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Archives ref 523/3 described as: In August 1919 a successful air exhibition was held at Coal Aston. It was later reported that the aerodrome was to be sold. A conference of local manufacturers was held to discuss the Air Ministry's offer to sell the Aerodrome. Powers were granted in the 1920 Sheffield Corporation Act to buy the site. However the plans came to nothing when in 1922 the government decided that it was not going to grant financial assistance to local authorities to develop civil aviation facilities The Sheffield archives holds ref no CA648 described as: City of Sheffield Municipal Aerodrome Site, comprising: Report by Sir Alan J. Cobham, K.B.E. on An Examination of all land in the vicinity of Sheffield with notes on sites having possibilities and recommendations as to the best possible site for development as a municipal aerodrome; Supplemental report by Sir Alan J. Cobham, K.B.E., on the development of Coal Aston Airport Site, 2 Feb 1931; The Estate Surveyor's, Report on the further acquisition of land and estimate referred to in Sir Alan Cobham Report of 2 Feb 1931; City Treasurer’s Report on Expenditure involved in development of Aerodrome Site at Coal Aston 20 Jul 1931 Further items at the Archives iclude: CA670/7: Copy statement of views of the Air Ministry on the undermentioned sites [Coal Aston and Todwick] that have been suggested for a municipal aerodrome for Sheffield CA621: Correspondence and papers relating to powers under the 1920 Sheffield Corporation Bill for the Corporation to run a municipal aerodrome and the purchase of Coal Aston Aerodrome CA647/32: Report of a meeting between the Town Clerk, City Surveyor and representatives of the Air Ministry regarding Coal Aston Aerodrome Some newspaper articles:

Spoke to the Coal Authority on this, they were incredibly helpful. Below ground level it has a 5.6mx5.6m cap with an inspection vent pipe, the cap is 75cm thick. The shafts are unfilled as the CA need to go in periodically. It was capped off within the last 26 years. There is also another shaft that is just behind 47/49/51 house.

Only the road down to the pit (still to be seen on the 1927 photo) was the Pit Lane. The rest of it belong to Woodthorpe Estate - That of the Hall land, not the modern estate, which wasn't started till the middle 1930's. Even the mine itself at one time started with the Woodthorpe Hall owner. The lane itself was cobblestones and part of it was just covered up when the grassed over area was created. Presumably with the extensive clearing of the land shown in the old Google images they might have dug the cobbles up. One of the images does shows that they attacked the site of the mine itself extensively. And the dark muck shows plenty of coal visible on much of the area. As for the brook itself, I can say that the spring that feeds the stream bubbles up to the surface at the rough patch shown in picture were the curved path is. That would have been at the point of the large pond on the 1927 image. That pond was created by the mine company themselves. That area on the oldest maps was known as the Car Field and so the brook takes it name from that. Of course it's not easy to trace the actual source of the water. Where it first comes up. But there were at least one pond on the land where the Army camp is based. However I can't determine if these were the result of mine workings or spring water coming out. The 1855 map shows shafts on the site. All pits suffer from water getting in them, which has to be pumped out. The "Elm Tree Hill" is the source of at least three brooks. The Car Brook and Kirk Bridge Dike, that flows via Deep Pit. Also the one that flows down by Holybank Avenue at Intake. I don't know if the water is from some giant underground river working it's way to the surface and splitting into sections. Or just several springs coming up at this point.

Coal Aston Aerodrome saw "A" flight of No 33 squadron RFC tasked with the training role but also making nocturnal anti Zeppelin sorties with Home Defence during WW.1. With the signing of the Armistice the airfield found itself being used for aircraft storage. The airfield saw many flying events( Flying Weeks) during the 20's including the previously mentioned Vickers Vimy which made a record flight from Sheffield to London of 95 minutes!!! Most widely remembered were the appearances of Sir Alan Cobham and his "Flying Circus", greeted by Sheffielders in their thousands. In 1920 the Sheffield Act gave the Corporation powers to acquire Coal Aston Aerodrome which figured in the attempts by the Corporation to provide the City with an aerodrome and ancillary services...after promptings by the Air Ministry. The Air Navigation Act of 1920 already empowered the Corporation to build an aerodrome there...but as with so much else, they pontificated.... in 1931 employing Sir Alan Cobham to survey and inspect a total of 9 other sites. In the end, he settled on Coal Aston even though forces were already moving to build the City's southern hospital on the site. Nothing happened and for the sum of just over £3,000.00 the City gave up on an aerodrome and the land ended up being the site of housing,( it has to be said the City Treasurer was unconvinced of Cobham's estimated cost, They suggested a sum of £ 56,131.00 which included the cost of land already acquired by the Corporation.) The site was situated on the 600ft contour line, lying in the Norton/Dyche Lane area and would have had two runways of 900 and 1,300 yards in length . Note it should not be confused with the much later WW2 vintage RAF Norton,,,a barrage balloon depot.( as a matter of interest there exists another Coal Aston landing strip which still receives the very occasional traffic. This is situated close to Apperknowle in NE Derbyshire.) From: The Aviation Wilderness by Stewart Dalton...no longer in print.

Have looked at the maps of that area on the Scotland map site and it appears it was nearly always part of the Tinsley Wood area most of it's life. There's some evidence of coal working quite close to it, but apart from that there is never been structures in the area to suggest anything for them. Ponds are sometimes associated with mine workings and the nearby one could be evidence of that.

The bridge on the old turnpike road in Graves Park is probably a later addition to the turnpike, it is thought that earlier traffic would ford the stream rather than go over it. The stream (Cold Brook) was the source of water for the Wild Well at Norton Hollow. I walked part of the old turnpike route last summer, setting off from the top of Derbyshire Lane, going down through the Park, over the little bridge, up the tarmac lane and out of the park, along Little Norton Lane, down Dyche Lane and up towards Coal Aston, taking a right turn down Green Lane, where I caught the bus to Unstone Green to pick up the trail where it crosses over the river Drone at the old packhorse bridge (dated 1717) the trail goes up Old Whittington Lane, coming out by the Cock & Magpie pub just above Revolution House at Old Whittington.

I'm not sure if this adds much more information on Curr's life over that in the excellent article by Ian R. Medlicott from the Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society posted by Bayleaf; but it does put Curr's innovations into a wider context. From The Coal Industry of the Eighteenth Century, by T. S. Ashton & J. Sykes, 1929: ...in the working out of the many problems to which this new form of transport gave rise, many engineers played their part, but among them the outstanding figure was John Curr, who for many years occupied the post of viewer to the Duke of Norfolk's collieries in Sheffield. Curr was born, and spent his early years, on the coalfield of Durham, but removed to Sheffield probably in the early seventeen-seventies. At this period Sheffield Park Colliery was let by the Earl of Surrey to Messrs. Townsend and Furniss, who disposed of the coal, according to the usual practice, by sale to the dealers and carters at the pit head. In 1774, however, as the result of an outcry against the high price of fuel, a plan was prepared to convey the coal from the pits to the town by "the Newcastle method", i.e. by a railroad; and this was laid down at a cost of £3280. Whether or not the project emanated from Curr is uncertain, but a few years later, when the colliery was taken over by the Earl of Surrey, Curr was acting as the manager of this and of all the other mining concerns of the Howard family. The most important of his innovations was the substitution for the baskets in which the coal was carried of small four-wheeled corves, which were pushed by boys along tramways in the underground passages. It has been questioned whether Curr actually made use of cast-iron rails below ground before 1790; but a report[1] made by John BuddIe in March 1787 puts the matter beyond doubt; for a comparison of the costs of "the new scheme of hurrying the coals" with those of hurrying with horses includes "Expenses of Cast Iron Plates and Barrow-way". The cost of the old mode was put at 10½d., a waggon-load, that of the new at 6¾d., and it was estimated that the saving at this colliery amounted to £312:10s. a year. There was nothing new in the use of four-wheeled vehicles underground: they had been employed at least a generation earlier in the Newcastle area to carry the wicker corves to the pit-bottom. Curr's innovation was the combination of waggon and corf, the making of a vessel that would run on wheels and could also be raised up the shaft. In Northumberland and Durham baskets were necessary because the bulk of the output was coal in relatively small pieces;[2] and though in the pits about Radstock, in Somerset, the coal was loaded directly into sledges with wicker or wooden sides, it was unloaded into baskets before winding.[3] The new wheeled corf obviated this second handling of the coal, and much bigger loads could be drawn by a horse than when the coal was contained in baskets. To prevent collision between the ascending and descending corves, guides or conductors were devised and patented by Curr in 1788. Two pairs of wooden rails were set vertically upon opposite sides of the shaft, and the ends of a crossbar, to which the corf was attached, ran in the channel between them and so prevented oscillation. The laden corf was raised a little way above the surface, so that a wooden platform could be slid beneath it from which the corf could be run off to the coal stack. A little later further improvements were made by Curr: the rails, which had previously consisted of cast-iron plates fixed on wooden rails, came to be made entirely of cast iron, and instead of the corf being held to the line by a flanged wheel the rails themselves were flanged. Moreover, self-acting inclined planes were introduced both above and below ground, so that the full corves in descending "hurried up" the ascending empties; and a scheme of underground canals was worked out so that the coal could be carried, as at the Duke of Bridgewater's Worsley Colliery, in long, narrow barges from the working face to the pit bottom.[4] Finally, in 1805, Curr applied the steam-engine, for the first time, it is believed, to the purpose of underground haulage. So many innovations soon brought the inventor into repute throughout the country: his wheeled corves came into use at many of the larger collieries; and he was consulted by several important concerns, including the Coalbrookdale Company.[5] Nevertheless, he did not wholly escape the traditional lot of the pioneer. Affairs at Sheffield were not flourishing during the last fifteen years of the century; and in 1787, and again in 1789, John BuddIe was called in to report to Curr's employer on the state of the collieries. The report of 1787 was entirely favourable; and though two years later John BuddIe and John Stephenson felt obliged to recommend the closing of Attercliffe Colliery, they added, "When we think of the Ingenuity and Judicious Application of several late Inventions there adopted ... we feel ourselves hurt as Colliers, in giving a decision so very unfavourable".[6] During the 'nineties irregularities in the seams of coal gave great trouble; about 1795 water from two abandoned collieries found its way into some of the Duke of Norfolk's pits; and severe competition was encountered from a colliery set up in 1793 by a number of sick-clubs of Sheffield.[7] In 1801 John Curr was suddenly dismissed the service of the Duke, without any reason being offered him. In a long letter of protest he set forth the category of improvements which he had effected, and asserted that his own gains had been small. "Now sixteen out of twenty collieries have introduced this mode of conveying coals [he wrote of his tramways] in the Countys of York, Lancaster, Salop, Derby, Staffs., Warwick and a great part of Wales, and is now adopting near London and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and those who live 10 or I5 Years will probably see my Rail Roads introduced all over this Kingdom, notwithstanding 12 years passed over before they were much imitated". His wheeled corves, his flat-rope winding, and his other contrivances, it was claimed, had been of considerable value to the Duke; and failure to make larger profits was the result of the inroads of water and the price-war with the opposition colliery—"Here my Ingenuity has been buried".[8] Fortunately for Curr, he had other sources of income than the £190 a year which constituted the salary of the viewer. He had royalties from his patents and profits from a foundry which he had set up in 1792 to make the cast-iron rails and boilers and other parts of the new rotative winding engines. An Account Book of 1805 shows that the Duke of Norfolk continued to buy castings and flat ropes of him, and his son seems to have found service at the Duke's collieries. Whether or not Curr prospered, he and his predecessors in the development of the railway certainly deserved well of their fellows; for they did more than any philanthropist of their day to lighten the lot of the most heavily pressed grades of underground labour, the youthful putters and drivers.[9] Not only was the individual relieved, but the proportion of workers engaged in this onerous branch of mining was substantially reduced. At the beginning of the eighteenth century far more labour was employed in moving, than in getting, the coal. At Bo'ness, in 1681, there were 37 bearers to 13 hewers, and at Dunmore, in 1769, 74 bearers to 28 hewers.[10] Even in Northumberland and Durham, where the crude system of bearing had long been given up, there were at Charlaw, in 1769, 10 barrowmen to 10 hewers; and at Stanley Kiphill Colliery the coal hewn by 70 pitmen required the services of 50 putters and 27 drivers to move it to the pit bottom.[11] But, as the direct result of the improvements in underground carriage, by the early years of the nineteenth century the hewers almost always outnumbered the drawers of coal: at Heaton Colliery, in 1806, there were 143 hewers to 84 putters; at Middleton (Yorks), in 1808, 90 hewers to 60 putters; at Washington, in 1813, 67 hewers to 40 putters; and at Gatherick, in 1823, 12 hewers to 6 putters.[12] Such was the immediate result of the work of John Curr. The final result of his invention, like that of Sir Humphry Davy's, was unfortunately less satisfactory. For the wheeled corves could be moved by young children, and though at most places horses were retained to draw a train of corves along the main gates, in some Scottish pits boys were substituted for horses.[13] Moreover, in most of the coalfields the boys and girls who dragged or pushed the wheeled corves from the working places to the underground railways in the main roads were of more tender years than their predecessors who dragged the sledges. [1] Norfolk MSS. [2] Curr, The Coal Viewer (1797), 8. [3] Greenwell and M'Murtrie, The Radstock Portion of the Somerset Coalfield, 6. [4] Report of John Buddie to the Duke of Norfolk, April 7, 1787. Norfolk MSS. [5] Letter of Curr to R. Dearman, May 25, 1793. Horsehay MSS. [6] Report of John Buddie and John Stephenson to Vincent Eyre, Esq., on Attercliffe Common Colliery, April 24, 1789. Norfolk MSS. [7] Letter of John Curr to the Duke of Norfolk, October 23, 1801. Norfolk MSS. The industrial activities of friendly societies are exhibited also in the purchase, in November 1795, of a corn-mill. Sheffield Register (1830). [8] Norfolk MSS., Report of Inventions by John Curr, October 23, 1801. [9] The gratitude of a later generation broke out in verse: God bless the man wi' peace and plenty, That furst invented metal plates; Draw out his years to five times twenty, Then slide him throughout the heevenly gates. For if the human frame to spare Frae toil an' pain ayont conceevin', Ha'e aught te de wi' gettin' there, Aw think he mun gan striate et heeven From THOMAS WILSON, The Pitman's Pay. [10] Barrowman, loc cit. 274–5. [11] Charles Bond in App. B; Bulman and Redmayne, Colliery Working and Management, 40. [12] MSS. in Bell and Watson Collections, Newcastle; Kenneth Vickers, History of Northumberland, xi. 426. [13] "It was when the iron railways came in that they were putting away the horses and brought boys in to draw", Rept. of Child. Empl. Comm. (1842), 363, eve. Geo Lindsay.

If the housing was "back-to-back" with a coal cellar, I would think the rear houses would also have a coal-chute. The last "back-to-back" in Sheffield was put up in 1864.

This article first appeared in the transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society Vol 11 p65, and is reproduced here by kind permission of the Society (Notes in [] are listed at the end) THE HISTORY OF GRINDERS' ASTHMA IN SHEFFIELD by M. P. JOHNSON The position of Sheffield, located as it is on the edge of the Pennine range, has always played an important part in the development and growth of the town. The township of: Sheffield, during the greater part of the period under review, was within the much larger parish which included five other townships. [1] The cutlery industry developed within the larger parish. The river Don is the main arterial river, navigable to Sheffield from 1815 onwards by canal. Into the Don flow four other rivers - the Rivelin, Loxley, Porter and Sheaf-all entering from the west. The area looks: Like a man's right hand. If you place your right hand, palm uppermost and your arm in a north-easterly direction with fingers widely spread, you have a rough map of the ancient parish, the fingers being streams running into the Don.[2] It was along all these rivers that Sheffield's industries developed, using water for their source of power, and at least 150 mills were active in 1800.[3] The population of Sheffield, like that of other northern industrial towns, grew very rapidly during the nineteenth century - from 45,000 in 1801 to 324,000 in 1891- and this resulted in the physical expansion of the town.[4] Also like other towns in the industrial north, it suffered from dirt and disease, overcrowding in certain areas and insanitary conditions.[5] Sheffield was within easy access of coal, fringing as it did the South Yorkshire coalfield, and iron ore was close at hand, whilst the moors of the Pennines provided an ample supply of cheap sandstone from which grindstones were made. Cutlery was manufactured by the traditional manual process that involved three main stages - forging, grinding and handlemaking.[6] Forging was the original shaping of the steel to the required pattern, and was performed by one or two men (depending on the size of the object) repeatedly heating and hammering in the forge. Once forging was completed, the blade was passed to the grinder who was normally self-employed, renting a trough in one of the many wheels situated around Sheffield. The mill where the grinding of iron and steel articles was performed was known locally as `the wheel' which was generally the property of one person who let it to different grinders. The various rooms of the wheel were called `hulls'. Each hull contained a number of troughs[7] and any one grinder could have rented one or more troughs, or possibly an entire hull, in which case he would then either have sub-let, or employed apprentices to work the stones. There was complete instability in the wheel, in the sense that it would not be likely that the same group of men would work in the same hull for any length of time - faces would change weekly.[8] In 1794 there were 83 grinding wheels containing 1,415 troughs, employing 1,800 grinders, [9] and a grinder would specialise in one branch of the trade, largely because of the differences in the stages involved and in the sizes of wheels required for grinding different articles. The scythe grinders, for example, were the only ones to have the wheel rotating towards them, while a much larger stone was required for grinding a file than for a penknife blade. The size of the stone could vary from two or three inches in diameter to about six feet. The purpose of grinding was to remove surplus metal, to produce a cutting edge and to obtain a smooth polished surface. The grinder could grind either dry or wet: when wet the stone ran through water in the trough, and saws, files, sickles, table knives, edge tools and scythes were ground in this manner. Forks, needles, brace bits and spindles were entirely dry ground, while scissors and razors went through both processes. During grinding, a dozen quill back razors which weighed 21b. 4ozs. when roughly forged, would be reduced to llb. 15ozs. on the dry stone and to llb. l0ozs. on the wet. [10] Thus, in shaping the razors l0ozs. of steel would be released, and the stone of 7" diameter would be reduced by about 1". Dry grinding was much quicker than wet and became common only during the nineteenth century due to the diminution of wage rates to men paid by the piece.[11] Because there was much more dust thrown into the air during dry grinding, it was a far greater health hazard than its wet counterpart, but if, as was not infrequently the case, wet and dry processes were carried out in the same hull, all men suffered equally. In fork grinding, which was acknowledged to be the worst branch, Dr. G. C. Holland found in 1843 that of 97 men employed, only 30 attained the age of 30 years; and he thus concluded that two thirds of the men died before reaching their thirtieth birthday.[12] In 1865, Dr. J. C. Hall of the Sheffield Public Hospital recorded that the average age of all living fork grinders was 29, scissor grinders 32, edgetool and wool shears grinders 33, and table knife grinders 35. [13] When work was done on a wet stone a large quantity of the dust mixed with the water and was thrown on to the splash back, or fell to the floor, resulting in wet, slippery conditions, but the air was not unbearable with dust, as it was with dry grinding. The stone used was natural sandstone, composed of uniform grains of quartz set in natural siliceous cement. Millstone grit was extensively used in the Sheffield area and the stone would consist of 70-95% silica, 6-15 % alumina with some small amounts of iron titanium oxides, lime, potash and soda.[14] The life of a stone varied, but generally 4-8 weeks was the average in table knife grinding and 2-3 weeks in file grinding. At his stone, the grinder sat on a saddle or horsing built of wooden blocks, so that it was possible to raise or lower it according to the size of the stone. Ablock would be taken out as the stone diminished. The saddle was built up to the stone, almost touching it, and was chainedto the floor in an attempt to give some resistance if the wheel burst - a safety device which was introduced around 1750. After the initial grinding on a sandstone wheel, the article was dried in front of the fire and then passed to the glazier wheel, which was made of wood and could be anything from 4 inches to 4 feet in diameter, covered with leather and dressed with glue and emery. A tremendous amount of dust was thrown up during this process, which was designed to produce a better finish. At the back of the hull was the polisher, another wooden wheel which revolved much slower than the others so as not to generate heat sufficient to ruin the temper of the blade; `Crocus' (iron oxide) was used for polishing, and it was here that the apprentice usually began his training. Many grinders found the dust from polishing far more distressing than that from the stone, because it was much finer. Grinders' asthma, as a disease, developed during the eighteenth century, although grinding had been a part of the manufacture of cutlery as long as cutlery had been made – and most have heard of Chaucer's `Sheffield thwitel' . Until the beginning of the eighteenth century grinding was not a distinct and separate branch of the cutlery trade, but was performed by men who were also engaged in various other departments, with the result that an individual was exposed to a wheel only for short periods.[15] It was the change in the division of labour in the early eighteenth century that led to grinding becoming a distinct occupation, and by 1750, several grinders were observed to have died of a similar complaint that was peculiar to that trade although it was by no means common. Before the nineteenth century conditions of work assisted in making the dust a minimum of nuisance. The men were in large hulls with 6-8 troughs open to the roof, where because of their dependence on water power, the working day in summer was reduced to about five hours, as frequently there was insufficient power to drive the wheel. Furthermore, because of that need for water, the mills were built on the several rivers of Sheffield and could be anything from two to five miles from the town centre. If a man chose to live close to his work he would have the benefit of a cottage with a garden and healthy outlook, where he could spend much of his time in the fresh air during leisure hours and whilst there was a shortage of water. Alternatively, if he lived in town, he would have the benefit of a good walk to and from work - anything up to ten miles per day. The tendency was for there to be no glass in the windows of the wheel, with the result that air could get in and dust could get out, and Holland found that many of the wheels by the rivers were, in the 1840s, well ventilated due to lack of maintenance. Dilapidated roofs, shattered doors and broken or open windows all assisted in the movement of air through the building. [16] The Cutlers' Company, the body governing the cutlery trade until 1814, when an Act of Parliament deprived it of virtually all its powers, had had some influence in controlling ill health. Its restrictions on membership, apprenticeship and the number of working days, although coming under severe pressure in its later days, had been effective in earlier years. [17] Two major changes brought about the growth of the grinders' disease: Firstly the expansion of the dry grinding, which was virtually unknown in the Sheffield area prior to 1700, and only became really prevalent post 1800, and secondly, the introduction of the steam driven wheel, the first of which appeared in Sheffield in 1786.[18] Fifty years later, half of the ninety working wheels were steam driven. By 1908, only eight water wheels were left from a total of over 300.[19] The steam driven wheels were capable of employing much greater numbers of men than were the water driven. Most were two stories high (although some were higher) with a hull containing 8-10 individuals, not necessarily in the same branch of grinding. The largest wheels, Soho and Union, in 1833 gave employment to about 250 people, charging a rent of between 9-17 guineas per annum.[20] The growth of grinding during the nineteenth century took place entirely within the steam driven wheels which were erected in the town - a town rapidly becoming more unhealthy as smoke was churned from chimneys. The new wheels could' be worked all the year round, needing nothing save the efficiency of the steam engine, which was run 14-16 hours per day. The new buildings were waterproof, with glass in the windows, and were generally airtight. The grinder was shut up in a dust filled room for over ten hours per day, almost every day. The number of men who suffered those conditions rose dramatically fro m around 1,800 in 1794[21] to 2,500 in 1819[22] continuing to rise until Dr. Hall counted 5,000 in 1857, with the largest numbers in table, pen and pocket knife grinding.[23] The usual arrangement in the steam driven wheel was to have wet grinding downstairs and the lighter branches upstairs, although there were examples of wet and dry grinding in the same room, in which case the larger articles were at the front, and smaller ones at the back. Grinders' asthma was caused by the grinders breathing in the small particles of dust and metal that he created not only while grinding, but also in other processes essential to his trade. When a stone arrived from the quarry, it was only roughly shaped, and the first task of the grinder was to `race' the stone - that is, to make it round and true. He did that by placing it on its axle in its trough and revolving it slowly, with a steel bar ¾” square and tapered at one end, held up to it. The process could take about one hour for a small stone, and up to six hours for a large one, and was always done dry, even by wet grinders. During `racing' large quantities of silica would fill the air, and the entire hull would suffer. `Rodding' was the holding of a flat iron rod against the stone in order to remove ingrained iron, dirt and other unwanted particles. The skill of the grinder determined how often it was necessary to `rod', but it was not uncommon for `rodding' to be done 30-40 times per day, each occasion taking about ten minutes. If a large piece of metal got embedded in the stone, it would have been necessary, in something like scythe grinding, to take 2-3 inches off a stone six feet in diameter. It was also necessary to smooth the surface of the stone occasionally in order to prepare for `hacking', which was the cutting of a pattern onto the surface of the stone. Notches were cut all round the surface and any `high spots' were removed. Hacking was done with the belt off and so the dust created was not so great. All the operations previously described were performed by both wet and dry grinders, therefore none could escape the dust altogether.[24] Dr. Holland's analysis of 1843 [25] found that in most cases the dust originally settled on the mucous membrane of the air passages, which explained the early symptoms that he found hoarseness, thickening and tenderness about the larynx and trachea, wheezing, a hoarse, dry cough and tightness of the chest. The long-continued irritation prevented the normal procedure of the mucous membrane assisting in expelling the particles, and thus the dust accumulated in the bronchial tubes, and inflamed the then less effective mucous membrane. Eventually, the mucous tissues were permanently thickened and difficulty in breathing resulted. This theory contradicted the accepted idea of the time that dust was limited to the air tubes only, and that it was always removed by the secretions of the mucous membrane. [26] 'However, two structural changes occurred in the body which in many cases helped to prolong the life of the victim. Firstly, there was an enlargement of the bronchial tubes, and secondly, an expansion of pulmonary tissue. The grinder, when he died, frequently exhibited an active inflammation in some of the chest organs, while in some men the pericardium [the sac enclosing the heart] was thickened and adherent to the heart. It was also common for strong attachments between the pleura [the membrane round the lungs] and the internal surface of the thorax to be evident. The apprentice frequently possessed the first signs of the disease - irritation in the larynx, trachea and bronchial tubes, accompanied by a slight occasional cough, but, as these symptoms in no way interfered with the capacities required to pursue his living and daily life, no thought was given to them. Once the preliminary stage of the disease had developed the grinders fell into two categories. Firstly, those who were delicate in stature and had entered grinding at an early age (boys could begin at 8-9 years), were undernourished and living in poor conditions. As grinders they would be scantily clad, frequently having to wear wet clothes (especially if they worked in close proximity to a wet grinder) and thus became easy prey to rheumatic fever. They often worked themselves to a sweat and then immediately went out into the cold. The disease developed rapidly in this type of person, with the several stages very short and death coming early, quite probably linked with constitutional tuberculosis. Alternatively, those of a more robust nature, or who entered the trade later in life, might have the preliminary symptoms for several years before any development occurred. The early symptoms might be seated different places in individuals. If they were in the larynx it caused a change in the tone of voice, whereas in the bronchial tubes they could cause a cough, with possible shortness of breath. As the early symptoms developed, sooner or later the cough and breathing difficulties became more prominent. The body sank forward, taking on permanently that attitude and aspect employed whilst leaning over the stone. The slightest exertion brought with it an extreme shortness of breath, and the man became worried, with a quickened pulse, a regular thick opaque expectoration and pains in the chest aggravated on exertion or deep breathing. The appetite and digestive system continued to function well, and the chest of the grinder sounded well on percussion, a state opposite to that expected in ordinary tuberculosis, where the cough, breathing, and other symptoms were less pronounced. It was at this stage that the grinder and those around him believed him to be suffering attacks of asthma, but post- mortem examination showed that the real reasons were the enlarged bronchial tubes and expanded pulmonary tissue. It was also at that stage that the spitting of blood became a regular feature.[27] In the final stage of the disease the body became permanently bent forward and the shoulders exceedingly rounded. Breathing was short and difficult, while expectoration became more voluminous -very often being black and about the size of a pea. Compared with tuberculosis, there was a more constant, lurching cough, less emaciation and diarrhoea, and virtually no ulcerous condition of the mouth. Once in the above condition, the victim died from long-continued suffering and exhaustion. ' The majority of the grinders suffered a rasping cough for years before any other symptoms developed. When these men died it was noticed that there had been less wasting of the body, less diarrhoea, but more oppressed breathing and voluminous expectoration than in a minority of cases who had virtually no cough or expectoration, but rapid emaciation prior to breathlessness, and a flat contracted chest. The probable explanation of this fact was that some grinders were already suffering from constitutional tuberculosis before contracting grinders' asthma. In these cases, the `asthma' acted as a stimulant and bed for the development of tuberculosis and other complaints. In fact, Dr. Holland recorded that, in a vast number of cases, the asthmatic stage was never really perceptible, but only tubercular wasting.[28] Once weakened, the grinder was subject to pneumonia and pleurisy. The position of the body during grinding allowed the lungs no freedom at all, and that affected the blood circulation. Dr. Holland also found that the grinder was frequently troubled with gravel - a fact for which he could not account.[29] The two types of sufferers were illustrated by Dr. Hall in 1863 as two of his case studies.[30]. The first, the long-suffering grinder, he described as follows: Henry Longdon, aged 53, razor grinder (dry) has worked at Marsden's wheel; used a fan part of his time; worked hard when he was able, but has laboured under grinders' asthma for many years; he is about 5 feet 4 inches; countenance very sallow; hair iron grey; he stoops :a good deal; he complains of the greatest possible difficulty in breathing, has had a cough a great many years and suffered 2-3 time from haemoptysis [spitting or coughing of blood]. The chest measures 32 inches and expands to 32¾ inches, the mobility is greater on the right side than on the left side; there is considerable dullness on both sides of the chest, more particularly on the left, and the surface is a good deal depressed; the movements of the chest, more especially the costal ones [of the ribs], are impaired; the others - posterior diameter and the superficial width of the side, are diminished, and there is a marked parietal resistance [of the chest wall]. The percussion sound in some parts is tubercular and the respiration weak and unequal in quality, harsh and bronchial; in two or three places a dif-fused blowing sound can be heard. The cough was constant; there was not so much expectoration at the time; there was thirst and anorexia [loss of appetite]. The night perspirations were insignificant but the loss of flesh was considerable. He died 4th March 1867. The grinder who suffered only a short period and died early was described in the following manner: Frederick Clark, aged 19, a razor grinder (dry). The disease had made a considerable progress; he had been in the wheel from an early age. He has had a cough and great difficulty in breathing for several years; he states that he has occasionally spit blood; his dyspnoea [breathlessness] is aggravated on the slightest exertion; there is oedema [swelling] of the feet and ankles; the clavicles [collarbones]are prominent, and there is a deep hollow between them and the upper ribs; the respiration is feeble on the left side, and a series of clicking crepit¬ations may be heard during both the respiratory movements; there is a cavity of considerable size at the upper part of the right lung. He died on the first of November, 1854. Post mortem examination showed doctors precisely what had happened in the chest during the illness. Firm, extensive, adhesions between lungs and pleura costalis [part of the parietal pleura lining the chest wall] were visible, and expected, considering the liability to inflammatory attacks of the chest that went untreated even by rest. The bronchial glands, at the forking point with the trachea, were enlarged, and converted into a `black, hard, gritty substance varying in size from half a marble to a large hazel nut'. Dr. Holland then continued his description: In cutting them the sound is precisely the same as if the scalpel were directed against a somewhat soft stone; and when portions are cut away the surface is black and polished, and in passing the edge of the scalpel over it, it grates as if entirely composed of such material. Such masses are commonly detected in grinders who have belonged to the most destructive branches.[31] Similar substances to the above had also been found in the lungs - varying in size from a currant to a bean, whilst in some cases the lungs themselves looked as though blackcurrants had been distributed throughout the whole substance of them[32]. A further frequent occurrence was the presence in the lungs of a black or dark fluid. A portion of a lung of a pen blade grinder was described by Dr.C.Favell in 1843 as follows: The external surface was thickly studded with small black spots about the size of currants. Similar bodies were also discovered in the internal structure of the lungs and here and there they have aggravated so as to form large masses which were very dense and retained the impression of the knife when cut into. In the superior lobe on the left lung, there was a large hardened mass about the size of a hen's egg, which exhibited when incised appearances similar to those already noted. The branches of the vessels, arteries, veins and bronchi were considerably dilated and the lining membrane of the latter much injected. There was a slight emphysima [inflammation] at the edges of the lungs, and at the posterior surface of the inferior lobe. The bronchial glands were enlarged, and of a black colour and several of them contained calcereous matter.[33] Dr. D. Burgess, a surgeon at the Sheffield Public Hospital, found, in 1902, almost identical pathological features to those found by Favell, Holland and Hall in the 1840s and 1850s.[34]. He mentioned the apices of the lungs were more likely than the base to be the seat of nodules that formed black amorphous masses, and in extreme cases the entire upper lobe might be a solid black mass that in section presented a mottled appearance from the innumerable modules, thickened bronchi and pigmented airless lining tissue. He found the pleura adherent to the chest wall and frequently a tubercular cavity at the apex or elsewhere. The treatment available to the grinder was of little value without his taking the initiative and leaving the industry - a thing very difficult to do, although not unheard of.[35] The recommended cure for phthisis [wasting] advertised in The Lancet in 1828 was of little use – a diet of vegetables and milk, warm clothing, a temperature of 60°-68°F and residence in the South of France or Italy.[36] Dr. Holland had a more practical solution, though its effectiveness in providing a cure must be doubted. If the patient attended a clinic in the early stages when he had a cough and expectoration only, and while the chest sounded normal, then Dr. Holland believed the repeated application of six leeches, occasionally followed by blisters, relieved the symptoms.[37] However, it was a rare occurrence for a grinder to see a doctor before he was too ill for work, when, if he would leave the industry, although never regaining his former health, he could be relieved by expectorants, and tonics.[38] The emetics used helped to relieve the bad cough but could produce depression. There was, however, no cure for the pulmonary affections, although the expectorant could help the patient secure tolerable nights. Thus, as the disease developed and got hold in the lungs and bronchial tubes it became impossible to do anything but help relieve the suffering. The most useful emetics and expectorants were tincture of ipecacuanha, which acted as an irritant in the stomach and produced sickness, but which in small doses acted as a stimulant to the mucous membrane of the respiratory passages. Oxymel of squill produced a stimulating effect on the mucous membrane and syrup of poppies relieved a cough. Camphor mixture, mucilage, decoction of liquorice and liverwort were used as the medium.[39] Holland believed the most efficacious combination in the form of pills was equal parts of storax, the compound of ipecacuanha and blue pill, two or three taken at bed time, and one twice or three times per day. There was in former times a reluctance to apply tonics because of the cough and hurried breathing, but Holland would recommend the most powerful vegetable tonics: When we consider that the disease is not one of inflammatory character save the superficially seated inflammation but consists in structural modification such as the enlargement of the bronchial tubes and air cells and thickening and often softening condition of the mucous membrane of the air passages from long continued irritation and condensation of the pulmonary tissue, or a slowly progressive disorganisation of the lungs, tonics will not appear inadmissible.[40] When the normal diet of the grinder was considered tonics were of even greater value. The greatest importance was placed on cinchona used as an infusion and in substance, with some extraordinary results. Sulphuric or nitric acid was usually added to the solution for infusion - whilst in substance it was given in port wine.[41] Holland reported that some patients lived for several years with that treatment, when previously they were on the verge of death. Grinders' asthma apart, the grinder was subject to two other physical problems. The breaking of a stone whilst in use was unfortunately common, causing frightful injuries and even death. Breakages were caused by one of several things, but usually they were within the control of the grinder. The main cause was the wheel revolving too quickly - 3,300 feet per minute was recommended for a wet stone, 4,000 feet per minute for a dry.[42] At that speed any departure from the circular shape would lead to inordinate pressure on parts of the stone, resulting in breakage. It was to counteract that situation that rodding a stone was done so frequently. Further, if a wet grinder allowed his stone to remain immersed in water when it was not in use, the water would soak into the sandstone and considerably weaken it. The earliest method of fastening a stone was by passing the axle through a square hole and wedging it and that gave the stone no support, but from around 1850 plates were used which were clamped to the stone and they were much safer, with far less likelihood of breakage. The second problem was damage to the eyes, for although glasses were available from the 1830s onwards, few grinders would wear them, with the result that frequently a grinder got small particles in his eyes - a fact emphasized by the number of patients attending the specialist eye clinics in the town.[43] It was the grinders' asthma, however, that caused most of the concern throughout the nineteenth century, during which time it was believed that dry grinding was a much greater health hazard than wet grinding, which was thought to he relatively safe. When the statistics collected by Dr. Holland and Dr. Hall in the mid-nineteenth century were examined, the above statement appeared to be true, with the result that the early effort of those interested in the health of grinders was put into making dry grinding, especially that of forks, a safer occupation. In the 1820s, working on what he saw happening to needle grinders in Hathersage,[44], J. H. Abraham invented what he called the `Grinders' Life Preserver' for which he was awarded a gold medal of the Society of Arts in 1822. It consisted of a screen of canvas that divided the room across the grindstone, with an opening directly above the stone, and magnets were placed between the screen and the grinder in order to pick up fine particles of metal. The grinder also wore a magnet round his neck. However, by 1824, only twenty-four grinders were known to be using the `box' of Mr. Abraham's, but when a fan was fitted a little later on, there was a distinct improvement in the number of users. William Calton invented a fan for use in conjunction with Abraham's device, but on the whole, grinders never really took to these methods. For any safety measure to be widely adopted, it had to satisfy three demands. Firstly, it must be acceptable to the grinders. However good it was, if the grinder was not prepared to use it, then it was of no value. Secondly, it must be cheap.[45] The grinder had to rent his hull, and pay for any improvements, and he was unlikely to pay for expensive, health saving machinery. Finally, it must be easy to install and maintain. It was unfortunately the case that, before an efficient widely used system of ventilation was in operation, many men had to die from the grinders' disease. The `asthma' reached its peak during the mid-nineteenth century, with the twenty years between Holland's and Hall's reporting seeing virtually no improvement in the situation at all. There were some good wheels with excellent health records; for example Joseph Rodgers & Sons had a ‘perfect system of ventilation' in 1841, and the Union wheel also had a very good reputation, where Dr. Hall found the average age of death over the period 1859-64 to be forty-six.[46] However, forty years after Abraham's original invention, the vast majority of grinders were no better off than they were before. The need for life saving health improvements in the numerous small grinders' wheels was - particularly emphasized by the work of J. B. White, who wrote the section on grinding in the fourth Report of the Children's Employment Commission in 1865. The report proposed far-reaching safety measures, the restriction of working hours of young persons and the prohibition of grinding for children under eleven. The latter point received general support although the document itself came in for stinging criticism by the Sheffield Town Council who presented a counter report in 1866.[47] The Factory and Workshops Acts of 1857 prohibited work by children under eleven in grinding mills, while the hours of young persons and women were limited to twelve hours per day. Factory inspectors (for the first four years of the Act, the local Sanitary Inspectors) were given the right to enforce the installation of ventilation fans, and the initial work was with the dry grinders, who gradually began to install ventilation systems, but the major hurdle to tight control of this improvement was the lease system. As the workers leased a hull from the owner, and there were several grinders in a hull (and even more in the wheel), it was very difficult to apportion blame and responsibility for not upholding the Acts. Prosecution therefore became irksome and difficult, and it became clear that until the wheel owner was responsible for the ventilation, then little could be done. The 1867 Act was inadequate in many ways, not least in that it was permissive, with the result that in some places, such as Sheffield, the local sanitary authority absolutely refused to administer the Act. Also, nothing had been learned from earlier factory acts, and although the work of young persons and women was regulated to twelve hours per day (6½ hours for children), the period of work might be taken any time between 5 am-9 pm (6 am-8 pm for children), making evasion of the Act, and shift work, very easy. The Consolidating Act of 1878 brought the workshops and factories under the same rules; and in 1901 the Factory and Workshops Act determined that factories and workshops `must be ventilated in such a manner as to render harmless, so far as is practicable, all the gases, vapours, dust and other impurities generated in the course of the manufacturing process or handicraft carried on therein that may be injurious to health'.[48] Also, the Inspector could direct that a fan be installed in a workshop where grinding, glazing or polishing was followed. The most important clause was that the responsibility for the state of the factory or workshop fell upon the owner - not the lessee. Every wheel to be erected after January 1st 1896 was to have at least three feet between troughs in light grinding, or four feet in heavy, with six feet in front of the trough.[49] The Act was designed to relieve the dust problem and to reduce the number of injuries from bursting stones. By 1900 the majority of dry grinders were using a fan, although many failed to maintain them properly, but the condition of the wet grinder had not changed at all during the nineteenth century, and the Act of 1901 had no regulation concerning that branch of the trade. However the most significant decision came in 1908 when the Secretary of State announced that the grinding of metals and racing of stones, was to be classed as a dangerous trade.[50] He went on then to make certain regulations, and from 11th October 1909 it became the duty of those employed in the trade to keep their workshops clean. No dry grinding was to take place without adequate appliances for the interception of dust as near its place of origin as possible. The equipment was to include a hood to catch the dust, a duct sufficiently large and air-tight to do its job efficiently, and a fan to extract the dust. When racing grindstones, respirators had to be worn, and the racing must be done in a room on its own, not to be used again until thoroughly cleaned. There were regulations also concerning the belts and belt races. They had to be cleaned of dust weekly and walls had to be limewashed every 14 months. The emphasis on dry grinding illustrated that even in 1909, that section of the trade was still looked upon as being the worst, although by that date it must have been very questionable as to whether dry grinding was less healthy than wet. The installation of the fan had at last made a significant difference. It was the duty of the tenement owner to provide and maintain 'the fan and duct, the respirator for racing, and be responsible for general cleanliness. Still, soon after the regulations of 1909 had come into force, an enquiryinto the grinding of metals and cleaning of castings was setup. Not having completed its work before the outbreak of World War I, it did not manage to report until 1923, recommencing its enquiries from the beginning after the War.[51] Unfortunately, only five dry grinders from the Sheffield area would allow themselves to be medically tested, and thus the results are not comparable with Hall's or Holland's work. However, the observation of the two reporters, and the general conclusion about grinding, are of value. By 1923, it was known that it was fibrosis or silicosis of the lung that was in fact, being described and, hopefully prevented.[52] The significance of the disease, apart from its effects on the respiratory system, was that it weakened the system and made a ready resting place for tuberculosis, which was the real killer. Thus, although the nineteenth century reformers had been on the right lines in preventing the inhalation of dust, it was necessary to supplement them with other measures. Macklin and Middleton took fibrosis of the lungs as the measure of the affect of the occupation, and found that by far the worst affected, with 73.97% of those examined suffering from it, was the wet sandstone hand grinder. The signs began to appear during the first five years of employment until, after 20 years, nearly 80% were affected. After 40 years all showed signs of fibrosis. The next worst sufferers were the machine wet and dry sandstone grinders, but they were not half way to the average of the wet hand grinders. (These conclusions were arrived at after examination involving chest expansion and stethoscope.) The usual finding when `moderate' fibrosis was present, was a chest expansion of l-2", much diminished air entry over all areas of the lungs but especially the bases, and possibly (though exceptionally difficult to diagnose) a move towards tuberculosis. The grinder himself would complain of dyspnoea. The wet sandstone hand grinders also showed the highest proportion with tuberculosis -7.7% of those examined (compared with 2.76°,% of all others).[53] Bronchial catarrh was worst amongst glaziers and dressers with 27.56% and 25.37% respectively. The wet sandstone grinders showed 14.94% affected - although they were the only group to show any definite relationship between the disease and number of years employed. The incidence was more frequent in early years than later, falling as duration of employment increased. The opposite was true of two related conditions, bronchitis and pulmonary catarrh, and Macklin and Middleton concluded that fibrosis and bronchitis and pulmonary catarrh portrayed the pathological history of the grinder's lung: ... an early fibrosis, insiduous and ingravescent, disabling and at the same time predisposing to tuberculosis on the one hand, or pulmonary catarrh which may be regarded as a form of non-tuberculus chronic pneumonia.[54] The enquiry also distinguished three types of fibrosis, but far the most important was silicosis - a form of fibrosis primarily caused by inhaling silica, related to a high incidence of, and mortality from, pulmonary tuberculosis and non-tuberculous chronic pneumonia. Clearly since the 1860s the health hazard of dry grinding had steadily diminished until by the 1920s, wet grinding, which had previously been considered a 'safe' occupation, was very much in the limelight as an unhealthy job. The introduction of the fan and legal requirements in the hull had saved many dry grinders, but not the wet. It was not possible to use a fan with wet grinding due to the size of the objects ground, the angle of the grinder's body, and the rapid reduction of the stone's diameter. A good cross ventilation was all Macklin and Middleton could suggest as a method of improving the lot of the wet grinder. The major improvements came, however, in the mid and late 1920s. Already by 1923 some branches of grinding had gone over to composite stones - pen and pocketknife blades, razors, scissors and some surgical instruments for example - but some such as sheep shears, scythes, forks, sickles and saws were still firmly entrenched on the old sandstone wheel. If only all could be persuaded to use the silica-free composite stones, grinders' asthma could become a thing of the past. The major stimulant to that move came in 1927 with a `silicosis scheme' which made employers of sandstone grinders liable to pay compensation in cases of silicosis or tuberculosis. [55] Therefore, when insurance rates against this liability shot up 7½% against wages, there was a wholesale change to composite wheels between 1927-9, even though they were ten times as dear, costing between £50 and £60, and lasted only five times as long. Soon, however, mass production brought down the cost of stones. The final change was the use of machinery for grinding, introduced gradually between the two World Wars. Costly, needing a mechanic, and able to use only good standardized forgings, the machine in return offered much quicker work (five gross per day as opposed to one and a half hand ground), a strong metal cover in case the stone burst, and no silica. It was to the composite stone and the machine that the wet grinder could look for his life preserver, just as the dry grinder had looked to the fan. The history of grinders' asthma spanned 200 years, and during that time, thousands of men suffered its effects - usually culminating in death. The dry grinder attracted the early attention of medical men, whose reports stimulated interest and concern for the grinders' plight, but produced nothing in the way of a medical solution. It was left to technological innovation, with the development of the fan, to remove the worst evils of dry grinding. Only with the national improvement in life expectancy around the turn of the last century did it become appreciated that wet grinding was also a serious health hazard. Although medical progress had been made, still no cure was forthcoming, and it was again left to technological advancement to prevent, rather than cure, the grinders' asthma. Thus a disease that was unknown in 1750 had almost completely disappeared by 1950. NOTES 1 These were Upper Hallam, Nether Hallam, Ecclesall, AttercIiffe-cum-Darnall and Brightside. They were locally known as Bierlows. 2 Edward R Wickham, Church and People in an Industrial Society, London, 1969. p.17. 3 For details of these, see W T. Miller, The Water-Mills of Sheffield, Sheffield, 1949, 4th ed. 4 See Population Tables, H.M.S.O. 1852, Vol. 2 Division IX p.8. for 1801-1851. Thereafter, Decennial CensusReturns, .M.S.0.1861,1$71,1881,1891 and 1901. Reprinted byIrishUniversityPress,1970:¬ 5 This was at its worst between cI840-1870. See for examples J. Hayward and G. Lee, Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Borough of Sheffield, Sheffield, 1848, and S. Pollard, History of Labour in Sheffield, Liverpool, 1959. 6 See G. I. H. Lloyd, The Cutlery 'Trades, London, 1913, reprinted 1968, chapter 2. 7 The word trough had two meanings. Strictly speaking itwas a cast iron container sunk into the floor; which held the water for wet grinding and into which the stone just dipped. In a broader sense it included all the grinding wheels behind the original trough containing the grindstone. Hence, every¬thing in one belt race became known as the `trough' or `trow'. 8 Hirers paid a weekly rent which covered the cost of power used and any artificial light. As the grinder may be a subtenant, an employee or a `master' it was difficult to maintain any stability. See H. Lush, Report to H.M. Secretary of State for Home Department or Draft Regulation Proposed to be made for Factories in which Grinding of Metals and Racing of Grindstone is Carried on, H.M.5.0., 1909, p. 3. 9 G. I. H. Lloyd, op cit, pp. 443; 157. 10 J. C. Hall, On the Prevention & Treatment ofSh.effield Grinders' Disease, London, 1957, p. 16. 11 G. C. Holland, Diseases of theLungsfrom Mechanical Causes, London, 1843, p. 2. See also A Knight, `On the Grinders' Asthma', in North of England Medical & Surgical Journal, 1830, pp: 857,170-179 12 G. C. Holland, Vital Statistics of Sheffield, London, 1843, p. 193. Dr. Holland was very concerned about the incidence of grinders' asthma in the 1830s and 40s and did considerable research into the disease. 13 J. C: Hall, Trades of Sheffield as Influencing Life and Health and more Particularly File Cutters & Grinders, London, 1866. Also J. C. Hall, Prevention, p. 22. 14 E. L. Macklin and E. L. Middleton, Report on the Grinding of Metal and Cleaning of Castings with Special Reference to theEffects of dustlnhalation upon the Workers, London, H.M.S.0.;1923, p. 6. 15 See G. I. H: Lloyd, op. cit., p. 157. Also, A Knight, op cit, p. 86. 16 A Knight op. cit., p. 86. Also G. C. Holland, Diseases, p. 2. 17 In 1814, 54 George 111 Cap. 119 left the Company with virtually no powers at all, and had the effect of opening all branches of the cutlery trade to anyone who wished to participate. There were no longer any regulations on the number of apprentices to be employed. This dearly left a vacuum that the trade unions tried to fill in the 1850s; and 1860s, resulting in the'Sheffield Outrages'. For further details on the Cutlers Company, see G. I. H. Lloyd, op. cit., Chap. 5, and R E. Leader, The Cutlers Company ofHallamshire in the County of York, Sheffield, 1905-6. 18 A Knight, op. cit., P. 87, 19 G. I. H. Lloyd, op. cit., p. 179. 20 J. C. Hall found in 1857 the Soho wheel employed 500 men and boys in 50 hulls and the Union wheel 300-400 men and boys in 46 hulls. These were the biggest wheels and, it would appear, the best regulated. J. C. Hall, Prevention, p. 22. 21 G. I. H: Lloyd, op. cit., p.157. 22 A Knight, op. cit., P. 87. 23 J. C. Hall, Prevention, p. 22. 24 E. L. Macklin and E. L. Middleton, op. cit., p. 24. 25 G. C. Holland, Diseases, p. 4. 26 A Knight, op. cit., p. 171. 27 Several doctors in the Sheffield area were involved with the grinder and published the results of post-mortem analyses: See for-example,: J. S. Waterhouse, 'Contribution Towards the Pathology of Grinders Disease of the Lungs' in Provincial Medical Journal No.155,16th September 1843, 499-503; E. D: L. Gilliatt, `Post Mortem Appearances in a Case of Grinders' Asthma' in The Lancet, 1842, p. 408, as well as the works referred to by J. C. Halt and G. C: Holland. 28 G. C. Holland, Diseases, p. 22. 29 ibid, p. 26. 30 J. C. Hall, Prevention, pp. 39-41. 31 G. C. Holland, Diseases, p. 41. 32 ibid, p. 41. 33 C. Favell, B.M.J., 4th Nov. 1843, No. 162, p. 100. 34 Dr. D. Burgess wrote the account of the pathology and symptomology of grinders disease in S. White; `Steel Grinding', in T. Oliver's Dangerous Trades, London, 1902, pp. 409-10. 35 See for example G. C. Holland, Diseases, p. 49, also A J. Knight, op. cit., pp. 170, 172. There seemed to be a rather reckless attitude to the problem, shown by the grinders themselves. J. C. Hall quotes a grinder aged 26 saying `that he reckoned in about 2 more years at his trade, he might begin to think of dropping off his perch' adding `a fork grinder is an old crock at 30'. 36 The Lancet, April 261828. 37 G. C. Holland, Diseases, p. 46. 38 Ibid., p. 48, also A J. Knight op. cit., p. 173. 39 Ipecacuanha is the root of a Brazilian shrub containing emetics and alkaloid Squill is a Mediter¬ranean bulb. 40 G. C. Holland, Diseases, pp: 48-9. 41 Cinchona is quinine which is more soluble in acid than water. 42 E. L. Macklin and E. L. Middleton op. cit., pp. 42-3. 43 The number of private eye clinics in the town grew from 0 to 3 in the 1830s. By the 1860s the General Infirmary had a specialist eye department. 44 The average age of death of needle grinders was 19. 45 Hall says a good fan cost between £1.lOs and £3 in 1857. 46 G. C. Holland, The.Mortaliry, Suffering &-Disease of Grinders, London, 1841, p. 15. The proportion of diseased to healthy was 21 : 1. The average age of death at Joseph Rodgers & Sons 1850-65 was 29 years (43 for dry grinders only) and this compared with the following averages for the area: fork grinder 29, scissor grinders 32, edge tool grinders 33, table knife grinders 35. 47 The Council did not accept White's general conclusion taken from specific instances; and there was also some question as to whether or not White had lost some of his notes. Thus in the petition to the Queen re the White Report, the Council claimed: l. Mr. White lost part of his notes. 2. Council evidence contradicted Mr. White's. 3. There were some irregularities in the employment of children but most young children at grinding wheels were not employed, `but just with their fathd'. Their suggested changes in the law were: (a) To prohibit the employment of children under 12. ( To provide for fencing of machinery. © To prohibit dry grinding without a fan. (d) To make it compulsory for grindstones over 3ft. 6 inches in diameter to be fixed to the axle by plates. See Pollard, op. cit., p. 151 Sheffield Independent, 9 Dec. 1865, 7 Feb. 1866, 23 Sept. 1865, 28 October 1865 and 22 Sept. 1865. Also, Sheffield Council Minutes, 8 Dec. 1865. 48 Quoted by E. L. Macklin and E. L. Middleton, op. cit., p. 77. 49 See A- H. Lush, op. cit., pp. 2; 12. 50 The Act of 1901 gave the Secretary of Trade power to declare certain industries `dangerous'. By a certificate, dated 14 October 1908 the process of grinding of metals and racing of grindstone was declared dangerous. Quoted in Macklin & Middleton op.cit.,p.78 51 E. L. Macklin and E. L. Middleton, op. Cit., See also A. H. Lush, -op. cit. 52 See 5. Pollard, op cit., p: 284: ,Also A: I. G. McLaughiin Industrial Lung Diseases of lron and Steel Workers, 1950. 53 Ibid, p. 54. 54 ibid, p. 73. 55 Metal Grinding Industries (Silicosis) Scheme, 1927. S. R &y 0, 1927. No. 380.

Further to my little mention of Dent Main Colliery, and the interest that is shown in the Colliery, I would like to share the following information that was given to me in a meeting with the daughter of one of the Collieries Directors. Mr Brian Hutchinson went into partnership with Colin and Albert Pemberton and opened the pit in 1924. The entrance to the drift was set back 100 yards from the main Birley Moor Road at the bottom of Birley Wood. The drift was driven at an incline if 1 in 3.3 into the Parkgate seam of coal. In 1945 the Colliery employed 27 men underground and 11 on the surface, and at this time the manager was Mr J H Heslop. In 1947 when the mines were nationalised the N.C.B granted the pit an operating license. Because the Colliery was gas free the miners were allowed to use acetylene lamps as working lights. There were no mechanical means of Coal getting, so holes were drilled into the coal face along its length,and shots were fired which brought down the coal when it was worked by pick and shovel and loaded into tubs which were of 10 cwts capacity. Pit Ponies were used to transport materials to the coal face, and to bring full tubs of coal to the bottom of the drift where they were attached to a haulage rope to be hauled to the surface by a petrol engined winch. on reaching the surface the tubs were derailed by one man using a long pole, tipping the coal onto a screening belt,the man then joined two others to sort the coal until the next tub arrived on the surface. Dent Main was one of the last pits in the Sheffield are to use ponies, they were well looked after and regularly taken to Hackenthorpe village Blacksmiths to be re shod. The pit was known locally as Diamond Row Pit because of the close proximity of a row of miners cottages ,all of which had diamond design leaded windows. The workings at the Colliery were always in orange coloured "Ochre Water" due to the iron deposits in the workings, the water being continually pumped from the pit. The pit was very successful and supplied the local steel works in Sheffield ,and the Collieries own two lorries took coal to Blackburn Meadows Power Station at Meadowhall ,Sheffield. Mr Brian Hutchinson was the sole remaining director when the Colliery closed in the early 1970s. He was the one who drew up the plans for the workings in all areas of the mine,great credit due to him as the only instrument available to him at the time was a hand held compass.The compass and the Colliery maps are the only remaining artefacts to have survived, and are the proud possessions of his daughter Mrs Margaret Bennett who gave me permission to tell the story for future generations. KEN.

https://www.nmrs.org.uk/assets/mines/coal/yorkshire/1854/S.html

Some fascinating shots there of the pit just after it’s closure. The area with the concrete and the old coal tub looks as if it was just beyond the pictures. I’m assuming they dragged all the waste up out the way once they built the houses. About 15 years ago I do recall there being a pile of bricks in the same area which seems to have disappeared, again presumably from one of the numerous brick small sheds located in the area.

Victoria Quays (formerly Sheffield Canal Basin) is a large canal basin in Sheffield, England. It was constructed 1816–1819 as the terminus of the Sheffield Canal (now part of the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation) and includes the former coal yards of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. The basin ceased operation as a cargo port in 1970 and the site and buildings were largely neglected. A restoration and redevelopment of 1992–1994 reopened the site providing new office and business space and leisure facilities as well as berths for leisure canal boats. There are a number of Grade II listed buildings on the site. These include the original Terminal Warehouse of 1819, the Straddle Warehouse (1895–1898), a grain warehouse (c. 1860), and a curved terrace of coal merchant's offices (c. 1870).

In the days when we used coal to heat our homes many a young fossil hunter would find examples of fossilised tree leaves and ferns in the household coal....that's how I started a life time interest in geology...passed onto my son who became a geologist!

Birley East Colliery Silkstone seam abandoned 1934 Coal production ceased completely November 1943 Training centre opened and training commenced December 1943 Training stopped June 1948 Birley East branch line closed 1950 Underground and surface quipment stripped out and buildings demolished 1950-1952 Downcast shaft filled to surface Feb 1963 Upcast shaft filled to surface May 1986 Both shafts capped February 1990 Training centre buildings on Beighton Road demolished 1998

Was William also a coal dealer? Simpson William, cowkeeper and coal dealer, New George Street. From White's directory, published 1862.

Such a pity Oldmaps.co.uk have several maps that Ive never found on other map sites, particularly earlier than 1900, always seemed damned expensive to subscribe just to zoom in and still be restricted to 300 maps per month. I shall miss this site greatly, was a tremendous help in locating old pre 1900 coal mines

Coal was still the principle source of heating used in most households at that time, gas was still produced from coal, most electricity power stations were gas-fired, the principle form of propulsion on the railways was still steam generated from coal, as was indeed, the energy source that powered most of those industries still prevalent at that time, and indeed, some of the fuel used in internal-combustion engines was being generated from coal-shale. The first clean-air act wasn't passed through parliament until 1956, so I suppose that some haze would have been present in most major conurbations most of the time. However, you certainly do get the distinct impression, that when in public, that there was a tendency for people to pay much greater attention to their appearance than perhaps we do today. Brilliant footage by the way. Much enjoyed watching it.

Sounds like an early 1970's Slade album ! Well, here is the list of Pubs with no known keeper - some of these are very old and very unlikely ever to give up their secret - some opened in 2002 and I just don't have keeper information for them - any help with old or new much appreciated. Name Address Open Closed Comments Acorn 20 Burton Road 1905 1912 became a boys club Adam and Eve 17 Balaclava Street African Prince Lambert Street 1774 1883 Albion 26 Oxford Street Alexandra 23 Dover Street 1917 Alexandra 91 Dunlop Street, S9 Alexandra Hotel 42 Jericho Street, S3 All Bar One 15 Leopold Street Modern Amateur's Rest 17 Holly Street Anchor 162 Darnall Road, S9 Angler's Rest 15 Snow Lane 1833 1910 Angler's Rest 93 Richmond Park Road, S13 Still open Arena Square Attercliffe Common, S9 1998 Modern Arrow Inn Attercliffe Common Spence Broughton's widow saw her husband gibbetted from here; may be same as The Pheasant Atlas Bawtry Road, Brinsworth Aunt Sally 7 Clarkehouse Road, Broomhill Still open Modern; former Teaching Hospital Baker's Arms 127 Clarence Street 1825 Ball 182 Young Street 1835 1905 Ball Cricket Inn Road Ball Fitzalan Street Ball Solly Street 1910 Balloon Tavern 83 Trippet Lane Bank Inn 1 Penistone Road Bankers Draft 1-3 Market Place, Castle Square 1996 Still open Modern Bar 101 25 Arundel Gate Still open Bar Coast Division Street, S1 1998 Still open Old Fire Station Barcentro 32 Cambridge Street 1999 Barley Mow 99 Broomhall Street 1833 Barrow Boys Shude Hill (Under Canada House) 1980's Basset 17 Cowper Avenue, Foxhill Modern, 1950's Batemoor 1 White Thorns View, S8 Still open Modern Bay Horse 143 Milton Street 1823 1910 Bay Horse Scholes Still open Scholes ? Bay Tree 23 Snow Hill Beagle Knutton Crescent, S5 Still open Modern Beauchief Hotel 161 Abbeydale Road South, S7 Bedroom 88 West Street Still open Beeley Wood 500-502 Middlewood Road, S6 Modern Belfry Eckington Road, Beighton Still open Bethel Arms Backfields 1835 Big Tree 842 Chesterfield Road, S8 Still open Mason's Arms until 1935 Bird in Hand Church Street 1761 Probably earlier than 1761, adjacent to original Cutler's Hall Bird in Hand 624 Brightside Lane Birley Hotel 66 Birley Moor Road, S12 Still open Black Bull/Bull 26 Main Street, Aughton Still open Blacksmith's Arms 10 Sheldon Row Blacksmith's Cottage Button Lane 1874 building dated 1705 Blackstock Blackstock Road, S2 Modern Blademaker's Arms 92 Eyre Lane or Brickmaker's Arms Blue Ball Dixon Lane 1774 or Castle Foulds Blue Boar 26 Bow Street Bluwater Bar & Restaurant 18-19 Arches, Victoria Quays, Wharf Street Still open Board 6 Dixon Lane 1833 Boatman's Mission Corn Exchange Bodega High Street 1682 1940 George or George & Dragon until 1904 Boomerang Netherthorpe Modern Bottle & Barrel/Nether Edge Tavern Montgomery Road, Nether Edge 1998 Modern Bower Spring Tap 2 Bower Spring Brackley Arms 14 Brackley Street, S3 Bressingham Arms 2 Bressingham Road 1922 Brewer's Arms 26 or 36 Eyre Street Brewery House 79 Button Lane 1774 1910 Bricklayers Arms 77 Wentworth Street Brickmakers Arms/Blademakers Arms 92 Eyre Lane British Lion 38 Thomas Street 1910 Broomhall House 49 Broomhall Street Brougham Tavern Cattle Markets Brunswick House 50 Montford Street Buccaneer Bar Grand Hotel, Leopold Street, S1 Bull and ***** 1780's Bulldog/Bridge 387 Attercliffe Road/Washford Bridge, S9 1940's/50's See also Bridge Bushmaker's Arms 31 Pond Hill 1825 1917 or Tavern Cambridge Arms 73 Coal Pit Lane 1833 Captive Queen 131 Guildford Avenue, Norfolk Park now Church of the Nazarene Carpenter's Arms 19 Hereford Street Cask and Cutler 1 Henry Street Still open Cavendish 220-238 West Street 1997 Still open Former Car Hire Shop Ceylon Hotel 16 Wellington Street 1833 1917 Chacha's 32 Bowden Street Still open Chequers Fargate/Surrey Street 1833 Clarence Hotel 1 Paradise Square Clifton 79 Clifton Street 1774 Closed Shop 52-54 Commonside Still open Clown and Monkey Paradise Square Club 197 197 Brook Hill Still open Coach and Horses 16 Waingate 1825 1895 Coach and Six Haymarket 1808 Cock High Street 1686 1753 later The Star, then The Carlton 1901 Cock Castle Hill 1780 Cock and Bottle 46 Hawley Croft 1825 1896 also known as The Eagle Tavern Corner Pin 23 Burlington Street 1833 Cornerhouse/Henry's 28 Cambridge Street Still open Henry's from 1983 Cow and Calf 88 Skew Hill Lane, Grenoside Still open Cricketer's Inn 37 Sheldon Street 1839 Crimea Tavern 63 Earl Street 1841 1903 Crooked Billet Crooked Billet Yard, off High Street 1794 Cross Guns (Great Gun) 115 Franklin Street Still open Crown 6 West Bar Green 1833 Crown 1 High Street 1710 1772 Crown and Cushion 9 Tudor Street 1789 Crown and Thistle Irish Cross (bottom of Snig Hill) 1780 1901 Crown Inn High Street 1710 1772 now Church Street Crown Inn Lee Croft 1726 Crown Inn 53 Bressingham Road Cubana Trippet Lane 1990 1990's Cup Campo Lane 1872 Cutler 32-34 Cambridge Street Cutler's Arms Leighton Road Still open Modern Cyclops 101 Carlisle Street 1864 1922 Dam House Bar & Restaurant Mushroom Lane Modern Danville Hotel 1 Danville Street 1883 1925 Deep End Langsett Road 1998 Hillsborough Baths Deerstalker Deer Park Road, Stannington Modern Dempsey's 1 Hereford Street Modern Derby 53 Egerton Street 1910 Devonshire Cat Ltd Devonshire Courtyard, 49 Wellington Street 2001 Still open Modern Dickens/Le Metro/Dikkins Bar 35 Carver Street 1990's Modern, though building 1812 DNR 25-29 Arundel Gate Modern, Rock, Live Music Dog and Gun 102 Button Lane 1825 1917 Dog and Gun Nethershire, Shiregreen 1833 Dolphin 34 Adsett Street 1860 Domino Egerton Street 1970 Modern Dore Junction Abbeydale Road North Dragon Inn 67 Penistone Road 1959 Duke Inn 7 Duke Street 1833 1902 Dunlop Inn Dunlop Street, S9 Dusty Miller 69 Carlisle Street 1862 1932 Eagle and Child 28 Smithfield 1833 1917 Eagle Tavern 75 Queen Street 1825 1898 Eagle Tavern 10 Orchard Street 1912 Earl Francis Hotel 64 Manor Oaks Road Modern Earl George 61 Pavement Modern Earl Marshall 291 East Bank Road 1984 Still open East Parade Hotel 2 Campo Lane Ebenezer Tavern 42 Russell Street 1905 Economical Hotel 130 or 132 Eldon Street Elephant and Castle Lady's Bridge Elm Tree Loxley New Road Still open Empire Bar 25-33 Charter Square 1998 Engineers Russell Street Everest 44 Ballifield Drive, S13 1953 Still open Eversley House/Office 117 Upperthorpe Road, S6 Still open Exchange 89 Thomas Street 1910 Fair Trades 118 Carlisle Street East 1864 1916 or Free Trades Fair Trades Hotel 137 Scotland Street Fairway Inn Birley Lane Still open Far Lees 300 Leighton Road, Sheffield Faras 74 Worksop Road Still open Modern Farmyard Vaults 102 Scotland Street 1898 Fellbrigg 331 Arbourthorne Road now The Beacon (St Pauls and St Leonards Church) Fiery Fred/Greenland Clipstone Gardens, S9 1982 Modern Fighting Cock 71 Monteney Crescent, S5 Modern Fisherman's Tavern 100 Backfields Fitzalan Vaults Haymarket 1786 1930 Five Arches Herries Road, S5 Fleur De Lis off Attercliffe Road Closed 1890-1900 Flying Dutchman 33 Silver Street Head 1896 Forty Foot Wordsworth Avenue, S5 1960 Modern Forum Sandstone Road, Wincobank, S9 Modern Forum Café/The Common Room 127-129 Devonshire Street Still open Common Room still open Foundry Arms 101 Green Lane Fountain Bar/Houlihans Leopold Street Still open Fox House Hathersage Road, Dore Fox Inn 250 Fox Hill Road, S6 Still open Foxwood Inn 57 Mansfield Road Fraternity House/Old Monk 103-107 Norfolk Street Modern Frechville Hotel 1 Birley Mood Crescent, S12 Still open French Horn Hartshead 1780 1901 Fulwood Inn Tapton Park Road Furnival Verdon Street, S3 Garrison Arms 456 Penistone Road 1850 1913 Gas Tank Inn 8 Sussex Street George 56 West Bar 1833 George 95 Worksop Road George Street Tavern 1 Arley Street Gladstones/Ferret and Trouserleg 4 St James Building, S1 Modern Globe Burgess Street 1774 Golden Ball Spring Street 1774 Golden Cross High Street 1771 Golden Fleece 12 Wharf Street 1839 Golden Lion 2 Shude Hill 1833 1895 Golden Plover Occupation Lane, Hackenthorpe Still open Currently 45 Spa View Road, Hackenthorpe Gossips Arundel Gate Modern Graduate 6 Montgomery Road, S6 Modern Graduate Masonic Hall, Surrey Street Still open Modern Grand Concert Hall 2 Spring Street 1920 formerly "Grand Theatre of Varieties", "Bijou" and "New Star"; demolished 1920 Grapes Inn Langsett Road 1869 actual location unknown Green Dragon Cote Lane, Thurgoland Still open Green Inn Slitting Mill Road, S9 Grennel Mower 264 Low Edges Road, Greenhill, S8 Modern Greyhound 66 Holly Street Grove 49 Grove Street Gypsy Queen Drakehouse Lane, Beighton Still open Half Moon 71 Mather Road, S9 Still open Halfpenny Kelvin Flats 1992 Hallamshire 124 Martin Street Hammer and Anvil 152 South St Moor 1825 1917 Hand in Hand/t'owd shake hands Bridgehouses Hanrahans 375-385 Glossop Road 1984 Hare and Hounds 108 Clarence Street 1910 Harp Tavern 109 Upper St Philips Road 1833 1920 Hawk and Dove Thorpe Green, Waterthorpe Still open Hay's Spirit Vaults 97 Norfolk Street 1797 now Hay's Art Gallery Hen and Chickens 18 Bow Street Hewett Arms Shireoaks Park, Shireoaks Still open High Noon 15 Kilvington Avenue Still open Hoffbrau Haus/Dingwalls/Berlins/Fuse Arundel Gate 2007 Hogshead 133 Delves Road Still open Horse and Cat 48 High Street 1774 1940 formerly Bay Childers, Bay Horse, Queen Victoria & finally Westminster. Bombed Horse and Groom 426 Blackstock Road Still open Horse and Jockey 10 Broad Lane 1900 Horse and Lion 1 Samuel Road, Norfolk Park, S2 Still open Huntsman's Rest 9 Backfields Industry Inn 130 Washington Road Industry Inn /"T'Swarf Oil" Corporation Street Ivory 15 Regent Terrace Still open Jervis Lum 2003 Demolished 2003 John O Gaunt 151 Blackstock Road Still open Jolly Buffer 144 Ecclesall Road King and Miller 60 Chester Street King's Arms 51 Hollis Croft 1833 1898 King's Head 95 Dunlop Street Ladybower Inn Ladybower, Bamford Still open Lava Lounge 140 West Street 2001 Still open Legends Café Sport 572-576 Langsett Road, Hillsborough Still open Licenced Victuallers 480 Brightside Lane Life Guardsman 262 Moorfields Lincolnshire Arms 26 Broad Lane 1902 Little Atlas 135 Carlisle Street East 1864 1922 Live and Let Live 101 Broad Lane 1797 became The Britannia Lloyds No 1 2-12 Division Street 1999 Still open former Sheffield Water Works Co., Graves Mail Order, NUM HQ Long Henry Row Modern Lord Raglan Inn 50 Bridge Street Mackenzie Tavern 189 Cemetery Road Merrie Monk 60 Manor Park Centre Still open Modern Milestone 12 Peaks Square, Crystal Peaks Still open Modern Millstone 12 Cross Burgess Street 1833 Miners Arms Bracken Moor Lane, Stocksbridge Still open Mitre Fargate 1780 1901 Montgomery Hotel 1 Montgomery Terrace Montgomery Tavern 12 Hartshead 1852 1893 Moorfoot Tavern/Cumberland/Whetstone 10 Cumberland Street Still open Moulder's Arms Pond Hill Nelson 78 Trippet Lane 1841 Neptune Inn 22 Corn Exchange 1839 New Inn 2 Effingham Road New Inn 282 Hollinsend Road Still open New Market Inn 28 Furnival Road Station Inn New Norfolk Inn Manchester Road, Hollow Meadows Still open Noah's Ark 140 Tudor Street 1910 Norfolk Sims Croft 1797 Norfolk Arms Pudding Lane 1742 Norfolk Arms King Street 1774 Norfolk Arms 159 Upperthorpe Road Norfolk Arms 73 Fargate 1898 Odd Fellow's Arms 25 Silver Street 1833 1893 Old Albion (Guard's Rest) 38 Fowler Street Old London Mart Market Street 1892 1940 rebuilt 1959 as The Marples, still open. Bombed Old Market Inn Snig Hill 1797 1898 Old Mill Dam 29 Britain Street 1841 1941 Old Monk 103-107 Norfolk Street Still open Old Park Gate 41 Bard Street Old Star 6 Market Place Old Star Gibralter Street Old Star Inn Possibly 6 Haymarket Olive Grove 26 East Road Still open O'Neill'sIrish Bar 247-249 Fulwood Road, Broomhill Owl Norfolk Street 1780 1901 also known as Shout 'em Downs or The Hullet Palmerstone Hotel 129 Carlisle Street East 1864 1926 Paradise Street Vaults 20 Paradise Street Pear Tree Millsands 1774 or Palm Tree Pear Tree 163 Woodside Lane Pen Nook Inn 16 Helliwell Lane, Deepcar Still open Penny Black Pond Hill Still open Pheasant 170 Worksop Road 1825 Pheasant 37 West Street 1893 Phoenix Greengate Lane, High Green Still open Pickwick Pack Horse Lane, High Green Pike and Heron Bawtry Road, Tinsley, S9 1960's-200? Place Nile Street Still open Plough 75 Worksop Road 1825 Porter Brook 565 Ecclesall Road 1990's Still open Prince Leopold 37 Upper St Phillips Road Prince of Wales 116 South Street, Park 1910 Prince of Wales 240 Savile Street 1920 became Billiard Saloon Printer's Arms 76 Queen Street 1833 1917 Priory 4 St James Street Still open Public Gardens Inn Ellesmere Road Pump Tavern Cumberland Way 2008 Queen 20 Attercliffe Road 1930 Queen Hotel River Lane 1890 Queen's Bays 16 Joiner Street R & R Bar 13 London Road Still open Raglan Inn Meadow Street Railway 299 Holywell Road, Wincobank Still open Ram Hotel 100 Ecclesall Road Red Grouse Spink Hall Lane, Stocksbridge Still open Red Lion off Market Place 1755 Red Lion 89 Trippet Lane 1833 1930 Red Lion Forncett Street 1864 Red Lion (or Ball Inn) 34 Pye Bank 1825 1927 Reflex 18 Holly Street Still open Reform Tavern 76 Coal Pit Lane 1796 Revolution Unit 1 The Plaza, 8 Fitzwilliam Street 1999 Still open Richmond Hotel 443 Richmond Road Still open Rock Inn 31 Carlisle Street East 1864 1932 Rodney Inn 46 Leadmill Road Rosco Tavern 27 Henry Street 1841 Rose and Crown 37 High Street 1675 1812 Rose and Crown Market Place 1692 1776 Rose and Crown 65 Queen Street 1797 1898 Rose and Crown 52 Sarah Street Rose and Crown Bankfield Lane Still open Royal Oak 484 Attercliffe Road 1870 1938 Royal Oak 6 Pear Street Royal Oak 91 Milton Street RSVP Barkers Pool 1999 Sanctuary 4 St James Street Still open Scandals 2 Market Place, Chapeltown Scottish Queen Sheaf Woodseats Road Still open Sheldon Inn 10 Edmund Street Shepley Spitfire Mickley Lane Still open Sherwood Birley Moor Road Still open Shiny Sheff 274-276 Crimicar Lane Still open Showroom Bar and Café 7 Paternoster Row Still open Shrewsbury Arms 74 Broad Street 1797 1902 Silver Fox 839 Unsliven Road, Stocksbridge Still open Slug and Fiddle 261-276 Ecclesall Road 1990's Snow Lane Tap Snow Lane Spital Inn 24 Spital Street Spitalfields 57 Stanley Street 1833 Sportsman 17 Cornish Street 1833 Sportsman 28 South Street, Moor 1833 Sportsman 155 Railway Street 1960 Sportsman 28 South Street, Moor 1833 Sportsman's Inn 140 Arundel Street Spread Eagle 37 Addy Street 1960 St Stephen's Tavern St Stephen's Road Staniforth Arms 261 Staniforth Road Stanley Street Tavern 24 Stanley Street 1833 Star Inn 11 Meadow Street 1797 1917 Stocks 1 Stocks Hill, Ecclesfield Still open Stone House 19 Church Street 1790 Summer Tavern Summer Street Sun Inn Ringinglow Road 1774 Sycamore Tree 24 Sycamore Street 1833 1917 Tequila 136 West Street Still open The Harley/Harley Hotel 334 Glossop Road 1999 Still open Thomas Whitaker (Gales & Martin) Truelove's Gutter 1787 Three Pigeons 20 Button Lane 1787 1908 Three Stags Carver Street 1814 Timber Top Shirecliffe Road Still open Toll Gate 408 Pitsmoor Road Still open Tramway Hotel 16 West Bar 1893 Turnbull 2 Fairbarn Road, Stannington Still open Union 50 Hawley Croft 1830 Upwell Inn 132 Upwell Street Varsity 173-179 West Street 2000 Still open Varsity 261 Ecclesall Road Victoria Hotel 22 Thomas Street Vine Hotel 35 Addey Street Vulcan Northern Avenue Wadsley Jack 65 Rural Lane, Wadsley Still open Walkabout Inn Carver Street Still open Wapentake/Casbah Moorhead Waterways 18 & 19 North Quay, Victoria Quays 2000 Waverley Hotel Castle Street or Imperial Hotel Weatherby Park Hill, Swallownest Still open Weatherspoon 12-18 Cambridge Street 1999 Still open Weatherspoon West Street Still open Weir Head Tavern 377 Penistone Road 1936 became Hillfoot Club Westway/Rat and Parrot 53-59 West Street 1999 Still open Whiley's Saloon Hartshead 1825 White Horse Gregory Row 1787 Gregory Lane no longer exists White Horse 87 Creswick Street White Lion 25 Holly Street 1796 White Lion 131 Dunlop Street White Rose 17 Handsworth Road Still open Widow's Hut 21 Meadow Street William McReady West Street 1787 See Wharncliffe Arms Woodland Tavern 321 Langsett Road 1845 1921 Woodman's Hut 46 Garden Street 1825 1900 Woodseats Palace 692 Chesterfield Road Wordsworth Tavern Wordsworth Avenue Still open Wyvern 379 Leighton Road Yates's Carver Street/Division Street 1993 Yorkshire Clown 24 Paradise Square 1830 1893 Yorkshire Grey 69 Charles Street Still open Young Street Tavern 162 Young Street

Here is the story of my gt grandma, Elizabeth Bellamy's death in the Zepellin raid. ELIZABETH BELLAMY NEE PIGOTT – STORY OF HER DEATH Elizabeth Pigott (my gt grandma) was born in Sheffield in 1859 to Hilderbert De Lacey Pigott & his wife Elizabeth nee Gregory. Hilderbert was a grinder born in Hatfield, Yorks but his family moved to Sheffield in the 1830's. He married Elizabeth Gregory 20 Dec 1849 in Sheffield. They had 11 children of which Elizabeth was the 5th. After school, Elizabeth got a job as a cigar maker & met William Bellamy, a blacksmith in the steelworks. They married 26 Dec 1880 at St Thomas' church, Brightside. Initially, the couple lodged with Elizabeth's brother Hildabert, as her father had died. Soon afterwards the couple moved to their own house at 31 Lucas St. & subsequently lived 148 & then 150 Petre St before moving into 43 Writtle St. Elizabeth gave up work when the children came along; Hilda 1881, Erwin 1885, Amy 1886, Lilian 1889, William1890, Harold 1893, Elsie 1894 & Albert1901. Lilian, my grandma, became a tea room waitress on leaving school & met & married William Morris (a gas fitter) on 25 Dec 1914 at All Saints Church. They lived with Lilian's parents at 43 Writtle St (off Sutherland Rd) & had their first child, my mother Marjorie Morris on 2 Oct 1915 who was born at 43 Writtle St. Shortly after midnight on night of 25/26 Sept 1916 the Bellamy family were at home at 43 Writtle St. The air raid alarms had sounded & Elizabeth got up & ran to the bedroom where my 11 month old mum Marjorie lay in a cot. As Elizabeth passed the bedroom window shrapnel from a high explosive bomb which had landed on the road outside, went in through the window & inflicted terrible injuries to her shoulder & back exposing her spinal column. She was taken to the Royal Hospital but died 3 hours later. Thankfully my mum was uninjured. Elizabeth was buried in Burngreave Cemetery on 29 Sep 1916. Husband William arranged for the following inscription on her headstone "Blessed are the pure in heart. In loving memory of Elizabeth, the beloved wife of William Bellamy who was suddenly called away on 26 Sept. 1916 age 57 years. "A bitter grief, a shock severe, to part with one we loved so dear". The raid was carried out by Zeppelin L22 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Martin Dietrich which arrived over the city at about 12.20 am. In its raid on Sheffield it dropped 20 high explosive bombs & 30 incendiary bombs. 28 people were killed & 19 injured. Nine houses & a chapel had to be demolished & 62 houses were damaged. It appears the house at Writtle St must have been damaged because for the following 2 years or so William lived elsewhere. On 12 Oct 1918, William Bellamy married again, to Annie Elizabeth Hodkinson (a widow). In 1925 a Sheffield Directory shows him back living at 43 Writtle St so the house must have been repaired in the meantime. An account of the air raid is given below. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph of the same day reported. "The husband of one victim said his wife was rushing across the bedroom to get at her child when a bomb struck her in the back." A memorial put up on Effingham Rd. by chairman of Baltic Steel co )which was hit in Zeppelin raid on night of 26 Sept 1916 when 36 bombs were dropped between Burngreave Cemetery and Darnall) states : "Lest we Forget" . On September 26th 1916 Nine Men, Ten Women and Ten Children Were Killed by a German Air Raid on Sheffield. One of the bombs fell close to this spot. The Raid During the early afternoon of Monday 25 September 1916, five Zeppelins took off from their bases in northern Germany with orders to attack England. Three of the airships were heading for London and the South of England. The remaining two Zeppelins, L-21 and L-22, respectively commanded by Kapitänleutnant Frankenburg and Kapitänleutnant Martin Dietrich were to attack the North Midlands industrial towns. Dietrich's target was Sheffield. Many of Britain's leading armament and munitions firms were based in Sheffield; it was therefore a prime target for the German Zeppelins. Indeed, Sheffield had been the intended target on previous raids, but on each occasion the attacking Zeppelins failed to find the city. L-21 crossed the Lincolnshire coast at 9.45 pm, about 45 minutes ahead of Dietrich in L-22. It was heading in the general direction of Sheffield and triggered an air raid warning. Throughout the city electric 'buzzers' warned people to take cover. This was Sheffield's 14th air raid warning, but so far the city had escaped attack. For some the warnings created a sense of panic and they fled to the city's parks and woods hoping they would be safe from falling bombs. Many followed the official advice and took refuge in their cellars. Others saw the warnings as a spectacle believing that Sheffield's inland location and surrounding hills would make it impossible for a Zeppelin to find the city at night. Shortly after the warning was given, Thomas Wilson, a 59 year old engineer's fitter of 73 Petre Street, came out of his house to and chatted with neighbours. He was sceptical of the Zeppelin threat and told a next-door neighbour that they would never come to Sheffield. Ninety minutes later he became one of the raid's first fatalities. At 10.56 pm, as L-21 approached Sheffield, Captain Edward Clifton, Royal Flying Corps, took off from Coal Aston airfield in a BE 2C biplane nightfighter to intercept it (the old airfield site now lies beneath the modern Jordanthorpe estate). The weather over Sheffield was cloudy with poor visibility. Finding the Zeppelin in such conditions was hopeless and Captain Clifton attempted to land back at Coal Aston, but crashed on high ground. Although the aircraft was damaged he escaped injury. L-21 turned away just before reaching Sheffield and skirted around the north of the city before heading off to drop its bombs in Lancashire. About 12.20 am L-22 arrived over the city. At 585 ft 5 in long with a maximum diameter of 61 ft 4 in, even by modern aviation standards its size was impressive. The airship was constructed from an aluminium framework covered with waterproofed cotton. Within the framework were eighteen gas cells filled with hydrogen, a lighter than air gas, which kept the machine in the air. It was powered by four petrol engines and had a top speed of around 60 miles per hour. The Zeppelin flew across the city to the Fulwood and Redmires areas and then turned east towards Attercliffe. L-22 accelerated to full speed and began zigzagging its way across the city, a tactic employed to make it a more difficult for defending anti-aircraft guns to score a hit. The first bombs, two incendiaries, were dropped around 12.25 am and fell in Burngreave Cemetery, near to the Melrose Road entrance. Other than scorching some grass and a notice board no damage was caused. The first high explosive bomb fell in Danville Street killing 49 year old Frederick Stratford, who was struck by shrapnel whilst in bed. In nearby Grimesthorpe Road a bomb fell on No 112 and exploded killing 76 year old Ann Coogan and her 56 year old daughter, Margaret Taylor. At 73 Petre Street, Thomas Wilson, who had retired to bed, heard the exploding bombs and rushed to his bedroom window. His timing could not have been worse. As he looked out a bomb fell on a nearby outbuilding and exploded. He was struck on the chin by a bomb fragment and died instantly. The next bomb, a high explosive, fell on Writtle Street (now Maxwell Way). Shrapnel from the bomb hit 57 year old Elizabeth Bellamy in the back as she rushed across her bedroom. She was taken to the Royal Hospital, off West Street, where three hours later she died from her injuries. Two high explosives bombs fell in Cossey Road causing dreadful loss of life. The first landed on a block of three terrace houses comprising No's 26, 28 and 30. In No 28 Alice and Albert Newton were killed as they lay in bed. Luckily, their infant son was spending the night with his grandmother in a nearby street and was unharmed. George and Eliza Harrison lived at No 26 with their two daughters and two grandchildren. After the warning had sounded they were joined by their neighbours from No 24, William and Sarah Southerington. George and William stayed in the living room while everyone else took shelter in the cellar. All eight were killed in the explosion. The Southeringtons' house suffered only minor damage and had they stayed at home would probably have survived. The second Cossey Road bomb landed on No 10 killing Levi and Beatrice Hames and their one year old son. In Corby Street (now Fred Mulley Road) a high explosive bomb demolished No 142 killing Selina and Joseph Tyler and their five children. The same bomb also killed 11 year old Richard Brewington of 134 Corby Street and fatally injured Martha Shakespeare of 143 Corby Street, who died later in the day in the Royal Infirmary, Infirmary Road. The last casualty of the raid was in Woodbourne Hill where William Guest, a Corporation wagon driver, was killed in the street by a bomb as he tried to warn the occupants of a house that they were showing a light. The final few high explosive bombs fell near to Manor Lane, but did little damage. The Zeppelin then flew over Darnall and Tinsley Park Colliery where it dropped several incendiary bombs, before heading out to sea and returning safely to Germany. Although a number of anti-aircraft guns were located around Sheffield, cloud prevented their crews from seeing the Zeppelin. A gun sited at Shiregreen was the only one to take action. It fired two rounds in the approximate direction of the airship without result.

Me too. Coal fires - heat only reached my dad who sat with his feet on the oven hob. Wellies were never enough to keep our feet warm. Winters were real winters. No central heating or fitted carpets just lino and rugs on top of concrete floors. Not so much climate change but better standard of living perhaps though no doubt climate change occured due to things improving.

During the nineteen fifties my father worked down the Nunnery and Handsworth pits as a coal hewer. He used to have the concessionary coal allowance of a ton of coal delivered every so often. This coal was what was known as "run of mine", which meant that it was the stuff that came up the shaft before it was washed and sorted. In size it varied between lumps three feet long to fine coal dust which we referred to as "slack". It also contained other materials such as lumps of stone, large amounts of iron pyrites stuck to the lumps of coal, and yards of shot firing wire. The shot firing wire was iron wire wrapped with cotton to provide insulation. On one dramatic occasion we found a detonator still attached to a length of wire. We might have needed a new cooking range if that hadn't been spotted. I did notice that our chimney seemed to produce much more pungent smoke than our neighbours chimneys who were also burning normal coal. This was probably due to the presence of the sulphur (sulfur) in the pyrites. During the seventies we used to visit my wife's sister who lived in a mining village near Doncaster. Coming out of their home on a cold damp winter's night I used to gag on the vile sulphurous atmosphere that hung over the entire village. Perhaps their concessionary coal was also "run of mine". HD

This article first appeared in the Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society, Volume 6 pp64-77, and is reproduced by the kind permission of the Society, and with thanks to Gramps for reproducing it. THE HIGHWAYS OF SHEFFIELD IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY. By Mrs. A. E. HALL THE surveyors accounts for the highways of Sheffield, with which these introductory pages deal—in some selected extracts—commence with the first year of the nineteenth century and end in 1835 with the passing of the highway act of that year and the inception of a new procedure. In these first thirty-five years of the century, the business of highway administration was controlled and regulated by the same highway code as that of simpler times; that is to say, by the enforcement of the annual statute duty, or its composition, by a rate assessment of sixpence in the pound, twice yearly, to which the justices might add a supplementary rate, if they deemed it necessary, and by occasional indictment of bad roads. Within these statutory limits, the various parishes of the country proceeded, adapting to them their own customs, using their own local material. In the case of Sheffield, besides the native quarry stone, sand from the river, furnace cinders, and one specially local product, smithy sleck. In the year 1812, someone in authority had inserted in these accounts a few guiding remarks in the form of a letter. He says "Dr. Haslehurst thinks smithy sleck a very bad material in the streets for there is very little solidity in it, as it grinds to powder in the summer season when the streets are generally pitched and fills the eyes of passengers and the shops with dirt . . . "The surveyor", he goes on, "on entering office, should be cautious of making promises to anyone respecting paving of any new or intended street, as it is the general opinion that such streets ought in the first place to be paved and pitched by owners of property adjoining." "Nevertheless, many new streets in Sheffield have been made when the owners contiguous have agreed to be at two-thirds of the expense and it would perhaps be as well not to extend this courtesy, except in some particular cases where it would be advantageous to the public." A statement of the annual accounts for highways in the year 1793 divides Sheffield parish into three divisions, Upper, Nether and Park, with two surveyors acting for each. At the commencement of the nineteenth century the Park has apparently been merged, for the accounts are entered under upper and lower divisions with two surveyors to each, and entries occur such as ' Received for sand sold to lower division. Paid J. Green, Upper division surveyor part of the donation of the town trustees.' . But in 1816 the accounts are combined under four surveyors. Occasionally, in the course of highway negotiation and contract, it was necessary to combine with the other townships of Sheffield as shown in the following entries. 1828 To cash of the several townships in the part of Sheffield, being their proportioned share of Mr. Sorbys bill for making the deed for the Whitham Rd., Ecclesall £2/9/6d., Upper Hallam 13/9d., Nether Hallam 15/9d. Brightside £1/10/6d., Attercliffe 17/6d. 1830 Cash from Smith, Ecclesall surveyor, for half expense of making the road from Porter Bridge to St. Mary's church, half the road belonging to Ecclesall Bierlow. The most noticeable feature of the accounts in the first years of the century is the annual expenditure of substantial sums upon the park road, entered under various heads such as— Paid J. Rimington for Park Road £187/ -/ - in 1802. Paid Commissioners do. £132/11/1 —1805. Paid Ganister leading to Park Rd., April to Sept., £134/6/-, in 1809. An entry of 1830 is a reminder that it would be a road subject to heavy traffic. The entry runs : Paid Sheffield Coal Company for five years rent of depot for ganister in the Park road at 12/6 the year For repairing, paving and pitching of streets, the surveyors receive subscriptions from the persons interested. In 1806, cash from proprietors of Eyre Street for pitching. In 1810, Received of sundry persons for their proportion of pitching in Solly Street. In 1815 subscriptions in part of Charles Street. Sometimes improvements meant the purchase of land. In 1813, Messrs. Young were paid £166 13s. 4d. for land in High Street. In 1815, J. Rimington received £66 13s. 4d., being one-third purchase of land in front of the Angel Inn. But in neither case is the quantity of land stated. In the year 1818 there appeared in the Sheffield Mercury a letter complaining of the bad state of the roads on the North and South sides of the new burial ground (St. George's) and the difficulty of approach from the west side of the town. Subsequently, a meeting of responsible inhabitants was convened, which asked either—that the magistrates who may attend petty sessions tomorrow be asked to present the roads at next Pontefract Sessions, or—in case they advise an indictment instead, then it be preferred under the direction of the chairman. The expense of convening this meeting and effecting the objects of it to be paid by the parties present in equal proportions. Among the Fairbank papers is a letter, dated 1818, and signed by B. Wake, saying : I have instructions to indict the roads on the sides of the new burial ground and I want to point out to you which should be measured. Meet me at John Eadons, Crookesmoor. Finally, the surveyors accounts for that year include this item: By Mr. Tattersalls bill for indictment £19 10 0. In that same year Sheffield obtained the power to appoint a body of police commissioners to improve the lighting, watching and cleansing of the streets, for which a rate might be levied not exceeding, at that period 1s. 3d. in the pound, yearly. The Town Trustees and the master and wardens of the Cutlers Co., were automatically members of the commission, who also employed a surveyor, a salaried official, unlike the parish surveyor, annually elected and serving under the compulsion of common law. It was the duty of the former, among other things, to prevent encroachments and suppress nuisances ; but their powers were limited by the act within an area of three quarters of a mile in each direction from the parish church. Two examples of this have survived among the Fairbank papers. In the year 1820, owing to a complaint that Mr. Adams, the tailor was building in the footway leading from Pinfold Street to West Street, he has official notice not to proceed further with his building till a proper line of demarcation has been drawn by Fairbank, by order of Fras. Fenton surveyor of police. And in 1832 Rowland Hodgson is required, at his own cost and within fourteen days to remove or fill up the pond of stagnant water in or near Fitzwilliam Street in Sheffield and within the limits of the act, and which has been considered an annoyance to persons residing near. The liability is ten shillings fine for every day of default from the fourteen days. The parish surveyor of highways submitted his accounts for public scrutiny and approval at the end of his year of service and it appears from the signatures that a committee practice was adopted. In 1820 the accounts were signed by three of the committee of five chosen at a general public meeting of inhabitants, held in the parish church, who examined the accounts for 1820. There were also appended a further list of names and that of the justices, as required by statute. I might also add that, a newspaper of that year shows that in spite of the signatures there appeared to be some reserve in accepting the items on the part of the town regent, for he requested a further inspection at leisure, without the presence of the surveyors, which evoked from the latter a letter of protest in the current newspaper. The following are taken from that year's accounts : Paid paupers in the town thirty and a half days at 9d. ... £1 2 10 ½ paupers at Delf fifty six days at 9d. ... ... £2 2 - paupers at ithe quarry forty three days at 9d. ... £1 12 3 workmen in the Park Road for drink ... ... £1 1 - Paid men for drink finishing Charles Street ... £- 4 - Paid six paupers at 3/- per week each ... ... £- 18 - Petty disbursements, chiefly statute allowances .. £27 4 11 Wages to men on Park rd and sundry other articles .. £170 11 10 ½ Paid the grinders at the Walk Mill grinding wheel an allowance for gravel got out of the river there ... ... £- 12 0 It was not until the early nineteenth century that the expedient of using pauper labour on the roads was adopted by some parishes, an experiment by which they hoped to reduce road costs and to ease the burden of rates. It is stated by the Webbs that the wages paid by these vestries that were dominated by the new school of poor law reform were reckoned by piecework at rates deliberately fixed below the market price of labour; more usually, however, a time rate was allowed, fixed according to the justices scale, this varying with the size of his family and the price of corn. In 1821 appears an item. Paid Mr. Tattershall relative to the indictment of Sheaf bridge £32 1 9d. The subsequent items are interesting: To the Duke of Norfolks contribution towards Sheafbridge and improvements there £200 To Town Trustees £200 To the sale of materials of buildings taken down there £56 - 4 -1 0 Paid Mr. Hodgson, premises bought of him there £250 - - Expenses of pulling down £8 - 17 - 6 The year 1822 continues : Received of Sheffield Gas Light Co., for land sold to them at Sheaf Bridge and work done for them £87 10 6 Received from Gas Co. on account £60 Received from Geo. Hawksworth for land near Sheaf Bridge £250 - - To cash of the bank sundry times from Mr. Hodgson and J. Birkett on account of Sheaf Bridge and buildings adjoining £465 - - As the century advances the entries of subscriptions for repair and improvements on the roads become more general, also sewers are included. In 1826 the common sewer in Eyre Street, Jessop Street, etc., also one from Green Lane to Lady's Bridge to which the Town Trustees paid £50. There is another subscription entered this year, from the Church Burgesses, five years donation due Christmas 1826, £7 10s. 0d. It is entered also later as the annual donation of thirty shillings. One entry shows that the police paid for repairs at the well in Barker Pool. Another transaction in 1826 gives the price paid for land. Paid T. Holy for 948 yards of land at 1s. 10d. per yard situate at the back of Lancaster School. Some prices for soughing are given in 1831. Ninety yards in North Street at two shillings per yard . . . Thirty yards in Blind Lane at three and threepence . . . Twenty yards in Townhead Street at two shillings. Before passing from these disconnected items to a more concise survey of particular road making I will add one or two that seem to me worth quoting. In 1832 Received of Lancasterian School for land £150 - - 1833 Paid J. Dixon on account of law expenses £600 10 - 1834 & 5 Received of Duke of Norfolk in aid of making Suffolk Rd. Shrewsbury Rd. and Talbot Street £100 - - Received from the Canal Co., in aid of making the Canal Road £100 - - Received from the Sheffield Water Co., in aid of making a culvert £200 - - And in 1836 the ratepayers certify satisfaction with the accounts for the half-year ending March. The statement shows a balance in hand of £366 17s. 3d. Cash paid over to the board £103 13s. 2d. Signed by the magistrate H. Parker. The board of highways here referred to was formed in accordance with the highway act of 1835, which gave that power to parishes of over five thousand people. It was to be composed of not more than twenty members, nor less than five and three could act. Because of the material available the district of Sheffield Moor, or South Street as it was first called, offered itself as a tempting example of highway development. At the end of the eighteenth century, the streets, or the first portions of them, on either side of South Street were set out by the Commissioners of the Ecclesall enclosure award. Following the lay-out, there are glimpses of activity, when the various interests involved were at work. Leases of land granted, being part of the common land lately allotted, to J. Trevers Young. The Trustees of Norton School think the boundaries of their allotment on Sheffield Moor which they wish to sell, have been wrongly assessed, but the first evidence I find of the improvement of South Street itself is in an estimate of 1825. In 1823 discussions were taking place between the surveyors of Ecclesall and of Sheffield regarding a suggestion of the Town Trustees that they should remove the top of Coalpit Lane so as to render the ascent from Fargate easier, as well as make Division Street and Blind Lane correspond. And two years later there is an estimate for this work, coupled with another for lowering Coalpit Lane and raising South Street. Leader's old parishioner describes Sheffield Moor at the dawn of the century as a "shocking road for coaches, rising steeply to the Moorhead. The footpaths a good deal higher than the road, which did not run straight, as now, but turned rather towards the right". In other words, the track of this main highway to the town was deeply hollowed by the years of passage to and fro; the annual road repair by the inhabitants, even if faithfully performed, being little else than a filling up of ruts and a raking over. The progress of the work in Coalpit Lane and South Street is followed through the letters of Hugh Parker, who, exercising his duty as a magistrate to supervise highways, gives injunction and comment to the overseers. "I think", he says, "it may be better to form Coalpit Lane rather higher than my last instructions, not only as regards the footpath but the convenience of cross streets and the roads into private yards. It will, I apprehend, be less expense to finish if this suggestion be adopted and not affect in any way the general plans. If nothing be got done in laying the curbstones, please delay till Tuesday when I will look at it with you, or if begun, it may be better to employ the men in the lower part of the street, where no variation can be made in the plans." Again, he writes, "I yesterday saw the South Street work proceeding very slowly. It appeared to me there was a scarcity of workmen in every department, but especially among the excavators. If the excavations be not expedited we shall be driven far into the Autumn before finishing the carriage part, which will be a serious interference. Please to meet me at the Town Hall to-morrow." A further injunction runs : "In addition to what I have stated to-day not to allow the workmen to use smithy sleck in setting the channel stones. A few loads of clean sand will be sufficient for the whole work. The magistrates have long ago forbid the surveyors of Sheffield to use smithy sleck and I should be sorry to have it used in Ecclesall, particularly in so good a road as South Street will be made." An estimate of the expenses of Coalpit Lane shows, among other items, 3,269 cubic yards of excavation and carriage into South Street. New flags for paving to augment the old. Six flights of stone steps, six feet long, ten inches broad and eight inches rise—in all 54 steps and ... a hundred and twenty loads of smithy sleck. For South Street some details run— Taking up the present ganister and adding new, lowering the foundation with stone from Hunters bar quarry, ten inches thick and eleven yards wide, 3447 cubic yards of extra excavation beyond that supplied from Coalpit Lane. 2259 square yards of causeway to make the whole as low down as Sharmans shop nine feet wide. 1130 square yards of new flags to complete the above, including carriageway. 110 loads of smithy sleck for the cause way at l/3d. The total expenses for Coalpit Lane is £651 6s. 4d., and for South Street £1553 11s. 2d., though it appears they are rough estimates as there are other statements which vary a little. The foregoing piece of road construction comes under the category of public enterprise. The next, road making, of private enterprise by the Rev. J. Bowden and his sister Mary, whose estate seems to have been contained in a section from Button Lane to Broomhall Lane. There are statements of work done for them in street lay-out in Button Lane, Milton Street, Bowden Street and Fitzwilliam Street. In 1832 John Cornish contracts to cut and form Fitzwilliam Street from Bright Street to a point between Scots Gardens and to lay the earth, etc., in the said street between Wellington Street and Black Lands Lane, or as Leader has it, Broomhall Street. There is a seam of coal under a part of the street that may be worked for a short distance without injury to adjoining building lots, and Cornish is to get the coal to the width of five yards from the street middle, except when permitted to extend, and in compensation is to make for every five yards of coal seam as may be saleable, one yard in length of a drain or a sewer. After he has made the compensation length, the remainder is to be done for 13/- per lineal yard. Also he may have the superfluous clay for brick making. One writer says "Coal is said to be found in various parts of Ecclesall, but of an inferior quality." This rather vague account of street making is filled in a little by a leaflet of 1834 headed Fitzwilliam Street—320 yards. Calculations of the expense of completing the road (exclusive of causeways) so that the surveyor would be justified in taking to the same. Cost of common sewer, grates, road stoning, etc., £354 17s. 0d. The Rev. Bowden has already done £247 17s. 0d. There is also a statement in 1834 from Marcus Smith to J. Bowdon and Sister which says : To services from 1830 to 34 in laying out the estate near Sheffield Moor and rendering the land eligible for building purposes. Making statements of the value as it proceeds to regulate the advances to the contractor. Attendances on Mr. Kirk and others. Measuring off the coal got out of the estate by J. Cornish. Making settlements thereof to Mr. Kirk £30/5/-. Expenditure about £500. The records of that part of Fitzwilliam Street from the Moor to Button Lane, laid out by the enclosure commissioners and then named Bright Street, show the total cost of construction in 1834 to be £226 15s. 6d. and the length of road 147 yards. There are conflicting statements of the division of expenses between Lord Fitzwilliam, other proprietors and the township, the cost to the township being entered up as the regular and usual contribution of the township in making footways. There is yet a third category of road development, that undertaken by the Church Burgesses, a part of it centred in the district we are now considering. From the year 1830, when lower Trafalgar Street was formed, the succeeding years saw a steady development of the streets and lanes of its neighbourhood. Details of the work done, street lengths and cost are given in a sheet headed "Memorandums." Eldon Street, 336 yards, cost £334 16s. 4d. Wellington Street, 229 ½ yards, cost £127 11s. l1d. Milton Street, 48 yards, £50 7s. 7d. Lower Trafalgar Street, 245 yards, and sough making in Button Lane, £112 15s. 4d. An interesting work note by one of Fairbank's assistants mentions the colliery in Trafalgar Street and says he had measured and fixed the situation of the pumps and coal pits in the burgesses land. But to revert to road costs. The lists quoted seem to be a rough draft to assist the final statement. The process of arrival at these costs from the tender to the finished work is shown in the data for Eldon Street, which was formed from Devonshire Street to Button Lane. The first part, as it is called, from Devonshire Street to Wellington Street, 40 feet wide. The second part, to Button Lane, 36 feet wide. There are three tenders for the first part only, which average about £380 each, and one tender for both parts of £694 19s. l0d. An estimate in detail by J. Fairbanks reduces this to £465 14s. 5d. But in a formal contract between the Burgesses and J. Cornish, signed by the latter, he agrees to build both parts for £299 6s. 8d., with the proviso that in case of deviation in cutting or other work, a proportionate allowance shall be made, to be settled by the surveyors of the burgesses and commonalty. The contract stipulates for a sough and two manholes in each part of the street. Bank walling each side. Two footpaths each seven feet wide to have a foundation of cinders four inches thick. A foundation of the same for the roadway five inches thick, and the middle of the road then covered with broken stones ten inches thick. Also a channel of square stones set in each side along with edgestones. The lower part of the road needed raising. If the excavation work did not provide sufficient material, the contractor to state the sum he will expect to raise the remainder to the right level, but if the excavation should be more than required it should be used in the low part, north of Wellington Street. The final statement, as drawn up, includes the usual reference to the township's contribution in the item : To edgestones not furnished by the surveyor of Sheffield Highways—and totals to the sum of £346 5s. 0d., which is a slight variant on the memorandum one. Of this cost the Burgesses pay for the whole of the upper part of the street, and 224 yards,of frontage in the lower £250 13s. 3d. S. Young, Esq., Pays for 230 yards in the lower part £95 lls. 9d. And the Burgesses will have to receive back from their lessees £41 15s. 0d. There seems to have been a general tendency to deal with the contractor who sent in the lowest estimate for these works. For instance, in 1826 a contract to build a road for Thos. Holy and Richard Bailey was entered into. The system of payment adopted, however, of keeping a sum in hand, evidently created difficulties for the contractor, probably working on a low margin of profit with insufficient capital. The work came to a standstill, and after some friction and negotiation, a settlement was made and a fresh contractor engaged to finish the work. To quote another example. Five tenders were offered in 1832 for sewer laying in three streets for Rowland Hodgson. Of these tenders the highest figure was £212 16s. 0d. and the scale descended to the lowest and very dissimilar figure of £83 13s. 6d. This was the one accepted and a later report on the work says, "Chadwick has done the job as well as any of the others would have done, though there will be little left for himself after paying his assistants and cost of carriage. I therefore recommend a further allowance of £15, and even then he will be but poorly paid." In the question of repayment for these road works by the lessees, is an illustration of the steps by which commercial intercourse was rendered more accommodating. Speaking of the early years of the century, a writer in 1885 makes this comment: "No provision was made for distributing over a series of years the cost of sewers, draining and paving. Levied in one collection, as the general practice then was, these expenses often entirely absorbed the immediate rents or profits of absolute owners, whilst owners of short terms, who might derive little benefit from the works, had still greater cause of complaint. This immediate charge was the great obstacle to an extensive voluntary improvement, in a few instances time might be allowed for repayment, but with one exception this never exceeded three years. Manchester Town Council generally allowed twelve months. They had no authority to do more. But these expenses frequently exceeded the whole yearly rent of premises and pressed upon persons solely dependent upon such property, as artisans who borrowed money from building clubs to erect houses, the interest on which absorbed the whole rent." In 1833 a proposal is put forward for the consideration of the burgesses that it would be more advantageous to them if in future the lessees were charged with a rent upon half the adjoining streets, which are not now paid for, rather than charge them with a proportion of the expense of forming, as at present, and for the trust to be at the cost of making. For example, the amount expended on Leicester Street has been £80 17s. 3d., and the lessees either have paid or will have to repay this sum as the land may be let off. But if the proposed plan be adopted instead of the present system, the trust would get rather more than 15 ½ per cent for the money laid out, in the way of an additional rent. In Eldon Street, rather more than 14 ¾ per cent. In Trafalgar Street, about 11 ¼ per cent. Three years later, in 1836, the need for long term repayment was expressed in a letter by one Roger Brown, who carried on the business of his late father as a slater in Division Street. The letter mentions a proposal relative to parcels of land and the writer says : "I am disposed to agree to your terms provided you will transfer the outlay of street formation into an annual rent, for I have ever found it an objective of very great moment in the letting of land where sums of money must be advanced for the forming of streets. If the expenses already incurred in the formation of the streets were adjusted by the payment of some three or four pounds per annum along with the rent, it would make the letting prospects greater, because experience has shown that the advancing of money for such purposes is often a great stumbling block. If this is agreeable to you I have no objection to becoming your tenant." Some jottings indicate the streets in question to be Thomas Street and Headford Street. But it comes almost as a rebuke to arbitrary statement to find, after this, a letter by Fairbanks writen in 1828 to a client in Durham in which he says, "It is usual here in laying out streets to charge the lessee of the building plot with half the width of the street on each side in his rent. The road formed at the expense of the owner, but not kept in repair by him." The need of better communications, rendered urgent by the rapid growth of commerce, had focussed attention upon road surfaces. The sleepy village concept of a road was being slowly scrapped, and various new systems tried out. In this district of Headford Street we get a ripple of the wave of experiment that was ushering in our modern road. It is contained in a leaflet dated 1833 entitled Thomas Street, Headford Street and the east end of Bath Street. The expense of forming the above streets in two different ways. First by patching the carriage way with boulders and having channel stones and edgestones with two footpaths, each 7 feet wide, and a sewer 2 foot six by 1 foot six inside measure, the edgestones supposed to be found by the surveyor of highways and all other materials by the assessment on the persons liable. The cost of Thomas Street done as above would be £138 16s. 3d. The second method, by macadamising the carriage way, with furnace cinders underneath, would cost £123 15s. 9d. Though the expense is less in macadamising, yet there are several advantages in the other mode. It is completed in less time, and is more durable. No repairs would be needed for a number of years. The other way will want constant attention for a considerable period that no ruts may be suffered to exist, which will be the case unless persons are employed to rake them over frequently." There is another feature of highway development, not so far considered, that of dedication. The records available on this subject deal with the streets in the burgesses land, in our particular district. In 1843 a proposal was made for the dedication, under the late highway act of those streets wholly or in part formed since the act came into force March, 1836, and also of those formed before that date which required improvement before acceptance. The footpaths of Eldon Street, a report says, as far as they are in Sheffield township, have been taken to, but not the carriage way, which requires pitching. The upper part of the footway on the west side of Trafalgar Street, belonging to Sheffield, has been taken to, but not the carriage way, nor the footpaths on the east side. Leicester Street has not been taken to. It has no sewer, never was pitched, and has been much injured by excavations brought out of the yards and cellars adjoining, and the water has not been taken off. The thoroughfares of this dedication group include also Wilkinson Street, Brunswick Place, Brunswick Street and Hanover Road or Street. Both names are used. In Wilkinson Street several of the lessees have laid excavations out of their premises both on the footpath and carriage way so as to be a nuisance and obstruction, and the land not having been taken to by the board of highways, their surveyor will not interfere in it, and the surveyor of police declines to take any notice as their powers do not extend to what is yet private property. Mr. Wheat is to request owners to remove the rubbish. In the other three streets Thos. Holy, as landowner, shares the onus of road making with the Burgesses, though it is two years later, in 1845, that Holy addresses an enquiry to Fairbanks regarding the probable cost of dedication to the use of the public, Porter Street and Hanover Road, as he lacks any previous experience of such matters and fears the cost will be heavy. There is evidence of discussion between landowner and surveyor concerning the state of the group of streets and the amount of repair necessary. There is also a request from the Burgesses to Mr. Fairbanks in 1846 for his opinion. In the spring of this same year Mr. Holy writes : "Please communicate to the Church Burgesses that I have completed the footpath adjoining my land of Brunswick Street—formally called Porter Street —also the two footpaths of Hanover Road between Broomspring Lane and Wilkinson Street, and I hope the Burgesses will proceed with the same into Glossop Road. The footpath is asphalt which I consider far more durable than flags, pleasanter to walk upon and half the cost, proved by what was done at Norton some time since, and the magistrates, Bagshaw and Overend, also approve the same." A further note says: “Hanover Road footpath completed and the magistrates ready to view, but I wait for you to complete Brunswick Street. You may have the other side completed in four days by Mr. Wright, superior to flag stones at half the cost." A bill for the finished work was presented by Mr. Wright in July. The case for dedication now appears to have reached a decision. In November, 1846, a list of streets to be made public highways was again drawn up. They were Chester Street, Eldon Street, Dee Street, Devonshire Lane, Wilkinson Lane, Hanover Street, Eldon Lane, Brunswick Place, Milton and Trafalgar Streets, which shows the omission as compared with the original list of Leicester Street, Wilkinson Street, and Brunswick Street. I have no evidence of what happened in the case of the two former. The streets were to be viewed again, and if approved were to be put in three certificates, one each for Ecclesall, for Sheffield and for Nether Hallam. The magistrates refused to certify lanes, they not being of the required width. A meeting of the board of highways resolved that some small improvement still remained to be done in three of the streets, and that Eldon Street required pitching at a cost of £80 8s. 6d. and a main sewer laying from Wellington Street to Button Lane—cost £135. The resolution states, as soon as the work is completed the Board shall do the best they can to aid the Burgesses in getting the streets certified and affirmed and enrolled at the sessions. As soon as the certificate is obtained, the Board to be at liberty to take up Eldon Street, if they think proper, and lay a sewer and this shall not be considered as relieving the Burgesses from their liability to keep this and the other streets in repair for twelve months as by law required. But they shall not be called upon to make any repairs which may be required in consequence of the street being so taken up. Under the date of February, 1847, are two certificates of acceptance, one signed by Wm. Lee and named as assistant surveyor of Sheffield and of Ecclesall Bierlow, and one by Samuel Horrabin for Nether Hallam. The attitude to sewer construction shown by these records seems haphazard and casual. One probable cause has been pointed to in the early method of repayment. Improvement Commissioners, too, had little scope. "They rarely had powers," says one authority, "to drain unfinished streets, only partly built upon . . . ." And much was left to individual caprice. "You will observe," says Roland Hodgson, in 1832, "that Mr. Sheldon has no way of carrying off the water from his cellars, except by the old land drains, which being of small dimensions must, of course, be soon stopped up. In order to prevent this cellar overflow, he has, I am told, made a sough into the common sewer in George Street, which is certainly a trespass on my rights, and which, if we do not come to some agreement I shall be obliged to have stopped up." But this same year the scourge of cholera drew attention to the bad state of the Young Street area and Mr. Hodgson is engaged in correspondence on the subject. It is significant that the contract for sewer laying for Hodgson in Thomas Street, Tudor Street, Headford Street to its junction with Young Street—previously referred to in a comparison of tenders—should be under date of 1832. It was in this area also that Roger Brown asked for easy terms as a condition of tenancy. By 1841 the question of drain capacity is raised in an enquiry in a nuisance near Leavy Greave, which includes also a question of sough ownership. The nuisance was caused, the statement runs, by water out of Broad Lane overflowing into the street, passing between Mr. Sutton's land, which I will call Winter Street, and conveying mud and sand into the bath of Mr. Sutton in times of heavy rain so as to render it unfit for use. It appears that some time ago the water was conveyed across this street through Sutton's land into a deep channel there which would take it away, but for the circumstances of the sough first mentioned being filled up, which is insufficient for, and was not made to conduct all the water running down Broad Lane, but merely the water from Winter Street, which was but a small portion of what now accumulates there. As there is reason to fear the sough has been used for so long as that the surveyor may have gained a right to it, it appeared reasonable they should repair it and keep it from injuring the private property of anyone. Mr. Lee, the Sheffield Surveyor, said that as Nether Hallam was also involved, he would halve the cost with their surveyor. To conclude this paper, I should like to add a footnote taken from the work previously quoted, A History of Private Bill Legislation by Frederick Clifford, barrister-at-law. The quotation runs— The inspector of highways stated in 1843 (report of commissioners) "there are really no legal powers in force to regulate the drainage of towns like Sheffield. The highway funds are wasted and mismanaged. My predecessor, who was employed many years, could neither read nor write. He recommended and overlooked the making of common sewers, and at the same time contracted to do the work himself, without level, plan or agreement, and of course without any regard to the dimensions required in the localities. Within the last eight years several miles of such sewers had to be reconstructed. No books of the expense of roads and works were kept, and the annual cost of maintaining a certain length of any kind of road was so little known that the last surveyors, before the passing of the present highway act, rendered the public liable to repair for a consideration of £100, a line of three roads which have cost annually since that time, an average sum of £241. At this period sewers and roads were under the management of different surveyors. My jurisdiction is confined to the township of Sheffield. There is a separate board in Ecclesall bierlow. I believe there are some few sewers there, but the officers confess they know nothing about them. If there are any sewers in the other townships—namely—Brightside, Attercliffe, Nether and Upper Hallam, the respective authorities do not know it."

The standard coal sack weighed 1 cwt, and some dealers also sold coal by the half sack - I guess the 75kg was poetic licence. She would struggle with a half sack in those heels, across cobbles!

Thanks to Hugh Waterhouse on Facebook for the following. She was following the tradition of taking her husband's name - Ellen Florence HURDITCH married Percival George WOODFIELD on Christmas day 1930 in Owlerton. Her father was a coal merchant. Percy was a 'motor driver' and I think (from a court case) that he worked for a coal merchant in the 1920s. In 1939 Percy was a driver for a chemical factory and they lived in Farfield Road.