quest of his Crutches; he found them in exactly the same place where he dropt them. He went to his work the next morning and his Shopmen was nearly as frightened to see him come trotting to the shop without his crutches as he was when he saw the Bargast. However he was so overjoyed that he gave his Shopmen a treat of some ale, and they spent the day Cheerfully; and he for his own part never used Crutches again while he lived, and he lived a many years after this. So much for this Bargast. 26 Hunter (Glossary) says the Barghasts were peculiar to towns or places of public concourse, not to the country, the features by which they were distinguished being long teeth and saucer eyes. This is borne out by the examples of the use of the word in the English Dialect Dictionary. It quotes Grose's remark that the Barghast was a ghost "commonly appearing near gates and stiles"; and a Cumberland definition, "a boggle that haunts burial places" both of which characteristics are appropriate to the story above. This Street, Campo Lane, is supposed to take its name from a camp being there in the time of the Romans. At the end of this Street once stood the old Boys' Charity School, an Ancient looking building. The back yard went into York Street.{27} This street (York Street) is much as when I first knew it. At the end of Campo Lane on your left is Figtree Lane, a very ancient Street; also New Street, this was a very narrow, hilly Street and a public well at the bottom. It is supposed that the Vicarage was once in Figtree Lane; the dwelling is now a Currier's Shop. {28} The narrow passage from the end of Campo Lane into New Street (called Figtree Lane) all around here was orchards only a little before my time. Where Queen Street Chapel is built was figtree Orchard or Wade's Orchard. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 The "Ancient-looking" Boys Charity School was erected 1710, with its front to the Hartshead. When rebuilt in 1825, East Parade had been made, and thereafter the School looked to the west instead of the north. 28 The delusion, shared by many, that the Vicarage was once in Figtree Lane, is a misunderstanding of the fact that here were the houses of two of the Assistant Ministers, bequeathed by Robert Rollinson. The Vicarage was always where Messrs. Eadon's Auction Mart stands, at the corner of St. James Street and St. James Row. For an account of the Currier s Shop of Joseph Smith, and his sons, afterwards librarians at the Mechanics' Library, see Reminiscences of Old Sheffield, p. 23. "The shop was a stone building, apparently two centuries old, with small leaded window panes. " As Mr. Woolhouse says nothing of the large figtree or figtrees, which once grew here, and gave the street its name, I suppose they had vanished when he wrote. FROM SNIG HILL. TO THE LADIES BRIDGE. There appears nothing new in Hollis Street only when the river rose to an uncommon height. Mr. Jonan. Green who is still alive has told me that he has seen the water from the Millsands rise as high as the Steps leading into the Sign of the Three Travellers, at the top of the Street.{29} Bridge Street used to be called Under water on account of it being so low as it was under the level of the river. Then they ascended into by 3 steps from the Isle. To go over the Ladies Bridge you had to ascend a flight of Steps, and Wagons carts etc used to go through the river {30}. (29) By Hollis Street is meant the street in front of Hollis's Hospital. That institution was removed to Whirlow in 1903, just two hundred years after its foundation. I put in this note to prevent confusion with Hollis Croft, which was made on land called "Brocho Hill" purchased by Thomas Hollis in 1727, and vested by him in the Trustees of the Hospital. The Three Travellers, a noted carrier's inn, stood in the now open space at the bottom of Snig Hill (30) We may safely reject this statement of a carriage bridge being obstructed by a flight of steps. Sheffield gossip had probably, in the course of passing down from generation to generation, confused the talk of the elders about steps having once led from the lower level of "T'Under Watter" up to the Dam Gate End of the bridge, and taken it to mean steps on the bridge itself. The House (now next to Mr. Rawson's Brewery gate is now a Cooper's Shop) had 4 or 5 Steps to go into the House, the Chamber of which is now the Cooper's Shop. The Water Lane was a very hilly street leading into Millsands. Very few houses in Millsands. The Town Mill for grinding the Town's Corn, as was the ancient custom, was here. I judge the same Mill occupied by Mr. Vickers, as he has upon his Cart Tickets "Town Mill. " There was formerly from the top of Millsands Stones set up in the river for people to pass over to Bridge Houses. My father has seen them and gone over them.{31} 31 See Note 42. 32 The above passage needs some elucidation to make it intelligible to the modern reader, especially now that the fussy meddlesomeness of our municipal ~vise- FROM THE CHURCH (THE PARISH CHURCH) TO THE LADIES BRIDGE. The High Street I have mentioned, when you arrive at Change Alley no alteration here only old houses (new fronted). Passing these on the right hand was [on the top] some low old houses which they pulled down to make the new Market. There was no Market Street. A little below the (now) Market Street was a low public house Sign of the Star, where Mr. Roger a publican now dwells, a very noted public house, (one Mr. Littlewood kept it; he is now living). Where the Commercial Inn now stands was a Hair dresser's-Shop and house, one of the first in the Town, as it was a very good and genteel trade at that time. This hair dresser the Landlord wanted from off the Premises, to pull them down to make the Commercial Inn, so they unroofed the house before they could compell the tenant (the Hair dresser) to leave. This house fronted Jehu Lane as well as down the Bull Stake Here, of course, Mr. Woolhouse is speaking of what he had heard, not what he had seen. I also venture to question the statement that there was once a ford here. acres has flouted immemorial usage by merging what was the Fruit Market in High Street. If, in the year 1784, you had stood near the bottom of Pudding Lane (King Street) with your back to the Bull Stake (Old Haymarket), and had looked southwards, you would have seen on your left, on the line of the properties on the lower side of Fitzalan Square, the narrow Jehu Lane, leading to Baker's Hill; at its western corner the barber's shop of Peter Jeeves or Jervis. To its right, other tenements and then, projecting somewhat, the house spoken of above as, later, the Star Inn. Beside and behind this were the Slaughter-houses, and facing it, an open space used as a Swine Market. Before 1797, Swine Market and Slaughter-houses had both been removed, the New Markets supplanting the former and Market Street being run through the site of the latter. And in a few more years, the order was (left to right) Jehu Lane, the Commercial Inn, Theaker's Coffee-house, the Star Inn, Market Street. Jehu Lane was always a very narrow, dirty street. The reason as I have read of the name of Jehu being given to this lane was when Mary Queen of Scots (who was a prisoner nearly 16 years at the Castle and Manor House in the Park under the guardianship of the Earl of Shrewsbury) was going from the Castle to the Manor House through this lane was then the road. The Coachman in driving thro' this lane used to make use of this expression to his horses "Jehu," which from that circumstance derived the name of Jehu Lane, and continues so to be called to this Day.{33} 33 This wild guess as to the origin of the name, Jehu Lane, and its wide acceptance, does more credit to the imagination and credulity of Sheffield than to its erudition. It is enough to say that the obvious way from the Castle to the Manor was down Dixon Lane and over Sheaf Bridge. To thread the narrow Jehu Lane and crooked Shude Hill was a roundabout way of seeking unnecessary trouble. From here going down Bull Stake on the right hand was all very low ancient houses with most of them courts before them and steps to descend from the Street into them, as far as Dixon Lane. Lower down stood the Castle Laiths. These they pull'd down to build the Tontine Inn. I can only just remember these.{34} (34) As the Tontine was opened in 1785, we get here a guide to the limit of Mr. Woolhouse's personal reminiscences and thus distinguish them from hearsay. Where the Town Hall stands was some old Houses, built with no regularity, from this corner to the corner of Castle Green. Castle Street was called True Love Gutter, but from what I can't tell.{35} 35 Truelove's Gutter took its name from a resident family named Truelove. Down Wain gate was a very hilly Street and a many old houses irregularly built, no Killing Shambles, we cross over the Bridge into the Wicker. There was very few houses on the left hand side from the Bridge to Bridgehouses; on the right hand was all Gardens. The houses on the right hand going down the Wicker was in no form; an old house or two stood in the middle of the now Turnpike road, the Sign of the Cock, which was a calling-house for all the Grimesthorpe people. It was then a very narrow road to Handly Hill. Handley Hill was a deal higher than now .{36} 36 By Handley Hill, Spital Hill is meant. The house of the Handley family, Hall Carr, was near where the Victoria Corn Mills now stand in Carlisle Street. The Turnpike road went under this hill and came with a bow to the Sign of the 12 o'Clock. The road came in just at this side of the 12 o'Clock. The present Turnpike road was all Gardens and the foot road was close by the houses, on the right hand going on this road was called the Pickle. {37} the Turnpike road from top of Handley Hill to Grimesthorpe was a very narrow deep lane and the foot road was along the fields on the right hand side until you came to the narrow lane going down to Hall Car Wood, then you cross'd the turnpike and the road went along the fields on that side and thro' that little wood nearly at Grimesthorpe. The Lane was so deep that I have seen a Cart laden with hay in the turnpike and I could have strode on the top of it from the field. {38} (37) The Twelve o'clock Public House and tollgate stood where Savile Street and the Attercliffe Road diverge. The Pickle was on the right hand side of the latter. (38) What used to be known as Occupation Road is meant. As that name implies, it was not a turnpike road, hut a semi-private country lane for the accommodation of the farms to which it led. It is now one long monotonous town street, and it goes by the name of Grimesthorpe Road. We will now return to the Bottom of Snig Hill to go to Bridge Houses. The Street called Goulston Street going past the sign of the Punch Bowl, leaving Spring Croft on your left. Spring Croft from here was partly field on the right hand side and when you was going along this Street, on your right you could see across the fields into the Bridgehouses. At the far end of this .street turning up Bower Spring was a large Garden belonging to the Workhouse. At the bottom, on your right hand Corner going up, a little above, is yet Bower Spring, a running water which has supplied this end of the Town with good water before I was born. I have fetch'd many a hundred Gallons from it myself, to the top of Lambert Street. It was dry in the year 18‹, but Mr. Benj, Beet, a particular friend of mine, lived at Sign of the Shakespear and many of the water troughs is in his backyard under ground. He applied to the Town Trustees concerning this and they order'd him to make such search for this water as in his Judgment was best. After much labour and expense they found it again to the joy of the whole neighbourhood. It was above 3 months quite dry (this he told me himself) and it now runs as plentiful as ever. It was never known to fail before that time. {39} Now return to the Sign of the Punch Bowl Corner of Spring Street for the Bridgehouses. (39) The reference here to Bower Spring throws light on certain minutes in Records of the Burgesses. The first (p. 440), 6th Oct. 1824, directs the Clerk "to enquire into the title of the Town Trustees to sower Spring and the ground immediately around it; and to ascertain by what authority the same has been lately obstructed and encroached upon; and to take such measure for the removal of the present obstructions and encroachments, and for returning the premises to their former state, as may be found advisable.~ Then five years later, 11th November, 1829 (p. 452), " Mr. Ellison undertook that the premises at sower Spring, held of the Duke of Norfolk by one Beet a publican, shall be restored to their former state, and thrown open to the public as heretofore. " Next, 7th Sept. 1835, inquiry is again to be made into the right of the Trustees to Bower Spring, and how far they can comply with Messrs. Warburton & Co.'s (brewers) application lo take in and enclose the same. Proceeding down this narrow Street towards the Bridge Houses there was no street on your right hand leading to Ladies Bridge.{40} 40 There was a thoroughfare for foot passengers long before, known as "Under the Water,~ and it had been made available for vehicles under the name of Bridge Street, earlier than 1808. But in this, and what follows, the writer is speaking of the state of things in his early life, or even before his own recollections. Compare my account of Coulson Crofts in the H.A.S. Trans- actions, i. pp. 365~. There is now a Malt Kiln at the bottom of this Street on your left hand. From here to the Bridgehouses was all fields and a very large Orchard. [on] The Orchard and fields from here to Bower Spring nothing was built. The road from this Malt Kiln I have before described was very narrow and the fields on your left hand was called Norris Fields, belonging to Mr. Norris in West Barr, a very opulent Razor Manufacturer, who lived in West Barr (once Master Cutler), but the French War so reduced his circumstances that he was an inmate at the Duke of Norfolk's Hospital and Died there. Proceeding past these fields was a large Orchard belonging to Mr. Burgin, Gardener, West Barr Green. This road continued till you came to a Small wooden bridge [over the goyt]. On the right side of this lane, for Street it was not then, lived one William Potts, [who; kept a public house (now Mr. Smith's). {41} 41 William Potts is described in the 1787 Directory as Victualler, Colston Croft, and in 1797, as of 20 Bridge Street. Under James Smith the house was known as The Punch Bowl‹as it still is. It is close to the narrow walk leading to the Town Mill and must not be confused with the more notorious Punch Bowl near by at the corner of Spring Street and Coulston Street once kept by Alfred (better known as Spotty) Milner. He was Drum Major in the Loyal Independent Sheffield Volunteers, this was a low old house. When the river Dunn used to swell I have seen it rise 3 Feet high in this house, there was a small Garden before the house. Proceeding forwards was a high wall. To the far end of the lane (now Street) only a few Garden Houses and 2 or 3 small Baths was built and young men and young women used to frequent them very much in Summer time to bathe. When you got to this Small bridge you continued on your left hand, same as now, only where the houses now is was a Orchard which you went round. The Kelham Wheel, on your right hand same as now to Bower Spring it was a small wheel at that time and called Kelham Wheel. This small bridge at the end of Bridge Street is now made of bricks and one arch leading to the Bridge Houses. There was 2 large fields between this small river and the River Dunn, but nothing built upon them (the cast metal bridge not built). Before this cast metal bridge was a wooden one over the same place and before this wooden one was Stones set up about 21 a yard higher than the water for people to pass over. My Father has passed over these stones many a time in coming that way from Grimesthorpe and he lived there with his Parents until he was at age. Then he came and resided in Sheffield. {42} 42 As the wooden bridge was erected about 1726, it is evident from this that the stepping stones remained and were even used, at least by boys, after the bridge was built The iron bridge replaced wood in 1795. It is interesting to note that the writer's father, h1 coming from Grimesthorpe to Sheffield, chose the way of Tom Cross Lane and Bridgehouses, thus unconsciously adhering to ancient tradition by taking what, in a recent lecture, I maintained to be the line by which the Romans reached Sheffield. 23 One of these Baths I have been speaking of was kept by a person of the name of Brocksop. He was a tall man and he and Mr. John Crome, printer, was the only 2 persons in Sheffield who wore Cock'd Hats as these hats was going out of Fashion when I was a boy. These 2 persons wore them some years after I was a man, say till I was upwards of Forty. FROM THE CHURCH TO BOTTOM OF SHEFFIELD MOOR OR (NOW) SOUTH STREET In going up Fargate there was houses built on both sides. The Lords House stood a little on the North side of the present Norfolk Row. A very elegant old House, it was inclosed by a Wall in a half Circle and Palisaded. The present Duke of Norfolk was born in this house. This I expect is the reason why it was called the Lord's house, he being Lord of the Manor. Where Norfolk Row is was a narrow foot passage into Norfolk St. From the Lord's house backwards was a large yard from the house to Norfolk Street called Stewards Croft where the Regiment of Loyal Independent Sheffield Volunteers used to parade. I belonged to this Regiment myself and has paraded in this Croft for a number of years. Above the present Norfolk Row on your left is Peper Alley leading to the Unitarian Chapel. This Chapel I believe to be the oldest Chapel in the Town built in the year 1700. The first brick house built in Sheffield was built in Pepper Alley and pulled down in 1837. Some thousands of persons went to view it. It was supposed to be built of such perishable material that it would soon yield to destruction, but it is yet standing and is likely to continue so to do. On your left is Pinstone Lane. No alteration much in this Street. The former name was Pinching Croft from, it is believed, this reason. In former times it was the sport of Shrove Tuesday to throw at Cocks in this Croft in this manner. A person, a man, would introduce a Cock alive and any person who would pay a Penny or twopence for each throw with a Stick at Certain paces from the Cock, if he knoct the Cock down with the Stick, the Cock was his. Persons who had Cocks used to get a good deal of money out of apprentice boys etc. every Shrove Tuesday in this manner.{43} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 43 A nobody of light is thrown on this strained derivation by Hunter's Glossary, where we read "Pinch"; a game which consists in pitching half-pence at a mark. " A form more usual than Pinching Croft, was Pincher Croft, and sometimes Pinson, but these, as well as Piston (like The Pickle, the Wicker, Campo Lane, Jehu Lane and others), have never been satisfactorily elucidated. The most reasonable suggestion, though mere conjecture, is that as, dialectally, to pinch is to be niggardly, or to stint, the Croft was mean in size and contracted in shape as if nipped by pinchers‹as pincers are usually called (Mr. Addy says pinsors). On your right hand is Brinesworth's Orchards (now Orchard Street~ These before my time was Orchards belonging to a person of the name of John Brinsworth. This street was only partly built in my time. At that end next Far Gate used to be a large sewer discharging itself just at the end of this Orchard Street. It was then called Sow Mouth. Proceeding forward was a many very low old houses on both sides the street. At nearly the top on the right hand stood Barker Pool a large square of water enclosed by a stone wall. I have seen it full of water many a time. It was built in the year l~ and destroyed in the year 17‹{44}. This Pool was made by one Mr. Barker living at Balm House, a large Farm house supposed to be situated in Coal Pitt Lane, as there was Orchards etc. where now Back Fields is, and went in a range to Balm Green. This Pool continued until it became a public nuisance as Dogs, Cats etc. used to be drowned in it. This Pool was first made to be used in Case of Fire in the Town. The Town at that time was so small that when they discharged this water out from this Pool, it run down every street in the Town. From this Pool to the top of Coal Pitt Lane was very narrow. Two carts was scarcely able to pass in this Street. The water road (or sink) used to run down the middle of nearly every Street in the Town. I think the only one is Ratten Row at present which runs in this way. When they pulled the old houses down from this Pool to the top of Coal Pitt Lane they found an excellent well in one of the Kitchens belonging to these old houses and has now erected a very elegant Town Pump upon the same place. The Houses where the Well Run Dimple Public House now stands is upon the exact piece of ground where Barker Pool formerly stood. 44 Mr. Woolhouse was judicious in leaving the date of the building of Barker Pool blank. For it is unknown. l once wrote: "The tradition is that one Barker of Balm Green took steps to make some sort of reservoir.... and it puts the date as 1434. All we know certainly is that in the year named there was a 'Barker of Balm' and that there had been a William Barker in 1379." The earliest definite mention of the Pool is in 1567. A plan of it, and its surroundings in 1793, the date of its abolition, will be found in Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century, p. 153. "Well Run Dimple" was the sign of a public house on, or about, the site of Mr. Cadman's book shop. Going down Coal Pitt Lane, this street used to be a very narrow low lane. There has been buried many a Hundred good Self-Tip handles and good bone nogs in this Street. I lived in this Street 26 years and it has been twice dug up and set again while I lived in it. At each of these times I have seen the men dig up barrows full of good Self Tip handles, when they was thrown away they no doubt did not know the way to straighten them as they appear'd all to be Crook'd, and I have seen the men dig up many a wheelbarrow full of bone nogs, but not fit for use, but they have sold them to Mr. Saml. Pass who lived opposite the Well Yard and used to buy bone dust. He told me himself that: he has paid the men 2 Pounds in one week for these nogs as bone dust. The men had this for their allowance for Drink. Nearly at the top of the street is a large dwelling (now turned into two) house which has a Court before it. Mr. Linley, Shear Smith, lives in part of it now. This is said was once the old Cutlers' Hall. {45} A little below on the right hand upon the hill is a range of houses above the Chapel. These was once all in one and is supposed was Balm House, as there used to be a large open yard and a deal of Stabling in my time, and behind this house was Orchards, gardens, etc. up to Balm Green. This Balm Green was the green belonging to this Balm Hall. Next to these houses is a Chapel built in the year [1774]. It has belonged to a many different Sects to my remembrance. {46} They are at present Methodists. A little below this used to be a Green and a number of good wells and troughs for water. There was one good well in my time as I lived upon the Well Yard; I have seen and got water from it hundreds of times. I saw this well made up as it had become a public nuisance for they used to drown dogs etc. in it. I remember a Certain time when a person who lived a little above this well at the house where the Pallisades is and a drain came from out of his Celler into this well. The person had a Rum Cask burst in his Cellar and the Contents drained into this well. The first person who came to the well for water in the morning was very much surprised at the singular taste and Colour of the water. The news soon spread in the street and a merry Jovial day it was to many, for it was many a time emptied of its Contents that Day. This Street has been considerably raised at the bottom and settled at the top end. The last time it was repaired they took some (I believe many hundreds) loads of earth etc from this street, and raised Sheffield Moor (now South Street). I have no doubt but Sheffield Moor was raised 4 feet in the middle from rubbish from Coal Pitt Lane. At the bottom of this street stood a sugar manufactory pulled down in 1834 or 5. My wife's Father (Abraham Moore) went to London for the model and he built it. It is now in a very ruined state (as the proprietors has built another near the Wicker) and is expected to be soon pulled down. 45 It was an old popular delusion that this, and other houses on which some Master Cutler, in his pride of office, displayed the Cutlers' Arms, had been the Cutlers' Hall. It is hardly necessary to say that all the Cutlers' Halls, in succession, have been on the present site. 46 The first Chapel in Coal Pit Lane was built by Edward Bennet, an Independent, who himself discharged the functions of Minister. In 1790 Howard Street Chapel was founded, largely through a bequest he left for the purpose. It was his father who, earlier, had been mainly instrumental in providing the early Methodists with their first two Meeting houses. The Coal Pit Lane Chapel gave place in 1835 to one erected for the Primitive Methodists. {47} What is now South Street was then Sheffield Moor. There was only a few straggling houses from the Sign of the Parrot, bottom of Coal Pitt Lane to the bridge at the bottom of the Moor. I have called this a bridge, but it does not deserve that name, as it was only a single plank or two laid to cross the river. ~arts etc. used to go through the river. From the bottom of Coal Pitt Lane to the bottom of the Moor, Cows, Horses, Asses, etc. used to be grazing all the day through. I have seen numbers of them in the daytime. 47 The sugar refinery was established by the above Edward Bennet who, in London had picked up a wife and some knowledge of "sugar baking." The Abraham Moore referred to is described in the 1797 Directory as a bricklayer, in Carver Street. At the time when Mr. Woolhouse wrote, the sugar refinery was in the hands of Samuel Revell, who, in 1836, pulled it down and removed to Nursery Street. Mr. Holy’s house and the Workshops (then a Button Manufactory) now Mr. Abraham's School. I his house etc. stood by itself, and the footroad used to go close by it. Mr. Kirkby's house a little above this last-mentioned place was then a pleasant Country house. It is yet standing.{48} I here was a few other odd houses here and there. 48 Mr. Holy's House, afterwards J. H. Abraham's (or rather, Miss Abraham's, for he taught chiefly in Milk Street) School, faced South Street at the southern corner of Eldon Street. I think it is now occupied by a club, and stands behind a line of shops. Kirkby's house was in Button Lane, where Eldon Street crosses it. The Ladies' Walk was where now Porter Street is. I his was a most pleasant rural walk from the top to the bottom of the Moor to the bridge. l his bridge was rather better than the last I have described, but this was made of wood flat and only one person at a time could pass over. I have waited many a time for my turn to go over. The Carts and Horses etc used to go through the river. This walk was shaded from top to bottom with elegant trees and ma(le entire by wooden railing. This used to be a particular walk for the Females on a summer's evening. From the Top of the Moor (now Porter Street), coming down Norfolk Street there was no house on your right hand until you came to the Assemby Room, all was fields down to Pond Lane, called Alsop Fields. There was a narrow walk from (now about Surrey Street) used to go direct into Pond Lane.
  2. Wasn't Denaby Main the Colliery they used to film "The Price Of Coal" ????
  3. Guest

    Help Solve This Mystery..

    Just read this, posted by Richard....explains why The Cutlers Company coat of arms are above Edwin Dale's old building. CHAPTER 11 - CUTLERS HALLS AND FEASTS. WE know with certainty of only three Cutlers' Halls. They successively occupied the same site, in Church Street. Their dates are I638, I726, I832. The late Mr. John Holland expressed the belief that there had been a still earlier hall, standing at the top of Coal Pit Lane, where, in his young days, there was a grinding wheel. Any evidence of the existence of such a building is wholly lacking. There was, until recently, an old house, with low mullioned windows, immediately above the Coal Pit Lane Chapel, which had been long in the family of Mr. E. Linley, sheep-shear manufacturer. Around this hovered a tradition that it had once been a Cutlers' Hall, but this was probably based on no more substantial foundation than the circumstance that over its door~say a stone shield bore the initials "J. L. S.," with the cross daggers. And the occurrence of Cutlers' Company insignia on houses in Sheffield and the neighbourhoodÑ whether utilised from older buildings, or carved by Masters or private members of the Company in pride of office or as a sort of trade markÑis too frequent for any special stress to be laid on the fact. From “Schooldays” Chapter 11 – The Cutlers Hall and Feasts http://www.omnesamici.co.uk/MemoriestRELeaderChapter11.html Thank's Richard, this confirms what I thought had happened.
  4. Here's extracts from a booklet about St Philips church that used to stand on Penistone/Infirmary road. I remember the graveyard used to be in between the roads as was my uncles car garage repair shop next door to it. The gravestones were moved to the redevelopment of the Hillsborough Barracks and these are the ones you can see stood straight up in the walls there. Note by the author This booklet, written in response to a request by the Vicar and Council of St. Philip's Church, will, it is hoped, not only revive memories of the past and be an additional link in the long chain of local history, but also help to deepen the interest of its readers in the work and needs of a large and exacting parish. It is now nearly seventy years since I first saw St. Philip's Church. All the vicars, with the exception of the first, have been known to me, and some of them have been amongst my intimate friends. It is hardly possible to realise the vast changes that have taken place since St. Philip's parish was first formed. Brief notes are given of its four daughter parishes, together with sketches of its former vicars, whose portraits have been re-produced from those now on the walls of the ante-church. It has been truly said that the prosperity of a Church depends largely upon its connection with the past; that, whilst not the slave, it is essentially the pupil of the past, and that lessons are learnt alike from its failures and successes. A hundred years have passed since St. Philip's Church was opened. May I venture to express the hope that the beauty of the restored and renovated Sanctuary may exceed that of its past, and also, before all things, that in its higher spiritual and social activities it will ever be a faithful witness to God and His truth, and go on from strength to strength, bringing forth fruit to the glory of God and the welfare of worshippers and parishioners alike. W. ODOM, Lindum Lodge, Psalter Lane, Sheffield, June, 1928 Forward by The Bishop Of Sheffield (Leonard H. Sheffield) It is with great pleasure that I write a Foreword to Canon Odom's last contribution to the Church life of the City of Sheffield. The Church and Diocese owe a great debt of gratitude to him for the way in which he has given much time in handing down for all future generations correct knowledge with regard to the fabrics and Church life of our city. This last booklet is both accurate and interesting. It gives a picture of the vast changes which a hundred years have wrought in one of the great cities of the Empire. We of this generation can hardly realise that the great parish Churches of Sheffield are comparatively young, and that they started their existence amongst green fields and steep slopes covered with trees, where now there are only long lines of artisan dwellings interspersed with vast industrial works. Bishop Lightfoot once said that "the study of history is the best cordial for a drooping courage." The brave efforts now being made by the people of St. Philip's are only one more illustration of that undoubted truth. The thanks of the parish are due to Canon Odom for his historical account of a parish which I hope will always be second to none in the enthusiasm and vigour of its Church life. I remain, Your sincere friend and Bishop, LEONARD H. SHEFFIELD, Bishopsholme, Sheffield, 7th June, 1928. STONES THAT SPEAK Stones still speak, and this is what St. Philip's Church is saying to us today. "Yes, I am very old, my Hundreth Birthday is on July 2nd, 1928, but I hope to live a long time yet. I started life with a great flourish of trumpets. People flocked to see me, and only those who had tickets could get inside. The Archbishop was there and all the rich and influential folk of Sheffield. They drove up in their carriages from miles around. It was a great service, the music was supplied by a band of fifteen instruments, and the collection came to £47 15s 7d. Can you wonder that I sometimes sigh for the good old days when I stood almost surrounded by fields, and Upperthorpe was the best part of Sheffield. Now I have lost my high position; no rich people worship within my walls. I am surrounded by factories, the smoke from whose chimneys has covered me inside and out with grime. In spite of all, however, I am not downhearted, for I know that many who do not often come still have a very warm corner in their hearts for me, having perhaps been brought to me as babies to be baptised, and having been married within my walls. I have had a great past, and look for a still more useful future. Will you make me a real big Birthday Present ?" Surely these words may form a fitting introduction to a brief record of the life and work of St. Philip's during a hundred eventful and changeful years. PEEPS AT THE PAST On referring to a plan of Sheffield by John Leather in 1823, shortly after the building of St. Philip's began, we find Roscoe Place marked at the junction of Shales Moor, Penistone Road and Walkley Road - now Infirmary Road. Beyond Dun Street and the end of Green Lane there were few buildings save a grinding wheel, until Philadelphia Place was reached. Here was another wheel, a tilt, and some scattered dwellings, whilst a little beyond were the old barracks. A few houses with large gardens were at Upperthorpe, which at that time was beginning to be a pleasant and favourable residential district. here lived the Master Cutler, Mr. John Blake, who in 1832 laid the first stone of the new Cutlers' Hall; he died of the plague the same year. Blake Street bears his name. Another resident of Upperthorpe was Ebenezer Elliott, the "Corn Law Rhymer," who in 1834, after removing his business from Burgess Street to Gibralter Street, rented a house which was afterwards known as "Grove Hous! e," probably that once occupied by the late Master Cutler, John Blake. In 1841 Elliott went to live near Barnsley, in a house he built there. What the neighbourhood of St. Philip's was like a few years before the Church was built, is seen from a fine engraving from a painting of 1798, taken from about Portmahon, and showing the back of the Infirmary, reproduced in the Centenary History of the Infirmary. A large chromo by the late W. Ibbitt, entitled "The Valley of the Don," gives a good idea of St. Philip's parish as it was in the year 1856; in it St. Philip's Church, the Infirmary, the Barracks, the Railway Viaduct at Wardsend, and the River Don are prominent. The late Mr. R.E. Leader in "Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century," tells us what that side of the town was like a few years before St. Philip's Church was consecrated:- At the bottom of Allen Lane land had been sold for the erection of another of the "water houses" in connection with the springs and dams at the White House, Upperthorpe; and here, as at the Townhead Cross, water was sold by the bucketful or barrelful. ...Then a riding school, afterwards utilised as the Lancasterian Schools, was erected at or near to the old bowling-green...Beyond, Shales Moor was an open waste, over which the road, recklessly broad, meandered on its way to Owlerton and Penistone. The present Infirmary Road was represented by rural Whitehouse Lane, and from it, about where Lower St. Philip's Road or Montgomery Terrace are, Cherry Tree Lane wound up with indecisive curvings to Causey Lane, by which the wayfarer could reach Upperthorpe; or retracing his steps towards the town, could return by a footway past Lawyer Hoyle's house at Netherthorpe, on the line of the modern Meadow Street to "Scotland." The following extracts from "Old Sheffield," by Mr. R.E. Leader, describe the neighbourhood early in the nineteenth century:- Allen Lane and the Bowling Green marked the extremity of the inhabited region of Gibralter. Beyond, the road ran between fields - Moorfields - and on to the distant rural haunts of Philadelphia and Upperthorpe. There was Lawyer Hoyle's house up on the left; and the little barber's shop, just before you come to Roscoe Place near the junction of the Infirmary and Penistone Roads, was alone in its glory until 1806, when Mr. Shaw built the stove-grate works, and with his partner, Mr. Jobson, laid the foundation of that trade which has obtained for Sheffield the manufacture of stoves and fenders previously claimed by Edinburgh and London.... Watery Street was a rural lane with a stream running down it....Allen Street, at that point of it across the Brocco, was only a highway, without any houses, so that there was a clear space and view from the top of Garden Street to the Jericho. This view included Mr. Hoyle's house (Hoyle Street), which then stood enclosed in what, perhaps, might be described as a small park. At the back of this house was a row of high trees, serving as a rookery, where the birds built their nests, and around which they might be seen taking their serial flights. the narrow lane, now called Burnt Tree Lane, was then the road from Allen Street to Portmahon in which there was a white painted pair of gates, with the carriage way running in a straight line to the front door of the house. THE "MILLION" CHURCH BUILDING ACT During the long reign of George III, 1760-1820, the lack of church accommodation was most manifest. Not only had the population greatly increased, but it had also become more concentrated in large centres, and provision for the working classes and the poor was altogether inadequate. Influence was brought to bear upon the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, and in the year 1818 a Parliamentary grant of £1,000,000 was voted for Church building in populous centres, to which another £500,000 was subsequently added. Side by side with this a great voluntary effort was made, and in 1817 the Church Building Society was formed, with the result that, including the one million and a half granted by Parliament, about nine millions was expended on Church Extension in the course of a few years. One result was that on March 28th, 1820, a meeting was held in the vestry of the Sheffield Parish Church (the Rev. Thomas Sutton being the vicar), to consider the proposal of building three new Churche! s. Ultimately four were built under the Act - Attercliffe, St. George's, St. Philip's and St. Mary's. The population of the town was then 65,275, comprising 14,100 families. THE CHURCH BUILT St. Philip's Church, the second of these "Million Act" Churches, occupies a prominent position at the foot of Shales Moor, between Infirmary Road and Penistone Road. When built it was on the outskirts of the town. What is now a mass of intricate streets and closely packed houses, extending for some miles and climbing the Walkley hills, was then a well -wooded rural district with scattered dwellings at Upperthorpe and Philadelphia. The Infirmary, close by, had been built thirty years before on the Upperthorpe meadows, amid attractive open surroundings. The style is Gothic, on a plan similar to that of St. George's, although it is considered somewhat inferior to that Church in its architecture, nor does it occupy so commanding a position. The architect was Mr. Taylor, of Leeds. It is a lofty and MASSIVE building with a tower at the west end. The clerestory has five windows on each side; the nave has embattled parapets with pinnacles. The interior has a gallery running round three sides; that at the west end projects into the tower and contains the organ. the pulpit, prayer desk and clerk's desk were formerly grouped together in the centre of the nave. The lofty pulpit is on the north side, whilst the choir, formerly in the west gallery, occupies the stalls in front of the chancel. The Church is 95 feet long and 78 feet wide. When built it afforded accommodation for 2,000 persons, but the number of sittings has since been reduced to 1,600 by the erection of the choir stalls and the cutting off at the west end of an ante-church or vestibule twenty feet wide, part of which now forms the choir vestry. The contract for the Church, including incidental expenses, was £13,970. Hunter gives the cost as £11,960. the cost of the gas fittings was £183, and that of the warming apparatus £125. The site - one acre and two roods - formerly part of the Infirmary lands called the "Hocker Storth," was given by Mr. Philip Gell, of Hopton, Derbyshire, a cousin of the Rev. James Wilkinson, Vicar of Sheffield, and who had inherited a moiety of the Broomhall estate. the Church was dedicated to St. Philip as a mark of esteem to Mr. Gell, whose christian name was Philip, and the first stone was laid by him on September 26th 1822. Owing to the contractor not being able to fulfil his contract and the death of the architect, the Church was not opened until July 2nd, 1828, when it was consecrated by Archbishop Vernon Harcourt. A special hymn by James Montgomery, who was present at the consecration, began with the lines: Lord of Hosts! to Thee we raise Here an house of prayer and praise; Thou Thy people's hearts prepare, Here to offer praise and prayer. Let the living here be fed, With Thy Word, the heavenly bread; Here in hope of glory blest May the dead be laid to rest. The Rev. Thomas Sutton preached the sermon from 1 Kings ix, 3: "I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there forever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually." An immense congregation included leading families of the town, in addition to which visitors drove up in their carriages from miles round. There was an imposing procession from the gates of the old Parish Church to St. Philip's Church, headed by a band of fifteen performers. Here is a letter of July 26th, 1828, from the Rev. Thomas Sutton, Vicar of Sheffield, to Mr. Jobson, which reads: "The bearer is Foster, the leader of the band, who has a demand upon us for £5 which you will be pleased to pay him." With the letter is a list showing that there were fifteen performers, with five clarionets, two horns, one bass horn, one serpent, one trombone, one trumpet, two flutes, one double drum, one key bugle. At the east end is a large stained window containing fourteen memorial panels representing our Lord the central figure, the twelve Apostles and St. Paul. The two lower sets of five each bear the following names: Robert Johnson, Churchwarden, 1828; Mary Elliott Hoole, John and Mary Livesey; Maria Rawson; Elizabeth Frith; Charles & Elizabeth Atkinson; Joseph Sims Warner, Churchwarden, 1845; George & Elizabeth Addey; William Frederick Dixon, Churchwarden, 1831; William & Emma Kirk. The Church bell, by Thomas Mears, of Whitechapel, London, which cost £150, was set up in December, 1832. The clock in the tower, with three very large illuminated dials, made by Mr. Lomas, of Sheffield, the cost of which was raised by subscription, was opened in January, 1847. At the time an interesting correspondence took place, in which the Gas Company was asked, on the ground of public utility, to supply gas gratuitously, as was the case with the clocks of St. Peter's, St. Paul's and Attercliffe. the Directors of the Company replied to the wardens that the request could not be complied with, but that the Company would supply the clock with gas after the same rate as the public lamps of the town. The Church has a fine brass eagle lecturn, and a small plain stone font occupies a place at the east end of the north aisle. Two oak prayer desks are "dedicated in loving memory of the Venerable Archdeacon Eyre." The silver communion plate includes a very large flagon on which is engraved "St. Philip's Church, Sheffield, 1828," two patens, and two chalices. On the walls of the ante-church are the portraits of former vicars. In the vestry is a fine set of ten old oak chairs, two with arms elaborately carved; also a very fine iron casting of de Vinci's "Last Supper," presented by Mrs. Bagnall. MEMORIALS There are mural memorial tablets to the Rev. John Livesey, for thirty-nine years incumbent, who died August 10th, 1870, and his three wives, Sarah, Emily, and Mary. It is recorded that Sarah was the widow of Francis Owen, incumbent of Crookes, and shared his labours and perils as the first missionary clergyman to the Zulus and Betchuanas of South Africa. There is also a tablet to Frances Wright, a sister of Mrs. Livesey. In the south aisle is a white marble tablet to the Rev. James Russell, M.A., "for eleven years the faithful pastor of the parish," who died on January 12th, 1882, aged fifty-one years. The tablet, erected by the congregation, records his last words: "I know whom I have believed." In a window in the south gallery are stained glass panes representing King David, with musical emblems, and inscribed: "In memory of Thomas Frith, organist of this Church, born April 17th, 1808, died April 5th, 1850." On a pillar near the choir is a brass to Joseph Beaumont, who died on July 7th, 1903, for twenty-four years choirmaster and organist of the Church, erected by members of the choir as "a tribute to his musical ability, his faithful labours, genial disposition and blameless character." Another brass commemorates Edward Law Mitchell, for twelve years choirmaster and organist of the Church, who died November 18th, 1915, aged thirty-eight - "erected by congregation and choir." At the west end, on a pillar, is a brass to Charles Marriott, who died September 28th, 1849, in his fourteenth year - "One of the first set of boys of the choir of this Church established A.D. 1848 - erected by his fellow choristers." On the south side of the chancel is a brass with the inscription:- "To the glory of God and in memory of the Rev. Ernest Vores Everard, M.A., Vicar of this Church, 1912-1917, the Electric Lighting of the Choir and Church was installed in 1920." In the churchyard is a prominent monument to Dr. Ernest, who died on November 16th, 1841. He had been house surgeon to the General Infirmary from its commencement - forty-four years - and was the author of a booklet published in 1824, on the origin of the Infirmary. SITTINGS In 1828 it was decreed by the authorities that amongst other things two pews should be reserved for the vicar and his family and another for his servants; that 800 free sittings should be provided for the use of the poor; the remainder to be let at yearly rents and assigned as a fund for the stipend of the minister. The pews were divided into two classes. In 1847 the 1st class were let at 12/- per sitting, and the 2nd class at 10/- per sitting. In the early years the seat rents averaged £250 per annum, but they gradually declined, and in 1918 seat rents were abolished and the sittings declared to be free and open. The population of St. Philip's in 1921, including persons in the Royal Infirmary, was 15,968. The Vicar of Sheffield is patron of the benefice, the annual value being set down at £400, of which £183 is from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, £100 from the Sheffield Church Burgesses and £11 13s. 8d. from Queen Anne's Bounty. The Churchyard, closed for burials in 1857, is now laid out and planted with shrubs for public use under the Open Spaces Act. In 1924 long strips of the same, from eight to ten feet wide - altogether 583 square yards - were taken by the Corporation for the widening of Infirmary Road and Penistone Road; the Corporation undertaking to erect new boundary walls with palisading thereon to the two new frontages. WARDSEND CEMETERY In June, 1857, the Rev. John Livesey, anticipating the closing of the Churchyard, conveyed five acres of ground at Wardsend to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for a new burial ground, which was enclosed and a lodge and Chapel erected at a total cost of £2,600. It was consecrated by Archbishop Musgrave on July 5th, 1859, the greater part of the cost having been defrayed by Mr. Livesey. In 1901 the Cemetery was enlarged by the addition of two acres of land, and several improvements were made to the buildings. IMPROVEMENTS AND RENOVATION In 1847 a large sum was spent in repairing and enlarging the organ, at which on the re-opening Mr. Thomas Firth presided. The preachers were the Rev. G.B. Escourt, Rector of Eckington, and the Rev. E.S. Murphy, one of the chaplains of the Sheffield Parish Church and lecturer of St. Philip's. In 1879 a considerable sum was spent in improvements. In 1887 the Church again underwent extensive repair and improvement at a cost of £1000. The uncomfortable narrow high-backed pews were lowered and sloped, and fitted with rug seating. the organ was re-built and enlarged by W. Hill & Sons, the original builders. At the re-opening in June the preachers were Archdeacon Blakeney and Canon Favell. Dr. Bridge, organist of Westminster Abbey, presided at the organ. Collections £55 10s. 0d. In 1894 £600 was expended in renovation; further improvements were made in 1899 at a cost of £300; and in 1903 the organ was again repaired at a cost of nearly £100. In 1927 a new warming apparatus was fixed in the Church at a cost of £425. the effect of bringing the choir from the west gallery to new choir stalls at the east end of the nave, and other alterations reduced the number of sittings from 2,000 to 1,600. CHURCH REGISTERS The registers of baptisms and burials at St. Philip's Church date from 1828 and that of marriages from 1848. At those times and long afterwards by far the larger number of baptisms and marriages took place at the old Parish Church. The baptisms there in 1829 being 1,955 and the marriages 798. At St. Philip's in 1828 there were three baptisms. In 1829 the baptisms numbered 27, and the burials 420. In 1830 there were 15 baptisms, and 201 burials. In the year 1927 there were 148 baptisms and 96 weddings. At Wardsend Cemetery were 86 burials. THE ORGAN In the year 1840 - September 30th and October 1st - a large and costly new organ, by W. Hill & Sons, of London, was opened. A copy of the advertisement in the "Sheffield Mercury" announcing "Cathedral Services" on that occasion is before me:- Dr. Wesley, of Exeter Cathedral, will preside at the Organ. Principal Vocalists: Miss Birch, Mr. Francis, of St. Paul's Cathedral, Mr. Pearsall and Mr. Machin, of Lichfield Cathedral. The Choral Department will be sustained by a numerous and effective body of singers. In addition to the full Cathedral Services there will be a Grand Selection of Sacred Music from Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, Greene, Cooke, Travers, Kent, and the Wesleys. Prices of tickets- MORNING: Reserved Seats 7/-, First Class 3/6, Second Class 2/6. EVENING: Reserved seats 5/-, First Class 2/6, Second Class 1/6. Miss Birch, of London, was "in the highest grade as an English singer." She sang the following Selections by Handel: "Holy, Holy, Holy," "What though I trace," "Farewell ye limpid streams," "Bright Seraphim," "I know that my redeemer Liveth," "Angels ever bright and fair," and "With verdure clad." PAROCHIAL BUILDINGS The Day and Sunday Schools in Hoyle Street were built in 1832, at a cost of £1,200, by subscription and Government grant. They were subsequently enlarged, and more recently a considerable sum has been expended on alterations and improvements. the site is leasehold for 789 years at a ground rent of £10 15s. 0d. per annum. THE VICARAGE - In 1858, the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty purchased at a much reduced price from Mr. Livesey, his freehold house and garden at Upperthorpe, as a parsonage for St. Philip's. After a time it was found unsuitable for the vicar's residence, and the Rev. John Darbyshire, during the seventeen years of his vicariate, lived at Claremont. When the Rev. J.W. Merryweather entered upon the incumbency in 1898, the house was improved and enlarged at a cost of over £600. EVERSLEY HOUSE - In 1919, the valuable freehold house and grounds comprising 1,052 square yards of land known as Eversley House, at the corner of Upperthorpe Road and Oxford Street, was given to St. Philip's by Mr. James Wing, steel manufacturer. After extensive alterations and furnishing, carried out at a cost of £2,000, it was opened as a Club and Institute for men, women, boys and girls, and is constantly in use for social, educational and temperance work, Bible classes, and other parochial purposes. It is held for the parish by the Sheffield Diocesan Trust. SPORTS FIELD - this, near Coal Pit Lane, Wadsley Common, was acquired in February, 1924, at a cost of £375, to be used for social and recreational purposes by the parishioners and congregation of St. Philip's. It is held in trust by the Sheffield Diocesan Trust THE OLD CLERGY HOUSE - In 1864, the late Miss Rawson, of the Hawthorns, Crooksmoor, conveyed to the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty in trust for the incumbent of St. Philip's, her former residence at Philadelphia on the Penistone Road, with the surrounding grounds, for many years used as a residence for the curate. This was sold many years ago and the proceeds invested to augment the income of the benefice. PARISH BOUNDARIES When in 1848 St. Philip's was constituted a separate parish, it covered 834 acres with a population of 8,340, and included Portmahon, Upperthorpe, Walkley, Barber Nook, Philadelphia, Owlerton, with parts of Hillsborough and Malin Bridge. Its southern boundary extended from the river Don along Dun Street, Matthew Street, part of Meadow Street, Netherthorpe, Watery Lane and up Dam Lane, as high as the old footpath, with a wall on either side, which led across Crookesmoor Valley to Steel Bank, and which divided St. Philip's parish from that of Crookes. The present boundaries are the river Don, Dun Street, Matthew Street, Meadow Street, Watery Lane, Burlington Street, Bond Street, Ashberry Road, Birkendale Road, Daniel Hill Street, Woollen Lane, Edith Street, West Don Street to the river. The boundary line runs down the centre of each street. FOUR DAUGHTER CHURCHES St. Philip's has now four daughter churches - St. Mary's, St. John the Baptist's, St. Bartholomew's, and St. Nathanael's - with a combined population of 45,838 which, with that of the mother church, 15,968, gives a total of 61,805, an increase probably of 60,000 since St. Philip's was consecrated:- St. MARY'S, WALKLEY, was constituted a parish in 1870. In 1861 a Mission Church, consisting of two bays and a chancel, was built in Howard Road by the Rev. J. Livesey, at a cost of £1,000. The Sheffield Church Extension Society (No: 1) having taken up the matter by completing the nave, adding two aisles, and a broach tower with spire, at a cost of £3,200, the Church was consecrated on August 6th, 1869, by Archbishop Thomson. Near the choir stalls is a plate with the inscription: "To the glory of God and in memory of the Rev. Thomas Smith, for thirty-two years vicar of this parish, who died on March 10th, 1901, these stalls and pulpit were erected by his parishioners and personal friends." Near to the Church are extensive schools and parochial buildings. St Saviour's Church, Whitehouse Road, with 320 sittings, consecrated by Archbishop Lang in March, 1913, as a Chapel of Ease to St. Mary's, cost £4,150. In the Rivelin Valley is the Church Cemetery of seven acres. Population, 15,276. Patrons, trustees. Value £550. Vicar, the Rev. Thomas Michael Archer, M.A. St. JOHN THE BAPTIST, OWLERTON, built at a cost of £6,300, of which £2,000 was provided by a legacy from Miss Rawson, was consecrated by Archbishop Thomson on July 29th, 1874. It consists of nave, aisles and chancel, with a slender bell tower, and contains 600 sittings. In it are several stained memorial windows. A fine Parish War Memorial Hall, erected at a cost of £5,000, was opened in 1926. Population, 15,297. Patrons, the Church Patronage Society. Value £400. Vicar, the Rev. Harry Holden, M.A. St. BARTHOLOMEW'S, LANGSETT ROAD, comprising nave, chancel and aisles, with 640 sittings, was consecrated by Archbishop Thomson, on February 6th, 1882. The cost, including site, was about £5,000. In the Chancel is a memorial tablet to Benjamin Brandreth Slater, the first vicar. The parochial buildings and schools on Primrose Hill were built in 1890 at a cost of £2,000. Population, 10,790. Patrons, the Church Patronage Society. Value £400. Vicar, the Rev. William Retallack Bellerby. St. NATHANAEL'S, CROOKESMOOR, mainly due to the late Canon J.W. Merryweather, vicar of St. Philip's, a stone building consisting of nave only, is 100 feet long and 30 feet wide. Built at a cost of £6,000, it was a Chapel of Ease to St. Philip's and served by its clergy up to 1912, when the parish was constituted. The Church was consecrated by Bishop Hedley Burrows, on December 20th, 1914. The Parochial Hall is near the Church. Population 4,475. Patrons, the Sheffield Church Burgesses. Value £425. Vicar, the Rev. Samson Richard Butterton. INCUMBENTS AND VICARS WILLIAM DRAYTON CARTER, M.A., was, in December 1827, appointed by Dr. Sutton as the first minister of St. Philip's, but nothing is recorded of him. As his successor was appointed before the Church was consecrated it is probable that he did not enter upon the charge. THOMAS DINHAM ATKINSON, M.A., a former fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, became incumbent in June, 1828. After a short ministry of three years he resigned in July, 1831 on his preferment to the vicarage of Rugeley, Staffordshire. JOHN LIVESEY M.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge, curate to the Rev. Charles Simeon, was appointed incumbent in July, 1831, and held the office for the long space of thirty-nine years. He was a tall man of fine presence, very active, and, as his after eventful ministry proved, a man of war. I well remember, in my early years, going to see him at his pleasant home in Wadsley Grove on some legal business. St. Philip's parish then included the districts of Hill Foot, Owlerton, Walkley and Upperthorpe in addition to a large district near the Church, with a total population of 25,000. The Church has become the mother church of four other distinct parishes, namely, St. Mary's, Walkley; St. John the Baptist, Owlerton; St. Bartholomew's, Langsett Road; and St. Nathanael, Crookesmoor. Of these, Walkley was founded by Mr. Livesey, he having secured the site in Howard Road, and raised £1,000 by subscription for a Mission Church, which now forms part of St. Mary's Church. In June, 1862, there was great excitement, accompanied with rioting, at Wardsend Cemetery, in consequence of reports that bodies had been sold for dissection by the sexton, whose house was burnt down. Mr. Livesey, who had at his own cost purchased and laid out the cemetery, unhappily became mixed up in the prosecutions that followed. Charged with giving a false certificate of burial, he was committed for trial at York Assizes, and sentenced to three weeks imprisonment. Resolutions of sympathy were passed, and in August a free pardon was granted to him. He successfully asserted in the Court of Queen's Bench the rights of the incumbents of the district Churches to the fees arising from marriages as against the Vicar of Sheffield; at another time he had a warm controversy with the War Office on the question of the chaplaincy to the Barracks. He died on 11th August, 1870, in his sixty-seventh year. Mr. Livesey introduced into St. Philip's Church what were known as "Cathedral Services," with a surpliced choir. The following notes are from an article by a Sheffield journalist, "Criticus," who was present at a service on a Sunday morning in 1869: There was the choir at the top of the centre aisle, and there were the choristers, ten nice little boys in white surplices, five on each side, and six men, all in surplices. the singing and chanting were unquestionably good. There was nothing higgity-jiggity about the tunes, anthems, or music. The congregation did not join in the response very extensively........ The service was conducted by Mr. Livesey, whose style of reading is easy, fluent, rather rapid and somewhat familiar. In the pulpit he wore his academic gown, having never worn his surplice when preaching since 1847, when his wardens presented him with an address, thanking him for giving it up. The text was four words, "Enoch walked with God," and the sermon occupied sixteen minutes. In private life Mr. Livesey is a very worthy and estimable character. he is genial, benevolent and kind hearted. he has a just and enlightened apprehension as to what is due to his position as incumbent or vicar of St. Philip's, and has on several occasions sacrificed himself to uphold great principles. Like Job, Mr. Livesey has had to "endure affliction," and, as in the case of that patriarch, his "latter end" yields a redundant return of peace and plenty. Sitting under his own vine and figtree in the pleasant retreat of Wadsley Grove, none daring to make him afraid, he rejoices in the esteem o! f his friends and parishioners. JAMES RUSSELL, M.A., formerly vicar of Wombridge, who died on January 12th, 1882, in his fifty-second year. He was a diligent pastor and an active promoter of parochial organizations. He was instrumental in the building of St. John's Church, Owlerton, and lived to see a further division of the parish, St. Bartholomew's, Langsett Road, the Church of which was consecrated shortly after his death. "In general Church work he was wont to take a leading share, displaying great business capacity along with religious zeal, and lived to see one of the largest congregations in the town at the evening services at St. Philip's." JOHN DARBYSHIRE, M.A., vicar of St. Paul's, Wolverhampton, was appointed vicar in 1882. Here is a characteristic letter from Archdeacon Blakeney the patron to the wardens of St. Philip's, on the appointment of Mr. Darbyshire, who was his brother-in-law: "I have much pleasure in informing you that the Rev. J. Darbyshire, vicar of St. Paul's, Wolverhampton, has accepted the living of St. Philip's. I believe you will find him all that you could desire. In making this appointment I have been solely guided by the requirements of the parish, and I pray that the divine blessing may accompany it in the extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom." Mr. Darbyshire was a genial and earnest pastor, highly esteemed by his parishioners and a wide circle of friends. In 1898 he became vicar of Doulting, Somerset, where he died on December 22nd, 1919, at the age of seventy-two. JAMES WHITE MERRYWEATHER, M.A., vicar of Carbrook, Sheffield, who for twenty-three years had been vicar of Carbrook, Sheffield, was appointed vicar in 1898. To him was mainly due the Church of St. Nathanael, Crookesmoor, a daughter Church of St. Philip's. He remained at St. Philip's until 1912, when he became vicar of Fulwood, where, after much suffering, he died on May 6th, 1916, at the age of seventy. He was a faithful minister, an able and fearless preacher of the gospel, a diligent bible student, a zealous educationalist, and an uncompromising protestant. He was canon of Sheffield Cathedral. ERNEST VORES EVERARD, M.A., vicar of St. James', Sheffield, was, in 1912, appointed to St. Philip's. "He was a liberal Evangelical in his views and methods, and had a straightforward, breezy style, and an unruffled geniality, which gained him popularity wherever he went. He was a hard worker, and could sing and play the piano well. Some people knew him as the 'singing parson.' " He died with startling suddenness on January 14th, 1917, at Newcastle, as he rose to address a gathering of soldiers. HENRY CECIL, A.K.C., curate of the Cathedral Church, was in 1917 appointed to the vicarage of St. Philip, where he remained until 1926, when he was preferred to that of St. Barnabas, Sheffield. ERNEST WILLIAM SELWYN, M.A., of Queens' College, Cambridge, and Ridley hall, curate of St. George's, the present vicar, was appointed in 1926. ASSISTANT CURATES 1836-1838 G.M. CARRICK 1839-1844 JOHN GWYTHER 1850-1851 G. EASTMAN 1852-1855 A.B. WHALTON 1855-1860 J.F. WRIGHT 1861-1862 WILLIAM MARSHALL, became rector of St. Paul's, Manchester, 1871 1863-1867 C. SISUM WRIGHT, vicar of St. Silas', Sheffield, 1869-78; vicar of Doncaster, 1878-1903; .................. Canon of York, died 1903. 1866-1870 CRESWELL ROBERTS, left in 1870 for Marston Magna, Somerset. 1867-1870 H.J. BARTON, formerly a missionary in India. 1871-1874 W.G. FERRY, deceased. 1875-1897 C.R. KILLICK, vicar of Holy Trinity, Runcorn, 1897-1923, retired. 1878-1882 C.J. PARMINTER, deceased. 1880-1881 J.P. CORT, vicar of Sale, Cheshire, deceased. 1882-1892 J. TURTON PARKIN, vicar of Wadsley, 1894-1902, died 1902. 1898-1899 S.R. ANDERSON, now incumbent of Lisnaskea, Co. Fermanagh. 1899-1911 T. COWPE LAWSON, now vicar of Castle Bytham, Grantham. 1899-1906 P.H. FEARNLEY, now vicar of St. Luke's, Formby, Liverpool. 1906-1909 R.N. DEWE, now vicar of Balne, near Snaith. 1911-1912 S.R. BUTTERTON, now vicar of St. Nathanael's, Sheffield. 1913-1915 T. STANTON, now vicar of St. Matthew's, Wolverhampton. 1915-1917 T.H. PRIESTNALL, now vicar of Whittle-le-Woods, Chorley. 1917-1919 F.L. PEDLEY, now vicar of St. Oswald's, Little Horton. 1921-1923 H. CARD, now curate-in-charge of St. Hilda's Conventional District, Thurnscoe. 1924- J.M. BORROW THE SCRIPTURE READERS - Include the late Mr. W. Whitehead, who was a Reader for nearly forty years, Mr. Jackson, and Mr. Goddard who died in the Church when about to read the lesson. CHURCHWARDENS, 1828-1928 1828 ROBERT JOHNSON 1831 W.F.DIXON - J. WATSON 1832 W.F.DIXON - J. WATSON 1834 PAUL BRIGHT - JOHN JACKSON 1836 R. YEOMANS 1840-2 CHARLES F. YOUNGE - W.I. HORN 1841-2 H. WHEAT - W.I. HORN 1842-3 HENRY WHEAT - DANL. GREENWOOD 1843-5 DANL. GREENWOOD - Wm. BADGER 1847 JOSEPH WARNER - JAMES KIRKMAN 1848-59 Names not available 1860 EDWARD BROWN - FRED MAUNDER 1863-4 FRED MAUNDER - GARLAND 1868-9 R.W. MARSHALL - A. BUCKLE, B.A. 1870-3 J.L. COCKAYNE - EDWARD BROWN 1873-7 THOMAS BIGGIN - JOSEPH PICKERING 1877-80 EDWIN LEADBEATER - JOSEPH PICKERING 1880-1 EDWIN LEADBEATER - C.E. DICKINSON 1881-4 EDWIN LEADBEATER - H. ELLIOTT 1885-9 EDWIN LEADBEATER - W.H. BARNES 1889-91 EDWIN LEADBEATER - H. ELLIOTT 1891-2 C.E. DICKINSON - H. ELLIOTT 1892-3 JOHN SUTTON - CHARLES BURGON 1893-5 CHARLES BURGON - C.E. DICKINSON 1895-1900 W.P. KENYON - H. GREGORY 1900-3 W.P. KENYON - C.E. DICKINSON 1903-4 G. JOHNSON - C.E. DICKINSON 1904-11 C.E. DICKINSON - JOHN BARBER 1911-12 JOHN BARBER - E.B. WILKINSON 1912-13 J.W. ILIFFE - W. WILD 1913-14 E.B. WILKINSON - W. WILD 1914-15 H.B. JACKSON - W. WILD 1915-24 J.F. MITCHELL - W. WILD 1924-5 W. WILD - W.B. STATHER 1925-7 W. WILD - A. DIXON 1927-8 J.F. MITCHELL - A. DIXON ORGANISTS THOMAS FRITH, 1840-1843 F.J. LEESON, 1843-1845 J.E.NEWTON, 1845-1847 (possibly longer) GEORGE LEE, 1866-1877 SAMUEL SUCKLEY, 1877-1879 JOSEPH BEAUMONT, 1879-1903 E.L. MITCHELL, 1903-1915 Mr. ELLISS, 1916-1917 Mr. DYSON, 1917- IRVIN SENIOR, Mr. MILLINGTON, 1920- T, WILLIAMS, 1920-1923 J.T. WATSON, 1923-1928 CHURCHWARDEN'S ACCOUNTS On going through a bundle of old Churchwardens' accounts in the early years of St. Philip's I found many of much interest. Here is one wholly in Montgomery's handwriting. After an item for printing 5,000 hymns and prayers for foundation laying at St. George's, at 2/- per 100, £5, follow those relating to St. Philip's: March 19th, 1822, advertising contracts wanted for new Church of St. Philip's 10/2. September 24th, dinner on laying foundation of St. Philip's Church 7/-. Ditto, procession 11/6. Ditto, thanks to Freemasons 7/-. Printing 500 hymns ditto, 13/-. Other items bring the total to £10 12s. 2d. The account was paid by Mr. Rowland Hodgson, on September 22nd, 1826. Amongst other accounts are the following: July 1828, H.A. Bacon, 19, Angel Street, printer and publisher of the Sheffield Independent, for advt. opening of the Church, etc. 15/6. March 1828, to George Ridge, printer, Stamp Office and Mercury Office, King Street, £3 10s. for printing tickets, receipts, and 2,000 bills "pews to let." July 1828, to John Blackwell, the Sheffield Iris, £1 12s. for advertising consecration and sermons. July 1828, to J.C. Platt & Co., printers and booksellers, Courant Newspaper Office, 6, Haymarket 16/-, advt. "pews to let." August 1833, to Porter and Taylor, 7, High Street, for communion wine, "one doz. very rich old port £1 18s." Others include payments to organists and singers, e.g.- January 1845, £20 to J.E. Newton "for one year's services as Organist." December 1843, £6 5s. to J.F. Leeson, "a quarter's salary as Organist." May 1833, 15s. to John South "for singing ten Sundays at St. Philip's Church." The sum of £11 14s. 11d. was paid to the Sheffield Gaslight Company for gas during 1842; and in 1845, £2 17s. 8d. to Joseph Scorthorne for "6 tons 17 cwt. of coal at 6/6 per ton." CHOIR RULES Here are rules made about 1834, "to be observed by the choir in order to promote the more regular attendance and to preserve the respectability of the choir of singers assembling at St. Philip's Church":- 1. That the time of practice shall commence at eight o'clock in the evening and conclude at nine, or a quarter past. 2. That on each night of meeting those not attending at eight o'clock shall forfeit a penny, and for non-attendance to ... forfeit twopence. 3. That the forfeits to be paid into the hand of the clerk, and the gross amount at the end of each year to be expended ... at a meeting of the choir in such manner as shall be agreed upon by the majority. 4. That on Sundays, if any of the choir are absent at the commencement of service, they shall each forfeit one penny; .... if absent half a day to forfeit threepence each, and if the whole day to forfeit sixpence each. 5. That sickness only shall be cause of exemption from the above forfeits. 6. That the clerk is requested to keep a book in which he will enter the attendance and forfeitures respectively. These rules agreed to, and signed by Paul Bright and John Jackson, Churchwardens, James Lee, William Horsfield, Wm. Lee, George Gill, Wm. Whitehead, Sarah Heald, Elizabeth France, and Mary Ann Smith. THE INFIRMARY Almost opposite to St. Philip's Church are the extensive buildings of the Royal Infirmary (formerly called the General Infirmary). The first block was built in 1797. It was on part of the Infirmary estate, which had been acquired in exchange by Mr. Philip Gell, that St. Philip's Church was erected. In September, 1849, a sermon in aid of the Infirmary was preached in the Church by Dr. Musgrave, Archbishop of York, the collection amounting to £92 10s. The Infirmary now contains 500 beds, and in 1927 had 6,237 in-patients, 22,727 out-patients; in addition to which 20,213 accidents and emergencies were treated. The chaplaincy was for many years held by the vicars of Walkley, but in 1927 the present vicar of St. Philip's was appointed that post. THE BARRACKS The Sheffield Barracks, amongst the finest in the kingdom, standing on 25 acres of land, and fronting Langsett Road, completed in 1850 in place of the old barracks were then in St. Philip's parish. Before the garrison Church was built the officers and soldiers used to march with their band to St. Philip's Church every Sunday, when the Church was usually full. Here is a story of those days. Mr. Robert Jobson, one of the founders of the stove-grate works at Roscoe Place, near to St. Philip's, was a regular attendant at the Church. It is said that he was the last Sheffielder to adhere to the old fashion of wearing his hair in a pigtail or queue. One Sunday as he sat in his pew, he became conscious of some movement behind him, and detected an officer of the 3rd Light Dragoons in the pew behind, pretending to cut the pigtail by moving his first and second fingers as if they were scissors. Mr. Jobson said nothing, but the next day called at the barracks, and interviewed the commander, Lord Robert Manners. The military joker got a good wigging, and made an ample apology, accompanied by a contribution of £5 to the Infirmary. In January 1834, the wardens of St. Philip's received from the War Office a letter enclosing thirty shillings as an annual subscription from the War Department for Church expenses, in addition to the rent of the pew occupied by the officers. THE GREAT FLOOD St. Philip's parish suffered severely in the terrible flood of 12th March, 1864, which involved the loss of 240 lives, the flooding of 4,000 houses, and immense destruction of property. I well remember some of the sad scenes I witnessed at that time. The lower side of the parish from Hillsborough to Shales Moor, felt the full force of the flood. The waters touched the walls of the churchyard, and amongst those who perished were a large number of residents in the parish. The Rev. Charles Sisum Wright, afterwards vicar of St. Silas, Sheffield, and subsequently vicar of Doncaster, was curate of St. Philip's, and lived at Philadelphia House near the Don. He related how the flood rose considerably above his garden wall which was eight feet high. When day dawned the garden was covered with a thick layer of mud in which was embedded a horse, which the flood had carried from its stable over the garden wall. It had on its halter to which a heavy stone was attached. Although much exha! usted it ultimately recovered. *************************** Such is the story of St. Philip's, its beginnings, growth, and work, during the first hundred years of its existence. it has filled a large niche in the history of our city. What of its future ? This, under God, depends in great measure upon the earnest, prayerful, and self sacrificing efforts of its workers and worshippers. As we survey the past with its many changes, we may look to the unknown future with unabated confidence and hope. We live in a new age, an age of opportunity, when the Church of God is confronted with new forces, faced with new and difficult problems, and called upon to make new sacrifices. Amid greatly changed conditions and with special needs, the Clergy, Wardens and Council of St. Philip's boldly, and not without confidence, ask for a Centenary Birthday Gift of £2000. The sum of £1,000 is desired for new choir stalls and communion rails, new chancel pavement, and a new reredos worthy of the fine Church at a cost of £425, of which £100 is yet required. £200 is needed for extensive repairs to the roof, pointing of the stone work, and new fall-pipes, already partly carried out. £250 is needed for renovating and decorating the interior of the Church, besides which a considerable sum is wanted for the improvement of the organ including pneumatic action and an electric blower. To meet all these needs, most of which are urgent, self-sacrifice and generous gifts are called for. May St. Philip's long continue to be a burning and a shining light amid the thousands of busy workers by whom it is surrounded, and also a faithful witness to the Truth of the Eternal Gospel of the Grace of God as revealed by the great Head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the "same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." THY KINGDOM COME Composed by James Montgomery, for St. Philip's Bazaar, May 1850 Send out thy light and truth, O God ! With sound of trumpet from above ; Break not the nations with Thy rod, But draw them as with cords of love : Justice and mercy meet. Thy work is well begun, Through every clime, their feet, Who bring salvation, run ; In Earth as Heaven, Thy will be done Before Thee every idol fall, Rend the false Prophet's vail of lies ; The fullness of the Gentiles call, Be Israel saved, let Jacob rise ; Thy Kingdom come indeed, Thy Church with union bless, All scripture be her creed, And every tongue confess One Lord - the Lord of Righteousness. Now for the travail of His soul, Messiah's peaceful reign advance ; From sun to sun, from pole to pole, He claims His pledged inheritance ; O Thou Most Mighty ! gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, That two-edged sword, thy Word, By which Thy foes shall die, Then spring, new-born, beneath Thine eye. So perish all Thine enemies ; Their enmity alone be slain ; Them, in the arms of mercy seize, Breathe, and their souls shall come again : So, may Thy friends at length, Oft smitten, oft laid low, Forth, like the Sun in strength, Conquering to conquer go : Till to Thy throne all nations flow. ST. PHILIP'S CHURCH, SHEFFIELD, 1928. HOURS OF SERVICE SUNDAYS --- Morning Service at 11: Evening Service at 6-30. Holy Communion at 8 a.m. every Sunday; 11a.m. 1st and 3rd Sundays, and 7-45 p.m. 4th Sunday. Children's Service at 2-45 p.m. 1st Sunday. WEDNESDAYS --- Holy Communion at 7-30 a.m. Intercessions and Address at 7-45 p.m. SAINTS DAYS --- Holy Communion at 7-30 a.m. Holy Baptism and Churchings: Sundays, 4 p.m. Wednesdays, 7 p.m. Marriages: By arrangement any weekday. CLERGY: The Rev. E.W. SELWYN, M.A., Vicar, the Vicarage, 104, Upperthorpe. The Rev. J.M. BORROW, A.K.C., 43 Oakland Road, Hillsboro'. Hon. Diocesan Reader---Dr. H. Caiger, F.R.C.S., 79, Upper Hanover Street. Lady Worker---Miss C. Goddard. Organist & Choirmaster---Mr. J.T. Watson, 32, Conduit Road. Churchwardens---Mr. J.F. Mitchell and Mr. A. Dixon. Parochial Church Council---Secretary, Mr. E. Cook, 75, Wynyard Road; Treasurer, Mr. A. Lofthouse, 85, Meadow Street. Verger Mr. W.C.H. Wood, 34, Matthew Street. Sunday Schools, Hoyle Street and in the Church. Bible Classes for Young Men and Young Women, Eversley House. Day Schools, Hoyle Street---Headmaster (Mixed Dept.) Mr. M. Green, 278, Granville Road. Headmistress (Infants' Dept.) Miss Thompson, 105, Burngreave Road. EVERSLEY HOUSE. Clubs for Men and Girls, etc. Other Parochial Organisations include the Church of England Men's Society, the Mothers' Union, Girls' Friendly Society, Women's Fellowship, Boy Scouts and Wolf Cubs, Girl Guides and Brownies, Children's Church, Band of Hope, Football Club, Church Missionary Society Branch, Church Pastorial Aid Society Branch. Centenary Commemoration Services. During June a Crusade was conducted by past Curates of St. Philip's, who preached each Sunday and held Open-air Services. BIRTHDAY WEEK. Sunday, July 1st, 11 a.m., The Ven. the Archdeacon of Sheffield. The Master Cutler (Percy Lee, Esq.) will attend. 6-30 p.m., Canon F.G. Scovell. The Lord Mayor of Sheffield will attend. Monday, July 2nd, 8 p.m., Canon Trevor Lewis. Sunday, July 8th, 11 a.m., The Lord Bishop of Sheffield. Special R.A.O.B. Parade. 6-30 p.m., Rev. E.W. Selwyn, Vicar. GARDEN FETE On Saturday, June 30th, 8 to 10 p.m. at Banner Cross Hall, Ecclesall, (by kind permission of David Flather, Esq.) Opener, Mrs. J.W. Fawcett, Chairman, Samuel Osborn, Esq. A BAZAAR, will be held in the Cutlers' Hall, on October 18th, 19th and 20th, 1928. Credits Source - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~engsheffield/ Please visit the site linked - it's excellent and has many interesting articles on Sheffield and it's historical past !
  5. Guest

    The old smells of Sheffield

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  6. Sheffield History

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  7. Guest

    Sheffield Trams

    Tram story My father use to be a tram driver and one thursday afternoon he was parked up at the terminus (think he said Abbey Lane). Thursdays at that time was half day closing. It was a double decker tram and was waiting to start back towards town when he saw up the road coming down the hill(what he found out later to be a bulk coal lorry) a large lorry. As it got closer he could see that it was a run away no driver and it was heading for the tram. He got under the stairs to protect himself and the lorry hit the tram taking it up the frontage of a near by shop and into the shop window. After the dust settled he looked to see if any passangers were hurt as he opened the saloon door he could see a woman up to the shoulders in coal. He shouted out to her are you alright. To which she said I am but it's my littlr boy. As he looked round he could see two legs wiggling out of the coal at the far end. Apart from being knocked about everyone was ok.
  8. Ken Loach film - filmed in Sheffield - starring Bobby Knutt I need to find this on video or dvd Does anyone know where I can get a copy from ?
  9. REMINISCENCES OF OLD SHEFFIELD CHAPTER I. PARADISE SQUARE, CAMPO LANE, HARTSHEAD, AND WATSON'S WALK. Mr. WILLIAM WRAGG, Ancient Citizen of Sheffield. Mr. GEORGE LEIGHTON, Ancient Citizen of Sheffield. Mr. SAMUEL EVERARD, Ancient Citizen of Sheffield. Mr. F. TWISS, The Antiquary Mr. RICHARD LEONARD, A Modern Citizen of Sheffield Period - 1872-3. Scene - A room in Leonard's house. LEIGHTON: So the old steps in Paradise square have gone at last. Have you secured the top stone for your collection, Mr. TWISS ? TWISS: No, it would have been rather too large ; but I wish it could be preserved somewhere ; otherwise, like so many other things that disappear, it will be consigned to oblivion. EVERARD : What eloquence has rung from that stone LEONARD: And what nonsense ! EVERARD : Brougham, Morpeth, Bethel, Milton, Elliott, Dunn, Roebuck, and Mundella have thence charmed thousands of eager listeners. LEONARD : And others have thence uttered rant enough to cause the very stones to cry out. LEIGHTON : There were few finer sights in Sheffield than a great meeting in " t' Pot square," when the people were really in earnest and the speaker a man of power. LEONARD : Tile finest sight of all was when Mr. Henry Hoole, flourishing his arms in a burst of exuberant eloquence, brought down his fist on Mr. Leader's hat and knocked it over his eyes. That was a notable time, too, when Roebuck, sitting in his carriage at the bottom of the steps, listened to Campbell Foster's fulminations against him. There has seldom been so much use made of a white waistcoat, and a loud voice. But this is not "Old Sheffield." WRAGG : The eloquence from the steps has often been exceeded by the wit from the crowd, which always displayed a keen sense of the humorous and a quick perception of humbug. LEONARD : Does anyone know when meetings were first held in the Square ? TWISS, : The first on record that I have found was in 1779, July 15, when Wesley preached " to the largest con gregation he ever saw on a week-day." Then, in 1798, Rowland Hill came down and preached there one Sunday evening, after an afternoon service in Queen Street Chapel. He had an immense congregation, and confusion was caused towards the end by some fellow drawing his 'sword upon the people. Before that, out-door meetings were held on the Castle hill, or at the Church gates before the old Town Hall; sometimes on Crookes moor, or pieces of waste land anywhere handy. LEONARD: Pray spare us the old story about somebody who knew somebody else who remembered the Square as it corn-field. WRAGG : Why should we? There are people still living, or were not long ago, who remembered it a field of oats, entered from the top by Hicks' stile. An elderly lady, who died not many years ago, had gone with the maid to milk her father's cows, which were pastured there. There seems always to have been a footpath across, which was, indeed, the only thoroughfare from that side of the town. Pedestrians going up Silver street head (busier then, I believe, than High street) had to cross to Wheat's passage by Mr. Ryalls' office, if they were going to the Market ; or if to the old Town Hall, they went over Hicks' stile, up St. James's row (or West row, or Virgin's row, for it has borne all three names)there were stops at the bottom the whole width of the row-and then across the Churchyard. EVERARD : The lamp in the centre of the Square has taken the place of the old cross shaft, removed there from Snig hill head ; but the steps up to it are, I should think Unchanged. The stocks were removed there from the Church WRAGG. : And drunken men were placed in them on Sundays for punishment. The practice had to be dropped because of the disturbances it caused. The last instance of a drunken man being placed in the stocks was forty-three or forty-four years ago. LEIGHTON: What became of the stocks in the Square? WRAGG: When they got out of order, the two pieces of wood that confined the delinquents' feet became loose, and the late Mr. W. H. Clayton, the broker under the steps in the Square, removed them into his back yard for safety. There they remained for years, and no one ever inquired for them. EVERARD: There were stocks also at Bridgehouses, opposite the end of the iron bridge; at Attercliffe; near Ecelesall Chapel; and near the old Sugar House, Sheffield moor. WRAGG: Paradise square was the residence of notable men. I believe it was the first suburban place to which tradesmen retired away from their works. LEONARD: Do you think so? There were surely suburban residences before that, and farther out than that. I have been told by a gentleman still living, whose father resided there when he was a boy, that the Square has scarcely changed at all in appearance since very early in the century. It was then built all round as it is now, and with the same buildings, except a few which have been modernised on the east side. WRAGG: Well, at any rate, many of the first families in the town lived there. LEONARD : Dr. Gatty, in a note at p. 177 of his Edition of Hunter, says that " Thomas Broadbent took a lease of the field in 1776, and built the houses on the east side." Now, I happen to know that the lease to Thomas Broadbent-so far at least as concerns the land at the top of that side of the Square-is dated 1736. He had five daughters, and he built the five houses at the top- afterwards Bramley and Gainsford's offices and the adjoining ones-for them. On his death, they came into their possession. The date 1776 must be a clerical or a printer's error. EVERARD : But that date suits better the corn-field recollections of the old inhabitants who have now passed away; unless, indeed, the Square remained a field after the houses on the cast side were built. And this is very possible. WRAGG : I have been told. by a man who was in the service of her father, whose business was in Hollis croft, that Miss Harrison was born in one of the houses at the top side of the Square. Then Chantrey set up here, in what was then No. 14, as an artist, and advertised that he took portraits in crayons. That was in 1802. Two years later he made a step nearer his proper vocation, for he had commenced taking models from life. EVERARD : It would be interesting to know if many of his crayon portraits are extant. LEONARD: Yes, numbers. You will find a long list of them in Mr. John Holland's Memorials of Chantrey. The whereabouts of most of them was known when that was published, in 1850. EVERARD : You may see in the Old Church his first piece of sculpture, the monument to Justice Wilkinson, which the Iris, shrewd enough to predict the future celebrity of "the young artist," praised as a " faithful and affecting resemblance." The bust of Dr. Browne, in the board-room of the Infirmary, is also by Chantrey, executed in 1810-four years after the Wilkinson monument. LEIGHTON : Another worthy who lived in the Square up to the time of his death, in 1817, was the " Rev. George Smith, curate of Ecelesall, and assistant-minister at the Parish Church-the father of Mr. Albert Smith. He lived near the bottom on the east side. LEOONARD : I see a window has been inserted in place of the old door at the top of the steps, but the pillasters remain to show where the door entered Mr. Hebblethwaite's school. WRAGG: That room was originally built as a Freemasons' lodge. It was afterwards put to various uses---a dancing school and a preaching-room. I remember hearing the notorious Robert Owen lecture there. At one time a considerable congregation of Independents assembled there, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Parish. They contemplated building a chapel, but they let the opportunity slip, and much they regretted it afterwards. The last three survivors of that congregation were Mr. Spear, of the firm of Spear and Jackson; Mr. Peter Spurr, tobacconist, father of Mr. Spurr, chemist and druggist; and the late Mr. Joseph Brittlebank, scale-cutter. The leases have now fallen in, or are falling in, so that possibly it may not remain long in its old state. TWISS : Yes; the lease of part fell in two years ago (not of the other part, for it is built on two leases), and that shows that it is just over a century old, as the lease would no doubt be a ninety-nine years' one. The room was built by Mr. Nowill, who had a shop in High street, opposite George street. EVERARD : The pot market that was held in the Square on market days has. quite disappeared, or is only represented by the crockery shops on the north side. TWISS : There was a sort of pet market formerly by the Church gates. WRAGG: The Square has been the scene of degrading transactions, as well as of honourable ones. Some brute once, for a wager, ate a live cat on the steps. I knew a person who bought his wife in the Square, whither she had been led in a halter. LEIGHTON : " Q in the Corner " was an old public-house much frequented by fiddlers, since it was kept by Sam Goodlad, first fiddler on all important occasions. WRAGG : The blind fiddlers were quite an institution. At one time there were six of them, several of whom were excellent performers on the violin. Their names were James Knight, Samuel Hawke, Thomas Booth, Alexander Clayton (brother of the late W. H. Clayton, broker), William Brumby, and Joseph Ward. They had their circuits, chiefly on the outskirts of the town, to which they went in pairs, playing firsts and seconds, and they kept to their own districts. At Christmas they went round " a Christmas-boxing," dropping into' public-houses, and being liberally rewarded for the tunes they played. LEONARD: There is a good story of a blind fiddler in John Wilson's edition of Mather's Songs, p. 55. This was Blind Stephen," who was, I imagine, of earlier date than those you have mentioned. EVERARD : The house at the top corner of Paradise square and Campo lane, now a dram-shop, was, sixty years ago, a respectable grocer's shop, kept by Mr. Newton (who was sueceeded by Mr. Benjamin Ellis), and at that time was much celebrated amongst the grinders, both in town and country, for the quality of the articles of emery, crocus, and glue. WRAGG: Yes., that shop had almost the monopoly of the trade. TWISS : More recently the shop was occupied by Mr. Crossland, noted for his regular and punctual attendance to it the whole day long. His only recreation was it walk up Glossop road after his shop was closed at night. EVERARD: Then came, as now, the barber's shop, at that time occupied by the father and predecessor of the Mr. Copley who was recently burnt to death in a shocking manner by an explosion of gunpowder. The " Ball " Inn, next door, then the " Golden Ball," was kept in my youthful days by Antipas Stevens, a very intelligent and respectable man, who kept his house in proper order. I believe he took to it at the time Mr. Crich removed to the " Black Swan," Snighill. Mr. Stevens was by trade a silversmith; and I have an impression that he had been apprenticed to Ashforth, Ellis, and Co., or, at least, had worked for them. The Braziers' Sick Club met at his house, and the inn was, moreover, at that time, much frequented by country people on the market days, and more especially by the grinders from the neighbourhoods of Wadsley, Loxley, and Rivelin. After refreshing themselves there with the good " home-brewed," they would call at the adjoining shop of Mr. Ellis for their weekly supply of emery, and crocus, and groceries. In the watchmaker's shop a little further on, long occupied by Mr. David Johnson, and now by his son, was Mr. Zaccheus Dyson, whose active figure, dressed in a brown coat, drab small clothes, and broadbrimmed hat - for he belonged to the Society of Friends -still lives in the respectful remembrance of many of our townsmen. Mr. Dyson, it is related, once received a letter from a Quaker correspondent addressed " For Zaccheus Dyson, clock and watchmaker, Sheffield, near to a great heap of stones called a church." TWISS: Mr. Dyson retired to Handsworth Woodhouse, and died there 4th June, 1861. WRAGG: Narrow as Campo lane is, it was once still narrower, a slice having been taken from the Churchyard to widen it. LEONARD: On the site of the offices of Burbeary and Smith, at the corner of North Church street, a worthy lady named Ward kept a school. She was much respected by her pupils and her friends, and she now enjoys a quiet old age in the Shrewsbury Hospital. [Mrs. Ward died after this conversation took place, on the 31st December, 1872, aged 86. It is recorded that she enjoyed almost uninterrupted good health up to the hour of her death.] EVERARD: The first shop past that was long occupied by the late Mr. John Innocent, bookseller. Before that it had been the lawyer's office of Mr. Brookfield, uncle of the late Mr. Charles Brookfield; and in 1839 Mr. Innocent there found the legal documents which were issued for the first prosecuon of Montgomery in 1795. Mr. Innocent placed in Montgomeryg hands the papers he found, and from them he first learnt, and possessed certain proof, that he had been the victim of a state Prosecution. These documents stated, amongst other things, that " briefs were to be given to Counsel with the Attorney. General's compliments;" and that this prosecution is carried on chiefly with a view to Put a stop to the associated clubs in Sheffield; and it is to be hoped, if we are fortunate enough to succeed in convicting the prisoner, it will go a great way towards curbing the insolence they have uniformly manifested." The papers, which were shown at an exhibition at the Music Hall, in 1848, were given to Mr. Innocent by Mrs. Brookfield, and he gave them to Montgomery, refusing all payment, although the poet offered any money for them. LEONARD : I have heard that a third and still more bitter prosecution of Mr.Montgomery was threatened. EVERARD: This was in 1806. Montgomery actually received the legal notices for a prosecution, based on his strictures on the campaign in Germany, when General Mack and 39,000 Austrians laid down their arms. He himself said, I never knew how the blow missed me, for it was aimed with a cordiality that meant no repetition of the stroke. The death of Nelson probably saved me, for in the next Iris I spoke of that event in a strain of such Patriotism that my former disloyalty was perhaps overlooked." TWISS : A fortunate escape. EVERARD: A few doors further on the lane were the Scantleburys, worthy Quakers, who dealt in looking-glasses. There was old Thomas Scantlebury, of The Hills; and he had three sons, John Barlow Scantlebury, Joseph Scantlebury, and Samuel Scantlebury. Thomas Scantlebury and his eldest son, John Barlow, were very prominent oponents of church rates. Meetings used to be held in the Churchyard adjoining, and the speakers stood on the tombstones. Some of the family emigrated to America. LEONARD: Yes; the two younger sons, Joseph and Samuel. The latter is still living in Chicao and retains his connection with the Society of Friends; as I see from a letter to the Independent respecting the opposition to the church rates. " Thomas Scantlebury,"' he says " was the adviser, chiefly; while his son, John Barlow Scantlebury, took the more prominent part. I well remember that, on one occasion, the opponents of the church rates would have fatally committed themselves but for my father. The momentous question had been put and seconded in his absence, but the people refused to vote on it until they had heard his views. When he came in, he very briefly stated his opposition to the motion, showing that it would form a very dangerous precedent. The motion was then withdrawn. The people said that the Vicar' and his set could get on the blind side of everybody but old Thomas Scantlebury. I remember old Thomas Rawson was at that meeting, as active as ever. I believe I never saw him afterwards." TWISS : Mr. Thomas Scantlebury died at " The Hills," on the Grimesthorpe road, August 14, 1821 ; his son, John Barlow Scantlebury, died April 28, 1837. Old Mrs. Scantlebury was the daughter of John Barlow, the last of the family that had carried on the old business of manufacturers of pen and pocket cutlery on the premises in Campo lane, just beyond Mr. Scantlebury's, the east front of which looks down the Hartshead. They had been there as owners and occupiers of the property ever since the year 1679, "and I cannot tell how long previous," says Mr. Samuel Scantlebury in the letter Mr. Leonard has just quoted. It was Obadiah Barlow, the great-great-grandfather of Samuel Scantlebury, who had the premises in 1679. Whether the Barlow of Neepsend, who died in 1740, was of the same family or not is doubtful. John Barlow died in 1798, and one of the best businesses in Sheffield died with him. The trade mark was the simple name LEONARD: I have spoken of old Mrs. Ward. Before her time there was another lady of the same name, some six or eight doors from the Barlow property. She had been housekeeper to the John Barlow who has been mentioned, and he set her up in the grocery business. Her shop looked more like a greenhouse than a grocer's shop. She always had her window and every bit of spare room filled with some beautiful flower or plant. Mr. Samuel Scantlebury writes, " If I remember right she had a geranium that used nearly to fill her front windows. It was there I first saw the hydrangea. There cannot be many who remember her; she must have been dead more than 65 years. The dear old woman remembered me in her will. She left me a guinea for pocket-money!" WRAGG: Well, this brings us in our journey along the lane to the Hartshead, and to the Broadbents' house fronting York street, a few years ago occupied by Messrs. Pye-Smith and Wightman, and now by Messrs. J. and G. Webster. EVERARD : Before you tell us the history of that house, let me just say that in the workshops at the back of Mr. Scantlebury's premises yet another member of the Society of Friends, Mr. William Chapman, carried on for many years the business of an engraver. TWISS : I well remember his burial (one of the last interments in the graveyard of the Friends' Meeting-house), and the solitary sentence uttered by Friend E. Baines-" After death the judgment." EVERARD: He was a very amiable and intelligent man, highly esteemed in his denomination, and at one time he was actively engaged in promoting the welfare of its members by visiting the country districts. His grave and Christian deportment, combined with his kindly disposition and courteous manners, secured the confidence and respect of those who had any intercourse with him. TWISS: We shall still keep among the Friends, for Joseph Broadbent, who died in 1684, was one of the first generation of the Society in the town. I believe it was his son Nicholas who built the house in the Hartshead. He died in 1736, and was father of Joseph Broadbent, merchant, said to have been the first banker in Sheffield, who died in 1761. LEONARD : Is it worth while to go into matters that may be found by any of us in Gatty's " Hunter ?" TWISS: No; but the point I want to get at is, were the Broadbents the first bankers in the town ? I have been told that the first person who practised this profession in Sheffield was one of the fraternity of pawnbrokers. In the--Hallamshire," it is said, "In 1778, Messrs. J. and T. Broadbent opened a bank in Hartshead, on the failure of Mr. Roebuck's bank, which was the first known in Sheffield, and only lasted eight years ; and in 1780 the Broadbents failed." LEONARD: If Joseph Broadbent died in 1761, how could he be a banker in 1778 ? Your information and Hunter's do not seem to agree. TWISS: They were the sons of Joseph-Joseph and Thomas, who wore the bankers of 1778; but had their father been a banker before them ? I saw the other day an early Sheffield bank note, of which I took a copy: No. R t 0 6 Sheffield 0ld Bank, January 22 ,1783. We promise to pay the bearer on demand Fire Guineas. At Sheffield, value received. HAN, HASELHURST and SON. £5. 5s. R t 0 6 Haslehurst and Son, it seems, became unfortunate; for the note was endorsed with an exhibit under a commission in bankruptcy, 23rd June, 1785. But in the fact that it is called the Sheffield Old Bank, I am led to inquire : Did the bank, afterwards carried on by Messrs. Parker, Shore and Co., arise from the ashes of this one, for it bore the same name ? WRAGG : Whether Mr. Joseph Broadbent was the first banker or not, he was, at any rate, the first merchant who traded with America. There is a good story told of one of the Broadbents, at the time of the suspension of the bank. That suspension took place on a Monday morning. On the preceding Sunday, some Derbyshire man came knocking at the bank door. A voice from within asked what he wanted. The countryman replied, " I have come to the bank." " We do not transact business on Sundays," was the answer. Then the countryman said, " I have not come for money, but I have brought some." The other replied, " That is quite a different thing." So the door was opened, and the Derbyshire man left his money. LEONARD : That would be called by a hard name now-a-days. WRAGG : The Messrs. Binney were afterwards in the Hartshead premises. TWISS: Yes, but the first successor of the Broadbents was Mr. John Turner, a merchant, who died in 1796. He was uncle to Henry Longden and to Mrs. Binney; and thus we see how the premises came into the occupation of the Binneys. WRAGG: I have been told that the Binneys had at one time the best country trade in the town as merchants, and the largest steel furnaces (they have just been pulled down, and the bricks are in heaps in the yard). I believe they were the first steel manufacturers who had a tilt. One of their best travellers was the father of Mr. Joseph Haywood. I had the impression that the father of the late Mr. G. W. Hinchliffe, of Eyre street, was also a traveller for the Binneys, but that, I find, was a mistake. LEONARD : So long ago as 1825, the building had been turned into lawyers' offices. In that year it was occupied by Mr. Copeland, solicitor. WRAGG: While we are among the Friends, and so near their Meeting-house, permit me to say, one of them told me that, in his recollection, he can count more than a score who have left Sheffield and gone to America and become ministers, who, had they remained in the town, would never have been able to open their mouths. LEONARD : I thought there were no ministers among the Quakers. LEIGHTON: You must forgive the abrupt transition when I say-Now, hail to thee, old " Dove and Rainbow!' Sixty years ago, the drum and fife were scarcely ever absent from thy door, when Sergeant Kenyon and Sergeant Barber were on the look-out for recruits. Well do I remember seeing one of them come forth with his corporal, two or three rank and file, with drum and fife, and march boldly to Water lane, and there draw up his detachment in line. Then did the sergeant, with streamers flying in the air, sheathe his sword, and he and his men marched boldly into the publichouse, and, like a gallant warrior as he was, called for his "tankard " of foaming ale. The sergeant had ready for each recruit a spade-ace guinea, with his Majesty's portrait impressed upon it, pigtail and all. The warlike song was Roll up, so merrily, march away; Soldier's glory lives in story : His laurels are green when his locks are grey, And it's heigh for the life of a soldier. In my youth, I and others of my own age were in the habit of singing songs about " Lord Wellington in Spain," and Campo lane sent out its quota both for the navy and the army. I could mention names, were it necessary-John Dawson, himself the son of a soldier who died fighting in India, and Artilleryman Dixon, and others. WRAGG : I have heard very old people say that the Dove and Rainbow was once on fire. The landlady had made her escape from the flames, but she turned back to rescue a considerable sum of money, and perished. TWISS: That, I imagine, would be in 1782. The landlord's name was Thomas Oates, and a servant girl perished as well as his wife. WRAGG: The old Iris office was at one time the largest shop in the town, and had the two largest windows-rounded so as to form the are of a circle, like a few that are still to be seen, with small panes, unsupplanted as yet by big squares of plate glass. EVERARD : Montgomery's last apprentice, Mr. Robert Leader, has spoken feelingly of the shutters which he had to put up and take down. They were " very many, very heavy, and had to be carried a considerable distance. Whenwork in the office closed, at 6.30 or 7 p.m., the unfortunate apprentice had to return to the place at 8 or 9, to put up the shutters." TWISS: Apprentices in newspaper offices have not to submit to such tasks now. WRAGG: Before Mr. Gales's time this house was the residence of Dr. Buchan, who wrote there his celebrated work, Domestic Medicine. At one time the book was in the hands of almost every one on both sides of the Atlantic, wherever the English language is spoken. TWISS: Another of Montgomery's apprentices, years earlier, was the eldest son of the Rev. George Smith. He was named Matthewman, after his maternal grandfather, and he became a partner of Montgomery's. He afterwards entered the East India Company's army and died in India. LEONARD : I have heard Mr. Montgomery's sanctum described as an upper room behind the shop, over the office coal-place. It had a most depressing out-look upon back premises and dingy walls and roofs. The editor poet had a standing office-desk in the room, but his favourite writing place was a round table which stood near the fire. At the time my informant best remembers the room, Montgomery was compiling his collection of hymns, and the table was covered with the books that he used in his work. LEIGHTON : It has often been told how the poet sometimes served customers, but it was simply an accidental or exceptional thing. My feeling towards him when I was sent to make a purchase was one of fear-he was so curt. Then, of course, I was only young-, and so great a man could not be expected to be civil to a boy ! LEONARD: Numbers of incidents connected with Montgomery's life might be mentioned, but most of them would be such as have already been published ; and I take it the great object of our conversations is to gather together unwritten folk-lore. WRAGG : I suppose there's no great harm if one does tell a story twice over ? EVERARD : At any rate, the subsequent history of the Gales family, which is second only in interest to that of Montgomery himself, has not often been told, and I should suggest that Mr. Leonard read it to us. LEONARD: I've no objection whatever. This is it "When Mr. Joseph Gales, printer, bookseller, auctioneer, and editor of the then popular Sheffield Register, left the town in 1794, he went, as you all know, to America. The fact is, Mr. Gales had to flee. A meeting held on Castle hill in April of that year had passed strong resolutions and spoken fierce words against the Government, which led to a prosecution. Mr. Gales was present at that meeting, and appears to have sympathised with its objects, but he was not included in the prosecution. In June, a letter from a Sheffield printer to Hardy, the secretary of the London Corresponding Society, was seized, and Gales was suspected, though unjustly, of being the writer. A warrant was issued against him, and he only escaped arrest from the officers sent to execute it by a prompt flight. In the following week's Register Mr. Gales took a formal leave of his friends and readers, denying most distinctly that he had written, dictated, or been privy to the letter addressed to Hardy. If his imprisonment, or death, would serve the cause which he had espoused-the cause of peace, liberty, and justice, it would, he said, be cowardice to fly; 'but, convinced that by ruining my family and distressing my friends by risking either would only gratify the ignorant and the malignant, I shall seek that livelihood in another land which I cannot peaceably obtain in this.' Under such circumstances and with such feelings, Joseph Gales, after sundry concealments, got out of the country. After a short stay in Germany, he went to America and began life afresh. He was a clever, forcible writer and a keen politician, and his proclivities speedily drew him to his old profession. Arrived at Philadelphia, in August, 1795, he began business as a printer there. In about a year, judging from the numbering of one of his papers which is in our possession, dated June, 1797, he became the proprietor, by purchase from Mr. Oswald, of the Independent Gazetteer of that city. He called it ' Gales's Independent Gazetteer;' but he did not keep it long, re-selling it at the end of the first year to Mr. S. H. Smith, of whom we shall hear again. In September, 1799, Mr. Gales went to North Carolina, and there he established the Raleigh Register, which he published for forty years, only retiring from the concern a year or two before his death which took place at Raleigh, on the 24th August, 1841, at the advanced age of eighty years. His youngest son, who was born in North Carolina, succeeded to the newspaper. When Mr. Gales arrived in America he had with him a son, also named Joseph Gales, then about nine years of age. This Joseph Gales, Junior, kept in the journalistic track. In 1806 he joined, as a reporter, the National Intelligencer a paper that had been established in Washington, in 1800, by the Samuel H. Smith previously mentioned, with the object of maintaining a newspaper in the capital, Republican in politics, which should yield to the Administration a vigorous support. In 1809 Gales was made a partner, and in 1810 he became sole proprietor of this journal. It lived until the year 1869, when the New York Evening Post, noticing its death, said:-'Mr. William W. Seaton, a brother-in-law of Mr. Gales, and previously editor of the Petersburg Republican and North Carolina Register, became associated with him in the enterprise in 1812. The Intelligencer was a vigorous supporter of the war with Great Britain, and enjoyed a high reputation as a public journal. Messrs. Gales and Seaton used to do their own reporting of debates in Congress, one always sitting in the Senate and the other in the House of Representatives, during the sessions. Their Register of Debates is regarded as a standard source of American history. The tone of the paper under their management was firm, moderate, and cautious. With a rearrangement of parties, the National Intelligencer adhered to Mr. Clay, and was a Conservative-Whig journal so long as the Whig party had an existence. The proprietors stood high in public confidence, and in 1840 Mr. Seaton was elected mayor of Washington, and held the office for twelve consecutive years. Mr. Gales died in 1860. The style of the Intelligencer's editorial management deserves a mention. There used to be often a sparseness of leading articles, succeeded at intervals by the production of a paper covering a page or more, always written with force and ability, but at the same time rather too solid for the general reader.' Into the cause of the death of the Intelligence). we need not here inquire. It was prosperous under the son of our old townsman, Mr. Gales, who, in the free atmosphere of the New World, followed out the career his father had begun here. After he ceased his labours and went to his rest, the paper grew more and more out of harmony with the spirit of the times, and paid the penalty that all newspapers so managed must pay-death. In the autumn of 1868 an old contributor to the Intelligencer visited Sheffield, and being curious-as so many Americans are-to see the place from which his former employer went forth, visited the antique shop in the Hartshead where Gales commenced and Montgomery continued the then dangerous trade of editor and publisher. The poetic nine have long deserted the narrow alley. Where flowers of Parnassus once bloomed, the votaries of Bacchus then. revelled. In short, the building had been turned into a beershop. Joiners were removing the quaintly-carved door-case with the ancient fan-light, to replace them with some more convenient structure in plain and vulgar deal. The stranger was horrified at the desecration, and, inquiring, found that the old wood was being removed, with some lumber, for lighting fires. His plea. for mercy was admitted ; triumphant, he carried off the old door-case, and out of it had constructed a number of boxes, one of which is placed in the National Museum at Washington, suitably inscribed, and bearing a photograph of the premises rendered sacred by the memory of Gales and Montgomery." TWISS : It should be added that Montgomery's Hartshead shop is, at the present time, not a beershop, but a grocer's. The Gales family lived at Eckington for many years ; the first of the name of whom there is record, Timothy, was appointed parish clerk in 1707. His son Timothy married Sarah Clay, of Eckington, in 1735, and their eldest son, Thomas, was the father of Joseph Gales, of the Hartshead, the proprietor of the Sheffield Register. He was born February 4, 1761. I have here a copy of the inscription on the tombstone of the family in Eckington churchyard : Under this Stone Lie the Remains of three Daughters of THOMAS and SARAH GALES, Of Eckington, and sisters of JOSEPH GALES, who died at Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., August 24, 1841, aged 80 years. ELIZABETH GALES, Departed this life, February 16, 1821, Aged 49 years. Farewell, beloved, we meet again. ANNE GALES, Died January 17, 1838, aged 70 years. Jesus saith unto her, I am the Resurrection and the Life." SARAH GALES, Died February 18, 1857, aged 84 years. With these sisters, together andseverally, lived for more than sixty years (dying in the presence of the last-named, at Sheffield, April 30,1854), JAMES MONTGOMERY, The Christian Poet, Patriot, and Philanthropist. Requiescat in pace. WRAGG: It was in the Hartshead and Watson's walk (so called from Messrs. Watson's silversmiths' factory) that the first eating-houses were established; now there is not one left. LEONARD: Yes, I understand the name of the proprietor of one of the cook-shops there was Thornhill. He lived at a house down Harvest lane, popularly called " T' hen hole,"because there was a tradition that poultry feloniously obtained was pushed through a hole into his cellar at night. LEIGHTON : A little below, too, in Hartshead, Matthias D'Amour kept a " cook-shop "-the first, I believe, in the town. LEONARD : D'Amour's " Autobiography " was written for him by the late Mr. Paul Rodgers, if you will excuse the bull, which is not mine, but theirs. It is an interesting story of his adventures as a kind of confidential servant to various gentlemen, and as valet to the Duchess of Gordon ; but the strangest part of all is that he should settle down at last in the Hartshead, in Sheffield, as the keeper of " an eatinghouse and poulterer's shop." LEIGHTON : That is accounted for by his wife, who had also been in the service of the Duchess of Gordon, having connections in the neighbourhood. LEONARD: In the course of the book we are not once told what was her maiden name, but her mother lived at Wood hall, some eleven miles from Sheffield, and she had a brother in Cheney row, whose name also is omitted. At first, D'Amour set up a canal boat, and conveyed coal from Whittington and Norwood collieries to Retford; but jealousies arising, he sold his boat. He came, to Sheffield on the very last day of the eighteenth century, began his. eating-house at 4, Market street, did well there, and in four Years removed to the Hartshead, where- he remained until 1826, when, "trade being much depressed after the panic of 1825, he and his wife willingly retired front all kind of lit point of fact, they seem to have lost their money. D'Amour was a native of Antwerp, and was eighty-six years of age when his life was published. He lived to the great age of ninety three, not dying until 1842. LEIGHTON : ln the Hartshead, some sixty years ago, the late Mr. Thomas Pearson carried on business as a wine merchant, and there realised a large fortune. WRAGG : It is said that on his late premises there are two cellars cut out of the solid rock, one, underneath the other. They are now occupied by Messr,.J. S. and T. Birks, grocers and wine dealers. LEIGHTON : Then there was " 'T" oil i' Wall " (The Hole in the Wall) ; and the house now occupied by 'Mr. Alleroft, with entrances both front Hartshead and Watson's walk, was kept by Mr. Sam Turner-" Gin Sam," as he was called, to distinguish him from " Flannel Sam" the draper. " Gin Sam" was the most gentlemanly landlord I ever met with, both in manner and conduct. He was particularly good-looking, had it pleasant smile and a kind word for all about him, and took a pride in waiting upon his customers himself TWISS: And his customers included the most respectable business men in the town. There was more sociableness among the shopkeepers at that time than now, and the public houses were so kept that orderly folk could go to them, without injury to themselves or to their reputation. WRAGG: The doorway of Sam Turner's public-house used to be almost blocked up on a Saturday night by men crowding to get in and by others trying to get out. Turner had formerly been a carpet weaver, and had worked for Mr. Wildsmith, of the Crofts. He got, however, by an accident, his arm broken, and during the period of enforced idleness which followed, he married a widow woman, whose name I forget, but who kept a public-house that was taken down to build the Town Hall. That would be about 1805. LEIGHTON : Lower still in Watson's walk was Mrs. Keats's eating-house, once well known. On. the opposite side, the premises now swallowed up by Messrs. Cockayne's carpet warehouse were occupied (though somewhat later than the time we have been speaking of) by a coffee-shop on the ground floor, the Mechanics' Library and a billiard-room up-stairs. In the corner 'now engulphed in Messrs. Cockayne's shop were the offices to which Mr. B. J. Wake-a most honourable man, of whom I always think with respect and gratituderemoved from Norfolk street about the year 1816 or 1817. What is now the Waterloo Tavern was originally the manufactory of Messrs. Watson. They were, I believe, silversmiths before plating on copper was invented. and the premises now occupied by Messrs. Birks and Mr. Atkinson formed their frontage. TWISS : It was, if I am not mistaken, in one of the houses you have named that the amusing interview of Justice Wilkinson with the pugilists took place. LEONARD: What Was that? TWISS : Oh, you must know the story. The old Vicar was noted in his time as an amateur pugilist; and one day, when he was dining with some local officials at the house that is now the Turf Tavern, two strangers called and sent in an urgent request that he would see them. The Vicar, quietly leaving his companions, complied. What was it they wanted? With some apologies they told him how great a distance they had come in consequence of having heard of his fondness for boxing, and buoyed by the fond hope that he would not disdain, as a particular favour, to give them a display of his skill. Nothing could please the old Justice better. With great urbanity he at once assented, the gloves were procured, and were used with a " science " that convinced the visitors they had not taken their journey fruitlessly; and in the end they left well pleased with the success of their mission. EVERARD : A good story, which I will cap with another, also appropriate to the locality, and also with a clerical flavour. About the middle of the last century there lived at Malin Bridge a working man, in humble circumstances, but who bore a good character amongst his neighbours for integrity and moral worth, and who was, moreover, a strict Churchman. He had a son named William, who had attained to an age suitable to receive the rite of confirmation, according to the ritual of the Church of England, and his father became very solicitous that this matter should be attended to without any unnecessary delay. On a certain day the Archbishop of York held a Confirmation service in the Parish Church, and this worthy man accompanied his son to Sheffield for the purpose of attending it. From some misunderstanding *as to the time, it so happened that on their arrival at the Old Church, the Confirmation service was over, and the Archbishop, clergy, and congregation were dispersed. What was to be (lone ? A man of ordinary character would just have returned home. But, instead of doing so, he ascertained that the Archbishop had gone down to the house Mr. Leighton has spoken of, in Watson's walk, and thither the father and son followed him. The servants refused them access to the Archbishop, as he was just sitting down to. dinner; but, happening to overhear the altercation, his lordship came to the top of the stairs and asked what was the matter. The father explained the circumstances, and the Archbishop, after asking some questions, and hearing young William. repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, confirmed him on the stairhead of the public-house! The father and the boy, we may well suppose, trudged home highly gratified with the enjoyment of so special a privilege. The son was afterwards the grandfather of a highly esteemed magistrate recently deceased. LEONARD : I do not see why you should hesitate to add that the boy so confirmed was the grandfather of the late Mr. Thomas Dunn. He who had shown so much determina ion to get the rite administered to his son was the first of the Dunns-the first also of the Thomas Dunns-resident in this neighbourhood. He had come from Boston about the year 1780, to be apprenticed to an ancestor of the late Col. Fenton. His Malin Bridge house was a neat, substantial cottage, with a pointed gable, covered with a fruit-tree. It was swept away, along with adjacent buildings, by the great flood of 1864. The son, William Dunn, the hero of the confirmation story, was, as that sufficiently shows, brought up a Churchman ; but, as he subsequently married a strict Dissenter, his son Thomas, father of the late Mr. Dunn, was educated as a holder of Nonconformist tenets, and, with his family, he attended Queen Street Chapel for many years. He was a self-taught man, of much natural ability, and his tastes are indicated by the fact that he was the first person who lectured in Sheffield on electricity. His wife was a Holland, the daughter of a resident at Shiregreen. She was eight months old in 1745, when the Young Pretender and his followers wore marching south; and, as it was confidently affirmed and implicitly believed that the rebels would impale every baby on their swords, she was hidden in a holly bush. The rebels are said to have been within a mile of her father's house at that time, and every man in the hamlet had gone out to fight. LEIGHTON : The fighting may be problematical. LEONARD : Yes; it is possible that curiosity, rather than valour, had taken the men away, for we know, as a matter of history, what an unopposed march the rebels had. This story, however, reminds one of the tradition that, on his return northwards, Prince Charles Edward visited Sheffield, and was a guest of the Heatons, in the Pickle. I went into that question once (as Mr. Brooke, in " Middlemarch, " would say), and I came to the conclusion that the evidence in support of the story was very feeble. lt consisted chiefly of dim remembrances of mysterious transactions, handed down by old Mrs. Heaton, who was a little girl in 1745, to her descendants, and the cherished belief of the family that a harpsichord, a sword, a wine-glass, and other articles were presents from the Prince. On the other hand, the known facts of the Young Pretender's progress and retreat lend no countenance whatever to the legend. EVERARD: Mr. Leighton has mentioned the Mechanics' Library, and I think perhaps you may be interested in hearing some account of an institution very popular and useful in its day, that has been drawn up by one who was intimately associated with its management. Do you care to hear it? ALL: Much. EVERARD (roads) Half a century has nearly elapsed since the Mechanics' Library was first established, by resolutions passed at a public meeting, held in the Town Hall, on December 27th, 1823. Most of the individuals who took a prominent part in that meeting have passed away, including Montgomery, the Rev. Dr. Sutton, Sir Arnold Knight, Mr. Edward Smith, Mr. Asline Ward, the Rev. Thos. Smith, and others. " From a small beginning the institution went steadily forward, advancing year by year in public esteem, and strictly adhering to its original intention of the purchase and circulation of books, without allowing its funds to to diverted to any other object. In the course of thirty years it had accumulated 8,000 volumes, enrolled six hundred members, and had a weekly issue of six hundred books. Of the general charactor of these works Mr. Montgomery, who was from the first the president, on a certain occasion bore this testimony:' I offer it as my deliberate opinion that there does not exist in this kingdom a public library of miscellaneous literature in which will be found a smaller proportion of objectionable volumes than in this of the Sheffield Mechanics. Without meaning the smallest disparagement to what is called the Gentlemen's Library here, the proportion of books not calculated to be particularly profitable to the reader, or permanently enhancing the value of the property itself, is far greater ;' and which difference he attributed to the large admission of novels, romances, and plays. " By a certain clause in the 24th rule of the Mechanics' Library, 'novels and plays' were excluded. After things had gone on quietly for some years, at length the abrogation of this law became the subject of animated and even stormy debates at the annual meetings. On the one side the ' Repealers' asserted that to exclude so large a portion of the current and popular literature of the day was inconsistent with the library being regarded as a public institution, and also with the fact of the actual admission of works of ' fiction ' at all; and that it was unfair towards those members who possessed the taste for that kind of reading, and was opposed to the entire spirit, freedom, and liberality of the age. To all this, on the other hand, the ' Constitutionalists' stoutly maintained that the clause in question was a fundamental principle of the institution, and could not be repealed without a broach of faith with the original donors of money and books, which had been solicited and given on that express under. standing; that to make the change required would be to alter the entire character of the library, and to lessen it in public esteem and confidence; that the funds were much more wisely and profitably expended in solid standard works, which would tend to improve the intellectual and moral character much more effectually than the reading such ephemeral productions as 'novels;' and that, whatever the library might happen to lose in subscriptions by adhering to the rule, it would be likely to lose much more by cancelling it. " So the controversy went on at the annual meetings with more or less of acrimony, common sense, wit, and logic on both sides; but, on the whole, it was carried on in the spirit of fairness. This yearly breeze did the institution no harm, but rather good. It tended to purify the atmosphere and invigorate the life, and was not the occasion of anything worse than a very slight and temporary interruption of the general good feeling prevalent amongst the members. " In 1853 a soiree was held in the Cutlers' Hall, on which occasion the Mayor, Francis Hoole, Esq., was in the chair, and the late Earl Fitzwilliam was present and made an excellent speech. The object in view in holding this meeting was of a strictly practical nature, namely, that of placing more prominently before the public the claims and privileges of the institution. One thing that especially commended it to favour was that it was not sectarian either in religion or politics. Its members consisted of every class of religion and all shades of politics. " The Mechanics' Library thus went on year by year in its unostentatious course of practical usefulness, furnishing the means of self-improvement and intellectual gratification to hundreds who, without such provision, would not have entered on the course of life with the same advantages, and many of whom now, in middle life or advanced in years, look back upon the institution with no ordinary feelings of kindly regard and thankfulness. "The Mechanics' Library had been established about seven years when Mr. Hebblethwaite was appointed secretary, which office he sustained, with only a brief interruption, for nearly thirty years. He had been a member from its comenencement, and, in a speech delivered on the occasion of the presentation of a testimonial at the close of his services, he remarked:-' I was present at the origin of this library, at a meeting in the old Town Hall, on Saturday morning in Christmas week. It was an inauspicious time, but yet the room was crowded to excess. I have now before me the names of those who addressed the meeting. I was then a stripling, but I was intensely interested in the proceedings. I stood for three hours-for I could not get a seat-to hear the addresses, and none made a greater impression upon me than a speech of the late Rev. T. Smith, who was then at his best. It had a great influence on me at the time. He beautifully depicted the benefits such an institution might confer on the working men of Sheffield, and he mentioned the case of a working man of his acquaintance who, though spending forty years of his life in a cotton manufactory, had mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, was well versed in mathematics, and had considerable knowledge of medicine. This man had had a wife and seven children to maintain by his own labour, but no family in the town was more respectable, no children were better fed, clothed, and educated, and several of them were reading Latin, Greek, and Hebrew with their father. This account of what a working man had done stimulated me to desire to do likewise, and renewed my ardour in the studies in which I was engaged. Thus the institution has imparted a bias to my life and character, and no doubt it has done the same thing for many others. It was no slight *privilege as secretary of this institution to enjoy intercourse with its late president, Mr. Montgomery. I frequently saw him, and received from him such kindness as was most important to a young man in the position I was called to. The benefits that have resulted from this library, directly and indirectly, have been great. It has been the pioneer of some other institutions that have since flourished.' " The office of secretary, to which Mr. Hebblethwaite was appointed and which he so long satisfactorily filled, was not one of honorary distinction, but required much time, thought, and work. These duties he discharged with a punctuality that seldom failed, and with uniform courtesy. One of his chief qualities was that of aptitude in matters of business. In fact, he may justly be said to have been a ' model' secretary. All that he advised and did bore a certain impress of clear- sightedness, promptitude, and despatch. At the committee meetings (at which Montgomery, as long as he could, attended) there was scarcely ever a document wanting, an account incompleted, or minutes unentered, or any special business that he had engaged to do unattended to. All the matters to be considered and determined were clearly and orderly arranged. The discharge of these duties involved an amount of time and labour, cheerfully devoted to them, of which few can form any adequate conception. There can be no question that the institution was greatly indebted to his steady attentions and personal influence for the extent of its usefulness and the estimation in which it was held by the public. Besides his connection with the library, Mr. Hebblethwaite, for not less than thirty years, was the teacher of a large and efficient day school, and also, for more than the same period, the superintendent of a Sunday school; so that it may be safely affirmed that few menperhaps no manever exerted a greater or more beneficial influence on the minds of the youth in this town. Highly and generally esteemed by the members, as well as by the rest of the community, after a long course of honorary service, Mr. Hebblethwaite retired a short time before the institution was merged into the Free Library. " On the formation of the Free Library it became quite evident that an institution supported by a public rate levied on all householders must seriously injure, and eventually destroy, one sustained by voluntary subscription. Such was the result. The Mechanics' Library became absorbed into the Free Library, and now only exists as a pleasant memory of the past. " But as naturally identified and long connected with that institution, we now proceed to notice the librarian. Mr. Alfred Smith was as much a Sheffield notability, and in certain respects of a similar old-fashioned type, as the late Mr. John Holland. His father was a currier, for some time living in Queen street, but afterwards he removed to Fig Tree lane. Mr. Smith brought up his two sons, Alfred and Frederick, to the business; and I have myself often seen Alfred with his apron on and shirt sleeves turned up above the elbows, standing at the shop-door. That shop was a stone building, apparently two centuries old, with small leaded window-panes, a little above Mr. Haxworth's surgery, in Fig Tree lane. Alfred's father was a respectable and shrewd man, possessing more than an ordinary share of information, and well known to the public men of that day. He greatly admired, and was intimately acquainted with ` Montgomery, and stood by the poet on one of the occasions when he was examined and committed to prison by the magistrates, and went to fetch the persons who became his sureties. "Mr Smith, the father, was a stanch Liberal in politics, and the old 'currier shop' was a kind of meeting-place, where the most active local politicians of the time used frequently to resort for the purpose of learning the news and discussing public affairs. To that spot the late vicar, Dr. Sutton, used to repair to obtain information as to any event that was exciting public interest. It must be remembered that at that time there were no daily penny newspapers, or railway conveyance, or transmission of communications by telegraph. Young Alfred, as he listened to these discussions with attentive ears and eager interest, imbibed those political views and principles which, in a modified form, he ever afterwards held and believed in. He became in early life well known to Montgomery, and ever entertained for the poet a profound respect. He often spoke of Mr. Montgomery in such terms of high eulogy as seemed almost to amount to a kind of idolatry. " For some time after the Mechanics' Library was first established, the work of librarian was done by voluntary services. Afterwards, Mr. Clegg was appointed to that office, and, on his resignation, Mr. Alfred Smith. On the occasion of the election Montgomery spoke of him in very kindly and favourable terms. On being duly installed into the office, his manners of old-fashioned politeness and efforts to oblige soon won the good-will and esteem of the generality of the members. With kindly feelings will many of them, recall to memory his personal appearance. There was certainly something striking about it, including the bald head, high forehead, and long, pale, and unwhiskered face. His countenance, it will be remembered, was naturally grave, and on certain special occasions it was apt to assume that stronger expression of gravity that approached very nearly to the stolid and impassive. " But, unlike this outward appearance, he was of a very cheerful, kind-hearted, and genial disposition. He had an extensive knowledge of books of a certain kind, and his ordinary conversation was rendered interesting by curious scraps and quaint conceits. His memory was very extraordinary, and, indeed, was the chief faculty of his mental constitution. He knew the greater part of Hudibras by heart, and could give citations to any length. Montgomery, of course, was a very favourite author; and he often repeated passages both from his published poems and also from some others, which I suspect have escaped even the keen scrutinising search of the late Mr. Holland. In his younger days he had himself composed a considerable amount of poetry, which he could repeat to any extent. But it was in the doggerel style and Hudibrastic vein ; and it is very doubtful whether he possessed the requisite literary taste and ability to have written anything that would at all have stood the critical ordeal if printed in a volume. " Notwithstanding some manifest imperfections, he yet succeeded to a considerable extent in giving satisfaction; and it may be questioned whether a more clever business man would, on the whole, have served the interests of the library better than the good-tempered, humorous, gossiping, and somewhat eccentric ' librarian.' He certainly bad often to manifest a great deal of patience ; but, on the other hand, it is only fair to say he frequently required a large exercise of that said excellent quality towards himself. On certain occasions, whilst he was reciting poetry or telling some ***** story, might be seen more than half-a-dozen youngsters waiting for an exchange of books, who, with eager looks were listening with delight to what he was saying; whilst amongst them might be a man who thought his time of some value, who would, with signs of anger and impatience, remonstrate against such delay. Instantly the tale would be cut short, and the applicant's wishes attended to, with many apologies and efforts to conciliate and oblige. " On the occasion of Montgomery's funeral, with a large scarf around his hat, Alfred Smith was mounted on the box beside the driver of the carriage in which were the secretary, vice-president, and other officers of the Mechanics' Library leading up the procession. All along the road lined with spectators he was quietly recognised, and thus, by mere Accident, occupied a prominent position in paying his tribute of respect to the venerated poet. Soon after this event his health began visibly to fail, and he gradually sank into a debilitated condition; but still, notwithstanding all persuasions to the contrary, he resolutely attended, to almost the last day of his life, at the library, thus finishing his twenty-five years of faithful and conscientious service. During that period it was the writer's privilege to enjoy very frequent and pleasant intercourse, and also at the end to follow him to his grave, and see his mortal remains interred in the Pitsmoor Churchyard. " With his name the remembrance of the Sheffield Mechanics' Library will ever remain closely associated-an institution which may fairly claim to have fulfilled its original design for about forty years, by furnishing the means, at little cost, of reading valuable works on arts, science, literature, and religion, which were adapted to improve the intellect and to form and establish the moral and religious character." WRAGG: Thank you. Our friend Leighton has, I see,fallen asleep, which is a reminder that we ought to be going home. [Exeunt.] This out of copyright material has been transcribed by Eric Youle, who has provided the transcription on condition that any further copying and distribution of the transcription is allowed only for noncommercial purposes, and includes this statement in its entirety. Any references to, or quotations from, this material should give credit to the original author(s) or editors.
  10. Sheffield History

    Stocksbridge

    This valley between the Pennine hills of Hunshelf and Waldershelf would once be thickly forested. Wharncliffe is mentioned in the opening paragraph of Sir Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe”. Remains on Wharncliffe have been dated back to Roman times and a Mesolithic campsite has been discovered on its edge overlooking the ancient crossing place of the River Don at Deepcar. Always on the very edge of whatever centre of administration governed it, Stocksbridge grew from a tiny hamlet at the crossing place of the Little Don river into a thriving industrial centre during the period we know as the Industrial Revolution. Although this development began on the north of the river in Hunshelf Township, Penistone Parish, it eventually extended onto the south side, which was more accessible. The river, originally known as Hunshelf Water, was later given the name Little Don. The alternative name Porter, thought to refer to its colour at source, is also used by another tributary of the Don, so is best ignored to avoid confusion. Even the name Don was originally Dun – again due to its colour. The river has been diverted several times near the site of the original bridge, which is roughly under the traffic roundabout at the bottom of Smithy Hill. The bridge from which the Town takes it name was a wooden footbridge over the river, which has always formed a boundary between Hunshelf and Waldershelf, the parishes of Penistone and Bradfield. It was destroyed by flood several times and was eventually replaced by a stone bridge in 1812 to cope with heavier traffic. The Stocks, according to recent research by Steven Moxon, may have a much older origin than hitherto believed. In a forthcoming book on the origin of place names, he produces evidence of a connection with monastic buildings and maintains that the 18th Century fulling stocks and tenant John Stocks were coincidental. INDUSTRY It was a later mill, also built as a cotton mill in 1794 on the former Stocks’ land, which Samuel Fox took over in 1842 and developed into the steelworks which brought prosperity to the district. Initially he used the water power which had been running the nearby Hunshelf cornmill and the mills at Deepcar, but he soon learned to exploit the coal seams in that hillside as machines were developed which used steam power. Other business were soon established here to utilise the clays discovered when testing for coal. John Armitage founded tile and brick factories at Henholmes and Deepcar, Thomas Brookes left him to start his own pipeworks at Bracken Moor, Gregory and Reddish started an enterprise at the Clough, Deepcar. Later William Brooke left his father’s works to set up another pipeworks at Pot House and John Grayson Lowood took over the former chemistry works at Deepcar for a ganister mine and refractory, producing a variety of bricks and basic industrial requirements. Glassware had been produced at Bate Green for a hundred years and pottery near the same side for another thirty in the 17th and 18th centuries. Bolsterstone Glasshouse, as it was then known, although now extremely dilapidated, is the only one of its kind in the country, and covers a furnace of unique construction, which could be a valuable asset in the light of current regeneration initiatives. When Samuel Fox arrived, coal, firestone and ganister were already being mined locally and lead was still being got out of the Bitholmes and Ewden Valley. Some lead miners followed Samuel Fox from Bradwell to work here. Towards the end of the 20th Century, again in line with national trends, the decline in these industries has necessitated a diversification of investment and adaptation to the changing needs of our community. Housing is still being built as Stocksbridge becomes a dormitory town, although the number of inhabitants is declining as more houses are occupied by single people and smaller families. AGRICULTURE The ridges of sandstone forming Hunshelf and Waldershelf were covered by a thin layer of clay soils, so were never particularly fertile. The resulting poor agricultural yield provided only subsistence for the scattered farms which comprised this Manor of Bolsterstone. However, an attempt was made in the late 1890’s to grow fruit at Hoyle House, with some success. Only a few of the original homesteads survive as working farms, many of the others having been demolished to make way for modern housing, or converted for residential or business use. Remains of 14th and 15th Century cruck barns can still be found at Green Farm, Pot House, Windhill and Watson House. GOVERNMENT The break up of Bolsterstone Manor in 1802 brought the Manorial system virtually to an end, and more responsibility devolved onto the Parish Council. During the 200 years encompassing our history, the area was then administered in turn by a Board of Guardians, a Local Board, then the Urban District Council – all responsible to the West Riding County Council – and finally, the Sheffield Metropolitan District Council, under which the Urban District became a Town Council with limited powers. Stocksbridge Town Council responsibilities are now limited to parochial affairs. THE PEOPLE A handful of Stocksbridge families can claim descent from those named in such documents as the Poll Tax Returns of 1379 and Hearth Tax Returns of 1672 in Bolsterstone, Bradfield, Hunshelf and Midhope. Of the family names recorded in the 1779 Waldershelf Valuation, some descendants can probably trace an unbroken line through more than 200 years. Hundreds more can certainly claim to have descended from those who were drawn to this area by the prospect of work in the new industries of the last 150 years. The Censuses of 1851 to 1891 show that they came from every part of the British Isles and from almost every County in England. While the national population trebled during the 19th Century, that of Yorkshire as a whole increased fourfold and the West Riding alone, almost fivefold. By the half-century, more than a third of the working population of Bolsterstone Parish were tied to the land. The Agricultural Depression of the 1860’s and 1870’s forced many to turn their hands to work in the new industries, and they were joined by refugees from the Holmfirth flood of 1857 and the Lancashire Cotton famine of the 1860’s. Then the building of the reservoirs in Ewden and at Midhope and Langsett in the early 1900’s brought more settlers. In 1950 appeals were still being made for lodgings for workers at Samuel Fox & Co. RELIGION The Established Church is the Church of England. Our Parish Church was St. Mary’s, Ecclesfield, until the separation of Bradfield Parish in 1650, when people in this area had to attend St. Nicholas’ at Bradfield. With the creation of St. Mary’s at Bolsterstone as a chapel-of-ease during the next Century, life would become a little easier for the occupants of the few farmsteads in this valley. Church Registers show that marriages during that period were often solemnised on Christmas Day, the only holiday which a domestic servant and agricultural labourer would have. St. Mary’s, Bolsterstone, was then the only place of worship in the valley, other than the Chapel of St. James the Lesser at Midhope. The nearest Roman Catholic Church was St. Vincent’s in Sheffield. Non-conformists met in various private homes. Their children were baptised at the nearest Non-conformist Chapel, such as Netherfield at Penistone, or by a visiting minister in their own homes. Local Historian Joseph Kenworthy recorded a register of baptisms performed at Spink House by R.C. Minister V. L. Denis between 1800 and 1819. Marriages and burials were required by law to be performed at the Church of England, but eventually the needs of a growing movement away from the Established Church were catered for by the formation of Independent Chapels and a Roman Catholic Church in the 19th Century, with the addition in the 20th of an Assembly of God Pentecostal Church. CULTURAL TRADITION Many traditions were based on the Agricultural year and the Church calendar. One which survived until quite recently was Caking Night, which was celebrated originally on the night of November 1st, when soul cakes were made and given to callers for All Souls’ Day. Ploughing matches were held locally from 1880-1938, attracting nationwide competition. A strong choral tradition began in the Churches. Local Christmas Carols have a popular appeal, most having been composed in the early 1900’s. Choirs 20 to 30 strong used to tour the outlying homesteads throughout the night of Christmas Eve, a custom which died out in the post war period. Replacing that tradition is one which could be called exhibition singing. Dr. W. M. Robertshaw’s St. Cecelia Ladies’ Choir competed nationally throughout the 1930’s and the Stocksbridge Congregational (now United Reform) Operatic Society produced Gilbert & Sullivan shows in the 1950’s. Bolsterstone Male Voice Choir was founded in 1934 and is world-renowned. The Deepcar Male Voice Choir, recently disbanded, has been superseded by a mixed choir, named for our ancient land – the Waldershelf. Making music was always part of the local scene, with a piano in almost every household at the centre of every family gathering. Organised bands were as popular as the choirs; Stocksbridge Old Brass Band, Stocksbridge Works Orchestral Section, the Salvation Army Band and the Secondary Modern School Band (now the High School Orchestra), as well as a Ladies’ Jass Band. A hillbilly group called The MacDoodles performed on BBC Radio. Dance bands played at the enormously popular weekly dances at the Victory Club throughout the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s, with the annual Policemen’s and Tradesmen’s Balls the highlights of our social calendar. Dramatic Societies were also a prominent feature of the Stocksbridge cultural scene. Every Church was a natural nursery of talent, unselfconsciously displayed in parades and festivals which marked each cause for celebration. There were formal drama groups, a Pierrot Troupe and Deepcar Follies. Annual Carnivals were held in the 1920’s. The Stocksbridge Works Amateur Dramatic Society is one of the oldest sections of the Stocksbridge Works Social Services, continuing almost without interruption throughout World War II. Other hobbies supported by the Stocksbridge Works Social Services were the Gardening and Photographic Sections, a Pigeon Club and a Poultry and Rabbit section. SPORT The oldest game is Knur and Spell, thought to have been brought into this area by the Viking invaders of the 10th Century, and popular throughout the North of England in the early 1900’s. Rifle Clubs were formed at the turn of the Century, surviving until recently. Individual athletes were able to compete at Sports meetings, originally also organised by the Churches, held annually at grounds at Stonemoor, Bolsterstone and Lowoods field at Deepcar, then from 1912 at Bracken Moor. These meetings attracted competitors from far and wide, reopening after improvement of facilities in 1951 for its 12th Great Hunshelf Steeplechase and Annual Athletic Sports under AAA rules. Every Church also had its Football and Cricket teams, and from these evolved our present competitive Clubs at Oxley Park and Bracken Moor. The Old Cricket Club was founded in 1862. The S.W.S.S. again made it possible for employees and their families to enjoy the sports, subsidised by the firm, of Archery, Badminton, Billiards and Snooker, Bowls, Boxing, Clay Pigeon Shooting, Cricket, Football, Golf, Hockey, Indoor Games, Rifle Shooting, Swimming and Tennis. Many of these activities began before 1939 and had to be suspended for the duration of World War II. The Physical Culture section developed into the extensive facilities enjoyed today at Stocksbridge Leisure Centre. KEY DATES FOR REFERENCE 1802 Sale of Bolstertone Manor – the only property in the catalogue which was identified as being in Stocks Bridge itself was 17 acres, 36 perches, occupied by Matthew Walker and comprising a house, small barn, beasthouse and land. Sheffield Solicitor John Rimington bought the Estate from Lord Melbourne, later Prime Minister, for £35,000. He raised the money by offering their freehold to leaseholders. Many tenants took advantage of this opportunity, but others who could or would not, were evicted. 1805 Opening of the Wadsley and Langsett Turnpike. Previously roads had been maintained by the manual labour of parishioners, who were compelled by law to spend a certain number of days a year in repairing the damage done to dirt tracks by weather and horse transport. Now money was invested in Turnpike Trusts and engineers employed. The toll-bars at Deepcar exacted dues from all traffic passing along the Sheffield and Wortley roads. 1812 The wooden footbridge at Stocks Bridge was replaced by a stone carriage bridge, so vehicles no longer needed to ford the river. 1817 A Terrier (a list of Church properties) includes “a half acre at Stocks Bridge, bounded on the west and north by a small river, on the east and south by the farm of Jonathan Hawke”. 1827 The Independent Ebenezer Chapel was built almost on the very edge of Bolsterstone Parish, in the hamlet of Stocks Bridge. 1837 Civil Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths was made compulsory. Certificates now show these as having taken place in Wortley Registration District. 1838 Trade Directory: Jonathon Hawke, Shoemaker, Stocksbridge Willie Jubb, Victualler, Coach and Horses, Stocksbridge John Webster, Colliery Owner and Coke Burner, Stocksbridge 1841 Census: Of the 871 population of Bolsterstone Chapelry in Bradfield Parish, 34 lived in 5 households in Stocks Bridge. William Jubb was now described as a farmer, John Webster as a coalmerchant, Jonathan Hawke still as a shoemaker. There were also Edward Askew, blacksmith and a household of five single men and a boy in what seemed to be a boarding house. 1842 Samuel Fox came, reputedly on foot, from Bradwell in Derbyshire, seeking premises to rent for the wire-drawing business. 1848 A Local Board of Health was appointed to implement the requirements of the 1842 Health of Towns report. Samuel Fax began production of steel umbrella frames, providing work for hundreds, particularly women. Children were also allowed to work half-time. 1851 Census: The population of the area had grown to 987 in 199 households, of whom 36 lived in the 7 homes labelled Stocks Bridge. The Askew and Hawke families and widow Ann Webster were now joined by George Batty, carpenter, a widowed shopkeeper Hannah Broadhead, two brothers and sister named Helliwell, who we know occupied the cottage and workshop at the bottom of Nanny Hill and the house of Independent Minister George Spencer. Only 16 of them were born locally, including 75 year old Jonathan Hawke, still described as a shoemaker. Samuel Fox, his wife Maria, their son William Henry, their nephew William, two lodgers and a servant were living near the mill on the Hunshelf side of the river, so in Penistone Parish. Mr. Fox was described as a Wire Manufacturer. 1851 The only Ecclesiastical Census showed the comparative attendance at the Parish Church of St. Mary, Bolsterstone, and the Congregational Independent Chapel, Stocks Bridge. 1852 The Paragon Umbrella frame was patented. 1855 Samuel Fox took advantage of fashion and began production of crinoline wire. 1856 The Fox household moved to take up residence in Townend House, Deepcar. A Parochial Valuation of the Township of Hunshelf described the extent and value of his property as being in Stocksbridge. The first houses were built on Hunshelf Bank to accommodate his workers, known as Brick Lump. Deepcar National School was opened. 1858 Stocksbridge Hall was built, on Horner House land, although that district and the whole of the western part of Bolsterstone Parish was still identified as the District of Green, after Green Farm at its centre. 1859 St. Ann’s Catholic Church was built in Deepcar. 1860 Samuel Fox had established a works at Amiens, France, to manufacture umbrella frames. Census returns show that several children were born there, and in Boulogne. The plant was finally wound up in 1914. 1861 Census: Population 1,628. Of the properties named as Stocksbridge, the New Inn, described as a beerhouse, had been built and the Henholmes Farm was included. Joseph Hinchliffe, farmer and carter, Charles Illingworth, farmer and coke-burner, Joseph Kenworthy, farmer and mason - examples of the dual occupations which were typical of the current economy. On the day of the Census, Maria Fox, Manufacturer’s wife, was Head of the Household at Townend. 1862 Saw the formation of the Stocksbridge Band of Hope, the Industrial Co-operative Society, which first met at the Friendship Inn, but was later to give rise to the Stocksbridge Temperance Society. 1863 The Congregational Chapel was built. It was first known as the Salem Chapel. 1867 Samuel Fox built the Works School, sometimes known as the Red School, then as Bramley’s, after a head teacher of that name, and finally as the Co-op School. 1868 The Wesleyan Chapel opened at Old Haywoods, Deepcar. 1869 Stocksbridge National School was built at the bottom of Nanny Hill. It was used as Church and School until St. Matthias was built in 1890. From 1920 it was known as a Church of England School. 1870 Deepcar St. John’s Church was built, daughter Church to St.Mary’s, Bolsterstone. 1871 Census: The population of Stocksbridge Sanitary District, which now included parts of Hunshelf, was 3,725. On the day of the Census, Samuel Fox, Steel Manufacturer, was alone at Townend with a visiting niece and two servants. Stocksbridge inhabitants included Harriet Batty, Innkeeper (Friendship Inn), Joe Hepworth, Stationer and the Rev. Henry Robertshaw, Independent Minister. 1872 Stocksbridge Sunday School Union was formed. From this date combined Whitsuntide Processions were held. 1873 The Stocksbridge Local Board was elected to administer the new Sanitary District of Stocksbridge and issued Byelaws to regulate the use of the new water supply. Samuel Fox had campaigned for this change because of the Industrial Rate which he had to pay to Penistone Parish, while Bolsterstone Parish had the expense of maintaining access roads to the Works. Of the 11 members elected, 6 were farmers, proving that Agriculture was still of great importance, while 2 were the principal manufacturers Fox and Armitage. 1876 The Ebenezer Chapel came into use as a day as well as a Sunday School and the manse became the schoolhouse. 1877 A rail link with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway enabled Samuel Fox to transport his products directly, avoiding the road tolls which he had had to pay at Deepcar. The Stocksbridge Railway Co. was formed. Until 1931, when bus services were provided, employees and Penistone Grammer Scholars were allowed to use the line, at their own risk, from the station near Smithy Hill. The terminus at Horner House was later to be used for supplying materials for the construction of Langsett and Underbank Reserviors. 1881 Census: The population of S.U.S.D. was 4,660; of the area covered by the 1851 Census 3,737. An estimate of the native population, less than one-sixth of the 36 in Stocks Bridge in 1851, only 4 survivors. Dr. Herbert Ward was our first resident doctor, at Stocksbridge Hall. Samuel Fox, Steel and Umbrella Manufacturer, was Head of a household of six servants. Maria and William Henry now lived in Oxfordshire. 1887 Samuel Fox died and was buried at his home North Cliffe in Market Weighton. He left a considerable personal fortune, having already established a Benefit Fund for employees, and had housed his workforce on Hunshelf Bank in Gentleman’s Row. Derbyshire Row, Goit Terrace and Ford Lane; and at Horner House on Bessemer Terrace, Springmill Terrace, Pearson Street and Langsett Terrace. 1890 St. Matthias’ Church was built as a memorial to Samuel Fox. 1891 Census: The population of Stocksbridge, Deepcar and Bolsterstone had risen to 5,677. 1895 The creation of Stocksbridge Urban District Council. Its boundary now the top of Hunshelf Bank and its population thereby increased by 1,100. 1896 The sale of Stocksbridge Water Rights to Sheffield Corporation. 1897 Underbank Reservoir was begun, completed 1907. Samuel Fox had always opposed the damming of the river since the disaster at Dale Dyke in 1864. 1901 Census: Population calculated at 6,566. 1902 The Stocksbridge Works Institute, later known as the Miners’ Welfare, was founded as a reading room, with baths and billiards. 1903 Tom Batty built a new façade on the Friendship Inn. 1907 Wood Willows built by S. Fox & Co for its workers; George Thickett, foreman, being housed in the villa opposite. 1912 The Works canteen was built, which would later become the Victory Club. 1913 The Workers’ Educational Association established classes for adults. 1917 Stocksbridge Parish Church acquired its first Vicar and the first wedding took place there. 1918 Samuel Fox & co Ltd became part of the United Steel Companies Ltd The end of the Great War enabled building to recommence. Garden City was completed with a fruit tree in every garden from the former Fruit Farm. 1921 A national coal strike put 3,000 local miners out of work for 6 months. The Palace Cinema took the place of the Electric Theatre on Edward Street. 1923 The Urban District Council took over responsibility for Stocksbridge Fire Brigade, previously manned and run by volunteers. The Clock Tower Memorial was built to the 107 young people, a nurse, sailors and soldiers, who died 1914-18. 1924 The first estate of 94 council houses was built at Shay House. 1925 Steel houses were built at Deepcar at a cost of £400. 1928 A Town hall was built to replace the old Council offices. 1929 The Council School was built – called the New School – in Shay House Lane and the Works’ and the British Schools were closed. It comprised Infant, Junior and Senior departments. 1931 Stocksbridge Co-operative Society opened its Model Dairy in Shay House Lane, pasteurising and bottling milk from local farms 1933 The first 20 houses were built at The Royd. 1937 Work began on the 180 houses of Glebelands Council estate. 1939 The outbreak of World War II for many meant garaging the family car and taking a munitions job to avoid Military Service. 1940 The Sheffield Blitz on the night of 12/13th December, viewed from the safe distance of Stocksbridge was like Bonfire Night. All told, only 6 bombs are believed to have dropped in this valley, which seemed to be at the end of the bombing run, and these may have been jettisoned rather than deliberately aimed at the Works. 1943 The Day Continuation scheme was inaugurated for all boys employed by Stocksbridge Works, aged 14-16, to attend one full day a week without loss of wages. 1944 The Cemetery was opened on Bocking Hill. 1945 Spink Hall estate of 80 houses was begun – foundations dug by German P.O.W.’s. Another 51 names were added to the War Memorial. The Roll of Honour in Fox’s Works commemorates 39 former employees. 1946 Dr. W. M. Robertshaw’s Annual Report for the Ministry of Health revealed that S.Fox & Co now employed more people than the entire population of 50 years previous, comparative population figures being 6,021 in 1893 to 9,795 in 1946. Prefabricated bungalows were built by the Ministry of Works in Pot House Lane and at Wilson Road, Deepcar. 1947 October 18th. A coach carrying members of the Bolsterstone Male Voice Choir to Holmfirth crashed with the loss of 9 lives and many injuries. 1950 Stubbin Estate added 388 to the Council housing stock. 1953 A Ministry of Health report assessed the population of Stocksbridge as 10,220 – an increase of 100 in 12 months. 1955 An Infant School was built at Pot House. 1960 East Whitwell, an estate of 400 houses, completed our council house building. 1963 The new Junior School opened in Cedar Road and the Shay House site became a Secondary Modern. 1965 Stocksbridge Rugby Union Club was formed. 1966 Stocksbridge College in Hole House Lane, was opened by Prime Minister Harold Wilson. 1967 With the nationalisation of steelworks, S. Fox & Co became part of the British Steel Corporation. 1968 The Central Library was built, replacing demolished housing on Button Row. 1970 Stocksbridge Swimming Pool was built in Oxley Park, largely due to the efforts of local people and the Urban District Council. 1973 The Sports Centre building was added by the Urban District Council. St. Ann’s Roman Catholic School opened in McIntyre Road. 1974 Abolition of the West Riding and creation of South Yorkshire, but Stocksbridge Urban District and the Civil Parish of Bradfield were now included in Sheffield Metropolitan District. The Urban District Council became Stocksbridge Town Council. 1985 The Assembly of the Pentecostal Church moved from its temporary home in Deepcar Community Hall to the top floor of the Stocksbridge Co-op building. 1986 BSC Stocksbridge Works became part of United Engineering Steels. 1988 Stocksbridge College became the Stocksbridge site of Loxley College. Stocksbridge Rugby Union Football Club bought the old chapel on Manchester Road and converted it into a licensed clubhouse. Stocksbridge By-Pass was opened. 1991 Population 13,619. The number employed in the steelworks had dropped from 6,500 at is peak, with 85% of our population dependent on it, to 1,400. 1995 British Steel acquired all assets of United Engineering Steels, the Company now trading as British Steel Engineering Steels. 1997 The Steel Valley Partnership grew out of the Steel Valley Forum, its purpose to formulate a bid for funding from the Single Regeneration Budget. 1998 The College was closed and demolished. The former Co-operative building on Manchester Road was converted for use by Sheffield College and W.E.A. classes, with a crèche. 1999 Stocksbridge Works now has three separate sites under different ownership: Bridon Wire at Sheephouse, Corus Alloys and Special Steels and Avesta-Polarit Stainless. 2000 We celebrated the new millennium with fireworks. At least one old lady thought war had broken out. 2001 Stocksbridge Training and Enterprise Partnership installed at the refurbished Community Centre with workshop and office space at Deepcar. Steel Valley Forum meets regularly to voice the concerns of the community and act as liaison between us and the executive of the S.R.B. board. 2002 The new Co-op opened in September. The Miners’ Welfare building, now Stocksbridge Training and Enterprise, celebrated its centenary. May 2nd – The funeral of Fr. J. P. Callanan was held at St. Matthias – the only time the traffic in Stocksbridge has ever been completely held up. 2003 Corus announced proposals to transfer steel melting processes from Stocksbridge Works to Rotherham Works, entailing the closure of the Melting Shop and the Hot Rolling Mill, with the loss of 350 jobs. Many thanks to Brenda Duffield of the Stocksbridge History Society for this information.
  11. Sheffield History

    Notable Sheffield Dates

    SHEFFIELD DATES OF INTEREST 1865. February 4th. - Garotters in Broomhall Park; one sentenced to penal servitude for life, a second for fifteen years, the third for five years. March. Last meeting of Inundation Commissioners, £455,164 claimed, £276,821 awarded by Commissioners. October - Visit of the Social Science Congress to Sheffield, Lord Brougham, 86 years old, presiding. Papers by Sir H. Phillimore on "Jurisprudence," Dr. J. C. Hall, John Wilson, Wm. Dronfield, Tom Hughes, Q.C., M.P. (author of Tom Brown's School Days), Professor Lankester, Professor Fawcett (the blind Postmaster General), Alderman Sanders, Mr. R. E. Leader, Mr. Gainsford on "A Sheffield Assize," Mr. Samuel Plimsoll, Mr. Ibbotson on "Benefit Building Societies," Mr. Frank Wever on "The Sheffield Savings Bank," Mr. S. B. Auty on "Building Societies," and a conference held during the visit between Professor Fawcett and the file smiths, the visitor seeking information respecting a possible introduction of machinery into their trade. So admirably managed was the visit that when everything had been paid there remained a surplus of £192. 1868. First year collections for medical charities, £1,169 16 10. 1870. Opening of New Midland Station. 1873. March 20. - Sheffield Water Bill passes House of Commons. Death of Miss Harrison, Weston: charities, £65,000. Town Trustees offer £50,000 towards street improvements. December - Fall of shop property, Fargate: Askham's and Proctor's premises. 1874. Sheffield Guardians buy Fir Vale House for new headquarters. 1875. Midland trains Sheffield to London do the journey in 3 hours 36 minutes. Prince and Princess of Wales open Firth Park. 1876. First cab shelter:- Glossop Road. Largest armour plate so far rolled--Cammell's, for the Italian Government, size 18 ft. by 5 ft., 22 inches thick, weighing 35 tons. Opening of skating rink in Glossop Road. Tramways Co. suggests traction engines, not horses, for the cars. Opening of Children's Hospital, Brook Hill. 1877. Increase in population in 16 years, 96,958: total population of Sheffield at the time, 282,130. Sheffield's increase is larger than that of any other provincial town. Sheffield's first cocoa house opened at Highfields. Foundation stone laid of new asylum at Dore. Purchase of 50 acres of land authorized from Duke of Norfolk, for new cemetery. Cost of land, £13,625, total cost estimated at £27,000. Decision to found a truant school at Hollow Meadows. 1878. Fulwood Road formally opened. A terrible year in local trade. No dividends from Brown Bayley's, Dixon's, John Round & Son, Hawksworth & Co., Midland Iron Co., Sheffield Forge & Rolling Mills, W. Cooke & Co., Yorkshire Engine Works, Sheffield Patent Brick Co. 1879. Mr. William Bragge's priceless library and collection of paintings destroyed in the fire at Birmingham Free Library. The Blind Institution at Broomhill opened. The Firth College, costing £20,000, opened by Prince Leopold. November - The last meeting of the old School Board. The Wostenholm Memorial Hall opened by Archbishop of York. 1880. Norfolk Drill Hall opened with a Ball. Coming of age of the Volunteer movement. Sheffield Amateur Parliament first meeting. Speaker, Rev. A.G.Tweedie; Clerk, Mr. Wm. McBrair; Prime Minister, Mr. Robt. Eadon Leader; Leader of the Opposition, Mr. A. Muir Wilson. In the week ending October 2nd, 2,716 messages put through on local exchange. Rainfall in October, 3.59 inches within two days. First Quarter Sessions in Sheffield. 1881. Local Association for preservation of footpaths formed. Electric light at Davy Bros. and Cyclops Works and Hoveys. December - Corn Exchange opened. 1882. First meeting of Sheffield Burial Board. May - Sheffield Water Works Co. formulate scale for private baths. The Alhambra, Union Street, burned down. 1883. Victoria Gardens, Totley, opened by Mr. Josh. Mountain. Mr. W. J. Clegg appointed first Official Receiver in Sheffield. Important meeting in connexion with Technical Education in Sheffield at the Albert Hall. 1884. Right-of-way action in Ryecroft Glen. Duke of Norfolk offers £3,000 towards Technical Education in Sheffield. October 31 - Hunter's Bar removed. December - Under the Redistribution Bill Sheffield has five Members of Parliament. 1885. First meeting of Sheffield Reform Club, privately opened August 14th. Wm. Cooke & Co.'s workmen give a week's work in relief of the bad trade. Council purchases Endcliffe Woods as public park. Council institutes cycling by-laws. Lawn Tennis tournament on Bramall Lane ground. Messrs. Flockton & Gibbs' plans for Mappin Art Gallery approved. September - "The Mikado" first performed in Sheffield. Red Indian Missionaries in Sheffield. 1886. New Sewage works opened. Formal opening of Technical School. Trade Union Council discusses the question of Labour Members of Parliament for Sheffield. 1887. Vickers' capital increased from £250,000 to £1,500,000. June 20 and 21. Queen's Jubilee celebrated in Sheffield. September - Hexthorpe railway accident. Small Pox scourge in the town, in December, 800 to 1,000 cases known. 1888. Lead Poisoning in Redmires water. Sheffield Water Co. formally handed over to the Corporation. January - Excursions and many other trains stopped on local railways through the small pox. The Archbishop of York issues a form of prayer during the epidemic. February - Lodge Moor Hospital completed with 120 beds. In the same month, the Council discusses lead poisoning and scarcity of water. On July 8th, 1888, it is reported that not since the previous July until that date have any cases of small pox been reported. Hammer and Pincers public house, Fulwood, opened as temperance inn. August - Sheffield's first cycling tournament at Bramall Lane. Mr. Asquith addresses the Hallam Women's Association. Mr. G. A. Sala opens the Sheffield Press Club. 1889. Company formed by Mr. Emerson Bainbridge and others to buy a site in Fargate for the Y.M.C.A. Visit to Sheffield of the Shah of Persia, and Guardians' protest at not being invited to the function. September - Proposed Amalgamation of Sheffield and Ecclesall Unions. 1890. July 4. Haigh's buses run for the last time to Broomhill. 1891. First suggestion of a Sheffield Bishopric. Lord Salisbury ignores it. Influenza epidemic in Sheffield, April-May: e.g., week ending April 11th, 1 death; April 18th, 7 deaths; April 25th, 55 deaths; May 2nd, 112 deaths; May 9th, 100 deaths; May 16th, 54 deaths; May 23rd, 20 deaths; May 30th, 14 deaths; June 6th, 4 deaths. 1892. Messrs. Walker & Hall install an old age pension movement for their staff. February 10. Council Chamber lit by electric light. 1893. Town Trustees decline to give land in Church Street for Jubilee Library. The South Yorkshire Building Society's affairs out of the hands of the Liquidator in July, after seven years investigations, the expenses being £24,841, and the amount paid to creditors £92,981. Mr. E. S. Foster was liquidator, and his work was very favourably commented upon at the time. The coal strike in Sheffield in 1892, lasting a week, estimated to have cost the Midland Co. £456,924, the M. S. & L. £130,408, and the Great Northern £166,248. The M. S. & L. compelled to withdraw its service between Sheffield and Leeds through lack of coal, and the Sheffield Independent publishes a list of pits remaining idle after the strike had been called off, where, previously, 211,000 men had been employed. The Sheffield Gas Co. estimates its losses at £27,000, and raises the charges to the consumers by threepence per 1,000 feet. The M. S. & L. Co. reports that as a result of the strike it is impossible to pay a dividend on ordinary stock or on ten million pounds worth of preference stock. 1894. February 28th. - The death of Madame Patey occurs immediately after the gifted songstress had sung "Three Fishers went Sailing," at a concert at the Albert Hall. The M. S. & L. Railway decides to go forward with the scheme to London. May 23rd. - A course of eighteen holes is laid out at Lindrick for use by members of the Sheffield and District Golf Club. May 29th. - Coal is won in the new pit at Hickleton Main at a depth of 542 yards. First annual meeting of the Sheffield Social Questions League. In its abbreviated form the Social Questions League became rather notorious in the city. Lord Rosebery visits the Atlas Works and those of Walker & Hall. 1895. Sheffield's Cottage Homes opened by Sir Walter Foster. June - The family of the Leaders cease having an interest in the Sheffield Independent. In a survey of the year 1895, it is reported that the only armour plate orders received during the year were confined to Brown's, Cammell's and Vickers'. In 1894-5, 23,000 tons of armour plate had been ordered from those companies by Government, and it was difficult to estimate how valuable the Harvey process was to Sheffield. In the first six months of 1895 there is severe depression, the effects of the coal war, 1893, still being very severely felt. In the latter part of the year there comes the rebound and from all parts of the world constant demand for everything that Sheffield can supply. 1896. February - Umpire in compensation case in connexion with the re-building of High Street, gives Messrs. John Walsh Ltd. £28,844, against the sum of £66,248 asked for. May - W. Cooke & Co. Ltd., Tinsley Steel and Wire Works, declares a dividend for the first time in 21 years. City Council decides, with three dissentient votes, to purchase Whiteley Woods for £6,000 as a public resort. The Sheffield Tramways system formally handed over to the Corporation at midnight, July 10th. On November 14th the restrictions on speed of automobiles removed. December 3rd. - The City Theatre is known as the Lyceum Theatre. 1897. February - The old Tramways Co. wound up, shareholders receiving £5 15s. 6d. per £10 share. March 25th. - Corporation refuse destructor first used, cost £21,000. May - Duke of Norfolk sells 3,672 acres grouse moor and farms for £63,000. May - Duke of Norfolk gives Roe Park, 20 acres, to Sheffield for ever. Queen Victoria in Sheffield. Opening of Town Hall. Contents of the Conservatories at the Botanical Gardens sold by public auction. August - Harveyed plates pierced by Hadfields shells, with a velocity of 1,940 ft. per second, the plates being eight feet square by six inches thick. August - Electric light is installed in the Sheffield Parish Church. October - Cammell's capital increased from £1,050,000 to £1,750,000. 1898. January - Scheme for a Sheffield Bishopric approved by the Privy Council, with a house and an income of £3,000, not £2,000 as originally proposed. February - Terms arranged for purchase by Corporation of electric light undertaking. Rebuilding of Sheffield Midland Station decided on, to cost £215,888. April - Opening of the Howard Gallery in Chapel Walk. April - The Duke of Norfolk sells The Farm to the Midland Railway Co. May - The City Council seeks powers whereby the city boundaries be extended by 3,615 acres. May - Poll for purchase of the electric light undertaking; votes for, 28,130; against, 1,965 1898. June - The Sheffield Bishopric scheme abandoned, the Archbishop of York explaining that it would not be desirable to proceed for some years to come. July 9th. - The City Accountant produces figures showing that the precise cost of the New Town Hall buildings was £182,128 15 5. The Great Central main line to London is opened for coal traffic on July 25th. October 1st. Farewell dinner of the Botanical Gardens Committee at the Masonic Hall. The Upperthorpe and Steel Bank and Walkley Omnibus Co. wound up as a direct result of the competition with the trams. The Council decides to purchase the Market rights from the Duke of Norfolk for £530,000. November 7th. - The first actual extension of the tramways service between the Parish Church and Harcourt Road. December - Electric light undertaking wound up and handed over to the city, each shareholder receiving £213 8 0. for every £100 of stock in the Company, and the undertaking transferred to the Corporation on December 31st. - This year saw a very marked advance in house building in the city. The birth rate was 33.85, and the death rate 20.24. Extension of the suburbs in 1898 was most marked at Hunter's Bar, Fir Vale, Abbeydale and Darnall, for, "as the trams go out, the houses go up." 1899. August 7th. - Deaths in one week 258, or 17.5 per 1,000 of the population. August - The City Council authorized to purchase the Bole Hills. September - Open air treatment for consumptives introduced in Sheffield. October - First Annual Dinner of the Sheffield University College. The year's review declares that the new Corporation Bill had done wonders for Sheffield. Land for buildings had been obtained from Mr. J. D. Leader's estate at Walkley, the Tramways Committee lent £5,000 towards building of 20 cottages in Hands Lane, and the Bill was bringing in a greater Sheffield, drawing within the civic net outlying districts such as Norton, Beauchief, Meersbrook, Abbeydale, Hillsbro', Wincobank, part of Tinsley and Catcliffe. In the Sheffield Telegraph there appeared at that time the following: "Cottage houses are rising like exhalations all around; the trams are proving the great building agent, and what were not so long ago wind-swept fields are now beehive colonies. In Crookes, houses are arising as though by a magician's wand." 1900. Wincobank Hall is taken over by the Salvation Army as a centre for rescue work. The local Trade Review at the end of 1900 declares that "the coal trade has enjoyed a period of great prosperity at the expense of the general trade of the country." 1901. February - The statue to the Duke of Norfolk is erected, costing £1,589. The Sheffield Telegraph Local Reservists' Fund closes at £5,860. British Christian Endeavour Mission in Sheffield, with 5,000 delegates. September - Amalgamation of Queen Street and Garden Street Congregational Chapels. November - Total population of Sheffield under Corporation Bill increased to 408,994. November - First proposal to move the University College to St. George's Square. 1902. January - Col. J. E. Bingham advocates through the Press an amalgamation of employers to fight the Trade Unions, and so get fair terms, and offers £10,000 towards such a combination. January - Vickers Ltd. acquire a half share in William Beardmore Ltd., Glasgow. January - E. H. Lemare's farewell to Sheffield, an organ recital on the Albert Hall organ. Grants by the Technical Instruction Committee: £10,210, as against £9,506. The Vickers-Beardmore combine approved by shareholders in increase of capital to £5,200,000 by creation of 400,000 new ordinary shares. February - Sheffield electric system increased from single to double phase alternators to make the supply more readily applicable to power purposes. The memorial to Queen Victoria placed in Barker's Pool, Mr. Alfred Turner being the architect. Vickers' profit for the year, £501,292. March. The Town Trustees give £9,000 towards the funds of the Victoria College. Peace proclaimed at Pretoria, ending the Boer War. Great public rejoicing. June - Census figures for Sheffield show 205,233 males and 203,837 females. August - Coronation of King Edward VII and public rejoicings in Sheffield. September - Viscount Kitchener in Sheffield. November - Coronation festivities in Sheffield cost £4,711. 1903. Dispute at Denaby; 500 evictions; good order preserved; chapels used for sleeping purposes; outside men brought in and ensuing scenes. Endowment of the Sheffield University. The Duke of Norfolk; £8,000, Sir Hy. Stephenson £5,000, Sir Frederick Thorpe Mappin £5,000, and on December 5th total gifts amount to £50,079. The Great Central runs a train between Sheffield and London, doing the journey in three hours exactly, 164 miles. 1904. The new Motor Car Act in force in Sheffield. Grant of £16,000 from the Wesleyan Million Fund to Sheffield, plus £4,000 to the New Central Mission. March - The Privy Council declares its willingness to approve a University for Sheffield if convinced that the financial status be sound. April - Zone tickets come into being round Sheffield. Profit on the trams for the year stated to be: gross £79,578, nett £27,309, accumulated surplus £143,369, deducting grants in relief of rates and renewals. August - The Monolith removed to Endcliffe Woods. August 14th. - World's record established on the Broomhead Moors for nine guns- 2,743 grouse. The valves closed at the Langsett Reservoir, which had taken seven years to build, with a capacity of 1,400,000,000 gallons. The ceremony conducted by Ald. T. R. Gainsford. October 26. Sir Robert Hadfield President of the Iron and Steel Institute. Opening of the lift from the Wicker to the Victoria Station approach. 1905. February - Mr. Samuel Roberts seconds the Address in the Commons. Passive resisters in Sheffield, and 141 have orders made against them by the Sheffield and Ecclesall Unions for non-payment of rates. The gold medal of the Iron and Steel Institute awarded to Prof. J. O. Amold. Sheffield Crematorium opened. The financial status of the Sheffield University assured with all the large works contributing sums from £1,000 to £2,000. Princess Battenberg in Sheffield to unveil Queen Victoria's monument. July - Wedding in Fulwood Chapel, the first for 25 years. The Sheffield Education Committee purchases the University buildings in Bow Street for £32,183, with a proviso that of that amount; £16,699 shall be spent on the adaptation of Wesley College to modern requirements. King and Queen in Sheffield: Opening the Sheffield University Buildings. Fourteen of the Village Homes at Fulwood belonging to ihe Ecclesall Guardians brought into use, 108 children from the workhouse being taken there. Opening of the first session of the Sheffield University. The final statement respecting the Queen Victoria memorial published, showing receipts £3,570 with £3,000 paid to the architect, Mr. Alfred Turner, the balance being given to Queen Victoria Nurses Association. November - Annual meeting of Governors of Sheffield University, showing that the new buildings at Western Bank, with land and furniture, cost £98,000; the new Technical School, St. George's Square, £13,300, the total cost being £138,500. Total endowment shown as £124,570. The Sheffield Education Committee completes its scheme of scholarships and bursaries, making an educational ladder from the elementary schools to the University. What is described as the largest casting ever made is the work of the Brightside Engineering Company for Cammell & Co., weighing 84 tons. The Trade Review, December 31st, 1905, declares that the year had been in striking contrast to 1904. Instead of constant depression, there had been a well marked and continuous upward tendency, broadening especially in June and onwards. Less had been heard from the unemployed in 1905 that in any other great industrial centre. 1906. January - Mr. Asquith's meeting at Norfolk Drill Hall wrecked by Suffragettes. Meetings of Iron and Steel Institute in Sheffield. Subscriptions towards the visit £3,667. May - First Empire Day display at Bramall Lane under Mr. Batey's control; 40,000 people witness the spectacle, with 10,000 children taking part. Work commenced by the staff at the Sheffield Training College on September 11th. The College was opened on October 8th by the Right Hon. A. H. D. Acland. September 18th. - The opening of Firth College as Central Secondary School. Opening of the re-formed Wesley College as King Edward's School on September 19th. by Mr. Augustine Birrell. Record for Sheffield's trams: year ending September 25th, £70,295. Mr. S. Meggitt Johnson gives £5,000 towards a country annexe to the Hospital. November - Princess Christian opens Bazaar in Cutlers' Hall. November 8th. - The honour of knighthood conferred on Mr. W. E. Clegg. T The first subscription towards Sheffield's Bishopric comes anonymously from Bristol, a sum of £1,000. November - Town Trustees give £1,000 per annum for three years to the Sheffield Infirmary, £1,500 to the University movement, and £500 to the Engineers towards a new headquarters. November 19th. - Members of the Sheffield Musical Union go to London, and in Queen's Hall sing Bach's "Sing ye to the Lord." Her Majesty the Queen and other Royalties present. The Kind-hearted Brigade, instituted in Sheffield by Miss Lillie Harris, Lady Editor of the Sheffield Telegraph, holds exhibition of dolls at the Cutlers' Hall; a large subscription list results in dolls and toys being given to 10,000 poor children who then attended. Messrs. Osborn close the public grinding wheel, The Tower, because there is little demand for hulls; this step marks the gradual disappearance of "the little mester" from Sheffield industry. Trade throughout the year boomed; local firms working at full pressure. 1907. January - Inaugural meeting of the Guild of Help in Sheffield. January - Sir Henry Holdroyd opens the new Technical school. January - Sheffield Shakespeare Society formed. Mr. Haldane again visits Sheffield, inspecting the Technical school and the great East End works of Vickers and Jessops. February 9th. - Last issue of the Sheffield Argus, the first issue of which was on sale on October 6th. of the previous year. The Sheffield Press Club closed after thirty years history; noted for its annual dinners with famous guests, and more for its unique late suppers at which practically every notable actor was a guest during his visits to Sheffield. March - Baslow Hydro sold to R. H. Mabbott, of Blackpool, for £11,000. Col. Hughes resigns the position of Secretary to the Chamber of Commerce after holding it for twenty years. May - The Town Trustees give £3,000 towards re-building of the Sheffield Royal Hospital. The first municipal bowling green opened in Sheffield at Meersbrook. June - "Tarspra" first put on Sheffield roads largely through the advocacy of Mr. C. D. Leng. June - Japanese Admirals visit Sheffield works. July - Literary and Philosophical Society in its new home, Church Street. July - Mr. G. S. Baxter succeeds Mr. J. F. Moss as Secretary to the Education Committee. July 27th. - Trial trip of the Lusitania, the largest vessel in the world, from the yards at Clydebank of John Brown & Co., a vessel destined to be torpedoed during the war. August - Opening of the Crofts Vacation School. The Sheffield Guardians declare a profit of £316 on their farm. Staff difficulties arise in the Town Hall on the resignation of Mr. H. C. Sayer, Town Clerk, and of Mr. W. E. Hart, Deputy Town Clerk. It is decided to appoint a new Town Clerk at a salary of £1,250 per annum, with Mr. Sayer consultant for a definite period, the salaries of the department being reduced from £2,600 to £2,250. The Town Clerkship thereupon offered to Mr. Hart, who declines it in August. Motor charabanc smash at Moscar Top; four of the 29 passengers killed by the vehicle colliding with a telegraph pole. September 1st. - The new Rivelin road opened to the public. September 14th. - First issue of the Sheffield Football and Sports special. The Town Trustees give £2,500 to the Technical School for high speed tool testing plant. September - W. Nicholson, Head Smoke Inspector of Sheffield, at a Sanitary Inspectors' Conference in Llandudno, produces figures showing that Sheffield has more bright sunshine than most of the large towns. Sir James Crichton Brown thereupon asks for a definition of "Sheffield sunshine," and is supplied with the methods of recording sunshine in Sheffield and their reliability. Southbourne bought as hall of residence for men students at the Training College, the total cost being £10,000, of which £6,275 is paid by the Board of Education. September - A new tramways record, £73,514. September - Mr. J. H. Yoxall meets 108 new teachers at the Mappin Art Gallery. Mr. Samuel Roberts lectures in Sheffield on the Dangers of Socialism. Mr. H. J. Wilson replies by asking for tolerance in the matter. October - The original home of Ruskin's treasures at Walkley sold for £800. The first movement towards Town Planning occurs through a meeting in the Town Hall of fifty authorities on the subject. November - Cammell Laird get into difficulties with the Government, involving resignations. During this year very great activity occurs in iron and steel over most of the year until October, when there comes a general easing off in orders. In the lighter and the artistic trades depression occurs chiefly in cutlery and silver plating. 1908. January - Mr. George Hall's will originally contained a bequest of £50,000 on trust to be applied as his brother might direct to the foundation of a Clara Hall bequest, the income of which should go to deserving spinsters within a radius of eight miles of Sheffield, but this was revoked by a codicil on the day of testator's death. January - The first "motor cab" seen on Sheffield's streets. January - The last parade of the Hallamshire Rifles as such, Col. Hughes in an inspiring speech asking all present to join the Territorials. Mr. Robert Holmes appointed the first Sheffield officer under the Probation of Offenders Act. General Sir John French chief guest at the dinner of the Chamber of Commerce. February - The old Shrewsbury Hotel, Paradise Square, turned into a Girls' Friendly Institution. March - The coming of age of the Sharrow Cycling Club. April - It is reported that many Congregational churches are in want of pastors, notably Baldwin Street (Attercliffe), Fulwood, Mount Zion, Tapton Hill, and Wicker. Cammell Laird Ltd.'s disastrous year-- no dividends in final six months. April - Mr. Amold Muir Wilson returns from a trip round the world. Sheffield Trades Council welcomes the Old Age Pensions Act. Opening of the Annexe to the Royal Hospital at Fulwood through the generosity of Mr. S. Meggitt Johnson, who gave £5,000 towards this object. A notable campaign in favour of free speech all through the summer; many prosecutions and, in every case, fines imposed. June - The Sheffield Bishopric Fund amounts to £35,000, and it is decided to go to Parliament. Knighthood conferred on Mr. R. A. Hadfield and Colonel Chas. Allen, and at the same time Professor Henry Jackson, a Sheffielder, receives the dignity of the Order of Merit. July 1st. - First Degree Day at Sheffield University. Degrees conferred on the Duke of Norfolk, George Franklin, Colonel Vickers, C. H. Firth, Professor Henry Jackson (Cambridge), Professor Hicks, Dr. Ripper, and Professor Amold. Opening of the Borstal Club, Button Lane, the premises formerly being the Oddfellows' Arms. July - The British Medical Association pays its third visit to Sheffield. The Franco-British Exhibition in London produces extraordinary enterprise by the railways, trips at 5/6 return being run. September - TheVictoria Hall opened. October - Sandwiches provided for the unemployed, and a great Labour demonstration against it. November - Mr. Ramsay MacDonald speaks at Attercliffe at a Labour meeting. November - "Hunger Marchers" put in an appearance in Sheffield. Mr. Bonar Law lectures in the Albert Hall on Tariff Reform. November - 100 skilled Sheffield workmen start from Sheffield on a hunger march through Lancashire and Yorkshire seeking work and collecting. December - It is reported that £80,000 is withdrawn from the banks by works clubs and other workmen's societies. With great distress prevailing in the city, the G.P.O. makes an effort to provide unemployed with work at Christmas, but finds four out of every five useless. 1909. January - It is reported that on the register there are 5,033 unemployed, and that of these 3,049 are married. Temporary work is found for 2,155. Mr. Amold Muir Wilson entertains 2,000 Walkley children in January, and, later in the month, a further 4,000 at Attercliffe. February - The Right Rev. Cosmo Lang becomes Archbishop of York, paying his first visit to Sheffield on February 7th. of the same year. March - Great snowstorm in Sheffield, sixteen inches within thirty hours, total weight estimated at 2,875,000 tons on the 23,000 acres of the city. Sir Robert Hadfield pleads that Sheffield, like Woolwich, is entitled to the irreducible minimum in Government orders. March - Mr. Stuart Wortley introduces Sheffield's Bishopric Bill in the House of Commons. The Children's Act comes into force. April 26th. - The Prince and Princess of Wales open the Edgar Allen Library at the University, and the donor gives £5,000 to the Infirmary and £5,000 to the Royal Hospital. Duke of Norfolk presents Norfolk Park to the city, a gift valued at £60,000. May 21st. - Mr. Asquith, then Prime Minister, speaks in Sheffield with noisy interruptions by the Suffragettes. In May it is reported that during the most severe periods of distress the Lord Mayor's Fund amounted to £6,850, of which £6,500 had been distributed; 7,000 cases had been investigated, and 80,000 tickets of various kinds given out. June - Mr. Joseph Pointer's maiden speech in the Commons very favourably commented on. September - The Rivelin tunnel completed to carry water from the Derwent Valley to the Corporation reservoir at Rivelin. The tunnel is 7,623 yards long, and has taken five years to build, its total cost being £150,000. The two parties of workmen meet in the tunnel on September 20th. September. The river Don diverted, and new housing areas thereby formed. October - Colonel Sir Chas. Allen resigns the colonelcy of the Sheffield Artillery, and is succeeded by Colonel Chas. Clifford. October - Mr. W. F. Wardley, in an outspoken speech, refers to "the vile reptiles who are eating away Sheffield's trade." November - In the last year the Guild of Help had investigated no fewer than 8,700 cases, the first year of its existence. November - It is announced that the University has been enriched by the Hunter bequest of £15,000 for a Chair of Pathology. During this year trade is simply hand to mouth throughout. 1910. January - Record week for the trams, £6,742, as against £6,664 when the King and Queen were in Sheffield in July, 1905. Sheffield Simplex builds its first aeroplanes. March - Mr. A. J. Hobson declares that the new French tariff is ruinous to Sheffield, especially in respect of high speed steel, twist drills and electroplate. Sir George Franklin presented with his portrait, painted by Ouliss. April - Old Colours of the Hallamshire Rifles deposited in the Parish Church. April - Sir Robert and Lady Hadfield visit Japan and are honoured by the Mikado. The meetings of the Iron and Steel Institute are held in Sheffield. Death of King Edward; all places of amusement closed throughout the city, and general mourning. May - The Sheffield Coal Exchange opened. May - Alderman Brittain appointed Town Collector on the death of Sir Frederick Mappin. The Holly Court estate is offered for £40,000, but is sold to Mr. F. A. Kelley for £7,000. July - Prominent men in Sheffield discuss tar macadam. Colonel H. K. Stephenson and Colonel Chas. Clifford purchase the Redmires Racecourse as a training ground for Volunteers. August - Sixty Sheffield labourers leave Sheffield by special train for Southampton, there embarking as firemen on a White Star liner. British Association meetings are held in Sheffield, August 3lst--September 7th. President, Rev. Professor Bonney (Cambridge). A Town Planning Conference takes place at the Sheffield Town Hall. The Trade Union Congress meets in Sheffield, September 12th--17th. Dr. Coward and his Choir go to Germany for a week's concerts. September - Lord Hawke resigns the captaincy of the Yorkshire cricket team. Sir George Franklin opens new sports ground at Norton in connexion with the University, and deals with England's excessive devotion to sport and games; heedless, perhaps, of the Duke of Wellington's dictum that Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. October 18th. - The Poor Children's Holiday Association takes 100 little ones to the seaside and 257 for a country holiday, each child being away for a fortnight. November - Judge Adshead Elliott discusses the decentralizing of towns. November 15th - When the making of aeroplanes becomes an industry in Sheffield, it is recalled that a Sheffielder, Stringfellow, built his monoplane seventy years before. November - Within the same week Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr. A. J. Balfour address great political meetings in Sheffield. December - The Stock Exchange takes over the old G.P.O. as headquarters. In this year trade is fairly good in Government orders, but very poor for railway material. There has been a distinct advance in best crucible steel and special alloy steel. December - Viscount Milton born, the christening taking place at Wentworth Woodhouse on February 11th, the baby being wrapped in the historic veil given by William the Conqueror to the Fitzwilliam family. Seven thousand guests entertained at the christening, and 50,000 people assembled in the park at night to see the fireworks, with an ox roasted on the North Hill. 1911. January 1st. - The centenary of the Upper Chapel celebrated. January 12th. - Mr. J. C. Clegg, as Chairman, presides over the first meeting of the Sheffield Labour Exchange Advisory Committee. On January 20th. it is humorously observed that midnight in Sheffield lasted longer than anywhere else, because of the faulty clocks, there being a difference of eight seconds in the strike in the centre of the city. January 21st. - The Archbishop, speaking in Sheffield, says it is necessary for the Church of England to take off its coat and go into the world in its shirt sleeves. It is becoming too desperately respectable. January - The local Church Extension Scheme produces new churches at New Hall, Darnall, and certain mission churches. January 25th. - The Drapers' Company of London gives £15,000 for a new wing of the Applied Science Department of the University, this largely through the kindly offices of Judge Denman Benson. Sheffield Chamber of Commerce creates a special fund of £10,000 to protect Sheffield's trade name and reputation. February - Removal of the last toll bar in Sheffield, that at Meadow Hall. The Corporation pays £1,400 or 18 years purchase to free the road. The judge of the County Court deals with the failure of a fried fish shop after being transferred from Jew to Gentile. It is suggested the failure had come about through the Jews withdrawing their custom because the cooking utensils had not been blessed by the Rabbi. March - It is suggested that local collieries do as is done in Germany, and make the miners change their clothes before going down so as to make certain no matches are carried into the pits. April - The Duke of Norfolk gives to the city Coppice Wood, Rivelin, for a King Edward VII Cripples' Home, with five acres of land. It is reported in March that Congregationalism in Sheffield included 4,199 members, 728 teachers, 8,022 scholars, an increase on the year of 49 in members and a decrease of 199 in scholars. March - The Sheffield Choir starts on its world's tour. It extended over six months, the tour being organized by Dr. Chas. Harris. 34,000 miles were covered; 134 concerts were given in Canada, Honolulu, the United States, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and South Africa. The audiences had amounted to 860,000, 74 receptions had been attended, and the total cost was £60,000, leaving a deficit of £5,000. When Mr. Joseph Ward became President of the Sheffield Sunday School Union in March, 1911, there were 159 schools, 4,238 teachers, 40,347 scholars. April - Miss Cleghorn becomes the first woman President of the National Union of Teachers. On May 25th the official figures of the census are published showing that Sheffield stands first in population in the municipalities of Yorkshire. The figures are: Sheffield 454,653, Leeds, 445,568; the ratio of increase since the previous census being Sheffield 11.14% and Leeds 3.87%. In May, Sheffield becomes the first municipality to insist on compulsory notification of consumption. The extraordinary summer of 1911 will be well remembered, and June 8th was the last day of three weeks of exceptionally fine and hot weather, the maximum being 80 degrees on that day. Mr. James Dixon's observations respecting drought were published at Fulwood. They recorded that from January to August those observations had shown a rainfall of 13.51 inches as against a 25 years average of 22.08 inches, and in the summer of 1911 the smallest rainfall had been during July, when only 0.21 inches had fallen against the average for the month of 2.81 inches. The Coronation of the King and Queen is celebrated in Sheffield in very loyal fashion. There is a children's pageant at Bramall Lane, where 30,000 people are present to watch myriad evolutions by 15,000 children. The street decorations are regarded as unsurpassed, medals are distributed to the children, and souvenir programmes to 80,000 school children. Other entertainments are given to the aged poor, 17,000 all told; band performances and fireworks in the parks, bonfires at Sky Edge, the Bole Hills, Ringinglowe, and Old Park Wood; and Coronation oaks planted. In the evening a ball is given at the Town Hall, and the passing of the inevitable illuminated car through the streets rounds off a great day. In July, what is spoken of as the largest steel ingot ever rolled, weighing 130 tons, is produced by Cammells Ltd. In July, representatives from Canada, South Africa and Australia visit Sheffield's large works. A visit also paid to Chatsworth. Mr. Edgar Allen's medico-mechanical institution in Gell Street opened for free treatment of the wage-earning classes, Mr. Allen bearing the entire cost of equipment and maintenance for three years. In August an epidemic of diarrhoea in Sheffield extends over seven weeks, the deaths attributed to it being, week ending Aug. 5th, 34; Aug. 12th, 50; Aug. 19th, 68; Aug. 26th, 54; Sept. 2nd, 52; Sept. 9th, 50; Sept. 16th, 29; Sept. 23rd, 34. Payment of £400 per annum to Members of Parliament comes into force on August 14th. The great railway strike of 1911 brings from Mr. Pointer, M.P., the expression that a sympathetic word would have prevented it, but a bullying tone had precipitated it. In September the Charity School removed to its new quarters at Psalter Lane from East Parade. On September 6th T. W. Burgess, of Rotherham, swims the Channel from the South Foreland to Cape Griznez in 22 hrs. 35 min., being second to Captain Webb in this enterprise, Webb's swim taking place in 1875. In October Professor Amold, in one of his notable lectures, speaks of smoke as Sheffield's life blood. The opening of the tower of St. Vincent's Church, White Croft, which was due to the generosity of Mr. Philip K. Wake, takes place on Oct. 29th, the ceremony being conducted by Cardinal Logue, the first Cardinal to visit Sheffield since the days of Wolsey. Sheffield Corporation's Bill is before Parliament in December, 1911, adding a million and a half to the debt, through street improvements, extension of trams, the Ewden reservoirs, the cost of the Rivelin Road, the superannuation of Corporation officials, and pensions for workmen. December 30th. - Mr. John Tudor Walters, M.P. for Brightside, is honoured by a Knighthood. 1912. The trams create a new record in Christmas week, 1911, £7,499 13s. 0d. against £7,214. In January three areas laid out in Sheffield for Town Planning. In February, Vickers complete E2, a first-class submarine for Great Britain. A curious theory expressed by experts when, in February, Sheffield, Derby and Leicester are afflicted by a scourge of typhoid. It is thought it is due to the consumption of mussels, contaminated by sewage, taken from the rivers Exe and Teign. The State Insurance Act involves many Friendly Societies. The Fitzwilliam Friendly Society is wound up in March with 123 members and funds for division amounting to £7,399, or £60 each. The Norton New Sick Society is also wound up, the 40 members sharing acccumulated funds of £2,047, and the Norton Old Friendly Society follows with 72 members and funds amounting to £1,500 for division. Tinsley absorbed by Sheffield on April 1st, adding to the city a rateable value of £35,000 and a population of 5,690. On May 1st the Shops Act and half-day closing comes into force. June 24th. - First meeting of Sheffield Insurance Committee. On July 15th Sheffield has its first real summer's day of the year, and to that point summer had been one of the wettest and coldest ever remembered. H.M.S. Audacious, the first British-built warship for Great Britain, and built by Cammell Laird & Co., launched at Birkenhead. The final service is held in Townhead Street Chapel on Sept. 22nd, after the building had been sold to the Roman Catholics, with which sect the Jews were also bidding. It is explained that the reason for sale was because of a dwindling congregation, and it is stated that the proceeds will be used to assist needy Baptist congregations in the city. In September Sheffield becomes owner of a new park, relatives of Dr. Payne, of Loxley House, giving 70 acres of Wadsley Chase to the city as open space. In October the Town Trustees begin laying out the Machon House estate, Fulwood, as a garden suburb. The year 1912 saw a great boom in the history of all towns identified with the steel and iron industry, and "the bedrock on which it rested unquestionably lay on armament orders, Sheffield's many orders coming from almost every quarter of the world and trade being very good throughout." Mr. Rossiter Hoyle, then Master Cutler, speaks strongly during his year of office of the inclination of young men in the city to accept clerkships as their life-work when the great works are crying out for skilled manipulators in steel. 1913. At the annual meeting of the Sheffield Savings Bank in January, it is stated that the amount due to depositors has been increased during the year by £59,000, and that if the coal strike and the operations of the Insurance Act had not interfered, this sum would have been increased by a further £50,000. January - The first unemployment benefits under the Insurance Act received by 300 Sheffield workmen. The first town-planning area approved by the Council-- that at Ecclesall, Woodseats and Abbeydale. On May 23rd the tablet in memory of the Sheffield soldiers who fell in the Boer War is unveiled. The York Diocesan Conference held in Sheffield for the last time. December - Opening of the Sheffield Diocesan House. December - 100th Concert by Sheffield Amateur Musical Society. Chief performance: "The Dream of Gerontius." December - Estimated cost of education for year ending March, 1915, £412,283, an advance on previous year of £9,832. 1914. January - Medical Officer's report shows that 1913 was a healthy year in Shefheld, the death rate being 15.7 as against the average for previous ten years of 16.6. Only twice had it been lower, 14.2 in 1910, and 14.3 in 1912. February - A 10,500 h.p. turbo-alternator, said to be the largest in this country, started at the Corporation Electricity Station by the Lord Mayor. March 11th. - Fiftieth Anniversary of the Sheffeld Flood. March 21st. - The Rev. Dr. Hedley Burrows, first Bishop of the new Diocese of Sheffield, "accepted and invested" in York Minster by the Arch-bishop of York. March 27th. - Vickers declare a dividend of 12% on the ordinary stock after a record in profits, £911,996, being £32,000 over the previous record in 1906. April 2nd. - All the collieries in Yorkshire close down, it being estimated that 170,000 men are on strike. The ballot of the Yorkshire miners on the question of accepting the proposals submitted by the Conciliation Board especting the Minimum Wage dispute and returning to work at once results in 27,259.for, and 11,393 against; majority for returning to work, 15,866. April - The new Mortuary and Coroner's Court opened. May 1st. - Dr. Hedley Burrows enthroned in Sheffield Cathedral as Sheffield's first Bishop. May 5th. - The Master Cutler presents to the Chamber of Commerce a gold enamelled badge, set with diamonds, to be worn by the President annually elected by the Chamber. The Chinese Ambassador and his wife visit Mr. Arthur Balfour in Sheffield. June - Annual meeting of the Federation of Master Printers and Allied Trades of Great Britain opens its 14th Conference in Sheffield, the delegates being received by the President, Mr. G. E. Stembridge. June - Governors of Sheffield University decide that Latin shall no longer be a compulsory subject. June 16th. - Sir John Bingham, at York, makes a striking appeal for national service. June 18th. - Sir Robert Hadfield entertains Herr Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach in Sheffield. July - Chas. S. Jagger, a former student in the Sheffield Technical School, awarded the Rome Scholarship in sculpture on the recommendation of the Faculty of Science of the British School at Rome. August 4th. - War declared and Sheffield Territorials mobilize.
  12. Here's a list of Sheffield streets, roads and places pre 20th Century LIST OF STREETS IN SHEFFIELD circa 1700 Balm Green Broad Lane Bull Stake Campo Lane Castle Fold Castle Green Castle Green Head Castle Hill Church Lane Far Gate Fig Tree Lane or New Street Hartshead High Street Holling Lane or Blind lane - later Holly Street Irish Cross Mill Sands New Hall Street Pinfold Lane Ratten Row Redcroft Scargill Croft Snig Hill The Isle The Underwater Townhead Street Waingate Water Lane West Bar West Bar Green IN 1821, Ainley yard, 72, Newfield Albion row, Broad lane end Albion square, 20, Solly street Allen Street, Gibraltar street Allen yard, 13, Smithfield Allot's yard, 18, Porter lane Alpha cottages, Highfield Alsop row, 5, Porter lane Andrew street, Wicker Andrew's yard, 29, Furnace hill Angel street, Market place Appleyard's yard, 21, Furnace hill Armitage yard, 13, Gaol street Arundel street, Norfolk street Arundel lane, Arundel street Backfields, Division street Back lane, Division street Back lane, 18, Wicker Back lane, Rockingham street Back broad street, Park Bacon island, near Hillfoot Badger's row, 25, Portobello Bailey lane, Trippet lane Bailey street, Trippet lane Baker's hill, Market street Baker's yard, 36 Peacroft Bail yard, 56 Pond street Ball yard, 1, Young street Balm Green, Bailey street Bank street, Angel street Barber's court, 20, Radford street Barber nook, Crooks moor Barker's yard, Backfields Barlow's yard, Broad street, Park Barnet street, Snowhill Barns yard, 12, Cross Smithfield Barracks, Pennistone road Barrel yard, 17, Little Pond street Barrel yard, 15, Edward street Barrett's yard, 14, Allen street Bates square Top of Westbar green Bath yard, Philadelphia Batty's yard, Dyer's bridge Batty's yard, 22, Furnace hill Batty's yard, 17, Young street Beach's yard, 1, Solly street Bealey's yard, t2, Young street Bealey's yard, 37, Hereford street Beal's yard, 43, Solly street Beardshaw's court, 39, Allen street Beardshaw's yard, Allen street Beast market, Wicker Beaver's Buildings, 2, Pye bank Beet street, Broad lane Belk's court, 60, Scotland Street Bell's square, Trippet lane Bennett's court, 12, Radford street Bennett's lane, Forge lane Bingham's yard, 35, Radford street Bingham's yard, 10, Young street Birkenshaw's yard, 11, Orchard street Birtle's yard, 1, Young street Bishop street, Tudor street Black Swan yard, 7, Burgess street Black Swan yard, 3, Fargate Blast lane, Canal bridge Blank street, Wicker Blue bell yard, 43, High street Boot yard, Redhill Boot and Shoe yard, Pinstone street Bower spring, Westbar green Bower street, Spring street Bower's buildings, 27, Pye bank Bower's yard, 33, Nursery Bowling green street, Gibraltar street Bradley's yard, 5, Hollis croft Bradow row, 83 Rockingham street Bradwall row, Baley lane Brammall lane, Bennett's wheel Brick pond side, Broad lane Brick yard, 20, Green street Bridgefield, Barnsley road Bridge houses, near iron bridge, Nursery Bridge Inn yard, Bridgehouses Bridge street, Lady bridge Brightmore's yard, 6, Garden street Brightmore's yard, Church street Bright street, South street Bright's row, Hawley croft Bright's yard, Lee croft Britannia place, 41, Garden street Broad lane, Townhead street Broad lane end, Tenter street Broad street lane, Broad Street Broad street, Park Brocco street, Solly street Brook hill, head of Broad lane Brook's open, 20, Nursery Broomhall lane mill, Shemeld's croft Broomhead square, Park hill Broomhead yard, 39, Hoyle street Brown Cow yard, 7, Brighouse hill Browne street, End of Pond street Brown's yard, 106, Eyre street Bunting's yard, Hereford street Burdekin's yard, Bridgehouses Burgess street, Balm green Burgess Yard, 44, Pond street Burgin's Yard, 6, Harvest lane Burton bridge gardens, Pond street Button lane, Foot of Carver street Buxton's yard, 8, Copper street Cabbage alley, Cheney square Cadman's court, 13, Fargate Cadman's yard, 67, Eyre lane Calver square, Duke street Campo lane, Hartshead Canton place, Upperthorpe Carpenter street, near Iron bridge Carr's yard, 24, Smithfield Carr's yard, 68, Newfield Carver lane, Division street Carver street, West street Castle folds, Castle hill Castle green, Castle street Castle hill, Bottom of Hay market Castle street, Foot of Angel street Caton square, 33, Nursery Cayley's yard, 45, Garden street Centre fields, Infirmary road Change alley, 29, Fruit market Chapel lane, 23, Chapel street Chapel street, Bridgehouses Chapel walk, 5, Fargate Chapman's yard, Redhill Charles lane, back of Charles street Charles street, Union street Cheney row, Norfolk street Cheney square, New church street Cherry tree yard, Gibraltar street Church street, top of High street Clay hole, 78, Bridgehouses Clayton's row, 20, Wicker Cliff's yard, 3, High street Cloth houses, 10, Gaol street Clough hill, near Clough o ugh wheel Club, yard, Mill sands Club mill yard, 20, Smithfield Coaldwell's yard, 54 Porter lane Coal pit lane, Balm green Colley's yard, 28, Lambert Street Colliers row, Mansfield row, Park Copley's yard, 88, Broad lane Copley's yard, 6, Portobello Copper street, Gibraltar street Corn hill, Sully street Corn market, Market place Cotton mill bridge, Cotton mill lane Cotton mill lane, Longcroft Cotton mill row, Cotton mill lane Cotton mill walk, Cotton mill lane Cotton street, end of Bridge street Coulson croft Coulson street Coulson street, Westbar Cranshaw's court, Shales moor Cranshaw's yard, Green lane Crawshaw's yard, 39, High street Creswick square, 24, Pond hill Cricket Inn lane, Snowhill, Park Crooks croft Hospital walk Crooks moor, end of Broadlane Crook's yard, 43, Hollis croft Crosland square, 72, Allen street Crossland yard, Broad street, Park Cross Burgess street, Burgess street Cross Keys yard, 4, Shade hill Crossland's yard, 81, Allen street Cross Orchard street, Orchard street Cross Smithfield, Smithfield Cross street, 12, Chapel street Crown alley, Duke street, Park Cumberland street, South street Cupola street, 21, Gibraltar street Daisy walk, 52, Allen street Daniel hill, Upperthorpe Davy's yard, 74, Bridgehouses Dawson's yard, Snow lane Dearman's yard, Trippet lane Denton's yard, 3, Chapel street Dewsnap's yard, 5, Furnace hill Dickenson's yard, Cotton mill lane Division street, Carver street Dixon's lane, Hay market Drury's houses, 30, Gaol Street Duke's lane, back of Duke street Duke street, Broad street Duke street, South street Dunfields, Shales moor Dunfield's court, Dunfields Dun wheel, Cotton mill walk Dungworth's yard, 18, Cumberland street Dyer's bridge, Pond hill Dyer's yard, Wicker Eadon's yard, 43, Peacroft Earl street, South street East bank, Pond street East parade, Church yard Edward Street, Scotland street Eel's houses, 56, Rockingham street Elliott's yard, 14, Furnace hill Emmett's court, New street, Park Emsworth's court, 6, Radford street Emsworth's court, 33, Radford street Emsworth's yard, 8, Radford street Ethcate yard, 13, Edward street Eyre lane, bottom of Surrey street Eyre square, Wicker Lyre street, Surrey street Eyre's yard, 28, Fargate Fanshaw's yard, 99, Eyre lane Fargate, 25, High street Favell's yard, 78, Fargate Favell's yard, 70, Spring street Field's yard, near Hillfoot Fig tree lane, 12, Bank street Fire brick yard, Wicker Fisher's court, Bridge street Fisher's yard, 34, Smithfield Fish market, King street Flat street, near Market street Flint well, Balm green Flockton's houses, near Allen street Flockton's row, 66, Rockingham street Flockton's yard, 7, Jessop street Flockton's yard, 26, Division street Forge lane, 20, Cumberland street Forge lane, Shudehill Foundry lane, Duke street Francis Yard, 29, Peacroft Frith's court, Snig hill Froggatt's yard, Wicker Fruit market, near Haymarket Furnace hill, Westbar green Furnace yard, 24, Scotland street Furnace yard, High street, Park Furnace yard, Garden street Furnace yard, 50, Nursery Furnace hill, Nursery Furniss yard, 40, Eyre lane Furnival street, end of Union street Gaol street, South street Garden square, 90, Broad lane Garden street, Broad lane end Gate yard, Coal pit lane Gell street, Portobello street George street, High street Gibraltar street, Westbar green Gill's yard, 6, Chapel street Glave's yard, 86, Peacroft Gooden's Yard, 8, Bright street Goodlad's houses, near Allen street Grayson's yard, 62, Newfield Grayson's yard, 19, Scotland street Greaves yard, Pond street Greaves yard, 47, Harvest lane Greaves yard, 11, Gibraltar street Green lane, near Roscoe place Green lane, 28, Pye bank Green Man yard, Broad street, Park Green street, Gaol street Greenwood's yard, 42, Nursery Grindlegate, Tenter street Grove houses, Hill top Hadfield's Court, 6, Love street Hadfield's row, 9, Gaol street Hadfield square, 8, Gaol street Halbert square, 3, Spring street Hallamgate, near Reservoir Hallatt's yard, 20, Nursery Hallcar place. Wicker Hall's Yard, 56, Sully street Hall's yard, 19, Orchard street Haly bank, Highfield Hammond's yard, 95, Pond street Hammond's yard, Trinity street Hancock's yard, 60, Hollis croft Hanson's square, Walker street Hardy's Yard, Cotton mill lane Harmer lane, Pond street Hartram's yard, 31, Sully street Hartshead, Watson's walk Harvest lane, Bridgehouses Hattersley's yard, 11, Bright street Haukridge yard, Duke street, Park Hawksworth's yard, 34, High street Hawley croft, Campo lane Hawley's yard, 41, Jessop street Haymarket, Market place Haymarket lane, Haymarket Headford court, Headford Street Headford street, Young street Hereford lane, 13, Cumberland street Hereford Street, South street Hibberson's yard, 12, Sycamore street Hick's lane, West bar Highfield, Little Sheffield High house, Pennistone road High street, Market place High street, Broad street, Park Hill foot, Pennistone road Hill's court, 65, Broad lane Hill's court, 53, Wicker Hill's yard, 54, Nursery Hill's yard, 59, Wicker Hill's yard, 32, Young street Hobson's court, 8, New church street Hobson's yard, 86, Duke street, Park Hodgson's court, Little Sheffield Hodgson's yard, 2½, Pond hill Holbert's yard, 21, Trinity street Holdsworth's row, 9, Shales moor Holdsworth's yard, 15, Jessop street Hollis croft, Broad lane end Holly street, Balm green Hop yard, Clough wheel Horrax yard 79, Fargate Hospital walk, near Sheaf bridge Howard lane, Pond street Howard street, Norfolk street Howden's yard, ½4, Hollis croft Hoyland's yard, 16, Peacroft Hoyle street, 29, Shales moor Hudson's yard, 34, Harvest lane Hughes yard, 36, Smithfield Hughes yard, Lambert street Infirmary lane, Shales moor Isle, Bridge street Jehu Lane, Haymarket Jenkinson's yard, Bailey lane Jepson's yard, 25, Edward street Jerico, Allen street Jessop street, South street Jessop's yard, Carver street Johnson street, 29, Nursery Joiner street, 39, Nursery Jones's yard, King street Keaton's square, Wicker Kilham island, Dun wheel King street, Angel street King's Arms yard, 42, Fargate King and Miller court, 79. Norfolk street Kirby court, 6, Steelhouse lane Kirby lane, High street Kirby lane, Park street Kirby's yard, 21, Cross Smithfield Lambert's croft, Westbar green Lambert street, Trinity street Lambert's yard. Pye bank Law's yard, Hollis croft Leavey greave, near Brook hill Lee croft, Campo lane Lee lane, Brightside Lindley's yard, Newfield Lindsley's yard, Copper street Little Pond street, Shude hill Little Sheffield, bottom of South street Littlewood's yard, 9, Sycamore street Long croft, Dunfields Lord's yard, 29, Trinity street Love at, eel, Spring street Low street, South street, Park Machan's yard, 50, Harvest lane Maiden's row, 27, Duke street Mansfield road, Duke street, Park Market place, bottom of High street Market street, Fruit market Marple's yard, Hollis croft Marple's yard, Solly street Marshall's yard, 80, Rockingham street Marshfield, 32, Portobello Martin's yard, 2½, Broad lane Matthew's yard, 28, Young street Mayer's yard, Duke street, Park Meadow bank, Pond street Meadow street, 10, Allen street Meeting lane, Bank street Milk street, Norfolk street Mill lane, Bridge street Mill lane court, 40, Bridge street Millsands, Bridge street Moorfields, Gibraltar street Moor street, Tudor street Morton's court, 3, Brick yd. Green street Morton's houses, Allen street Morton wheels, Philadelphia Moseley's court, 8, Townhead street Mulberry street, High street Nag's Head court, Haymarket Nag's Head yard, Haymarket Naylor's yard, Chapel street Naylor's yard, Solly street Neepsend, Harvest lane Nell's yard, Rock street Nelson's row, Wicker Nether hallam, Crooks moor Nether slack, Penistone road Netherthorpe, Allen street Newbould's court, 9, Young street New Church street, Norfolk street Newfield, near Iron bridge Newhall street, Snig hill Newhill, Sheffield moor Newmarket Street, Norfolk street New meadow street, Allen street New street, Bank street New street, Park New street, Queen street Newton's court, 32, West bar New town, Park Norfolk lane, Surrey street Norfolk row, 62, Norfolk street Norfolk Street, Market street Norrisfield, Love street North street, Queen street Nowell's yard, 52, Gaol street Nursery, Wicker Nursery lane, 15, Wicker Nursery row, 20, Nursery Nursery walk, Lady bridge Oakes houses, Duke street, Park Oborne street, Bridge houses Old Steam Engine yd. Crook's croft, Park Old street, Broad street, Park Onion's yard, 13, Porter lane Orange street, Broad lane Orchard lane, Orchard street Orchard lane, Park Orchard place, 12, Orchard street Orchard street, Church street Osborne's yard, 11, Smithfield Owen's yard, 44, High street Palfreyman's yard, 39, Newfield Paradise square, Campo lane Paradise street, Paradise square Parker's yard, West bar Parkgate, Broad street, Park Park hill, New street, Park Parkin's yard, Jehu lane Parkin's yard, 78, Peacroft Parrot yard, 110, Sheffield moor Parsonson yard, 16, Smithfield Paternoster row, Pond street Peace yard, 4, Smithfield Peacroft, Tenter street Penistone road, Moorfields Pepper alley, 25, Fargate Pheasant yard, Sheaf bridge Philadelphia place, Penistone road Pickle, Wicker Pinder's yard, 33, Arundel street Pinfold lane, Church street Pinstone street, Norfolk street Pitts moor, Bridge houses Plant's yard, Highfield Pond hill, Flat street Pond hill, Sheaf gardens Pond lane gardens, Dyers bridge Pond Street, Flat street Porter brook, Jessop street Porter lane, Porter street Porter street, Union street Port Macon, Meadow street Portobello, Rockingham street Potter's yard, 85, Eyre lane Prince of Wales yard, 1, Sycamore street Prince's yard, Edward street Prince's yard, Young street Providence row, Allen street Pye bank, Barnsley road Queen's Head yard, Castle street Queen street, Bank street Radford row, Townhead street Radford street, Mien street Ramsden's court, High street, Park Rawson's yard, 21, Harvest lane Rayner's yard, 4, Pond street Redcroft, Pinfold lane Redhill, Broad lane Red place, Solly street Robert's yard, Garden street Robinson a yard, 27, Meadow street Robinson's yard, 40, Harvest lane Rockingham lane, Garden street Rockingham place, Rockingham street Rockingham street, Broad lane Rock street, Chapel street Rodger's court, 3, Norfolk street Roscoe place, Hoyle street Rough bank, Park Rowarth's yard, 43, Charles street Royal Oak yard, 9, Pond street Royston's yard, 9, Young street Russel's yard, 20, Union lane Rutherforth's yard, 78, Broad lane Sambourn square, 7, Edward street Sands paviours, West street Sargent's buildings, Wicker Sargent's yard, Lee croft Saunder's square, New street, Park Saville street, Rotherham road Saxton's yard, 47, Gaol street Scantlebury's yard, 7, Copper street Scargill croft, 7, Bank street School street, Duke street, Park Scotland street, Westbar green Senior's row, 20, Spring street Shales moor, Moorfields Shales square, Duke street, Park Sharrow grange, Highfield Sharrow green, Highfield Sharrow Head, Highfield Sharrow lane, Highfield Sharrow moor, Highfield Sharrow mount, Highfield Shaw's yard, Meadow street Shaw's yard, 65, Newfield Sheaf gardens, the Banks Sheaf island, Pond street Sheaf street, Pond hill Sheard's yard, 14, Orchard street Sheffield moor, South street Sheldon's square, 24, Orchard street Sheldon's yard, Wicker Shemeld's croft, Forge lane Shepherd's yard, 14, Hollis croft Shepherd's yard, 14, Newfield Shepherd's yard, 26, Peacroft Shepherd's yard, 17, Solly street Sherley hill, Sharrow grange Shillitoe's yard, 72, Eyre lane Shouter's yard, 29, Waingate Shude hill, Baker's hill Siddall street, Broad lane Silcock's square, 16, Pond hilt Silver street, Westbar green Silver street head, Lee croft Simscroft, Townhead street Singleton's yard, 8, Chapel street Slack's yard, Allen street Sleigh's lane, 4, Carver street Sleigh's yard, Carver street Smith street, Scotland street Smith's yard, 10. Edward street Smith's yard, High street, Park Smith's yard, 14, Doily street Smith's yard, 35, Nursery Smith's yard, 27, Snow lane Smith's yard, Spring Street Smith's yard, West bar Smith's yard, 41, Wicker Snig hill, Angel street Snowhill, Broad street, Park Snowhill, Scotland street Solly street, Peacroft Souter's lane, Townhead street South street, Park South street, Sheffield moor Spinning street, Coulston croft Spitalfields, Wicker Spital hill, Pickle Spooner's yard, Tenter street Spring gardens, Thomas street Spring lane, Broomhall lane Spring street, Coulston street Spring street, Snig hill Stacey's yard, Furnace hill Stacey's yard, 35, Scotland street Stafford yard, Redhill Stag's Head court, Pinstone street Staley's yard, Rockingham street Staley's yard, 27, Young street Staniforth yard, Duke street, Park Stanley street, 1½, Wicker Steelbank, Crooks moor Steelhouse lane, 84, Westbar green Stephenson's yard, 77, Westbar green St. James' row, Church street Stone yard, George's street Stoney croft, near Iron bridge Styran's yard, 33, Broad lane Styring's court, 1, Cross Smithfield Surrey street, Norfolk street Swallow's yard, 21, Smith street Sycamore hill, Union lane Sycamore street, Arundel street Sykes field, 22, Porter lane Sykes square, Pinstone street Sykes yard, Church street Sylvester gardens, Porter brook Taylor's yard, 36, Harvest lane Taylor's yard, Millsands Taylor's yard, 10, Townhead street Taylor's yard, Trinity street Tenter street, Westbar green The Banks, near Clough wheel Thomas street, Broomhall lane Thornton square, 23, Green street Three Cranes yard, 18, Queen street Tilt yard, 50, Pond street Timm's yard, Lee croft Townhead cross, Townhead street Townhead street, Church street Trickett's yard, 47, Coalpit lane Trinity street, Gibraltar street Trippet lane, Pinfold lane Trippet yard, 37, High street Trough yard, 2, Whitecroft Tudor place, Tudor street Tudor street, Sycamore street Turner's yard, 22, Bright street Turner's yard, 31, Norfolk street Twelve o'Clock, End of Wicker Tyas yard, 56, Peacroft Tyas yard, 26, Meadow street Type lane, Nursery Union lane, Charles street Union street, Norfolk street Union yard, near Iron bridge Union yard, 60, Peacroft Upper Edward street, Edward street Upper meeting yard, 25, Fargate Upper slack, Penistone road Upperthorpe, Infirmary Vicar lane, Church street Vicker's yard, 30, Edward street Vicker's yard, 43, Garden street Vicker's yard, Hillfoot Waingate, Haymarket Wainwright's square, '23, Norfolk lane Wainwright's yard, 86, Eyre street Walk mill, Twelve o'Clock Walker street, 23, Wicker Walton's yard, Cornhill Warbleton's square, 18, Eyre lane Ward's court, 58, Scotland street Ward's square, 1, Duke street Warmbath yard, Green lane Water lane, Angel street Waterloo place, Green lane Water street, Spring street Watery lane, Roscoe place Watson's walk, Angel street Weaver's yard, Campo lane Weigh lane, Shales square Wellington street, Carver street Well's yard, 50, Coalpit lane Well's yard, 36, Newfield Well's yard, 87, Pond street West bar, Snig hill Westbar green, West bar West Don, Philadelphia place Western bank, Broad lane Westfield lane, Pinfold lane West lane, West street West street, Church street Wheatcroft row, 12, Chapel street Wheats' yard, 70, Carver street Whieldon street, Broad lane Whieldon's yard, Red hill White Bear yard, High street White Bear's walk, Norfolk street White croft, Tenter street Whitehead's yard, Hawley croft Whitehouse lane, Infirmary lane Whitelock's yard, 2, Long croft Wicker, Lady bridge Wicker lane, Nursery street Wigfold's yard, 2, Smithfield Wilkinson's court, 22, Meadow street Wilkinson's court, 16, Peacroft Wilkinson's street, Gell street Wilkinson's yard, 85, Duke at. Park Wilkinson's yard, 12, 14 & 27, Young st. Willey's square, 31, Nursery Willey street, Wicker Willey's yard, 61, Wicker Wilson's yard, 18, Haymarket Wilson's yard, 18, Orchard street Windle's yard, 2?, Lambert street Woodcock's row, 66, Eyre street Woodcock's yard, 24, Pond street Wood grove, Hill foot Woodhouse yard, 16, Young street Woodside, 12, Harvest lane Woolhouse yard, 11, Peacroft Woolhouse yard, Broad street, Park Woollen's yard, 28, Radford street Workhouse croft, Paradise square Workhouse lane, West bar Worstenholm's yard, Carver street Wright's houses, Providence row York street, 31, High street Young street, South street Young's yard, 11, Portobello
  13. Sheffield History

    Just Micro/Gremlin Graphics

    PETER HARRAP When asked his age, Peter replied somewhat uncertainly, 'Ooh, er, 20'. The son of a mining training officer, Peter studied at Sheffield University and was doing quite well until a Currah Microspeech unit decided to destroy his Spectrum and thus plunged him into a life of games designing. Like so many other young programmers, Pete started with 'a little ZX81' and then skipped a big ZX81 by selling some camera equipment to buy a Spectrum. He taught himself machine code programming on the 81 and 'basically transferred that to the Spectrum'. Until meeting Ian Stewart and Kevin Norburn in Just Micro, Pete used to do some hacking and design programs to alter existing games. His city redesigner for Ant Attack was sent back because Quicksilva told him they were already developing something themselves; although this never appeared, Zombie Zombie did allow the player to rebuild and change the city. Peter Harrap hit the headlines (literally) with his first game, the CRASH Readers Award winner, Wanted: Monty Mole. A wicked sense of humour was apparent in the game, and it is this angle that is most noticeable in the follow up. Apart from programming entire games, Pete is responsible for many of the Spectrum graphics in other Gremlin games, he has designed the main character in Beaver Bob, for instance. This led to some ribald comments on Bob's suggestive style of walking - the irrepressible Harrap humour sometimes verges on the - well, naughty. Monty on the Run is the true successor to Wanted: Monty Mole. Like its forerunner, it is a platform game with many and varied elements. Perhaps the most significant is the fact that Monty can now somersault rather than just jump. When asked whether the Commodore game Impossible Mission might have been a (forgive the pun) springboard, Pete just smiled. The story, as we know, so far: Monty Mole, suffering from a shortage of coal owing to the miners' strike, enters a mine to steal some. After many misadventures he meets Arthur Scargill and is sent to prison for theft. His friend, Sam Stoat, has a go at rescuing him, but fails in the attempt, so Monty is left to complete his sentence. With time on his hands he takes to the prison gymnasium and becomes super fit, learning to somersault in the process. He gets out of gaol and tries to flee to Brazil. This is where the action of Monty on the Run takes place, as he boards a ship and tries to escape to France. Money is of the essence, and fortunately there are gold sovereigns to be collected, but in order for the ship to sail, Monty has to perform several tasks, all of which require the right tool for the job. On top of that there are hosts of malcontents trying to stop him. The 'orrible 'arrap has programmed in numerous devious traps, some of which are so mind-bogglingly cruel it's mind-boggling. There are lifts with nasty habits, teleport beams which are only safe if they are a certain colour and some of which can deposit you in a lethal situation. Objects to be collected are placed in almost impossible positions, and often, after hours of trying to reach them, they turn out to be useless or, worse still, positively dangerous. This is not a game for the squeamish! Peter, who is quietly spoken, tends to a calmness that is belied by the mischievious delight he takes in setting the hapless player up for a pratfall. But I've no doubt that thousands will be queueing up for a custard pie in the face by October when Monty on the Run is released.
  14. Sheffield History

    Just Micro/Gremlin Graphics

    A GREMLIN IN THE WORKS Interview with Gremlin Graphics from CRASH magazine, July 1985. Quietly sitting at home one evening last summer, watching the evening news and with computer games far from my mind, the peace was shattered when this platform game suddenly appeared on the screen. Startled with injured surprise that some upstart new company should dare to feature a new game on telly before letting CRASH know, all I caught of the item was that it had something to do with Arthur Scargill, flying pickets and a mole. It seemed trendily topical - another cheap bunch jumping on the games bandwagon with a rip-off idea timed to catch the miners' strike? The company's name was Gremlin Graphics. In the event CRASH wasn't missed out. We got an early Spectrum version, doctored so we would could visit any room in case none of us were able to withstand the flying pickets or the infamous crushers, and thus we were introduced to the delights of Wanted: Monty Mole, and became acquainted with Gremlin Graphics, the company that won the 1984 CRASH Readers Award for the best platform game - far from a rip-off. That was in July. Gremlin Graphics has now been going for a year and it seemed time to visit Sheffield and find out how things were going. HOW TO GET A GREMLIN GOING Alpha House, Carver Street is a gaunt Victorian office block that might once have been fashionable but now lies virtually, though tidily, empty. The Gremlins refer to it as 'the prison', an impression reinforced by the long, narrow corridors painted in institution maroon and cream. Gremlin Graphics has two rooms which for some obscure reason are situated high up in the building and quite some way from the ancient lift which no-one seems to use. When I spoke to Ian Stewart, Sales and Marketing Director, about the visit, he told me to stop outside a shop called Just Micro. This turned out to be a thriving and very busy computer shop which is owned by Ian and his partner Kevin Norburn, the Financial Director of Gremlin Graphics. A phone link between the shop and the office, soon brought Ian down to greet me and drag me away from the beeping, squawking screens that lined three walls of the shop's interior. The corridors of Alpha House may have been prison-like, but once through the door and into Gremlinland, a different atmosphere pervaded. Of the two rooms, one is a general office, and the other, larger, room is equipped with desks, computers and screens for the in-house programming team. The programmers had gathered specially for my visit (more to give a third-degree on CRASH reviews than in my honour I suspected - the usual reason programmers want to talk to magazine people), and were busy falling over the ubiquitous C5, which seems to have taken over from the Porsche as a software house vehicle. I never did ask what it was doing up there on the third floor. Before founding Gremlin Graphics Ian Stewart had already accumulated 12 years retailing experience culminating in a group managership for Laskys, but the itch to work for himself proved too strong and he joined forces with Kevin Norburn to open a computer shop. 'When Kevin and myself had opened Just Micro, we always said as soon as the shop got rolling and we found the time and the necessary programmer, that we would like to have our own software house.' The shop did get rolling and the first necessary programmers transpired in the form of Peter Harrap and Tony Crowther. Ian and Kevin were well aware from the start that they would have to put together a professional team to get safely off the ground. Tony Crowther, already well known for his Commodore programs Loco, Son of Blagger and Killerwatt, was made a company director and went on to write Potty Pigeon and Suicide Express for Gremlin before differences on the board led to his leaving the company. Looking around to ensure good distribution, Ian reckoned Geoff Brown of US Gold, who had just started Centresoft distributors was going to be a power and invited him to become managing director. But it was with young Pete Harrap that Gremlin really got going. GOLD COAL DIGGERS 'Peter Harrap first came to us with a complaint,' Ian recalls, 'which was that his Currah Microspeech had blown his Spectrum up.' At the time Pete was at university. He was into hacking and programming to some degree and had written a program that allowed you to redesign and rebuild the city in Quicksilva's Ant Attack. He sent it to them, but Quicksilva declined to use it. Over the protracted matter of Currah getting the damaged Spectrum repaired, Pete visited Just Micro a lot. As Ian says, 'We got to know him quite well, and although I think he got aggravated on a number of times, we made a friend more than anything else. We said to him, 'well you're into programming why don't you spend a bit more time on it and develop a game?' So we got talking and I came up with the idea of a mole, and we decided it would be a platform game. Pete's father is a mine training officer, so we decided to use that and put the game underground - a mole can go above or below ground, which adds variety. As he was writing it the miners' strike developed, so we introduced different criteria into the program to tie in with the strike like the flying pickets and the effigy of Arthur Scargill.' It was the caricature of Scargill that gave Ian a hook upon which to hang his launch. Eight radio stations, national newspapers and national television news gave the game coverage. 'It was a useful boost, but it was a lot of hard work, it didn't just happen - wheels within wheels to see the program got the exposure it did. Really, from that point we've grown to the stage we're at now.' LOOKING BUOYANT With so many software houses finding themselves in a dodgy condition lately, I asked Ian what he felt about Gremlin's position in the market after one year. 'I see it as being very healthy. As far as other software houses are concerned, their approach must be to be very careful about who they deal with and make sure their advertising expenditure is reasonable but not too low-key. They will also have to be careful about the quantity of games released through the year, with the fear of damaging the sales of one product up against another. I don't mind marketing my product against someone else's, but not against my own. It's a waste of advertising for one, and obviously the programmers don't get the rewards they should do from the sales their programs achieve.' Ian reckons the business has got much tougher over the past twelve months and that it is no longer easy for people to set up a software house and make a success of it. 'If we were starting this July instead of last July, it would be a totally different story. We came in at the right time with the right product and the right marketing and it worked for us. Now you have to have a track record, and the way you go about presenting games to a distributor has got to be professional. The way you market the product has got to be sensible and you must have your programs ready well in advance. I think we're hitting a happy situation at the moment where we're able to backlog software so we can release it when we want, but we propose to keep releasing right through the summer to keep the name in the forefront. I would like to think that Gremlin will be one of the top five software houses by the end of the year. On the Spectrum there are several planned releases kicking off with Beaver Bob (In Dam Trouble), followed by Grumpy Gumphrey - Supersleuth and Metabolis, and then onto October and the pre-Christmas release of Monty on the Run. In addition there are releases planned for the Commodore 64, some conversions and some originals, as well as games for the C16 and Amstrad, All of which must be keeping Gremlin Graphics very busy, and it seems that Ian is thumbing his nose at the traditional summer slump. 'Obviously the sales figures that you achieve over Christmas are double those you achieve for the other times of the year, but I think keeping the market buoyant for the rest of the year is very important. I don't mind getting lower sales through the summer - it keeps the Gremlin name prominent; and it keeps the programmers busy - it's important for them to be able to work twelve months of the year rather than six and it's important for us to have revenue coming in for twelve months of the year rather than six! I would hate to think I was holding product back just for Christmas.' Looking at 'the prison' there is obviously plenty of room to expand, should they wish to. At present Gremlin employs four full-time in-house Z80 programmers all writing for the Spectrum, Pete Harrap, Chris Kerry, Shaun Hollingworth and Christian Urquhart. A company called Micro Projects consisting of three programmers write Gremlin's Commodore games and conversions, and Ian is investigating other talent. 'I would like to see our in-house personnel double this year, to a maximum of ten, so that we have at least one programmer who is competent on one of the major machines, by which I mean Spectrum, Commodore, Amstrad and Atari. That means we are on the look out for more programmers and more product.' The Gremlins gathered: left to right, Shaun Hollingworth, Kevin Norburn, Ian Stewart, Chris Kerry, Peter Harrap and Christian Urquhart. UNSOCIAL HOURS Although the in-house team are employed full time, few of them work consistently at the offices, preferring to spend some time there but more at home working. 'Programmers tend to work rather unsocial hours and as the time required might mean them working all day and then into the small hours they find it easier to work in the comfort of their own homes. But they do come into the office at least once a week.' With this sort of working flexibility, I wondered whether there was any sense of 'team spirit'. 'Oh yes,' Ian replied instantly, 'each programmer will discuss each other's work and they'll discuss various routines that they're using, the gameplay elements within the game and various graphics - Peter Harrap does a number of the graphics for other people, he has a bent towards designing graphics and he's very quick. The bulk of the ideas for games come from the Gremlin office,' Ian continued, 'we have brain bashing sessions, sit down and discuss the types of program we would like to put out - I'm the culprit as far as the characters go. What tends to happen is that general ideas are thrown about and then the programmer goes away and draws up a plan of the way the program could work. Then we discuss that again before the programming starts, so we end up with a sort of storyboard. It works very well, because you can identify the areas that you could make within the program or the improvements you can make before it actually gets started. There's nothing worse, and it has happened to us, to be halfway through a program and find that it's not going to work. If you had sat down and spent a little more time at the outset you would have identified all the problems and saved a lot more time. I refuse to continue with something that I may not be happy with at the end.' Before moving into the programming room to have a look at the new games coming along, I asked Ian, thinking of Monty on the Run, whether he thought platform games were a played out genre. 'Oh no, definitely not. Hopefully with Monty on the Run you'll see a different element enter platform gameplay. We have introduced some further exciting elements which I think the public will like. We see it as a great improvement on Wanted: Monty Mole and I think it will get a bigger following.' Is he irritated when other companies try to jump on the success bandwagon of Monty Mole, or, as Software Projects has suggested, that platform games like Monty Mole are jumping on the success bandwagon of Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner? 'Artic's Mutant Monty was a direct hype of a number of games. We didn't feel inclined to do anything about the fact that they had used 'Monty' and were obviously hyping off the success of Monty Mole. As to Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy, Miner 2049er was the first, and as to whether the people that originated that program feel the same as Software Projects, I don't know. I see no reason to diminish our own glory when they've had such a nice success with both programs, and they are both very good programs. Perhaps it's a case of being a little bit jealous, I don't know, maybe Monty Mole's better.' One thing for certain is that Monty on the Run is very much better than Wanted: Monty Mole. The mean elements of the first game have been made even meaner in the second. As Ian comments, 'That is Pete Harrap's sheer bloody-mindedness. If people thought the first Monty was bloody-minded, they'd better look at the next one! He's done some very funny things on it. CHRIS KERRY Chris is the baby of the team at 18 (19 in December), but of the team he has the longest list of credits to his name. He wrote his first game at 16. It was called Gremlins and no one wanted it. Computers first cropped up on the second year computer course at school, but failed to catch his interest. Then in the third year he joined a computer group. 'We just used to mess about, but I became interested in how they actually worked. Then the ZX81 came on the market and I got me sister to buy me one, and I learned to program machine code on that. When the Spectrum came out I got one and spent a year trying to figure out how to do the screen because it's got a right weird way of storing things. In the end, I really learnt to program by listening to other people and by reading magazines.' After writing a Galaxian type game, Chris turned out Jack and the Beanstalk which Thor accepted and released. 'It wasn't very good, but you learn from your mistakes. The screen pictures were good, but the graphic movement was terrible!' Chris wrote two more follow-ups to JATBS, Giant's Revenge and The House that Jack Built. All these games featured heavily and brightly coloured backgrounds which distinguished them from almost every other program on the market. It was a trademark he kept when he moved over to Gremlin Graphics and produced the second Monty game, Monty Mole is Innocent. Chris is now finishing off Metabolis, which is a departure graphically for him. The way the character is used in the game is quite comical, and there are what Ian Stewart calls 'some nice, silly little touches to it.' You play one of the last human beings free of the evil influence of aliens that have taken over the planet and are turning people into monsters. You haven't entirely escape the effects of their plans, however, being a bird with a still-human brain. It is a giant, colourful maze, full of hazards of course, through which you just guide your birdman until discovering the potion that returns you to a human form. Having once again become human, you still possess the abilities of a bird, so you can fly as well as walk. One of the nice little touches is the reference to infamous Gremlin crushers, but these do not kill you outright - they just flatten you for a while. Metabolis looks like being the most unusual program Chris Kerry has written.
  15. Guest

    The Alpine pop man

    The pop man used to come round when I was in my teens....from Goddards which was down on Park View Road. Also gone but never forgotten from the late 50's and 60's were: Rag and Bone men with their horse drawn and also hand pulled carts The Knife Sharpener The Gas Man who would turn off and on the gas lamps up and down Clarence Road with a long pole with a T bar on it Gypsies going door to door selling pegs, pins and "lucky" heather The Coal Man ( Charllie Hollingsworth) The Calor Gas man Window cleaners with their ladders on long barrows Cobbled streets..........sigh ;)
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