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  1. The railways goods/coal yard or depot on Queen's Road was the home of, or base for, a number of well-known Sheffield coal merchants up to sometime in the late 1950s or early 60s. I can remember W H Hewitt's, Ward & Longbottom's (?), etc. It was a very busy place at one time. Does anyone have any memories of the place? I have searched for some pictures, showing the coal waggons, the coal lorries and the row of coal merchants' offices, but I have never found one. The entrance faced across to Duchess Road (?).
  2. Ponytail

    Woodthorpe Colliery

    Link to images restored: Mansfield Road looking towards the junction with Hurlfield Road with spoil tip on the right. 6th June 1955. u04511 Photographer: City Engineers and Surveyors Office. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u04511&pos=1&action=zoom&id=40008 https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u04510&pos=1&action=zoom&id=40007 Also: Queen Mary Road, showing former Colliery tip at back of road (former Woodthorpe Colliery)s18968 Photographer: Press Photo Agency. Queen Mary Road, showing colliery tip (former Woodthorpe Colliery). s18969 Photographer: Press Photo Agency. Map of Richmond, Spring Wood and Woodthorpe, c. 1855. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc02931&pos=5&action=zoom&id=93426 From a volume of maps of the parish of Handsworth, based on the enclosure award maps (1805) and corrected up to 1855. Marked: Richmond; Richmond Road; Lamb Hill; Woodthorpe Common; Woodthorpe; Intake;Turnpike Road; Springwood Cottage; Woodthorpe Colliery; Coal Pit; Spring Wood; Parish Boundary. Woodthorpe Colliery 1854-1930. https://www.mindat.org/loc-383123.html Nunnery Woodthorpe Pit 1854-1928. https://www.mindat.org/loc-380201.html Sheffield Collieries (Sheffield, Handsworth, Woodthorpe, High Green, Chapeltown) Wm. Stobart. Section of the several beds of coal and ironstone. 1817. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/c98cc644-645e-4203-9b6b-e3a7aea127c6
  3. Were these premises part of Queens Road Coal Depot? T. W. Ward, Coal Offices, (Queens Road?) 23rd September 1936.s07237
  4. THE FAIRBANKS OF SHEFFIELD From early in the 18th century, there was no name better known in Sheffield than Fairbank; and although the family seems to have left the town nearly a hundred years ago, the name is yet known to Sheffield antiquaries, lawyers and surveyors, through what has for many years been called The Fairbank Collection, which consists of thousands of maps, plans, sections, elevations, surveys, field-books, letters, diaries, account-books, office-drafts and papers; left, at the death of William Fairbank Fairbank in 1848, for disposal by his executors. In tracing the descent of the Sheffield branch of the Fairbank family, we shall also make clear the origin and devolution of The Fairbank Collection, which passed into the safe keeping of Mr Reginald D. Bennett, surveyor of Sheffield, on the death of his predecessor in business, the late Mr Alfred Smith Denton, in 1927. In The Fairbank Collection, we find much Sheffield history, extending for about a hundred and fifty years from Queen Anne to Queen Victoria, written not in words but in maps; and this form of local history brings into prominence many topographical facts and interesting events, which are not to be found elsewhere. Such a comprehensive collection of cartographic material, available for the history of a circumscribed area and period, is probably unique; and it invites the fullest examination. The four generations of Fairbank, shown in the above pedigree, were the men who brought the collection into existence, and at the same time made their name famous in the 18th and 19th centuries, first in Sheffield and later throughout England. William at the head of the pedigree, his son, grandsons and great-grandson surveyed the whole of Sheffield and many miles round, together with other landed estates in neighbouring and also distant counties. The work of surveying innumerable small holdings in Sheffield extended over many years; and was undertaken for private landowners and public bodies at a time when little, if any, land surveying had been attempted in the district; and it is evident that the land owners in and around Sheffield gladly availed themselves of the opportunity provided by the coming of the Fairbanks, to have their lands surveyed for the first time. The surveys of Sheffield properties, made prior to 1771, were so numerous and comprehensive that they enabled the second William Fairbank to publish a street-map in 1771, which he revised, and extended in 1797; and, as the town expanded in every direction, a third street map of Sheffield was published in 1808 by the brothers William and Josiah. These three maps are full of interest, they are yet in use and for many purposes are constantly referred to; they were prepared from exact measurements, taken mostly by the second William and his son Josiah. These outlined dimensions with notes and dates were sketched in field-books carried in the pocket; and all measurements were entered with great accuracy, when working on the land. The field books were paper covered pocket books, which they sometimes called Dimension Books; but more usually Field-Books. A half-tone illustration of one of these Field-Books is here reproduced. Nearly three hundred of these Field Books, containing, several thousand separate surveys, now form part of The Fairbank Collection. In some of the earlier field-books the buildings are shown in what was then a new method of drawing, called isometrical projection, by which the elevation and ground-plan of a building are represented in one view. Another series of note-books, extending from 1752 to 1800, contains full particulars of' buildings, either erected or altered by a Fairbank ; these building-books are full of interesting detail as to the cost of work by masons, carpenters; slaters, glaziers, painters, decorators and others; this series also contains many plans, sections and elevations of buildings in Sheffield and the outlying district. FROM WESTMORLAND TO YORKSHIRE. The earliest record of the Fairbank family is to be found in the will of Richard Fayrbank of Heptonstall near Halifax, dated the 20th August 1517. He was born at Kendal in Westmorland about 1470, and his wife was Alice daughter of John Colcroft, a member of a well known Yorkshire family. Richard, by his will, left a sum of iii s. iv d. to his `Fader at Kendall ; and he directed An Order to be said at the chapel in Kendal, where he was born. This makes it clear that, the family, whose name is variously spelt but for convenience throughout these notes is referred to as Fairbank, came from Westmorland shortly before 1517 and settled in and around Halifax in Yorkshire, where records of the family are to be found, covering two centuries or more. From the Halifax stock many branches spread far afield, some reaching Sheffield in the second half of the 16th century, when we find a Robert Fairbank of Sheffield. In his will, dated the 23rd September, 1585, he is described as of Sheffield in the county of York draper; and he expressed a wish to be buried in the parish church there. He left v s. to the poor man's box in the church and amongst the legacies was iii l. vi s. viii d. to his apprentice Mark Fairbank; x s. for his godson George Fairbank and one black doublet for John son of George Fairbank. His two brothers-in-law, Henry and Lawrence Hall, were legatees; and another apprentice John Vicars was to receive iii s. iv d.; the residue of his estate he left to his wife Alice, who proved his will at York on the 5th November 1585. He was buried on the 1st October 1585 at Sheffield parish church, as appears from the Sheffield parish register. If, in accordance with his wish, he was buried inside the church, some monumental inscription might have now existed; but no trace of such inscription can be found. As he had two brothers-in-law named Hall, his wife presumably was Alice Hall; and there is some trace of two Lawrence Halls, father and son, living at Fulwood about that time. It will be seen that in Robert Fairbank's will, there is no reference to a son or daughter, and we must assume that no children survived him; but from the Sheffield parish register it appears that he buried a daughter Alice on the 15th October 1579. That being so, William at the head of the pedigree was not descended from Robert the draper and we must look elsewhere for his ancestors. As disclosed by the will, there were other Fairbanks living in Sheffield during Robert's lifetime and an examination of the Sheffield parish register, from its commencement in 1560 to 1700, only discloses two Fairbanks in addition to those already mentioned; namely, 1574-5 January lst Elizabeth Fayrebanckes (sic) buried; and 1589 August 18th George Hawe married Alice Fayrebanckes (sic). Of Elizabeth nothing is known, but Alice who married George Hawe may have been the widow of Robert the draper. In 1566 Robert Fairbank paid a fee-farm rent of three pence for church-land in Sheffield, due to the lord of the manor; and in 1569 there was a Sheffield assessment `for makynge of soulders' as follows, xx s. for the equipment of Robert Fairbank. In 1668 the Society of Friends was founded in London and in later years the Sheffield Fairbanks joined or formed a local branch. From that time we find no more records of the family in the register of the parish church, as the Friends kept their own records of births marriages and deaths; and those of the Sheffield branch begin at too late a date to throw any light on the family connexion between the first William Fairbank the schoolmaster and the Sheffield Fairbanks of the 16th century. Perhaps, however, sufficient has been said to show that the Fairbanks of Sheffield were descended from the 15th century Westmorland stock and that they first settled around Halifax and then moved south to Sheffield and elsewhere. AMERICA. One group of the Halifax branch, before the days of William the Sheffield schoolmaster, left England for America, where the name Fairbank is yet known and honoured; the tradition being, that two brothers Richard and Jonathan Fairbank, of Sowerby near Halifax York¬shire, with their wives Elizabeth and Grace sailed for Boston Massachusetts U.S.A. in the `Griffin' and landed there in 1633. Richard soon identified himself with public affairs in Boston and held many important public offices in the town; he was a member of the Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company and was the first Postmaster of the Colony. His house in Boston was the post office and he served the Colony well until 1667 when he died, his two children having predeceased him; his brother Jonathan, after prospecting around Boston for three years, settled in 1636 with his wife and six children at Dedham, about ten miles south-west of Boston. We are told that Jonathan was possessed of ample means and that he brought with him from England the frame of a house, the timbers of which lay for three years in Boston, until he found a settlement at Dedham. There, he obtained the grant of a twelve-acre plot of land and on it built his house, to which he added more land in later years. He and his family lived in this house until 1648 when he enlarged it to meet the requirements of his family; and this old frame-house with all its extensions, after the lapse of nearly three centuries, yet stands. It is now known as Ye Olde Fayerbanke House and is said to be the oldest existing frame-house in the United States. It was occupied by the descendants of Jonathan until 1903 or shortly after, when Miss Rebecca Fairbank left it and removed to Boston, the old house being purchased by the Fairbank Family Association, a trust formed for the purpose of preserving it for all time, as a place of historic and antiquarian interest. It is visited every year by thousands of tourists and travellers, who come from all parts of the world. An illustrated pamphlet of thirty pages is published for the use of visitors; and this shows the out side of the house from many points of view, both in summer and winter; also the living-room, a bedroom and kitchens, each containing its old furniture; with spinning- wheels, rocking-chairs, trundle-beds, gate-legged tables; warmingpans, pewter dishes and cider-press. An inventory of the goods of Jonathan Fairbank is printed in full; also a copy of his will, dated 1668, ,and a copy of the will of his kinsman and benefactor George Fairbank of Sowerby in Yorkshire clothier, dated 1650. The frontispiece reproduces a picture of President and Mrs. Henry Irving Fairbank in picturesque costume of the period; they are described as of ‘The Ninth Generation of the Fayerbanke family.’ Perhaps now that Ye Olde Fayerbanke House is open to the public, Sheffield visitors to Boston will be tempted to make the short journey to Dedham, to see what was for nearly three hundred years the home of the American branch of a family, once so well known in Sheffield. THE FIRST WILLIAM FAIRBANK. We must now examine, in some detail, the history of the four generations of Fairbank who lived in Sheffield from the close of the 17th century to about 1850. The earliest record of the first William, the schoolmaster and land-surveyor, is his signature on the inside cover of A Record Book of the Society of Friends in Sheffield, bearing date 1723. It is below a motto in both Greek and Latin, which betrays the schoolmaster and shows that he had joined the Quakers in Sheffield before 1723. The next mention of this William is in 1725, when he gave formal notice to the Sheffield branch of the Society of Friends of his intention to marry Emma Broadhead, the widow of William Broadhead deceased and the daughter of John Clark of Swinton near Rotherham; the marriage taking place on the 9th December 1725, at the Friends' Meeting House in Sheffield. In 1733 he was appointed by the Sheffield branch to represent it, at a meeting of the Balby branch near Doncaster; and in the same year, for conscientious reasons, he refused to pay tithe; and his goods were distrained. His ledgers and account-books show that many Sheffield boys and girls attended his school from 1753 or earlier to 1773. One book, marked `School Wages', contains the names of hundreds of scholars and their parents, which include, Aldam, Barlow, Barnard, Bennett, Binney, Bright, Broadbent, Brownell, Cadman, Chorley, Dale, Doncaster, Eyre, Fenton, Firth, Girdler, Goddard, Hall, Hallam, Heathcott, Holy, Ibberson, Marsh, Newbould, Nodder, Palfreeman, Rawson, Roberts, Roebuck, Rotherham, Skelton, Swallow, Trickett, IJnwin, Vickers, Withers, Woolhouse, Worrall and Wreaks, with many interesting details. There is, however, nothing to indicate in what part of Sheffield the school was, nor is there any information from other sources which enables us to fix its site with any certainty. A possible clue may be gathered from the fact that the first William paid 'a guinea a year for a field at White House' in, Bramall Lane, about a hundreds yards north of Sheaf House; also twenty shillings for a stable. As he would rent the stable for his horse, it seems probable that this stable would not be far from his house; for in those days he would be dependent on his saddle-horse for getting to distant points, where he was surveying. Only a few maps and plans in The Fairbank Collection can be attributed to the first William, and these are on parchment, being dated between 1737 and 1750. If few maps in the collection can be credited to him, it must not be assumed that his output of work as a surveyor was small, on the contrary his day-books show a splendid record of surveying both in Sheffield and at a distance. He had a son, also called William, and two daughters; he died on the 5th December 1759 as the result of an accident, the circumstances of which are fully described in a letter which his son wrote to Josiah Forster a schoolmaster and surveyor of Tottenham near London, his father-in-law, which reads as follows: ‘ It was on the 4th day, about five in the evening, that he was returning from brother Hirst's on horseback;[1] and in as good health as he had enjoyed for several weeks, and just at the entrance to the town (as we were informed, for none of us were with him) the mare stumbled, whether on the ice or some stone we know not; but on recovering herself, she struck into a brisk pace and he, endeavouring to stop her with the curb bridle, broke the bit in her mouth; by which accident he lost the command of her and his own seat and fell with so much violence on the side of his head, which was exceedingly bruised, that the surgeon told us he got a concussion in his brains, tho' his skull was not fractured. The neighbourhood was immediately alarmed and he carried into a little alehouse, from whence we were immediately sent for and went to him; we found him discharging abundance of blood from his wound and mouth and altogether insensible, as he remained to the time of his death; which was on the 5th day about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, notwithstanding all the surgeon could do for him; and indeed he remained quite motionless till his death...... I need not tell thee we shall never more use the mare. The Coroner's Inquest brought her in the Bane, tho' it seems in a great measure chargeable on the weakness of the bridle bits. She however is forfeited to the lord of the manor, the Duke of Norfolk, and valued by the jury at six pounds, which we believe he, will not [take] nor any more than a small acknowldgement, which will serve to keep up his superstitious claim to Deodands (so called), warranted by custom or law. The letter was dated Sheffield 12th Mo. 15th 1759 and is now at the central Offices of the Society of Friends, Euston Road, London. This the first William was buried in the Quakers' Burial Ground at Sheffield; he died intestate and his wife Emma predeceased him. The claim to a deodand was prima facie by the King; it arose when a man, through misfortune, was killed by a horse or cart or any moving thing, called a bane, which was forfeited to the King's Almoner, to dispose of in alms and deeds of charity. It seems that by special custom of the manor of Sheffield, deodands were claimed by its lord. The mare which caused the death of William was probably the one he bought from John Lee of Thrift House Ecclesall for £7, two years before the accident; a note of which appears in his cash-book. THE SECOND WILLIAM. On the death of the head of the family in 1759, his son William continued the school, of which he had kept the accounts since 1757 or earlier; he also continued the surveying business, for which he had been trained by his father and in which he had taken an active part for some years before his father's death. He administered his father's estate; and his well kept account-books, which form part of The Fairbank Collection, give much information as to his life and work. During the father's lifetime William the son had married Mary the daughter of Josiah Forster of Tottenham above mentioned, whose grandson we are told was the right honourable William Edward Forster M.P. for Bradford and chief secretary for Ireland in 1880.The Forsters were also members of the Society of Friends and the letter of the 15th December 1759 was written by the second William to his wife's father. In 1760, a year after his father's death, the second William bought land in Coal Pit Lane Sheffield, now known as Cambridge Street, on which he erected a dwelling-house for his own occupation, with ample accommodation for his scholars. In 1770 M. Oddie, perhaps a pupil, made a very perfect plan of this property, which is in the collection. The second William continued at Coal Pit Lane for several years and during this period, the daily entries in his books show a curious mixture of charges for schooling and surveying; he obviously must have had help in the school, when away from home surveying land at a distance. In 1798 he took a lease from the Duke of Norfolk of a piece of land containing 32 perches in Lee's Croft, with a frontage of about 220 yards to Broomhall Lane, near the corner of what is now Broom¬hall Street and West Street. On this piece of land he had built some years previously, as a residence for himself, a house with a garden and orchard which he called West Hill, the site of which had prior to 1768 been part of what was then known as Black Lands. In 1798 the Duke seems to have granted William Fairbank a lease of West Hill, as it is then referred to in the Duke's maps and rentals as leasehold; but, although the lease was granted in 1798, it is clear that William Fairbank was living at West Hill as early as 1794 and probably eight years earlier, as he appears to have left Coal Pit Lane and given up the school about 1774. After this he presumably devoted his whole time and energy to land surveying. The Fairbank Collection contains many of his office diaries and account-books, among which is a printed pocket-diary for the year 1785, which is full of interesting notes of work done, which are beautifully written and clearly expressed. It contains many items which explain and supplement the maps in the field-books. This daily record gives a good idea of the professional life and work of the second William Fairbank, who died at West Hill on the 9th August 1801, aged 70 years. By his will, dated the 14th May 1800, he gave his leasehold house, which would be West Hill, and two closes then known as Well Field and the Croft, held of the Duke of Norfolk, to his wife for life, with the remainder to his two sons William and Josiah and their sisters; but William had the right to have the house, on making certain payments to the others; the testator gave all his instruments used for the land surveying business and his copper-plates and plans of Sheffield and the parish of Sheffield to his two sons; but his household goods furniture and books he gave to his wife, who with her eldest son William proved the will at York, on the 15th February 1802. The Fairbank Collection bears witness to an extraordinary amount of work done by this very assiduous and energetic member of the family, the second William; nearly two hundred of the field-books are in his handwriting. From ‘The Records of the Burgery of Sheffield' by John Daniel Leader 1897, it appears that he did much work for the Town Trustees. One of his great achievements was the laying out, construction and engineering of main roads in and around Sheffield. In 1757, two years before his father's death, he constructed the Sheffield to Buxton turnpike road; and about the same time he widened and improved the entire length of the road from Sheffield to Wakefield. In 1760 he made the road from Lady's Bridge to Bridgehouses; in 1763 he was engaged on the Worksop Road through Aston and Gateford; and about the same time he improved the turnpike road to Derby. In 1764 he constructed the road from Tinsley to Doncaster and two years later was engaged on the road from Orgreave,Common to Attercliffe via Catcliffe. During 1768 the road from Holmesfield to Curbar Head was completed under his supervision; also the turnpike road from Grindleford Bridge to Penistone. This gives some idea of the work he undertook and completed; but it is only part of his work on the roads, which again is exclusive of the more general work of land surveying for private clients, of whom he had many. Like his father; he travelled about the country to his work on horseback; and he must have spent many hours every week in the saddle and no doubt kept his own horse; but in his accounts the cost of horse-hire constantly occurs. We have evidence of his journeys in the saddle, for days to, gether, in his journals and cash books. In 1757, during his father's lifetime, he was engaged in a survey for Parson Stacey of Stow Park, about five miles south-east of Gainsborough, and not less than thirty-six miles from Sheffield. His first stop was at Woodhouse to have his horse's shoe removed, for which he paid four pence; he had dinner at Gateford, which cost including ale seven pence; supper and liquor at Retford thirteen pence, where he stayed the night and paid a further eight pence for his breakfast with ale. At North Leverton he stopped for dinner, paying ten pence; and there he secured a guide to show him the road to Dunham Ferry, for whose services he paid two pence; next day he had his midday dinner at Gainsborough and supped at Wheatley. The following day he had J. Johnson as his guest at dinner and this was probably Parson Stacey's agent, who would point out the land to be surveyed. He seems to have taken the journey very leisurely, perhaps he was riding his own horse on that occasion? The concluding item for this journey shows that his professional fee was five shillings a day, the entry being `My wages 7 days at 5s = £l - 15 - 0d.' About the same time he was measuring the road from Sheffield to Chesterfield, to fix milestones for the Turnpike Commissioners. In that case his charge for one day and horse was six shillings. No doubt many of the surveys, which he made from home, took more than a week and the open air life in all weathers that he led must have been very strenuous. In 1760 he repaved High Street Sheffield and in 1762 he began a complete survey of the Duke of Norfolk's Sheffield estate. The following year he was working in Cheshire and in 1765 he undertook work on the Don, to increase the water-power for mills and wheels. Two years later he completed the aqueduct from Crookes Moor to the New Spring at Leavy Greave and thence to Broomhall Lane. During the twenty years following 1770, he seems to have further increased his work, not only as a surveyor and engineer but also as an architect; during that period, it included the erection of The Tontine Inn, the Shambles in Market Place; the Friends' Meeting House and private residences; including Meersbrook' House, Page Hall and many others. THE THIRD WILLIAM. After the death of the second William in 1801, either his executors or his two sons seem to have purchased the freehold reversion of the leasehold house at West Hill from the Duke; and William the son took up his residence there. The two sons, William and Josiah, who for some time previously had been helping their father in the business, carried it on in partnership under the style of W. & J. Fairbank at West Hill; but later Josiah took the sole control until his son, some years later, joined him in partnership. The third William, who apparently never married, died in 1848, aged seventy four. He does not appear to have ever taken a very active part in the business and more than seven years before his death the business under the style of Josiah Fairbank & Son had been removed from West Hill to offices in East Parade, in the centre of the town; and at that time Josiah was living at Wilkinson Street. By the will of the third William, dated the 30th June 1846, his `printed books and engraved maps' were left to his friend Edward Smith of Fir Vale near Sheffield esquire. To his nephew William Fairbank Fairbank, the eldest son of his deceased brother Josiah, he gave all his drawn maps, field-books and other writings relating thereto and his drawings and surveying instruments. The residue of his estate was to be divided between his sister Mary, the wife of William Hodgson of German Town near Philadelphia U.S.A. and his sister-in-law Sarah, the widow of his brother Josiah: Mr John Wheat solicitor of Sheffield was appointed sole executor, but he renounced probate and Sarah Fairbank administered the estate, shortly after the death of the testator, which occurred on the 15th July 1846. JOSIAH FAIRBANK. We must now return to Josiah, the second son of the second William, who was born on the 14th December 1777 and died two years before his elder brother. Josiah married Sarah Carbutt of Leeds, who survived him; they had sons and daughters. Three of his sons were brought up as surveyors in their father's office in Sheffield. Shortly before his death Josiah severed his connexion with the Society of Friends and was by them `disunited.' His death occurred in 1844, at a time when he was over¬whelmed with work in connexion with the promotion of Bills in Parliament for the construction of railways. He died in his sixty-sixth year and apparently left no will; neither was administration to his estate granted at York or Somerset House. There are no books or papers in the collection relating to his estate or its distribution after his death. In the year 1800, Josiah assumed control at his father's office and during the following forty years or more he got through a very great amount of important work; amongst other things, he valued the whole of the Sheffield area for rating purposes, he found time to do the same for the township of Halifax, his ancestral home; and he had much to do with the Rivelin and Redmires reservoirs. In 1819 he undertook and carried through the construction of the road from Townhead in Sheffield to Glossop, along what is now West Street, Glossop Road, Manchester Road, Moscar, Ashopton and Snake. Prior to 1819, West Street was very limited in extent; it only existed between what is now Holly Street and Broomhall Street. Buildings blocked the east end of West Street, at the Holly Street crossing; and all incoming traffic turned along Holly Street either north to Trippet Lane or south to Balm Green and Coal Pit Lane now Cambridge Street. At the other end West Street became a footpath; and all traffic, other than pedestrians, had to turn south down Broomhall Lane now Broomhall Street. This costly undertaking could only be carried out with the authority of Parliament; but when the work was completed in 1820, the town had acquired one of its finest approach roads from the west; a new and more direct route between Sheffield and Manchester was opened for wagons, postchaises and mail coaches. On the death of Josiah in 1844, his eldest son William Fairbank Fairbank continued the Sheffield business, where he had been helping his father for some years, the firm of Josiah Fairbank and Son being at East Parade, as early as 1833. WILLIAM FAIRBANK FAIRBANK. William Fairbank Fairbank was born in 1805 and married Frances Royston Fisher of Chesterfield. From a Sheffield Directory, we find him living at South Street in 1841. He was trained as a surveyor by his father and was a partner at the time of the latter's death. His two brothers John Tertius Fairbank and Josiah Forster Fairbank were also for some time at their father's office in East Parade. At the death of his father, William Fairbank Fairbank was left with much Parliamentary work on hand; and the disaster which befell the great railway enterprises of 1844-5 with the panic which followed, proved too much for his strength; and his health completely gave way. While in London on Parliamentary work in 1846 he had a stroke of paralysis and was taken to his home in Sheffield; but he only partially recovered and for two years he confined his work solely to what he could transact in his own office at Sheffield. In 1848 he had a further seizure and died in his garden on the 29th May, at the early age of 43 years. By his will he left the whole of his estate to his wife Frances, whom he appointed sole executrix; and she proved the will at York. With the death of William Fairbank Fairbank, the we11-known Sheffield firm of surveyors, that had flourished through four generations, came to an end. THE FAIRBANK COLLECTION: At this time the two surviving sons of Josiah Fairbank, John Tertius and Josiah Forster, both surveyors, were not living in Sheffield; and a friend of the family Mr Marcus Smith of Sheffield a surveyor and the sub-agent to the Duke of Norfolk, helped the widow to wind up the affairs of the office and bring the work of the Fairbanks in Sheffield to a close. The maps plans field-books drafts letters account-books and office-papers were included in the valuation for probate, and the Capital Burgesses bought some of the maps relating to their lands; other clients of the office seized the opportunity of doing the same. What remained were bought by Mr Marcus Smith, and these now constitute The Fairbank Collection. Mr Smith kept it in his room at the Duke's office in Sheffield, until his death in 1882, when it passed to his widow Mrs Sarah Smith, the aunt of the late Mr Alfred Smith Denton of ` Raisin Hall near Sheffield surveyor, to whom she presented the collection in her lifetime; and it remained in his office at The Hartshead Sheffield, until his death in 1927. Whilst in his possession, the maps were always available for reference or production in court, and often proved of the greatest value in disputes as to rights of way or the boundaries of land or buildings; such as the ease heard at Leeds Assizes in March 1893, concerning an alleged right of way along the Angel Inn yard in Sheffield, when the question turned on evidence provided by a Fairbank plan, produced by Mr Denton. After his death, the collection was purchased by Mr Bennett, together with a share in Mr Denton's business of a surveyor of land and minerals. With the close of the Fairbanks' office in East Parade the story of the Fairbanks and their work in Sheffield comes to an end; but the family tradition of the Sheffield branch has been maintained in other parts of Yorkshire. JOSIAH FORSTER FAIRBANK AND HIS DESCENDANTS. During the years before the death of Josiah Fairbank in 1844, his son Josiah Forster Fairbank had been assisting him in his professional duties; and at his father's death he was residing in Sheffield; but when the railway `bubble' burst, followed by a period of great trade depression, Josiah Forster Fairbank decided to obtain some official appointment, and in 1847 he was elected engineer and secretary to the Pudsey Gas Company out of one hundred and fifty applicants; he removed from Sheffield to Pudsey in April 1847; this appointment he held until 1850, when he became engineer and secretary to the Scarborough Gas Company. While there he designed and constructed the Filey Gas and Waterworks and the Scarborough public baths. He was elected a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1857; and resigned his position at Scarborough in 1860, moving to London where he had offices in Parliament Street Westminster and practised there for many years, during which time he designed and constructed a large number of works all over the country. In 1885 he, like his father, had a stroke of paralysis, from which he recovered sufficiently to take his son Frank Graham Fairbank into partnership, opening an office in Driffield, where he then had work in hand; and this branch-office was subsequently transferred to York, the London offices of the firm being given up. Josiah Forster Fairbank died in 1899 and his son Frank Graham Fairbank, who reside at York, continued his professional work as a civil engineer in partnership with his son Mr Alan Carbutt Fairbank under the style of Fairbank and Son, at The Tudor House, Stonegate, York, where the great tradition of the Sheffield Fairbanks is yet maintained. Among the family papers, now in the possession of Mr F. Graham Fairbank at York is a memoir by his father, containing much information as to his branch of the family; with it, are many silhouette family portraits, including those of the first and second William and Josiah; and through the kindness of Mr Fairbank and his son these silhouettes are here reproduced. THE FUTURE OF THE COLLECTION. With regard to The Fairbank Collection, there can be no question as to its extraordinary interest and especial value to the city of Sheffield. From it, complete and accurate information can be obtained as to ancient highways, bridle-sties, footpaths, turnpikes, canals, railways, reservoirs, aqueducts, water-courses, streets, bridges, wells, weirs, fords, leppings, water-wheels, windmills, gibbets, jails, stocks, markets, inns, theatres, assembly-rooms, churches, chapels, schools, crosses, pinfolds, burial-grounds, stiles, orchards, market-gardens, nurseries and coal-pits, with in many cases the date of construction. From it, we also get the names of landowners, their lessees or tenants and other material of use to the topographer and historian. This unique collection of maps and field-books, descriptive for the most part of lands and buildings within the extended boundaries of the city of Sheffield, has been since 1932, through the generosity and public spirit of Mr Bennett, the valued possession of the city to which it relates; and, as The Fairbank Collection, it is safely housed in the archives at the Sheffield Public Library, where it is accessible to those, most likely to make use of it, both now and in years to come. [1] At this date John Hirst lived at Neepsend.
  5. Ponytail

    Norton Hall

    Norton Estate as Allotted for Sale. 1849 https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;y10811&pos=87&action=zoom&id=72807 Includes: A floor plan of Norton Hall (see also y11091); Little London Works; Meersbrook; Cliff Field; Four Lane Ends; Norton Lees; Norton Woodseats; Bolehill; Little Norton; Lightwood; Coal Aston; Land near Coal Aston & the Coal under; Greenhill; National School. Enlarged Plan of Maugheray. Sheffield Local Studies Library: S (25) 6A L.
  6. This article first appeared in the Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society, Vol 10, and is reproduced here by kind permission of the Society, and with the assistance of Gramps.(References in [] are listed at the end.) ROAD DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH YORKSHIRE AND NORTH DERBYSHIRE, 1700-1850 By G. G. HOPKINSON, M.A. [ This was the last of the articles which Mr. Hopkinson had left with me before his untimely death. Apart from checking the typing and a few references, I have left it as he wrote it.—Ed. ] THE PARISH ROADS 1700-60 In the early eighteenth century, there were only four places of any size in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire—Sheffield, Chesterfield, Rotherham and Barnsley. Each of these towns owed something of its importance to the fact that it stood at a point where a main road connecting the North with the Midlands and with London crossed one or more of the routes traversing the district from east to west. Each of these two road systems had its own particular importance. In general, although this generalisation must not be pressed too far, it may be said that the trunk routes were important primarily for passenger traffic and the cross country routes for the transport of goods. From the purely economic standpoint, the latter system was much more vital to the life of the region than the former, as it not only tied together the different geological formations in this area with their variety of products, but also connected it with the increasingly valuable markets of South Lancashire and with navigable water at Nottingham on the Trent, Bawtry on the Idle and with Doncaster—and after the river was improved to that point, with Rotherham—on the Don. The most important trunk route crossing the district during the reign of George the First was that linking Nottingham with the woollen towns of the West Riding.[1] This entered Derbyshire at Pleasley. It then crossed the magnesian limestone ridge with its well-drained soils and easy gradients to within a few miles of Rotherham, where it bridged the Don. The road then climbed out of the valley to Barnsley, before crossing the moors to Huddersfield. The southern portion of this road carried a certain amount of packhorse and waggon traffic conveying Sheffield goods southwards[2] Much more important, however, was the passenger traffic between the West Riding and such towns as Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton and London. The correspondence of the Spencer family of Cannon Hall, Cawthorne, shows that, when they journeyed south they invariably rode along this road to Nottingham, where they hired a coach to their destination. In addition, their letters and diaries make clear to what extent this route was used in the second quarter of the century—by London merchants visiting the West Riding on business; by Yorkshire ironmasters travelling to the capital in search of orders; by partners in the Derbyshire lead mines journeying to London for conferences with capitalists financially interested in the soughs which drained the Peak; by local lawyers and their witnesses en route for Westminster and by the gentry of the region travelling to Town on pleasure. It is probable that this road was at the height of its importance during the early decades of this century, as it was soon to lose much of its goods traffic to the Don Navigation and much of its passenger traffic to turnpikes giving more direct access to the south. The second road linking north and south was that from Leeds, through Wakefield, Barnsley, Sheffield, Chesterfield and Duffield to Derby.[3] Compared with the route further to the east, it was a bad road, clinging to the ridges wherever possible and characterised by hills of remarkable steepness where it was compelled to descend to the valleys. Goods traffic on the section between the river port of Wakefield and the Barnsley district was heavy. English timber was brought by river from the Yorkshire plain; charcoal and Cumberland ore for Barnby Furnace; Knottingley lime for the thin, poor soils of the grits and the coalfield; groceries and luxury goods from London—all were carried along this road. Store cattle and sheep, bought at the Fairs at Ripley and Stagshawe Bank in the north, were driven in considerable numbers along this road, to be fattened before sale to the butchers in the towns. South of Barnsley, traffic does not seem to have been so heavy, as other places on this section of the road had independent connections with other river ports, nearer to them than Wakefield. Traffic on this part of the road seems to have been short distance—farmers attending markets at Chesterfield, Sheffield and Barnsley; merchants travelling to the Fairs there or people having business with the lawyers or estate offices in those towns. At Barnsley, where these two trunk roads met, they were crossed by the most northerly of the longitudinal roads traversing the district. This entered Yorkshire from Manchester at Saltersbrook. It then crossed six miles of open moor and heath to Penistone. After passing through Barnsley, it headed for navigable water at Doncaster. Another road diverged from this route at Hartcliffe Hill in Penistone, continued past the two forges at Wortley and then ran through the heart of the nailing country to Rotherham, the head of navigation on the Don from 1733 to 1751. Both roads carried a considerable volume of coal traffic. In addition, they carried cheese, salt and Manchester goods eastwards. The waggons and packhorses which brought these goods returned laden with hemp, flax and linen yarn.[4] The most important road centre in the region was Sheffield.[5] On the northeastern side of the town, three roads converged on Lady's Bridge; the first, through Attercliffe from Worksop, the second from the inland port of Bawtry on the Idle, and the third from Doncaster and Rotherham. Along the Worksop road, building stone and English timber entered Sheffield. From Bawtry, Rotherham and Doncaster came German steel, wainscotting from the Baltic, Dutch linens and groceries from London. The packhorses and waggons which brought these commodities to Sheffield, returned with the products of its industry—forge iron, nails, tools and cutlery. On the west, Sheffield was linked with Lancashire by a road which climbed up to Crookes, ran over the moors to Redmires and Stanage, dropped down into the Derwent Valley near Hathersage and continued through Chapel and Manchester. Eastwards, this road carried Manchester goods and Derbyshire dairy produce to Sheffield and millstones and lead from the quarries and smelting mills around Hathersage, through to Rotherham and Bawtry. Westwards went a greater variety of products—timber for the lead mines, corn and groceries for the mining population, coal from the pits at Attercliffe and Wadsley, brought to Lydgate to be collected by teams from the Peak, linen yarn imported from the Continent up the Don and scythes from Norton to be sold across the Pennines. This road, despite its heavy gradients and lack of metalling over the moors, was also used by the coaches of the gentry on their way to Buxton.6 Chesterfield, the chief town of the Hundred of Scarsdale, was a road centre almost as important as Sheffield. Three roads entered the town on the east: the first from Bawtry and Worksop, the second from Bolsover and the third from Mansfield. On the Worksop road, waggons laden with lead, forge iron and bags of nails set off from the town to Bawtry, returning with foreign timber and groceries.[7] The Bolsover road connected the town with the main Nottingham road from Sheffield and after 1708 was used by a direct waggon service to London.[8] On the Mansfield road, the heaviest traffic westwards was in malt, made from the barley grown on the magnesian limestone ridge, separating Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, which was transported through the town by packhorse across the East Moor to Stoney Middleton in the Peak, where the carriers were met by packhorses from Manchester to take the malt into Lancashire and Cheshire. Eastwards, the most important traffic was coal carried from the pits lying at the foot of the magnesian limestone ridge in Derbyshire, to Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. On the west, Chesterfield was connected with tracks across the moors with the bridges over the Derwent at Matlock, Darley and Rowsley. Lead ore from the mines at Winster and Wensley was carried along these to be smelted at Kelstedge and Ashover. Sheep and cattle were driven along these three routes over the East Moor to feed on the limestone pastures of the Peak in summer, returning in autumn to be fattened near the towns, before sale to the butcher. The most southerly of the cross country routes climbed out of the Derwent valley near Matlock up to the East Moor, before descending to Oakerthorpe, where at Kendall's Inn, it crossed the main road from Derby to Chesterfield. At this point, it was joined by another road, running through the lead mining districts around Crich and Wirksworth to Ashbourne. From Oakerthorpe, this road headed for navigable water at Nottingham, through Alfreton, up the steep hill out of the Erewash valley and onwards through Watnall and Nuttall. The familiar traffic pattern of lead moving eastwards and coal and malt westwards was repeated on this road.[9] In addition to the long distance traffic through the district, there was a heavy volume of internal traffic, particularly connected with the iron industry. Iron ore and charcoal were carried in large quantities to the blast furnaces at Rockley, Chapeltown and Barnby in Yorkshire and at Wingerworth, Staveley, Foxbrooke and Whaley in Derbyshire. Pig iron from these was distributed to the forges at Attercliffe, Sheffield, Wadsley, Roche, Staveley and Carburton. From these, forge iron was sold to the many edge tool out-workers in the area as well as to the slitting mills at Rotherham, Renishaw and Wortley. These latter supplied bunches of rod to warehouses at Eckington, Ecclesfield, Hoyland, Howbrooke and Chapeltown, from which they were distributed to nailers in the vicinity. After the bags of nails had been collected, they were then transported, together with pig and forge iron, to Bawtry or Rotherham, to be forwarded down river to Hull. If the figure of 20,000 outworkers employed in the Hallamshire trades in 1725 be accepted, the number of pack animals and waggons employed in distributing their raw materials and collecting the finished articles must have been large indeed.[10] Topographically, the district with its rapid alternation of ridge and valley was a difficult one for road construction. Geologically, neither the Coal Measures nor the Magnesian Limestone formation provided good road making material for maintenance. Blast furnace slag, favoured by many village Surveyors of the Highways, although cheap and easily available, broke up quickly under the stress of heavy traffic. Again the whole area, apart from near the four towns, was thinly populated. This fact, combined with a small rateable value and long mileage of road in many parishes, especially those on the East Moor, made it inevitable that, so long as each parish remained responsible for the roads within its own boundaries under the Act of 1555, long sections of the cross country routes should be nothing better than mere tracks. These difficulties were often accentuated by a narrow localism, which could not see beyond the immediate interest of its own township. In Derbyshire, the Minutes of Quarter Sessions at the end of the seventeenth century, record a number of cases in which townships protested against performing Statute Labour in their own particular part of the parish. Across the Yorkshire border, this same spirit can be seen at work in Ecclesfield.[11] In this parish, admittedly a large one—it stretched from Howbrooke Dyke to Blackburn Bridge, a distance of seven miles and from White Lane to Malin Bridge, a distance of six miles—there were no less than sixteen highway authorities and although only one warrant was issued by the West Riding Quarter Sessions for the appointment of a Surveyor, there were, in fact, twenty to thirty officials acting under this one warrant. In 1751, the inhabitants of this parish expressed their opinion that this was the most suitable system as the parish was too large to be administered as a single unit. They defended this extreme sub-division on the grounds that the Surveyors "may attend the repairs of them [the roads] without neglecting their own private concerns"—a sentiment as to the duties of parish officers which would certainly have won universal approbation throughout the whole area. Supervision by the Justices, with such excessive decentralisation, seems to have been extremely lax, as it was admitted that "Officers always kept the assessments themselves and either lost or destroyed them afterwards". Again, when Nether Lane, the old main road from Sheffield to Chapeltown, was indicted in 1752, the parish of Ecclesfield repudiated all responsibility for its condition, thrusting it back on the township, which excused itself for its failure to keep the road in good condition on the grounds that the road was but little used by its inhabitants but "was perpetually torn up by Heavy Carriages with Coals for the use of the other parts of the Parish". This narrow localism also expressed itself in a reluctance to spend money on the roads, a fact made very obvious by the few Surveyors' accounts remaining for this period, which contain little beyond a list of names of persons liable for Statute Duty, with crosses opposite these to represent the number of days worked. Apart from Chesterfield and its neighbouring townships—Newbold, Tapton and Hasland—no North Derbyshire parish consistently levied Highway Rates over any number of years during this period. Road presentments before the Derbyshire and West Riding Quarter Sessions show that many of these main roads were in bad condition at this time. The township of Brightside Bierlow was indicted in 1700, 1729, 1734 and 1736 for the disrepair of the road out of Sheffield to Doncaster; in 1726, Nether Hallam was presented for the poor condition of the road' from Sheffield to Halifax; nine years later, the town of Rotherham was prosecuted .for its failure to repair its roads.[12] In Derbyshire, Somercotes was indicted in 1738 and in 1746 on account of the road from Nottingham to Alfreton being "ruinous". The township of Palterton was presented in 1741 for the bad condition of the Chesterfield to Mansfield road. Three years later, Dore was prosecuted for the disrepair of the Sheffield to Manchester road. The parish of Brampton was indicted in 1749 for its failure to keep the main road linking Bakewell and Chesterfield in good condition.[13] The general practice was for Quarter Sessions to levy a fine on the parish which was remitted when a certificate was furnished by a Justice to the effect that the road had been repaired. Petitions to Parliament initiating turnpike legislation are unfortunately couched in the stilted jargon of the lawyer and convey little of value to the historian. Nevertheless, the persistent references to the difficulty of vehicles passing each other on the roads of the district and of using the roads in the winter, probably convey a general truth. It is, indeed, likely that with the exception of such winters as those of 1739-40 and of 1747, when the roads were frozen as hard as iron, so that they were as good as in summer—the phrase is that used by the South Yorkshire ironmaster, William Spencer[14]—there was comparatively little traffic on the roads in winter. The account books of coalmasters show that coal was heavily stocked during the winter months and that it only began to move freely in May. The same conclusion may be arrived at from a study of the correspondence of various business men during this period. In the third week of August, 1735, Richard Dalton, a Sheffield timber merchant, wrote to the Hull importers with whom he did business, asking them to forward the deals he had ordered "before ye roads grow bad". At the same time, he was in communication with an Amsterdam firm from which he purchased wainscotting, informing them that as it had been shipped up the Idle to Bawtry, it would probably have to be brought to Sheffield in bad weather "which will be a great Inconvenience to me as well as more charge as I told you before wee have part Land Carriage and Carters will have more wages when Roads are bad". In November, he wrote to Hull, complaining to the importers about a shipment of Russian and Swedish iron and Stockholm deals which had arrived at Aldwark on the Don—"I am afraid they must remain there till Spring". Simultaneously, he wrote to Amsterdam that some of the boards had arrived in Sheffield but "I don't expect any more of them this Winter the roads are grown so bad". Later letters show him refusing offers to supply deals in October 1738 and in the same month two years after "for they will come up heavily now as we have near five miles land carriage most of them as bad as any in England".[15] As late in this period as 1758, Anthony Tissington, the manager of one of the most important collieries in north-east Derbyshire, at Swanwick, could write to its owner that heavy rains in October had damaged the roads to such an extent that coal traffic had become impossible.[16] A pamphlet supporting the turnpiking of the road from Chesterfield to Mansfield shows that from Pleasley, the road into Derbyshire was built from slippery flags or simply consisted of heaps of loose stones "thrown together in a chance manner without gravel to bind or cover them" with the result that waggon traffic on this road was impossible in winter.[17] Heavy summer rains could reduce the roads to a quagmire, as can be seen from a letter written by Thomas Simpson, a Doncaster merchant, to Mrs. Copley of Sprotborough Hall, asking permission to hale boats through her land on the grounds that "by reason of ye great rains yt have happened this summer ye roads have been and still are almost impossible for Carts and Carriages which have occassioned a great Scarcity of Coals at and below Doncaster".[18] Bad road conditions naturally increased the cost of road transport to such an extent that it was out of all proportion to the freight charges on the inland navigations. An undated memorandum drawn up by William Spencer—probably in the thirties— shows that despite the difference in distance, the cost of sending bar iron by road from Wortley Forge to Rotherham and from there to Hull by water was approximately the same.[19] In winter, transport costs doubled, as carriers attempted to recoup themselves for the loss of time resulting from delays on the unmetalled roads of the period, badly broken by rain and heavy traffic. [19] It is therefore apparent that the roads in this district, as maintained under the Act of 1555, severely handicapped its economic development. This system had failed to provide anything more than moorland tracks on vital lines of communication and nowhere had it resulted in roads which could be used all the year round. The expansion in coal mining, the increase in the output of lead, the growth of the secondary metallurgical industries, the development of the manufacture of glass and pottery and the continuous increase in food production, were all placing a growing burden upon a method of road maintenance ill-prepared to sustain it. TURNPIKE LEGISLATION This situation was not, of course, peculiar to this area. It was, in fact, general throughout the country. The solution to the problem was everywhere the same—the adoption of the principle of making road users pay for road repairs through tolls paid to Turnpike Trusts. The first roads in the region to be turnpiked were the cross country roads carrying the heaviest volume of goods traffic. In 1739, an Act was obtained to turnpike the road from Bakewell, through Chesterfield, to Worksop, primarily with the object of improving the route from the lead mining districts in the High Peak through the river port of Bawtry on the Idle. However, little use was made of the Act and when it was renewed in 1758, no attempt had been made to turnpike the road from Bakewell to Chesterfield and despite an expenditure of £5,225, only some six miles of the Worksop road had been repaired, the remainder being "founderous". [20] The most northerly of the cross country routes, that from Doncaster, through Barnsley and Penistone, to the boundary of the West Riding at Saltersbrook, was made into a turnpike in 1740, thereby giving through communication with Manchester, as the road on the other side of the Pennines had been turnpiked in 1732. Although it had been no part of the original scheme, a clause was added to the Bill in the Committee stage whereby the Hartcliffe Hill road to Rotherham, then temporarily the head of navigation on the Don, was made into a turnpike, largely to facilitate the distribution of goods from Aldwark. Between the beginning of the War of Austrian Succession and the opening of the Seven Years' War there was a lull in turnpike development in the district. During the next eight years, there was a spate of Acts, by which almost all the cross country routes were made into turnpikes. In 1758, the road from Little Sheffield over the moors to Hathersage, through Castleton to Sparrow Pit Gate on the Chapel-en-le-Frith Road was turnpiked. This Act also turnpiked another road which crossed the county boundary near Barbers Field Cupola, dropped down to Grindleford Bridge, climbed steeply up the Sir William Hill, continued past the important group of lead mines on Eyam Edge, clung to the narrow ridge overlooking the moors on every side towards Hucklow, dropped to Tideswell and continued forward through Fairfield to Buxton. [21] Both these roads joined branches of the Sherbrooke Hill Trust's roads into Lancashire, turnpiked some years earlier. To contemporaries, they were "the finest roads imaginable"; made from small stones covered with clay, sand and fine gravel, consolidated by frost and winter weather. [22] In the following year, three more important cross country routes were turnpiked. To the east of Chesterfield, the road through Heath and Glapwell was turnpiked to Mansfield. Despite an expenditure of some £4,000 on its repair, the road was in wretched condition in 1780, threatened with indictment with a falling income at a time when heavy expenditure was essential.[23] To the west of the town, the main road through Brampton, over the East Moor to Curbar Gap— where the Trust constructed a new road, straight as an arrow, totally ignoring all gradients—down the precipitous slope into the Derwent valley, up Middleton Dale to Hernstone Lane Head, where it met the turnpikes from Buxton, Sheffield and Manchester, was also turnpiked. In addition, this Act authorised the Trust to turnpike the roads between Calver and Baslow bridges and from the latter through Hassop and Great Longstone to rejoin the main road at Wardlow Mires. Finally, in that year the most southerly of the cross country roads from the lead mining areas around Crich and Winster to the Trent at Nottingham was turnpiked by the Newhaven Trust. By 1777vthis authority had spent £8,465 on repairing the road and three years later, they, claimed to have expended a total of some £17,000 on putting this and other roads connecting it with the turnpike linking Ashbourne and Buxton into repair.[24] In the following year, the road from Chesterfield to Matlock was turnpiked, largely through the efforts of Thomas Holland of Ford Hall, Higham, who did much to raise an interest in the scheme and to solicit subscriptions for it from local landowners and lead merchants. This Act also turnpiked two branch roads across the East Moor, both constructed by the Trust with almost Roman directness, down to the bridges at Rowsley and Darley, thereby improving communications between the lead mining areas to the west of the Derwent and the smelting plants at Kelstedge and Bowers Mill. In South Yorkshire, the road linking the two river ports at Tinsley and Bawtry were turnpiked in that year. Four years later, an Act was passed turnpiking the road from Tinsley to Rotherham, then along the magnesian limestone ridge east of the Don, past Conisborough and its Norman castle, through Warmsworth into Doncaster. Arthur Young, with his customary forthright language, condemned the part from Tinsley to Rotherham as "execrably bad, very stony and excessively full of holes".[25] In the same year, another Act turnpiked the road from Attercliffe, through Handsworth and Anston to Worksop. Turnpiking cannot have improved this road very much as twenty-two years later, the first two miles out of Sheffield were denounced as "execrable", the next two as "so cut up and bad as hardly to be safe" and the remainder as "all rugged and jumbling".[26] Finally, in that year, an Act set up the High Moors Trust, which "turnpiked a series of secondary roads connecting the turnpikes running out of Chesterfield to Worksop, Sheffield, Hernstone Lane Head, Rowsley, Darley and Matlock. In less than a decade, the main east to west roads out of Sheffield, Chesterfield and Alfreton had been turnpiked, so that the lead mining areas of the Peak, the coalfield, the agricultural districts of the magnesian limestone ridge and the river ports serving them were linked by a number of turnpikes, spaced at intervals of about twelve miles distance from one another. It is, however, obvious from the reports of travellers that turnpiking did not mean any automatic improvement in condition and that comparatively large sums of money might be expended on repairs with few results. These years also saw the turnpiking of the main trunk routes from north to south. In 1756, the road from Derby to Sheffield through Chesterfield was made into a turnpike. In the following year, largely through the influence of Lord Strafford, the road linking Wakefield with Sheffield was turnpiked. At first, the weight of tolls was resented by its users, but the Trustees defended their scale of charges by the assertion that its critics "must own the vast amendment it is, from'the uncommon badness and inconvenience of the Road before the Turnpike was established "and by what undoubtedly was true, that many of the existing turnpikes were at that date in bad repair through failure to charge adequate tolls.[27] These roads not only opened up a new route to Bath, Bristol and the West of England but also to the capital, reducing the old trunk route through Mansfield and Rotherham by the end of the century to the status of a mere country highway, of purely local importance. By 1764, the framework of the turnpike system in the region had been built up. The Trusts created by Parliament had, however, in general only taken over the existing roads and repaired them. As wherever possible the preturnpiked roads had followed the ridges which dominate so much of this countryside, the turnpikes inherited the severe gradients where these roads descended into the valleys. Even where the Trusts had been compelled to build new lines of road to replace the tracks across the East Moor, these roads terminated in hills of exceptional severity. Such slopes could be negotiated by packhorses but the expansion of wheeled traffic in the shape of mail coach and stage waggon demanded the easing of these gradients. As a result, the War of American Independence saw the passing of a number of Acts to construct new turnpikes or to improve old ones with this object in view. Communication between Hallamshire, with its important cutlery and edge tool industries and Liverpool, through which a considerable part of its produce was exported to America, was still, despite the turnpiking of the roads through Sparrow Pit and Tideswell, extremely difficult, as traffic had to negotiate such hills as the Sir William or the Winnats. In 1781, an Act constituting the Greenhill Moor Trust, authorised it to turnpike an easier route off the Chesterfield Turnpike through Holmesfield, past Owler Bar to Hathersage Booth, down the steep slope to Hazelford Bridge, and on to Hathersage. Forward from Hathersage, the road remained a difficult one, as a Frenchman discovered riding along it one fine autumn day at the end of the century, when his experiences prompted him to write that travelling along it was as disagreeable and as tiring as riding along ordinary roads in the depth of winter. In 1809, the Sparrow Pit Trustees prepared estimates to expend some £9,000 on improving their road on Dore Moor, near the Odin Mine at Castleton and at Mam Tor through to Chapel-en-le-Frith. Two years later, they obtained the necessary statutory powers to effect these improvements whereby the long hauls up from Hazleford Bridge and through the Winnats were at last eliminated. The main road from Duffield northwards, through Chesterfield to Sheffield, was characterised by no less than eleven hills with gradients more severe than one in nine, on which ten horses were required to drag waggons. The section between Sheffield and Chesterfield was largely rebuilt under an Act of 1795, which empowered the Trust to abandon long stretches of the road, notorious for their poor condition—they were immediately indicted once the Trust had abandoned them—above the River Drone, around Coal Aston and Old Whittington and to construct new roads down the valley, thereby both decreasing the gradient and straightening the course of the turnpike.[29] South of Higham, a new road, running across less undulating country than the old Derby Turnpike, had been built under an Act of 1786, through Shirland and Alfreton to Swanwick, from where in 1802, a new turnpike had been constructed past Butterley Works, through Ripley down to Derby. Although this new route from Sheffield to Derby was still very hilly, it was so much superior to the old road, turnpiked in 1756, that it speedily superseded it as the main artery of north to south traffic. North of Sheffield, the Wakefield Turnpike had difficult hills at Chapeltown, Tankersley and Hoyland. A somewhat easier road northward was obtained by turn-piking the road to Penistone in 1777. In 1805, another Act authorised the turnpiking of the road from Wadsley to Langsett, giving northbound traffic access to the woollen towns of the West Riding and traffic heading west into Lancashire an easier route to the Saltersbrook turnpike. By Waterloo, little remained to be done in the way of turnpiking. With one exception, the schemes carried out were small and of little consequence. Revenue in all cases proved disappointing. Almost all proved from the standpoint of their shareholders abortive investments. In 1818, an Act was obtained to turnpike the road from Brampton Bierlow on the Tankersley to Rotherham road with Hooton Roberts on the main road from Doncaster to Rotherham. Three years later, constructed across 23 miles of open moorland, with what contemporaries considered to be a remarkably easy rise and fall—it was even described as a "level road"[30] —a new turnpike was opened from Sheffield to Glossop, to facilitate communication from the former town to Manchester. In 1826, the road from Barnby Moor on the Great North Road near Blyth was turnpiked through to Maltby on the turnpike linking Sheffield and Bawtry. In the following year, another short road connecting two turnpikes out of Mansfield— those to Chesterfield and Ashover—was made into a turnpike from Tibshelf to Temple Norrhanton.[31] A decade later, the construction of a new road from the obelisk on Birdwell Common to Ruggen House linked the Wakefield and Penistone turnpikes out of Sheffield, thereby giving traffic to the former town the advantage of a road with much smaller gradients than that turnpiked in 1757. Three years later, a series of lanes in the triangle between the Worksop and the Sheffield roads out of Chesterfield and the main road from Sheffield to Worksop was turnpiked.[32] In 1841, the Tinsley and Doncaster Trust obtained an Act empowering them to build a new road from Swinton Station on the North Midland Railway through to their road at Conisborough. The object of this branch was partly to open up a new line of road to the railway, partly to supersede an old road, down in the Don valley, always liable to floods and partly to divert traffic from Swinton to Doncaster on to the Tinsley to Doncaster Turnpike, thereby increasing its revenue.[33] The last turnpike authority to be created in this area was for the road from Tinsley to Doncaster, set up in 1849. Peculiarly enough, this same road was the subject of the first turnpike legislation in the district, as the Don Navigation in their Act of 1726 received powers to make a road from Lady's Bridge to Tinsley "either sett and pitched with boulders or trench'd thrown up and gravelled at least seven yards wide". In return, the Navigation was to levy a toll of a penny per ton for the use of the road. Although the need for this road arose in 1751 when the river had been improved as far up as Tinsley, the Company proved very dilatory in building it and it was not until 1758 that the contract was awarded for its construction. The road soon proved a financial liability to the Navigation, costing £3,500 a year more to maintain than was received in tolls, as the road was badly cut up by many narrow wheeled vehicles on their way to the wharfs at Tinsley. As a result, when in 1760, an attempt was made to turnpike the road from Bawtry to Tinsley, the Navigation eagerly seized the opportunity to petition Parliament that their road should become part of the new turnpike. The Bawtry Trust, naturally, had no wish to bear this burden and successfully resisted this plan of the Don Company to shift part of their legal liabilities on to shoulders much less able to bear it. [34] A second opportunity came for the Navigation to rid itself of the road when it was proposed to construct a canal from the terminus of the Don Navigation at Tinsley into Sheffield in 1815. Using every opportunity to intimidate the Canal Company by threatening it with prolonged opposition in Committee, the Navigation was successful in its efforts to compel the Canal Company to take over the responsibility for the road. Its new owners soon found that it was costing them oves £1,600 a year to maintain. Further, in 1828 the road was indicted and the Canal Company forced to tear up the boulders and macadamise it. With the opening of the railway from Rotherham to Sheffield and the consequent decrease in their revenue, the Canal Company decided that there was no necessity for them to continue to repair the road. Soon, it developed ruts so large that it was alleged that a man might lie down in them and not be seen. Naturally, the road was indicted and much to their surprise the townships along the road—Brightside Bierlow, Attercliffe and Tinsley—found that, despite the various Acts of Parliament concerning the road, they were legally still responsible for its maintenance. Faced by such a verdict, they sued the Canal Company, which by a turn of the wheel of fortune, had ironically enough once more become the property of the Don Company. As the latter was adamant in its determination to have finished with the road and the parishes equally obstinate in their belief that they had no responsibility for it, the ensuing litigation proved costly. Finally, the two parties were persuaded to meet at Pontefract Sessions in April, 1849, and in the following month, with Sheffield Town Council, the Doncaster to Tinsley Trust and Earl Fitzwilliam holding watching briefs—they were equally interested in the provision of a good road with low tolls between Sheffield and Tinsley—it was agreed that a new Trust should be set up. The Navigation, however, had to pay £2,000 towards putting the road into good repair and to give the townships compensation for their legal expenses. Once the Bill had gone through Parliament, the Trust had to negotiate with the Midland Railway Company as to the siting of the toll bar at the Sheffield end of the turnpike, the Railway Company finally making an annual ex-gratia payment of £100 to prevent it being positioned between their station and the town. [35] It is thus evident that the smooth passage of a Turnpike Bill through Parliament was dependent upon the success of the preliminary negotiations between the various parties interested in a particular road—local corporate bodies, business interests concerned, other Trusts and above all the local landowners. Particularly vital was the support of the aristocracy, whose capital, territorial power and political influence in Parliament were all essential at each stage in the promotion of a Bill. In South Yorkshire, the most important of all families were the owners of the Wentworth property. Their interference can be discerned in a number of turnpike schemes. In 1764, a group of merchants and landowners in and around Sheffield planned to turnpike the road from Rotherham to Pleasley. In view of the importance of this road at this time and that the roads northward out of Barnsley had already been made into turnpikes, it was hoped that the intervening section from Barnsley to Rotherham, then in poor condition, might also be made a turnpike road. While the Bill was in the Committee stage, Fenton, the Marquis of Rockingham's able lawyer and agent, suggested that a clause might be added to it, turnpiking the road from Rotherham to Tankersley, on the main Sheffield to Wakefield road. As this road ran through the Wentworth property, its value might be expected to increase with the improvement of communications. As this was a much longer road than the more usual route between the two towns through Wombwell, Fenton attempted to quieten opposition to the project by calling in Metcalfe to survey the two roads to prove that the longer road would actually be cheaper to put into good condition, as part of it was "already a Road thrown up & Covered in the Manner of a Turnpike". Fenton also arranged to supply witnesses to give the required evidence before the Committee and despite local hostility to the scheme, a clause was tacked on to the Pleasley Bill, authorising the turnpiking of the road through the Rockingham property.[36] In the same year, another Bill was introduced to turnpike the road from Doncaster to Tinsley, avoiding Hooton Roberts on the Wentworth estate. On Fenton pointing out the disadvantage of this to the Marquis, he intervened to persuade the promoters of the Trust to restore the road to its original line. In 1801, when it was proposed to extend the Greenhill Moor Turnpike through to Sheffield by a road branching off the turnpike to Chesterfield, a mile outside the town, through Abbeydale and Ecclesall Woods, thereby opening up a route competitive with the Sparrow Pit Road, the Trust sought the support of Earl Fitzwilliam, who had property along the new road in Ecclesall. In promoting the Bill, they had aroused the hostility of the Duke of Norfolk, one of the largest shareholders in the Sparrow Pit Road, as the new road would render a large section of the older turnpike "almost useless and unprofitable". While the Greenhill Moor Trustees were appealing to the public spirit of earl Fitzwilliam by assuring him that their new road would be "a much leveller as well as a more warmer road and with better materials than the present mountainous and exposed road over the High Moors", the Sparrow Pit Trust were appealing to the Dukes of Norfolk and of Devonshire for their support in the rejection of "this idle project" in Committee and considering how to draw the attention of Members interested in road questions to their case.[37] Finally, a compromise was agreed upon whereby the Greenhill Moor Trust were to pay the Sparrow Pit Road £100 annually as compensation for the loss of traffic. In 1840, the promoters of a Bill to turnpike the road from Greenhill Moor to Eckington wrote to the fifth Earl, who owned a small detached property along this road, asking for his vote in the Lords, which he agreed to give in this particular case, although expressing his dislike for turnpikes in general. [38] The political influence of the nobility could be sufficient to block turnpike Bills which they considered to be detrimental to their own interests. In 1780, the Gander Lane Trust considered carrying forward their turnpike from Sheffield to Clowne as far as Budby, on the main road from Worksop to Kelham. They employed the Sheffield firm of Fairbank to make the plans; and in 1782, advertisements were inserted in the local papers to the effect that the Trust intended to apply for an Act to turnpike two roads from Clowne and Renishaw Bridge to Budby and in addition, what was notoriously a bad road, that from Bolsover to Chesterfield.[39] No application was, however, made to Parliament at this time. Eight years later the project was revived. It was asserted that the turnpiking of these roads would serve many ends. It would give through communication by turnpike between Lancashire, the Great North Road and Lincolnshire; it would improve transport between the newly established cotton and woollen mills at Cuckney, their suppliers and customers in Lincolnshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire; it would enable malt made for the Lancashire market at Newark to reach its destination more rapidly and it would facilitate the supply of lime from the magnesian limestone ridge to farms on the poor sandy soil around Cuckney.[40] Although the project received support from Sheffield, Rotherham and Newark and from the Duke of Kingston and Lord Bathurst, it was opposed from the beginning by the Duke of Portland. Unfortunately, the correspondence fails to disclose any reason for his attitude, although it may have been connected with the petition of the Mansfield to Rotherham Trust against the Bill, alleging that the proposed extension ran parallel to their own road for many miles, that their turnpike was in good condition, that their tolls were moderate and that subscribers had invested their capital "on the implied Faith of Parliament, that no needless new Road should at any Time be made to their Detriment"[41] The Bill was lost by a large majority as a result of "the formidable and united Exertions of the Portland, Devonshire and Bedford families "supported by such"auxiliary troops—as Edmund Burke and Michael Angela Taylor" who attended "not only to vote but to make Speeches". A second attempt made in 1811 was more successful, as although some sections of the road had to be sacrificed to the opposition of the Duke of Portland, power was obtained to turnpike the road from Clowne through Cuckney to Budby.[42] Second only to the interests of the nobility to be considered were those of the gentry. In 1758, the Sheffield promoters of the turnpike to Buxton, with their minds fixed on the through traffic to Manchester, naturally wished the road to be as straight as possible across Tideswell Moor. To achieve this they planned to avoid Tideswell itself and to route their road through Wheston. The former proposal alarmed the gentry who lived in the town, as they had no wish to see Tideswell left a rural backwater. The latter proposal angered Robert Freeman, the most important landowner in Wheston, who was completely antagonistic to the idea of a turnpike cutting through his land. This opposition proved so strong that the Trust was forced to re-route the road through Tideswell and to avoid Wheston, with the result that the turnpike ran up and down Monksdale, with particularly atrocious gradients.[43] In the same year, when the Hernstone Lane Head Turnpike was being considered, it was feared in Tideswell that it would result in tolls being imposed at the junction of the three turnpikes on the moors, on coal led from Cheshire. Pressure brought by the local gentry was sufficient to secure a promise that no such tolls would be exacted.[44] In the last decade of the century, the line of the Sheffield to Chesterfield Turnpike through Norton Park was laid down according to the wishes of the Shore family, the most important landowners in the village, who had no wish to have the road too near their home.[45] Nor could the interest of the business community be neglected. In 1740, Cavendish Neville of Chevet, a landowner with property south of Wakefield, wrote to William Spencer of Cannon Hall, asking him for his support for the proposed Saltersbrook Turnpike over the moors to Lancashire. Spencer replied that his backing was assured as the advantages it would bring would more than outweigh the sole disadvantage he could foresee—that improved communication would enable wheat grown on the Yorkshire Plain to be sold around Barnsley, thereby lowering farm rents in that district.[48] The Influence of the Cutlers' Company, with an eye to better roads linking Hallamshire with Lancashire and the desire of the Wortley family to improve the roads through their property, were responsible for the inclusion in this Bill of a clause whereby the road from Hartcliffe Hill in Penistone, past the forges at Wortley, was to be turnpiked.[47] Nevertheless, despite these preliminary negotiations, a fierce wrangle arose in Committee between Wortley and the Earl of Effingham, on whose Rotherham property there were collieries, as to where the toll gates were to be placed on the Hartcliffe Hill road, Effingham naturally wishing them to be so sited as to cause the minimum interference with coal traffic. [48] The Act turnpiking the road from Newhaven House to Nottingham, passed in 1759, contained clauses giving concessionary tolls to coal and lead. The lowered tolls on coal were probably the result of a letter from Anthony Tissington, the manager of Swanwick Colliery, much of the production of which was sold as fuel for the Newcomen engines at the Winster lead mines on this road, to Thomas Thoroton, M.P., the owner of the property, asking him to press for this in the House. The concession given to lead probably resulted from correspondence between Nicholas Twigg, the leading lead merchant in mid-eighteenth century Derbyshire, and Isaac Bonne, agent to Robert Banks Hodgkinson of Overton Hall, Ashover. Twigg, who had shares in both the Winster mines and in the Ashover smelting plant, wrote to Bonne to appeal to Hodgkinson, then living in London, to use his influence with Members of Parliament to secure the incorporation-of a clause in the Act, lowering tolls on lead ore carried over Darley Bridge, in order to prevent an increase in the production costs of pig lead. TURNPIKE FINANCE Shareholders in the various Trusts in the area, so far as can be ascertained from the somewhat scanty number of lists of subscribers available, were almost exclusively local landowners, coalmasters and merchants, all of whom might expect to benefit financially by the improvement of communications around Sheffield. Complete lists of shareholders exist for four Trusts controlling roads to the east of the town. The chief subscribers to the Rotherham and Pleasley Turnpike were the Dukes of Portland and of Leeds; the Earl of Holderness; Gilbert Rhodes of Barlborough Hall; E. Sacheverall Pole of Park Hall, Barlborough, and John Hewett of Shireoaks. The Earl of Holderness, Rhodes and Hewett were also shareholders in the Attercliffe to Worksop Turnpike. Other subscribers were the Duke of Norfolk, William Mellish of Blyth Hall, Henry Athorpe of Dinnington Hall, Noble Champion of Worksop and the Rev. John Stacey of Ballifield. The Duke of Leeds, the Earl of Surrey and Rhodes were included amongst the principal shareholders in the Gander Lane Trust. Other subscribers were the Duke of Devonshire, Francis Sitwell of Renishaw and John Parker of Woodthorpe. Three other shareholders in this Trust were John Inkersall, one of the most important edge tool makers in the district; George Townshend, the lessee of the Norfolk collieries in the Park; and Samuel Peach, a Sheffield coach proprietor. The Sitwell, Rhodes and Parker families were shareholders in the Clowne and Budby Turnpike. Other subscribers included the Duke of Portland, Earl Manvers, the Bowdens of Southgate House and Appleby, Walker and Company of Renishaw Ironworks[49] The chief shareholders in the Sheffield to Penistone Trust were the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Bute, the Town of Sheffield and the Company of Cutlers. Other subscribers were Thomas Steade of Onseacre; Thomas Rawson of Wardsend, the leading tanner in the district; J. and G. Kenyon, edge tool and steel manufacturers; and Thomas Broadbent, the lessee of a number of grinding wheels on the Norfolk property in Sheffield.[50] When the road was improved in 1825, over half the additional capital was provided by the Wortley family and the Thorncliffe ironmasters, Newton, Chambers and Company. Capital for the parallel road from Sheffield to Wakefield was largely provided by the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Strafford, the Marquis of Rockingham and Sir Thomas Wentworth.[51] Another South Yorkshire Turnpike Trust, set up in 1809 to improve the road from the north end of Rotherham to Pottery Lane in Swinton was largely financed by Earl Fitzwilliam and his heir Lord Milton. The remainder of the shares were taken up by such local families as the Walkers of Masborough, the Rents and the Bingleys, all interested in one way or another in. heavy industry and coalmining. On the west of Sheffield, the Dukes of Norfolk, Rutland and Devonshire were the most important shareholders in the Sparrow Pit Trust. Other subscribers were Vincent Eyre, the Duke of Norfolk's agent, and the Reverend William Bagshawe, a member of a family owning estates at both ends of the road.[52] When, in 1812, the Trust was empowered to construct a new road from Fox House to Banner Cross, the Duke of Devonshire lent it £6,000 for this purpose. He and the Duke of Norfolk were chiefly responsible for making it possible to finance the Glossop Turnpike, as when it proved impossible to raise the necessary capital, the two Dukes gave their personal security that interest due would be met—a step which induced investors to lend the necessary finance. Two roads joined Ashover, with its lead mines and smelting plants, with the coalfield. Most of the capital for these Trusts was provided by local landowners, partners in the lead mines and in the lead mining cupolas. Prominent amongst them were the Duke of Devonshire, Godfrey Clarke of Somersall, John Woodyeare of Walton and Robert Banks Hodgkinson, all of whom had property adjacent to the roads. Amongst the shareholders in nearby lead mines or cupolas were Peter Nightingale, Richard Wilkinson, Isaac Bowne, John Twigge, William Milnes and various members of the Bourne, Towndrow, Allen and Willamot families, the latter group all connected with the most famous of eighteenth century Derbyshire lead mines, the Gregory Mine beneath Ravenstor in Ashover. Information as to shareholders in other roads is fragmentary. The Duke of Devonshire, as befitted his position as the most important landowner in North Derbyshire, subscribed liberally to the Trusts controlling the roads from Sheffield to Duffield, from Nottingham to Newhaven and from Chesterfield to Hernstone Lane Head. When, in 1812, the latter Trust constructed a new road connecting Chesterfield with Baslow, planned to eliminate the worst of the gradients over the East Moor, the capital for this was provided by the Duke. When the Third District of the Newhaven Trust turnpiked the road from Wirksworth Moor to Longstone in 1759, the money necessary was provided by John Barker of Bakewell, lead merchant, and by two Chesterfield men, Francis Slater, a merchant, and Bernard Lucas, a grocer. Few owners of Turnpike securities can have congratulated themselves upon their choice of investment.[53] The exceptions were shares in Trusts controlling long stretches of road, such as the fifty-eight miles long Hernstone Lane Head Trust, the thirty-one miles long Nottingham to Newhaven Road, the Sheffield to Wakefield Trust with its twenty-two miles of main road or the Tinsley to Doncaster Trust with its thirteen miles of trunk road, all of which paid regular dividends of about 5% until the early Railway Age. These bodies could meet the heavy administrative and legal expenses inevitable in running such organisations, which could easily bankrupt a short Road with a small revenue from tolls—for example, the Tinsley to Doncaster Trust spent well over £1,100 in 1841 in obtaining powers to turnpike four and a half miles of road between Swinton and Conisborough. Inadequate income resulting from control of too small a length of road must be ascribed as the cause of financial situations such as that of the four-mile-long Temple Normanton to Tibshelf road, which, turnpiked in 1827, converted £1,261 of unpaid interest into capital eight years later, or that of the Rotherham to Swinton Trust, set up in 1809 to turnpike three miles of road, which in 1821 similarly converted £1,733. Indeed, in too many cases, shareholders must have re-echoed the words of a Sheffield lawyer, Bernard Wake, written in 1817, that money invested in Turnpikes was "in innumerable instances, after the lapse of time—considered as lost to their original lenders and their families for ever or is treated as a Property of little value".[54] This accusation was levelled specifically at the Attercliffe to Worksop Trust, controlling some sixteen miles of road, which had a deplorable financial record. After borrowing £4,000 in 1767, it raised another £3,000 in loans over the next three years. In 1817, with arrears of interest, the debt of this Trust amounted to £12,500. This position was not the result of too short a road, nor of corruption, malpractice or incompetence on the part of the Trustees. It arose solely out of selfishness of the business community of Sheffield. When the Trust was set up initially, an agreement was made with the Town that no toll bar was to operate nearer to Attercliffe than Blacksmith's Smithy. The consequence was that a large volume of traffic used a part of the road without payment. In 1782 the Trustees, realising the danger of this to their finances, decided to introduce a Bill to put up another bar nearer Attercliffe. This provoked the Master Cutler to attend a meeting of the Trust to remind it of the previous agreement. Two years later, the Trustees once again reconsidered this step, but the idea was abandoned when it was realised that their financial position was so desperate that they could not afford the luxury of opposition from the Town when their Bill came up for renewal. In 1786, another attempt was made, supported by Vincent Eyre, agent of the Duke of Norfolk. Once more the Master Cutler intervened, vigorously denouncing the proposal at a meeting at which it was asserted that any such step would increase the price of coal from the pits at Attercliffe, that other collieries would follow suit and that, in all, a new toll bar would cost the Sheffield cutlery trade another £500 annually in fuel. Hence, the continued failure of the Trust to meet its obligations and the revolt of its shareholders against the diversion—or so they considered it—of tolls from the payment of interest to the repair of the road. Their protest was, in fact, successful, as an agreement was made between them and the Trustees whereby, when the Tolls amounted to over £1,000 a year, 5°/c was to be paid to them as current dividend and another 5 % to wipe out arrears.[55] Another road with a similar financial history was the Gander Lane Trust, controlling thirteen miles of road between Sheffield and Killamarsh. In 1831, it was paying interest due in 1820; by 1840, it had converted £2,543 of unpaid interest into capital. Once more, the same reason—traffic which paid no tolls—was the cause of this unhappy plight. When the Trust was formed, it took over the road from Intake through the Park into Sheffield, which formerly had been a private road owned by the Duke of Norfolk. In return, the Trust agreed that no tolls should be collected nearer Sheffield than the entrance to the Park or from coal mined on the Norfolk property at Woodthorpe and Gleadless. In 1821, the Trust decided to introduce a Bill to authorise it to place a new toll bar between the Deep Pits and the town. The lessees of the Norfolk collieries immediately petitioned the Duke against this proposal on the grounds that it would increase the price of their coal in Sheffield at a time when they were beginning to feel the competition of coal mined in the Dearne Valley brought in by the newly opened Tinsley Canal. The influence of the Duke was such that the Act contained a clause explicitly confirming the complete exemption of coal mined on the Norfolk property from payment of toll.[56] Economic decay was yet another factor in the financial plight of a number of Trusts. Most of the turnpikes around Ashover had been made either to facilitate the transport of coal to that place or of lead away from it. While the Gregory Mine there was prosperous, the Mansfield Road paid an annual dividend of 5% from the time it was formed to 1780. With the decline in lead production, so its traffic slackened and by 1823 the Trust was twelve years behind in the payment of interest. The record of the Chesterfield to Matlock Trust was even worse. It had encountered difficulties even when lead output was high, as its Act gave exceptions and concessions to various articles transported on the road. As lead output fell, revenue decreased so seriously that it was only paying interest due in 1804 in 1828. The High Moors Trust, which crossed the various arms of the Matlock and Hernstone Lane Head Turnpikes, was another road to suffer not only from the decay of the lead industry in Ashover, but also from the general depression in that industry throughout Derbyshire in the early thirties, caused by the competition of the much cheaper Spanish metal. As the demand for coal for smelting and pumping declined, its tolls fell off so much that by 1843 the Trust owed £4,500 in unpaid interest. Some Trusts owed their precarious financial position to competition from other roads. The Hartcliffe Hill road was one of the first turnpikes to lose its through traffic by the opening of a competitive road. Turnpiked when the Don had been made navigable to Aldwark, its importance disappeared when the river was improved to Tinsley and the Sparrow Pit Road offered more direct communication with Manchester. By 1762, its tolls were insufficient to keep the road in repair, much of it, indeed, having relapsed into the hands of the parishes through which it ran.[57] The Sparrow Pit road, in its turn, lost much of its Lancashire traffic when through communication was established with the West Riding. Heavy traffic in coal and lead kept the Trust solvent until the opening of the French Revolutionary Wars. The collapse of lead mining in Eyam, competition first from the Greenhill Moor Turnpike and later from the Snake Road, however, placed the Trust in such a difficult position that by 1840 it owed its shareholders £4,476 in back interest. Many of the Trusts were, therefore, insolvent on the eve of the Railway Age. The abolition of Statute Labour, with the loss of income derived from its composition, only drove them nearer to complete bankruptcy. Then came the competition of the railways, which in a decade reduced the income of the Tinsley to Doncaster Trust to a sixth of what it had been in 1840; caused the Treasurer of the Sheffield to Wakefield Trust to suspend payment of interest the day the North Midland Railway was opened; led to such a diversion of traffic from the Worksop to Attercliffe Turnpike to the Chesterfield Canal between Worksop and Eckington, where goods could be transferred to the North Midland line, that it proved impossible to let the toll bars by auction; almost ruined the section of road controlled by the Sheffield to Duffield Trust which ran parallel to the railway from Chesterfield southwards and plunged the Glossop Road so deep in the morass of bankruptcy that, by 1849, the two Dukes in fulfilment of their guarantee, had been compelled to advance £10,700 to pay off the arrears of interest. The Trust was so badly hit by railway competition that at a time when it cost £2,900 annually to repair the road, its income dropped to between £300 and £500 a year. Indeed, Sir George Grey of the Road Office proposed that in view of "the hopeless financial position" of the authority in the middle of the century, the road should revert to the public, a suggestion which naturally found no favour with the shareholders, so' that the Trust dragged on another twenty-five years before it was abolished. [58] THE CONDITION OF THE TURNPIKE ROADS In view of the financial weakness of so many Trusts, it is reasonable to suppose that many of their roads were in poor condition. Aiken, a competent witness, writing in 1795, of the turnpikes in the Sheffield district, asserted that the majority of them were bad and damned fifty years of turnpike maintenance when he wrote that "more attention is now beginning to be paid to them than formerly".[59] Across the county boundary in Derbyshire, the turnpikes seem to have been in better condition at this period, as Thomas Brown, the Reporter of the Board of Agriculture, found them to be good—a verdict substantiated by the most reliable of all witnesses on Derbyshire at this period, Farey, who wrote that, in general, its turnpikes were above the average in the country.[60] Nevertheless, he had a number of criticisms of roads badly repaired. The High Moors Turnpike, mended with pottery refuse, was in a poor state of repair. The road into Sheffield near Intake Bar on the Gander Lane Turnpike was repaired with such big pieces of ganister that even the heavy coal carts using it were heavily jolted about. Another road in a similar condition was that from Chesterfield to Matlock. All three of these roads were hard hit financially. In 1824, the Trustees of the Worksop to Attercliffe Turnpike admitted in their Minutes that their road needed reconstruction from end to end. In 1829, the Post Office complained bitterly about the condition of the road from Derby to Alfreton, alleging that coaches on it threaded their way, like ships at sea amongst shoals. In 1840, the western part of the Saltersbrook Turnpike was under indictment, as was part of the road from Swinton into Rotherham. It is, therefore, plain that some Trusts were in no financial position to maintain their roads in good condition. Harsh criticism was also expressed as to the condition of the main trunk route through from Wakefield to Derby, controlled by only two Trusts, one of which was at least as strong financially as any in the area. In 1829, a Surveyor's report on the section from Wakefield to Sheffield, referring to the appalling gradients at Mount Vernon and Chapeltown, asserted that only a small mileage on this road was "compatible with the present rapid method of travelling in this country".[61] Another accurate witness, Sir Richard Phillips, writing in the same year made the same point when he wrote of the Barnsley Road out of Sheffield that "Postillions and stage coachmen execrate it as the worst stage for horses in the Kingdom".[62] On the eve of the Railway Age, the whole route from Derby to Wakefield was "reckoned one of the worst roads in England by travellers and coachmen".[63] To appraise the condition of the turnpike roads in this district with any degree of accuracy is, however, an impossibility. Too many records have vanished; without them it is impossible to feel the pulse of the system, to assess its vitality. Nevertheless; the weight of evidence suggests that there was dissatisfaction with many roads. In addition to financial difficulties, the organisation of the Trusts was not conducive to the construction of good roads. Too often, the clerk, a lawyer such as John Charge of Chesterfield or Bernard Wake of Sheffield, seems to have been the dominating personality on many Trusts, who inevitably looked at things through legal glasses, being ignorant of engineering matters. There, too, seems to have been a dearth of men trained in the science of civil engineering. The Glossop Trust employed the younger J. L. McAdam for a period but his services were soon dispensed with on the grounds that the Trust could not afford them. Men like Thomas Fall, a brickyard owner, the Surveyor of the Sheffield to Chesterfield Trust in the forties were probably representative of the general run of Turnpike Engineers at this time. Turnpike Trusts found it difficult to retain the loyalty of their Trustees, it often being difficult to obtain a quorum to hold the statutory meetings. When they were held, men such as John Gorell Barnes of Ashgate, chairman of the Mansfield Trust, Malkin, a banker who served on the Committee of the Duffield Trust, and W. A. Ashby, the agent at Chatsworth of the Duke of Devonshire, however interested they might be in this work, could not supply the place of the professional engineer. Many Trusts found it difficult to make arrangements to maintain their roads. As an example, the Attercliffe to Worksop Trust, between 1788 and 1810 let contracts for repairing its roads to three different contractors, each of whom left the road in worse condition than he found it, so that finally it was threatened with indictment. Some Trusts, trembling on the verge of bankruptcy, solved this problem and eased their finances by handing over a portion of their tolls to the village Surveyors of the Highways along the Turnpike, who then assumed responsibility for its repair. Nevertheless, despite all these defects, a century of turnpiking left its mark on the economic life of Hallamshire and Scarsdale. Enclosure came rapidly on the heels of turnpiking, as the huge wastes of the Peak and the extensive commons on the Coalfield were crossed by them. Enclosure, too, paid its debt to turnpiking, as many Enclosure Acts made provision for straightening the course of turnpikes and for a system of secondary roads serving them. The great decade of turnpiking during the Seven Years' War was accompanied by the inauguration of a large number of new fairs and markets for beasts and cereals. Many of the major ironworks, such as the Adelphi Works near Duckmanton and the Chapeltown Works, were wholly dependent upon roads for the assembly of their raw materials and the distribution of their products. The production of lime in the Peak was stimulated by turnpiking as was the output of coal on the western edge of the field. Business was facilitated by the coach services linking Sheffield with London, Manchester, Selby, Leeds, Birmingham and the intermediate towns. Whatever may have been the defects of the turnpike system, a comparison of the district in 1740 and a hundred years later, shows such a difference in the scale of economic development in every field—ruling out the contribution made by the inland waterways—as to justify, from the national standpoint, what capital was invested in the Trusts. No doubt, too, many a landowner with minerals on his estate, contemplating his rent books and his royalty accounts, felt that after all, his turnpike shares, however far behind they were in the payment of interest, were one of the soundest long term investments he had made. I should like to thank all who have made this article possible. The Trustees of the Chatsworth Settled Estates kindly gave permission for research at Hardwick. The Clerks of the Peace facilitated research in the archives of the Derbyshire County Council and of the West Riding County Council. As always, Miss Meredith and her staff gave every possible assistance in work on the various collections in the Local History Department of the Sheffield Central Library. Finally, I wish to thank the Earl of Wharncliffe and the Trustees of the Fitzwilliam Settled Estates for permission to use their manuscripts deposited in the Sheffield Central Library. 1 H. Moll. A Set of 50 New and Correct Maps of England and Wales. 1724. Plates, 30, 40 and 41. 2 Journals of the House of Commons. XXIII, 302: 3 The northern section of this road is shown on Dickinson's "New and Current Map of the South Part of the County of York", 1750. 4 Journals of the House of Commons. XXIII, 613. 5 R. E. Leader, "Our Old Roads", H.A.S. Tram., vol. 2, pp. 7-23. 6 Case against the Inhabitants of Sheffield for not repairing part of the road to Hope. 1777 Tibbitts Collection Nos. 413/9170. Sheffield Central Library. 7 Journals of the House of Commons. XIX. 222, 226, 230 and 233. 8 The Diary of Benjamin Granger of Bolsover. D.A.J., vol. IX. 9 Journals of the House of Commons. XII, 493; XIX, 223. 10 A Case in relation to the improving and completing the Navigation of the River Dun. H.A.S. Tram., vol. 5, p. 248. 11 Case against the Inhabitants of Ecdesfield for not repairing Nether Lane 1752. Tibbitts Collection. 413/J-8, Sheffield Central Library. 12 Highway Index, West Riding County Council Offices, Wakefield. 13 Portfolio K. Presentments of Highways. Derbyshire County Council Offices, Derby. (Now Matlock—Ed.) 14 Letter dated 18 Jan., 1740. Letter Book of William Spencer re forges, woods etc. No. 3, Spencer of Cannon Hall Correspondence. Sheffield Central Library. 15 Letter Books of Richard Dalton. Bagshawe Collection 5/4/1-3. John Rylands Library, Manchester. 16 Turner MSS. Flintham Hall, Notts. Letter dated 12 Oct., 1758. 17 Case on behalf of the Bill—for repairing the Roads from Chesterfield to the town of Mansfield, n.d. 18 Letter dated 10 Oct., 1724. Copley MSS. Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Leeds. 19 Winding up Wortley Forge business. No. II. Spencer of Cannon Hall Correspondence. Sheffield Central Library. 20 Journals of the House of Commons. XXIII, 60. 21 Sheffield and Buxton Turpike Road. 1758. Road from Sheffield to Tideswell: F.B. 13, pp. 38-49; and F.B. 14, pp. 36-37. Fairbank Collection. Sheffield Central Library. 22 Travels in England (1761), pp. 65. M.D. 1769, Sheffield Central Library. 23 Journals of the House of Commons. XXXVII, 566. 24 Journals of the House of Commons. XXXVI, 250; XXXVII, 566. 25 Arthur Young "A Six Months Tour Through the North of England" (1770), vol. I, p. 132. 26 Rev. T. Twining "A Country Clergyman of the Eighteenth Century" (1776), p. 47. 27 Sheffield and Wakefield Turnpike Trust. Letters, Tibbitts Collection 363/16. Sheffield Central Library. 28 B. Fauyas Saint Fond "Travels in England, Scotland and the Hebrides" (1799), vol. 2, p. 309. [No marker for note 28 found in the original text] 29 Sheffield and Derby Turnpike. Part of the Road from Sheffield to Chesterfield. 1797. Fairbank Collection, ERO 109 R. 30 Derby Mercury, 5 Sept., 1821, col. II. 31 A map of the intended Turnpike Road from . . . Temple Normanton ... to the Mansfield and Tibshelf Road at Tibshelf Side Gate. 1825. Jackson Collection. No. 1786. Sheffield Central Library. 32 Greenhill Moor and Eckington Turnpike Road. C.P. 20 (128-200). Fairbank Collection. Sheffield Central Library. 33 Tinsley to Doncaster Road. New Line. C.P. 22 (127-227). Fairbank Collection. Sheffield Central Library. Tinsley and Doncaster Branch Roads. Minute Book No. 1. West Riding County Council Offices, Wakefield. 34 Journals of the House of Commons. XXVIII, 808, 828, 857, 860, 890, 900, 908 and 914. 35 Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, Feb. 17, 1849; March 17, 1849; April 14, 1849; July 14, 1849, and Dec. 8, 1849. 36 Miscellaneous Letters, Feb. to April, 1764. R.5. Wentworth Woodhouse MSS. Sheffield Central Library. 37 Turnpikes (Baslow). F.106.G. Wentworth Woodhouse MSS. Wheat Collection. 1273/1. Sheffield Central Library. 38 C.P. 20 (30). Fairbank Collection. Sheffield Central Library. 39 Derby Mercury, 3 Oct., 1782, col. 10. 40 Reasons for supporting the Bill for the intended turnpike road from Clowne ... to Budby. Barlborough Hall MSS. 41 Journals of the House of Commons. XLVI, 167. 42 Journals of the House of Commons. LXV, 61; LXVI, 71. 43 Turnpike Road Papers. Tibbitts Collection Nos. 362 and 404. Sheffield Central Library. 44 Letter dated 27 Jan., 1759. Bagshawc Collection 13/3/296. 45 Letter dated 19 Dec., 1794. Correspondence of John Bagshawe with Shore family. Bagshawc Collection 8/4. 46 Letter dated 12 Dec., 1740. Letter Book of William Spencer No. 4. Spencer of Cannon Hall Correspondence. 47 Doncaster to Saltersbrook Turnpike. 1747. Wharncliffe MSS. No. 111. Sheffield Central Library. 48 Letter dated 26 Feb., 1741. Letters from William Marjden. No. 10. Spencer of Cannon Hall Correspondence. 49 Barlborough Hall MSS. 50 Beauchief Muniments 198. Papers relating to the estate of Thomas Steade. Sheffield Central Library. 51 A. W. Goodfellow "Sheffield Turnpikes in the Eighteenth Century". H.A.S. Trans., vol. V, p. 78. 52 Beauchief Muniments 85. Papers relating to Turnpike Roads. Sheffield Central Library. 53 Turnpike Accounts at Derbyshire and West Riding County Council Offices returned under I. Geo. IV. cap. 95. 54 Observations Intended to show that the Mortgagees of the Tolls of Turnpike Road have a right to dear payment of their interest. By a Mortgagee. 1817. 55 Minute Book. Attercliffe to Worksop Trust. W.R.C.C., Wakefield. 56 Deed Box 25, Norfolk Estate Office, Sheffield—now in the Sheffield Central Library, S246. 57 Journals of the House of Commons, XXIX, 159. 58 Glossop Road. C.P.G. 12/16. Parliamentary Business. Fairbank Collection. Sheffield Central Library. 59 J. Aiken "A Description of the Country from 30 to 40 miles round Manchester", p. 551. 60-4. Farey "Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire", vol. 3 (1817), pp. 206-279. 61 Printed Report of James Mills on the Sheffield to Barnsley Turnpike Road 1829. 62 A Picture of England, p. 326. 63 A Few General Observations on the Principal Railways Executed in the Midland Counties—with the Author's Opinion on them as Investments, p. II (1838).
  7. A Statement of the probable cost of the carrying Coal along several Railways compared with the River Dun Navigation and the Canals connected with it. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc07567&pos=81&action=zoom&id=154933 Printed by G. Ridge, Sheffield, no date. Refers to Mr Chambers' Coal, Earl Fitzwilliam's Coal, Silkstone Coal, and Lord Fitzwilliam's Coal.
  8. southside

    Norton Hall

    A bit of help req! In the May 21st 1850 edition of the Derbyshire Mercury there is a notice advertising the Sale of the Estate of Samuel Shaw of Norton Hall. One of the Many Lots up for Sale is The Lay Rectory of Norton with the Chancel of Norton Parish Church, or such part as belonged to the said Samuel Shaw, thereof and a rent charge of £14 per Annum upon lands in the Parish of Norton in lieu of Rectorial Tythes. Just out of interest can any one explain how this arrangement worked, ie did the Shaws own the Chancel? Also any info on the following Lots in the Sale. A Brick yard with Dwelling House and Brick Kilns thereon at Meadowhead A well frequented Public House at Norton Woodseats A Mansion House called Low Fields House half a mile from Sheffield with Gardens, Pleasure gardens,Vineries,Hot Houses, Stables and Out Buildings. About 13 Acres of Coal in the Township of Coal Aston. Thanks Southside
  9. dunsbyowl1867

    Sheffield Coal Mines

    Came across this list on this site : http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancest...0.htm#YORKSHIRE Not sure if it has been posted before. My Great Grandad worked at the Brightside pit which he walked into rather than travelling down a shaft - and interesting see no 40 Benjamin Huntsman is down as a mine owner- I assume it is the same one? 1 Aston Main, Sheffield, W. H. Stone. 2 Alumnia, Sheffield, Brooke and Son. 3 Beighton, Sheffield, Skinner and Holford. 4 Birkin, Sheffield, Jos. Bramall and Sons. 5 Bracken Moor, Sheffield, Executors of Jas. Grayson. 6 Brightside, Sheffield, John Denton and Co. 7 Bromley Main, Sheffield, Bromley Silkstone Coal Co. 8 Busk Flat, Sheffield, J. Helliwell. 9 Chapeltown, Sheffield, Newton, Chambers, and Co. 10 Clay Works, Sheffield, C. S. and H. W. Tinker. 11 Clough, Sheffield, Jas. Grayson. 12 Clough, Sheffield, John Gregory. 13 Deepcar, Sheffield, John Armitage and Son. 14 Deepcar, Sheffield, John Grayson, Lowood, and Co. 15 Dungworth, Sheffield, Haigh and Co. 16 Ecclesfield, Sheffield, Haigh and Co. 17 Gleadles, Sheffield, Thos. Ward. 18 Gateshead, Sheffield, Hepworth Fire-Clay Works. 19 Grimesthorpe, Sheffield, John Denton and Co. 20 Hall Park, Sheffield, Charles Marsden. 21 Henholmes(Deepcar), Sheffield, John Armitage and Son. 22 Holly Bush, Sheffield, Joseph Hattersley. 23 Hurlford, Sheffield, John Gregory and Son. 24 Kiveton Park, Sheffield, Kiveton Park Coal Co. 25 Low Ash, Sheffield, Geo. Siddon. 26 Lower Wincobank, Sheffield, J. Johnson. 27 Lowood Wharncliffe, Sheffield, Grayson, Lowood, and Co. 28 Loxey, Sheffield, T. Wragg. 29 Malin Bridge, Sheffield, Grsyson, Lowood, and Co. 30 Manor, Sheffield, Nunnery Colliery Co. 31 Meadow Fire Clay, Sheffield, T. W. Roome. 32 Meadow Hall, Sheffield, Mark Davy. 33 Myers Lane, Sheffield, George Longden and Son. 34 New Winning, Sheffield, Nunnery Colliery Co. 35 North Staveley, Sheffield, Staveley Coal and Iron Co., Limited. 36 Nunnery, Sheffield, Nunnery Colliery Co. 37 Orgreave, Sheffield, Rother Vale Collieries Limited. 38 Potter Hill, Sheffield, H. Law. 39 Shaw House, Sheffield, Benjamin Jackson. 40 Sheffield, Sheffield, Benjamin Huntsman. 41 Stannington Wood, Sheffield, Nichols and Jackson. 42 Starr's Bridge, Sheffield, Marshall and Crapper. 43 Spink Hall, Sheffield, Mrs. Grayson. 44 Spring Wood (Ecclesfield), Sheffield, John Mallison. 45 Stannington, Sheffield, Grayson, Lowood and Co. 46 Stocksbridge (Deepear), Sheffield, Samuel Fox aud Co., Limited. 47 St. Davids (Oughtibridge), Sheffield, Russell and Co. 48 Tankersley, Sheffield, Newton, Chambers, and Co. 49 Thorncliffe,Sheffield, Newton, Chambers, and Co. 50 Unstone Main, Sheffield, Unstone Coal and Coke Co. 51 Unstone, Sheffield, Houdall Coal Co. 52 Vernon Silkstone, Sheffield, Edward Swift. 53 Wharncliffe (Oughtibridge), Sheffield, J. Beaumont. 54 Wharncliffe Wood, Sheffield, Silica Fire Brick Co. 55 Wood, Sheffield, C. S. and H. W. Tinker. 55 Woodthorpe, Sheffield, Nunnery Colliery Co. 57 Wortley Silkstone, Sheffield, Thomas Andrews and Co.
  10. Ponytail

    Sheffield Workhouse

    The Workhouse, the Story of an Institution. Sheffield West Riding of Yorkshire. https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Sheffield/ Building lots between West Bar Green and Silver Street, 1794. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04288&pos=825&action=zoom&id=105975 Marked: Sheffield Workhouse. Jane Taylor, William Wright, George Smith, Joseph Eyre, James Goulden, William Smith, Butcher, George Sybray, Matthew Walton, William Smith, and John Furniss. Town land, extending from Broad Lane End to West Bar, 1778. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04287&pos=824&action=zoom&id=105972 The plan has notes made in 1784. Marked: Broad Lane End, Hollis Croft, Rotten Row, West Bar Green, Pea Croft, White Croft, Hawley Croft, Gregory Row, Silver Street, Hick Stile Field, Queen Street, Workhouse Croft, and Workhouse. George Hounsfield, Samuel Radford, John Birks, George Allen, George Oates, John Haywood, Hollis Hospital land, Thomas Wilkinson, Josh. Bower of Hollis Hospital, Martha Hill, John Foster, William Thornton, John Thompson, Matthew Lambert, John Goodwin, Ebenezer Wall, George Greaves, Thomas Radford, Joseph Hepworth, Mary Cowley, Samuel Crook, Widow Bradshaw, George Pears, John Holberry?, Catherine Dixon, Mark Skeltens?, John Hobson, Stephen Green, John and George Wild, [?] Green, The Overseers of the Poor in the Township of Ecclesfield, Ecclesfield Workhouse [tenants of this parcel of land], John Longden, Mary Pearson, John Darwin and Co., and Samuel Marshall. Ground Plan for the intended workhouse for Sheffield, between Broad lane and Trippett Lane, c.1791. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01856&pos=268&action=zoom&id=71281 Brew house, wash house, coal house, bake house, wood store, flour store, men and boys work rooms, women and girls work rooms, dining room, boiling house, kitchen, pantry, courts and yards, matrons room, matrons store room, governor’s room, governors store room, committee room, school room, operation room, doctors shop, doctors parlour, coal store, cottages for respectable paupers and married couples and croft or garden. Plan of a proposed Workhouse for Sheffield, between Broad Lane and Trippett Lane, c.1791. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01855&pos=267&action=zoom&id=71280 Shows: Work rooms, store room, dining room, laundry, brew house, kitchen, boiling house, bakehouse, oven, pantry, bread room, matrons room, store room, governors room, overseer room, doctors rooms, taylors room, poor attending on overseers [room], sick poor [rooms], bath, cells, etc. Chamber Attic Storeys for the intended Workhouse for Sheffield, between Broad Lane and Trippet Lane, c.1791. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01857&pos=19&action=zoom&id=71282 Shows: Bedrooms, laundry room, porters lodging room, paupers sent for passes room, cottages for respectable paupers and married couples. Notice of Resolutions made at a General Meeting of the Inhabitants of the Township of Sheffield ... for the purpose of taking into consideration the present state of the workhouse and the best means of improving the same. 1804. Rev. James Wilkinson in the chair. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;y09967&pos=5&action=zoom&id=65482
  11. Ponytail

    Hemmingway Farm

    A plan of Hemmingway Farm near Sheffield: the property of the Duke of Norfolk, and now or late under Lease to Isaac Nodder. 1764. Surveyor: William Fairbank II. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc03391&pos=213&action=zoom&id=98630 Fields between Cricket Inn Road and (modern Blast Lane), with the wheel and dam (Park Furnace) and part of the Coal-pit sough; Numerical list with field names and descriptions and acreages. Park Furnace and the Simon Wheel (the works on the south side of the River Don from the junction with the Sheaf to modern Leveson Street) (Lumley Street, Sussex Street, Effingham Road, Effingham Street) Also marked: Park Hill; Joseph Clay's Farm; Thomas Bridges's Farm; John Waites's Farm. Does anybody have any information about Hemmingway Farm? Did it have another name? When did it disappear?
  12. REMINISCENCES OF OLD SHEFFIELD CHAPTER I. PARADISE SQUARE, CAMPO LANE, HARTSHEAD, AND WATSON'S WALK. Mr. WILLIAM WRAGG, Ancient Citizen of Sheffield. Mr. GEORGE LEIGHTON, Ancient Citizen of Sheffield. Mr. SAMUEL EVERARD, Ancient Citizen of Sheffield. Mr. F. TWISS, The Antiquary Mr. RICHARD LEONARD, A Modern Citizen of Sheffield Period - 1872-3. Scene - A room in Leonard's house. LEIGHTON: So the old steps in Paradise square have gone at last. Have you secured the top stone for your collection, Mr. TWISS ? TWISS: No, it would have been rather too large ; but I wish it could be preserved somewhere ; otherwise, like so many other things that disappear, it will be consigned to oblivion. EVERARD : What eloquence has rung from that stone LEONARD: And what nonsense ! EVERARD : Brougham, Morpeth, Bethel, Milton, Elliott, Dunn, Roebuck, and Mundella have thence charmed thousands of eager listeners. LEONARD : And others have thence uttered rant enough to cause the very stones to cry out. LEIGHTON : There were few finer sights in Sheffield than a great meeting in " t' Pot square," when the people were really in earnest and the speaker a man of power. LEONARD : Tile finest sight of all was when Mr. Henry Hoole, flourishing his arms in a burst of exuberant eloquence, brought down his fist on Mr. Leader's hat and knocked it over his eyes. That was a notable time, too, when Roebuck, sitting in his carriage at the bottom of the steps, listened to Campbell Foster's fulminations against him. There has seldom been so much use made of a white waistcoat, and a loud voice. But this is not "Old Sheffield." WRAGG : The eloquence from the steps has often been exceeded by the wit from the crowd, which always displayed a keen sense of the humorous and a quick perception of humbug. LEONARD : Does anyone know when meetings were first held in the Square ? TWISS, : The first on record that I have found was in 1779, July 15, when Wesley preached " to the largest con gregation he ever saw on a week-day." Then, in 1798, Rowland Hill came down and preached there one Sunday evening, after an afternoon service in Queen Street Chapel. He had an immense congregation, and confusion was caused towards the end by some fellow drawing his 'sword upon the people. Before that, out-door meetings were held on the Castle hill, or at the Church gates before the old Town Hall; sometimes on Crookes moor, or pieces of waste land anywhere handy. LEONARD: Pray spare us the old story about somebody who knew somebody else who remembered the Square as it corn-field. WRAGG : Why should we? There are people still living, or were not long ago, who remembered it a field of oats, entered from the top by Hicks' stile. An elderly lady, who died not many years ago, had gone with the maid to milk her father's cows, which were pastured there. There seems always to have been a footpath across, which was, indeed, the only thoroughfare from that side of the town. Pedestrians going up Silver street head (busier then, I believe, than High street) had to cross to Wheat's passage by Mr. Ryalls' office, if they were going to the Market ; or if to the old Town Hall, they went over Hicks' stile, up St. James's row (or West row, or Virgin's row, for it has borne all three names)there were stops at the bottom the whole width of the row-and then across the Churchyard. EVERARD : The lamp in the centre of the Square has taken the place of the old cross shaft, removed there from Snig hill head ; but the steps up to it are, I should think Unchanged. The stocks were removed there from the Church WRAGG. : And drunken men were placed in them on Sundays for punishment. The practice had to be dropped because of the disturbances it caused. The last instance of a drunken man being placed in the stocks was forty-three or forty-four years ago. LEIGHTON: What became of the stocks in the Square? WRAGG: When they got out of order, the two pieces of wood that confined the delinquents' feet became loose, and the late Mr. W. H. Clayton, the broker under the steps in the Square, removed them into his back yard for safety. There they remained for years, and no one ever inquired for them. EVERARD: There were stocks also at Bridgehouses, opposite the end of the iron bridge; at Attercliffe; near Ecelesall Chapel; and near the old Sugar House, Sheffield moor. WRAGG: Paradise square was the residence of notable men. I believe it was the first suburban place to which tradesmen retired away from their works. LEONARD: Do you think so? There were surely suburban residences before that, and farther out than that. I have been told by a gentleman still living, whose father resided there when he was a boy, that the Square has scarcely changed at all in appearance since very early in the century. It was then built all round as it is now, and with the same buildings, except a few which have been modernised on the east side. WRAGG: Well, at any rate, many of the first families in the town lived there. LEONARD : Dr. Gatty, in a note at p. 177 of his Edition of Hunter, says that " Thomas Broadbent took a lease of the field in 1776, and built the houses on the east side." Now, I happen to know that the lease to Thomas Broadbent-so far at least as concerns the land at the top of that side of the Square-is dated 1736. He had five daughters, and he built the five houses at the top- afterwards Bramley and Gainsford's offices and the adjoining ones-for them. On his death, they came into their possession. The date 1776 must be a clerical or a printer's error. EVERARD : But that date suits better the corn-field recollections of the old inhabitants who have now passed away; unless, indeed, the Square remained a field after the houses on the cast side were built. And this is very possible. WRAGG : I have been told. by a man who was in the service of her father, whose business was in Hollis croft, that Miss Harrison was born in one of the houses at the top side of the Square. Then Chantrey set up here, in what was then No. 14, as an artist, and advertised that he took portraits in crayons. That was in 1802. Two years later he made a step nearer his proper vocation, for he had commenced taking models from life. EVERARD : It would be interesting to know if many of his crayon portraits are extant. LEONARD: Yes, numbers. You will find a long list of them in Mr. John Holland's Memorials of Chantrey. The whereabouts of most of them was known when that was published, in 1850. EVERARD : You may see in the Old Church his first piece of sculpture, the monument to Justice Wilkinson, which the Iris, shrewd enough to predict the future celebrity of "the young artist," praised as a " faithful and affecting resemblance." The bust of Dr. Browne, in the board-room of the Infirmary, is also by Chantrey, executed in 1810-four years after the Wilkinson monument. LEIGHTON : Another worthy who lived in the Square up to the time of his death, in 1817, was the " Rev. George Smith, curate of Ecelesall, and assistant-minister at the Parish Church-the father of Mr. Albert Smith. He lived near the bottom on the east side. LEOONARD : I see a window has been inserted in place of the old door at the top of the steps, but the pillasters remain to show where the door entered Mr. Hebblethwaite's school. WRAGG: That room was originally built as a Freemasons' lodge. It was afterwards put to various uses---a dancing school and a preaching-room. I remember hearing the notorious Robert Owen lecture there. At one time a considerable congregation of Independents assembled there, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Parish. They contemplated building a chapel, but they let the opportunity slip, and much they regretted it afterwards. The last three survivors of that congregation were Mr. Spear, of the firm of Spear and Jackson; Mr. Peter Spurr, tobacconist, father of Mr. Spurr, chemist and druggist; and the late Mr. Joseph Brittlebank, scale-cutter. The leases have now fallen in, or are falling in, so that possibly it may not remain long in its old state. TWISS : Yes; the lease of part fell in two years ago (not of the other part, for it is built on two leases), and that shows that it is just over a century old, as the lease would no doubt be a ninety-nine years' one. The room was built by Mr. Nowill, who had a shop in High street, opposite George street. EVERARD : The pot market that was held in the Square on market days has. quite disappeared, or is only represented by the crockery shops on the north side. TWISS : There was a sort of pet market formerly by the Church gates. WRAGG: The Square has been the scene of degrading transactions, as well as of honourable ones. Some brute once, for a wager, ate a live cat on the steps. I knew a person who bought his wife in the Square, whither she had been led in a halter. LEIGHTON : " Q in the Corner " was an old public-house much frequented by fiddlers, since it was kept by Sam Goodlad, first fiddler on all important occasions. WRAGG : The blind fiddlers were quite an institution. At one time there were six of them, several of whom were excellent performers on the violin. Their names were James Knight, Samuel Hawke, Thomas Booth, Alexander Clayton (brother of the late W. H. Clayton, broker), William Brumby, and Joseph Ward. They had their circuits, chiefly on the outskirts of the town, to which they went in pairs, playing firsts and seconds, and they kept to their own districts. At Christmas they went round " a Christmas-boxing," dropping into' public-houses, and being liberally rewarded for the tunes they played. LEONARD: There is a good story of a blind fiddler in John Wilson's edition of Mather's Songs, p. 55. This was Blind Stephen," who was, I imagine, of earlier date than those you have mentioned. EVERARD : The house at the top corner of Paradise square and Campo lane, now a dram-shop, was, sixty years ago, a respectable grocer's shop, kept by Mr. Newton (who was sueceeded by Mr. Benjamin Ellis), and at that time was much celebrated amongst the grinders, both in town and country, for the quality of the articles of emery, crocus, and glue. WRAGG: Yes., that shop had almost the monopoly of the trade. TWISS : More recently the shop was occupied by Mr. Crossland, noted for his regular and punctual attendance to it the whole day long. His only recreation was it walk up Glossop road after his shop was closed at night. EVERARD: Then came, as now, the barber's shop, at that time occupied by the father and predecessor of the Mr. Copley who was recently burnt to death in a shocking manner by an explosion of gunpowder. The " Ball " Inn, next door, then the " Golden Ball," was kept in my youthful days by Antipas Stevens, a very intelligent and respectable man, who kept his house in proper order. I believe he took to it at the time Mr. Crich removed to the " Black Swan," Snighill. Mr. Stevens was by trade a silversmith; and I have an impression that he had been apprenticed to Ashforth, Ellis, and Co., or, at least, had worked for them. The Braziers' Sick Club met at his house, and the inn was, moreover, at that time, much frequented by country people on the market days, and more especially by the grinders from the neighbourhoods of Wadsley, Loxley, and Rivelin. After refreshing themselves there with the good " home-brewed," they would call at the adjoining shop of Mr. Ellis for their weekly supply of emery, and crocus, and groceries. In the watchmaker's shop a little further on, long occupied by Mr. David Johnson, and now by his son, was Mr. Zaccheus Dyson, whose active figure, dressed in a brown coat, drab small clothes, and broadbrimmed hat - for he belonged to the Society of Friends -still lives in the respectful remembrance of many of our townsmen. Mr. Dyson, it is related, once received a letter from a Quaker correspondent addressed " For Zaccheus Dyson, clock and watchmaker, Sheffield, near to a great heap of stones called a church." TWISS: Mr. Dyson retired to Handsworth Woodhouse, and died there 4th June, 1861. WRAGG: Narrow as Campo lane is, it was once still narrower, a slice having been taken from the Churchyard to widen it. LEONARD: On the site of the offices of Burbeary and Smith, at the corner of North Church street, a worthy lady named Ward kept a school. She was much respected by her pupils and her friends, and she now enjoys a quiet old age in the Shrewsbury Hospital. [Mrs. Ward died after this conversation took place, on the 31st December, 1872, aged 86. It is recorded that she enjoyed almost uninterrupted good health up to the hour of her death.] EVERARD: The first shop past that was long occupied by the late Mr. John Innocent, bookseller. Before that it had been the lawyer's office of Mr. Brookfield, uncle of the late Mr. Charles Brookfield; and in 1839 Mr. Innocent there found the legal documents which were issued for the first prosecuon of Montgomery in 1795. Mr. Innocent placed in Montgomeryg hands the papers he found, and from them he first learnt, and possessed certain proof, that he had been the victim of a state Prosecution. These documents stated, amongst other things, that " briefs were to be given to Counsel with the Attorney. General's compliments;" and that this prosecution is carried on chiefly with a view to Put a stop to the associated clubs in Sheffield; and it is to be hoped, if we are fortunate enough to succeed in convicting the prisoner, it will go a great way towards curbing the insolence they have uniformly manifested." The papers, which were shown at an exhibition at the Music Hall, in 1848, were given to Mr. Innocent by Mrs. Brookfield, and he gave them to Montgomery, refusing all payment, although the poet offered any money for them. LEONARD : I have heard that a third and still more bitter prosecution of Mr.Montgomery was threatened. EVERARD: This was in 1806. Montgomery actually received the legal notices for a prosecution, based on his strictures on the campaign in Germany, when General Mack and 39,000 Austrians laid down their arms. He himself said, I never knew how the blow missed me, for it was aimed with a cordiality that meant no repetition of the stroke. The death of Nelson probably saved me, for in the next Iris I spoke of that event in a strain of such Patriotism that my former disloyalty was perhaps overlooked." TWISS : A fortunate escape. EVERARD: A few doors further on the lane were the Scantleburys, worthy Quakers, who dealt in looking-glasses. There was old Thomas Scantlebury, of The Hills; and he had three sons, John Barlow Scantlebury, Joseph Scantlebury, and Samuel Scantlebury. Thomas Scantlebury and his eldest son, John Barlow, were very prominent oponents of church rates. Meetings used to be held in the Churchyard adjoining, and the speakers stood on the tombstones. Some of the family emigrated to America. LEONARD: Yes; the two younger sons, Joseph and Samuel. The latter is still living in Chicao and retains his connection with the Society of Friends; as I see from a letter to the Independent respecting the opposition to the church rates. " Thomas Scantlebury,"' he says " was the adviser, chiefly; while his son, John Barlow Scantlebury, took the more prominent part. I well remember that, on one occasion, the opponents of the church rates would have fatally committed themselves but for my father. The momentous question had been put and seconded in his absence, but the people refused to vote on it until they had heard his views. When he came in, he very briefly stated his opposition to the motion, showing that it would form a very dangerous precedent. The motion was then withdrawn. The people said that the Vicar' and his set could get on the blind side of everybody but old Thomas Scantlebury. I remember old Thomas Rawson was at that meeting, as active as ever. I believe I never saw him afterwards." TWISS : Mr. Thomas Scantlebury died at " The Hills," on the Grimesthorpe road, August 14, 1821 ; his son, John Barlow Scantlebury, died April 28, 1837. Old Mrs. Scantlebury was the daughter of John Barlow, the last of the family that had carried on the old business of manufacturers of pen and pocket cutlery on the premises in Campo lane, just beyond Mr. Scantlebury's, the east front of which looks down the Hartshead. They had been there as owners and occupiers of the property ever since the year 1679, "and I cannot tell how long previous," says Mr. Samuel Scantlebury in the letter Mr. Leonard has just quoted. It was Obadiah Barlow, the great-great-grandfather of Samuel Scantlebury, who had the premises in 1679. Whether the Barlow of Neepsend, who died in 1740, was of the same family or not is doubtful. John Barlow died in 1798, and one of the best businesses in Sheffield died with him. The trade mark was the simple name LEONARD: I have spoken of old Mrs. Ward. Before her time there was another lady of the same name, some six or eight doors from the Barlow property. She had been housekeeper to the John Barlow who has been mentioned, and he set her up in the grocery business. Her shop looked more like a greenhouse than a grocer's shop. She always had her window and every bit of spare room filled with some beautiful flower or plant. Mr. Samuel Scantlebury writes, " If I remember right she had a geranium that used nearly to fill her front windows. It was there I first saw the hydrangea. There cannot be many who remember her; she must have been dead more than 65 years. The dear old woman remembered me in her will. She left me a guinea for pocket-money!" WRAGG: Well, this brings us in our journey along the lane to the Hartshead, and to the Broadbents' house fronting York street, a few years ago occupied by Messrs. Pye-Smith and Wightman, and now by Messrs. J. and G. Webster. EVERARD : Before you tell us the history of that house, let me just say that in the workshops at the back of Mr. Scantlebury's premises yet another member of the Society of Friends, Mr. William Chapman, carried on for many years the business of an engraver. TWISS : I well remember his burial (one of the last interments in the graveyard of the Friends' Meeting-house), and the solitary sentence uttered by Friend E. Baines-" After death the judgment." EVERARD: He was a very amiable and intelligent man, highly esteemed in his denomination, and at one time he was actively engaged in promoting the welfare of its members by visiting the country districts. His grave and Christian deportment, combined with his kindly disposition and courteous manners, secured the confidence and respect of those who had any intercourse with him. TWISS: We shall still keep among the Friends, for Joseph Broadbent, who died in 1684, was one of the first generation of the Society in the town. I believe it was his son Nicholas who built the house in the Hartshead. He died in 1736, and was father of Joseph Broadbent, merchant, said to have been the first banker in Sheffield, who died in 1761. LEONARD : Is it worth while to go into matters that may be found by any of us in Gatty's " Hunter ?" TWISS: No; but the point I want to get at is, were the Broadbents the first bankers in the town ? I have been told that the first person who practised this profession in Sheffield was one of the fraternity of pawnbrokers. In the--Hallamshire," it is said, "In 1778, Messrs. J. and T. Broadbent opened a bank in Hartshead, on the failure of Mr. Roebuck's bank, which was the first known in Sheffield, and only lasted eight years ; and in 1780 the Broadbents failed." LEONARD: If Joseph Broadbent died in 1761, how could he be a banker in 1778 ? Your information and Hunter's do not seem to agree. TWISS: They were the sons of Joseph-Joseph and Thomas, who wore the bankers of 1778; but had their father been a banker before them ? I saw the other day an early Sheffield bank note, of which I took a copy: No. R t 0 6 Sheffield 0ld Bank, January 22 ,1783. We promise to pay the bearer on demand Fire Guineas. At Sheffield, value received. HAN, HASELHURST and SON. £5. 5s. R t 0 6 Haslehurst and Son, it seems, became unfortunate; for the note was endorsed with an exhibit under a commission in bankruptcy, 23rd June, 1785. But in the fact that it is called the Sheffield Old Bank, I am led to inquire : Did the bank, afterwards carried on by Messrs. Parker, Shore and Co., arise from the ashes of this one, for it bore the same name ? WRAGG : Whether Mr. Joseph Broadbent was the first banker or not, he was, at any rate, the first merchant who traded with America. There is a good story told of one of the Broadbents, at the time of the suspension of the bank. That suspension took place on a Monday morning. On the preceding Sunday, some Derbyshire man came knocking at the bank door. A voice from within asked what he wanted. The countryman replied, " I have come to the bank." " We do not transact business on Sundays," was the answer. Then the countryman said, " I have not come for money, but I have brought some." The other replied, " That is quite a different thing." So the door was opened, and the Derbyshire man left his money. LEONARD : That would be called by a hard name now-a-days. WRAGG : The Messrs. Binney were afterwards in the Hartshead premises. TWISS: Yes, but the first successor of the Broadbents was Mr. John Turner, a merchant, who died in 1796. He was uncle to Henry Longden and to Mrs. Binney; and thus we see how the premises came into the occupation of the Binneys. WRAGG: I have been told that the Binneys had at one time the best country trade in the town as merchants, and the largest steel furnaces (they have just been pulled down, and the bricks are in heaps in the yard). I believe they were the first steel manufacturers who had a tilt. One of their best travellers was the father of Mr. Joseph Haywood. I had the impression that the father of the late Mr. G. W. Hinchliffe, of Eyre street, was also a traveller for the Binneys, but that, I find, was a mistake. LEONARD : So long ago as 1825, the building had been turned into lawyers' offices. In that year it was occupied by Mr. Copeland, solicitor. WRAGG: While we are among the Friends, and so near their Meeting-house, permit me to say, one of them told me that, in his recollection, he can count more than a score who have left Sheffield and gone to America and become ministers, who, had they remained in the town, would never have been able to open their mouths. LEONARD : I thought there were no ministers among the Quakers. LEIGHTON: You must forgive the abrupt transition when I say-Now, hail to thee, old " Dove and Rainbow!' Sixty years ago, the drum and fife were scarcely ever absent from thy door, when Sergeant Kenyon and Sergeant Barber were on the look-out for recruits. Well do I remember seeing one of them come forth with his corporal, two or three rank and file, with drum and fife, and march boldly to Water lane, and there draw up his detachment in line. Then did the sergeant, with streamers flying in the air, sheathe his sword, and he and his men marched boldly into the publichouse, and, like a gallant warrior as he was, called for his "tankard " of foaming ale. The sergeant had ready for each recruit a spade-ace guinea, with his Majesty's portrait impressed upon it, pigtail and all. The warlike song was Roll up, so merrily, march away; Soldier's glory lives in story : His laurels are green when his locks are grey, And it's heigh for the life of a soldier. In my youth, I and others of my own age were in the habit of singing songs about " Lord Wellington in Spain," and Campo lane sent out its quota both for the navy and the army. I could mention names, were it necessary-John Dawson, himself the son of a soldier who died fighting in India, and Artilleryman Dixon, and others. WRAGG : I have heard very old people say that the Dove and Rainbow was once on fire. The landlady had made her escape from the flames, but she turned back to rescue a considerable sum of money, and perished. TWISS: That, I imagine, would be in 1782. The landlord's name was Thomas Oates, and a servant girl perished as well as his wife. WRAGG: The old Iris office was at one time the largest shop in the town, and had the two largest windows-rounded so as to form the are of a circle, like a few that are still to be seen, with small panes, unsupplanted as yet by big squares of plate glass. EVERARD : Montgomery's last apprentice, Mr. Robert Leader, has spoken feelingly of the shutters which he had to put up and take down. They were " very many, very heavy, and had to be carried a considerable distance. Whenwork in the office closed, at 6.30 or 7 p.m., the unfortunate apprentice had to return to the place at 8 or 9, to put up the shutters." TWISS: Apprentices in newspaper offices have not to submit to such tasks now. WRAGG: Before Mr. Gales's time this house was the residence of Dr. Buchan, who wrote there his celebrated work, Domestic Medicine. At one time the book was in the hands of almost every one on both sides of the Atlantic, wherever the English language is spoken. TWISS: Another of Montgomery's apprentices, years earlier, was the eldest son of the Rev. George Smith. He was named Matthewman, after his maternal grandfather, and he became a partner of Montgomery's. He afterwards entered the East India Company's army and died in India. LEONARD : I have heard Mr. Montgomery's sanctum described as an upper room behind the shop, over the office coal-place. It had a most depressing out-look upon back premises and dingy walls and roofs. The editor poet had a standing office-desk in the room, but his favourite writing place was a round table which stood near the fire. At the time my informant best remembers the room, Montgomery was compiling his collection of hymns, and the table was covered with the books that he used in his work. LEIGHTON : It has often been told how the poet sometimes served customers, but it was simply an accidental or exceptional thing. My feeling towards him when I was sent to make a purchase was one of fear-he was so curt. Then, of course, I was only young-, and so great a man could not be expected to be civil to a boy ! LEONARD: Numbers of incidents connected with Montgomery's life might be mentioned, but most of them would be such as have already been published ; and I take it the great object of our conversations is to gather together unwritten folk-lore. WRAGG : I suppose there's no great harm if one does tell a story twice over ? EVERARD : At any rate, the subsequent history of the Gales family, which is second only in interest to that of Montgomery himself, has not often been told, and I should suggest that Mr. Leonard read it to us. LEONARD: I've no objection whatever. This is it "When Mr. Joseph Gales, printer, bookseller, auctioneer, and editor of the then popular Sheffield Register, left the town in 1794, he went, as you all know, to America. The fact is, Mr. Gales had to flee. A meeting held on Castle hill in April of that year had passed strong resolutions and spoken fierce words against the Government, which led to a prosecution. Mr. Gales was present at that meeting, and appears to have sympathised with its objects, but he was not included in the prosecution. In June, a letter from a Sheffield printer to Hardy, the secretary of the London Corresponding Society, was seized, and Gales was suspected, though unjustly, of being the writer. A warrant was issued against him, and he only escaped arrest from the officers sent to execute it by a prompt flight. In the following week's Register Mr. Gales took a formal leave of his friends and readers, denying most distinctly that he had written, dictated, or been privy to the letter addressed to Hardy. If his imprisonment, or death, would serve the cause which he had espoused-the cause of peace, liberty, and justice, it would, he said, be cowardice to fly; 'but, convinced that by ruining my family and distressing my friends by risking either would only gratify the ignorant and the malignant, I shall seek that livelihood in another land which I cannot peaceably obtain in this.' Under such circumstances and with such feelings, Joseph Gales, after sundry concealments, got out of the country. After a short stay in Germany, he went to America and began life afresh. He was a clever, forcible writer and a keen politician, and his proclivities speedily drew him to his old profession. Arrived at Philadelphia, in August, 1795, he began business as a printer there. In about a year, judging from the numbering of one of his papers which is in our possession, dated June, 1797, he became the proprietor, by purchase from Mr. Oswald, of the Independent Gazetteer of that city. He called it ' Gales's Independent Gazetteer;' but he did not keep it long, re-selling it at the end of the first year to Mr. S. H. Smith, of whom we shall hear again. In September, 1799, Mr. Gales went to North Carolina, and there he established the Raleigh Register, which he published for forty years, only retiring from the concern a year or two before his death which took place at Raleigh, on the 24th August, 1841, at the advanced age of eighty years. His youngest son, who was born in North Carolina, succeeded to the newspaper. When Mr. Gales arrived in America he had with him a son, also named Joseph Gales, then about nine years of age. This Joseph Gales, Junior, kept in the journalistic track. In 1806 he joined, as a reporter, the National Intelligencer a paper that had been established in Washington, in 1800, by the Samuel H. Smith previously mentioned, with the object of maintaining a newspaper in the capital, Republican in politics, which should yield to the Administration a vigorous support. In 1809 Gales was made a partner, and in 1810 he became sole proprietor of this journal. It lived until the year 1869, when the New York Evening Post, noticing its death, said:-'Mr. William W. Seaton, a brother-in-law of Mr. Gales, and previously editor of the Petersburg Republican and North Carolina Register, became associated with him in the enterprise in 1812. The Intelligencer was a vigorous supporter of the war with Great Britain, and enjoyed a high reputation as a public journal. Messrs. Gales and Seaton used to do their own reporting of debates in Congress, one always sitting in the Senate and the other in the House of Representatives, during the sessions. Their Register of Debates is regarded as a standard source of American history. The tone of the paper under their management was firm, moderate, and cautious. With a rearrangement of parties, the National Intelligencer adhered to Mr. Clay, and was a Conservative-Whig journal so long as the Whig party had an existence. The proprietors stood high in public confidence, and in 1840 Mr. Seaton was elected mayor of Washington, and held the office for twelve consecutive years. Mr. Gales died in 1860. The style of the Intelligencer's editorial management deserves a mention. There used to be often a sparseness of leading articles, succeeded at intervals by the production of a paper covering a page or more, always written with force and ability, but at the same time rather too solid for the general reader.' Into the cause of the death of the Intelligence). we need not here inquire. It was prosperous under the son of our old townsman, Mr. Gales, who, in the free atmosphere of the New World, followed out the career his father had begun here. After he ceased his labours and went to his rest, the paper grew more and more out of harmony with the spirit of the times, and paid the penalty that all newspapers so managed must pay-death. In the autumn of 1868 an old contributor to the Intelligencer visited Sheffield, and being curious-as so many Americans are-to see the place from which his former employer went forth, visited the antique shop in the Hartshead where Gales commenced and Montgomery continued the then dangerous trade of editor and publisher. The poetic nine have long deserted the narrow alley. Where flowers of Parnassus once bloomed, the votaries of Bacchus then. revelled. In short, the building had been turned into a beershop. Joiners were removing the quaintly-carved door-case with the ancient fan-light, to replace them with some more convenient structure in plain and vulgar deal. The stranger was horrified at the desecration, and, inquiring, found that the old wood was being removed, with some lumber, for lighting fires. His plea. for mercy was admitted ; triumphant, he carried off the old door-case, and out of it had constructed a number of boxes, one of which is placed in the National Museum at Washington, suitably inscribed, and bearing a photograph of the premises rendered sacred by the memory of Gales and Montgomery." TWISS : It should be added that Montgomery's Hartshead shop is, at the present time, not a beershop, but a grocer's. The Gales family lived at Eckington for many years ; the first of the name of whom there is record, Timothy, was appointed parish clerk in 1707. His son Timothy married Sarah Clay, of Eckington, in 1735, and their eldest son, Thomas, was the father of Joseph Gales, of the Hartshead, the proprietor of the Sheffield Register. He was born February 4, 1761. I have here a copy of the inscription on the tombstone of the family in Eckington churchyard : Under this Stone Lie the Remains of three Daughters of THOMAS and SARAH GALES, Of Eckington, and sisters of JOSEPH GALES, who died at Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., August 24, 1841, aged 80 years. ELIZABETH GALES, Departed this life, February 16, 1821, Aged 49 years. Farewell, beloved, we meet again. ANNE GALES, Died January 17, 1838, aged 70 years. Jesus saith unto her, I am the Resurrection and the Life." SARAH GALES, Died February 18, 1857, aged 84 years. With these sisters, together andseverally, lived for more than sixty years (dying in the presence of the last-named, at Sheffield, April 30,1854), JAMES MONTGOMERY, The Christian Poet, Patriot, and Philanthropist. Requiescat in pace. WRAGG: It was in the Hartshead and Watson's walk (so called from Messrs. Watson's silversmiths' factory) that the first eating-houses were established; now there is not one left. LEONARD: Yes, I understand the name of the proprietor of one of the cook-shops there was Thornhill. He lived at a house down Harvest lane, popularly called " T' hen hole,"because there was a tradition that poultry feloniously obtained was pushed through a hole into his cellar at night. LEIGHTON : A little below, too, in Hartshead, Matthias D'Amour kept a " cook-shop "-the first, I believe, in the town. LEONARD : D'Amour's " Autobiography " was written for him by the late Mr. Paul Rodgers, if you will excuse the bull, which is not mine, but theirs. It is an interesting story of his adventures as a kind of confidential servant to various gentlemen, and as valet to the Duchess of Gordon ; but the strangest part of all is that he should settle down at last in the Hartshead, in Sheffield, as the keeper of " an eatinghouse and poulterer's shop." LEIGHTON : That is accounted for by his wife, who had also been in the service of the Duchess of Gordon, having connections in the neighbourhood. LEONARD: In the course of the book we are not once told what was her maiden name, but her mother lived at Wood hall, some eleven miles from Sheffield, and she had a brother in Cheney row, whose name also is omitted. At first, D'Amour set up a canal boat, and conveyed coal from Whittington and Norwood collieries to Retford; but jealousies arising, he sold his boat. He came, to Sheffield on the very last day of the eighteenth century, began his. eating-house at 4, Market street, did well there, and in four Years removed to the Hartshead, where- he remained until 1826, when, "trade being much depressed after the panic of 1825, he and his wife willingly retired front all kind of lit point of fact, they seem to have lost their money. D'Amour was a native of Antwerp, and was eighty-six years of age when his life was published. He lived to the great age of ninety three, not dying until 1842. LEIGHTON : ln the Hartshead, some sixty years ago, the late Mr. Thomas Pearson carried on business as a wine merchant, and there realised a large fortune. WRAGG : It is said that on his late premises there are two cellars cut out of the solid rock, one, underneath the other. They are now occupied by Messr,.J. S. and T. Birks, grocers and wine dealers. LEIGHTON : Then there was " 'T" oil i' Wall " (The Hole in the Wall) ; and the house now occupied by 'Mr. Alleroft, with entrances both front Hartshead and Watson's walk, was kept by Mr. Sam Turner-" Gin Sam," as he was called, to distinguish him from " Flannel Sam" the draper. " Gin Sam" was the most gentlemanly landlord I ever met with, both in manner and conduct. He was particularly good-looking, had it pleasant smile and a kind word for all about him, and took a pride in waiting upon his customers himself TWISS: And his customers included the most respectable business men in the town. There was more sociableness among the shopkeepers at that time than now, and the public houses were so kept that orderly folk could go to them, without injury to themselves or to their reputation. WRAGG: The doorway of Sam Turner's public-house used to be almost blocked up on a Saturday night by men crowding to get in and by others trying to get out. Turner had formerly been a carpet weaver, and had worked for Mr. Wildsmith, of the Crofts. He got, however, by an accident, his arm broken, and during the period of enforced idleness which followed, he married a widow woman, whose name I forget, but who kept a public-house that was taken down to build the Town Hall. That would be about 1805. LEIGHTON : Lower still in Watson's walk was Mrs. Keats's eating-house, once well known. On. the opposite side, the premises now swallowed up by Messrs. Cockayne's carpet warehouse were occupied (though somewhat later than the time we have been speaking of) by a coffee-shop on the ground floor, the Mechanics' Library and a billiard-room up-stairs. In the corner 'now engulphed in Messrs. Cockayne's shop were the offices to which Mr. B. J. Wake-a most honourable man, of whom I always think with respect and gratituderemoved from Norfolk street about the year 1816 or 1817. What is now the Waterloo Tavern was originally the manufactory of Messrs. Watson. They were, I believe, silversmiths before plating on copper was invented. and the premises now occupied by Messrs. Birks and Mr. Atkinson formed their frontage. TWISS : It was, if I am not mistaken, in one of the houses you have named that the amusing interview of Justice Wilkinson with the pugilists took place. LEONARD: What Was that? TWISS : Oh, you must know the story. The old Vicar was noted in his time as an amateur pugilist; and one day, when he was dining with some local officials at the house that is now the Turf Tavern, two strangers called and sent in an urgent request that he would see them. The Vicar, quietly leaving his companions, complied. What was it they wanted? With some apologies they told him how great a distance they had come in consequence of having heard of his fondness for boxing, and buoyed by the fond hope that he would not disdain, as a particular favour, to give them a display of his skill. Nothing could please the old Justice better. With great urbanity he at once assented, the gloves were procured, and were used with a " science " that convinced the visitors they had not taken their journey fruitlessly; and in the end they left well pleased with the success of their mission. EVERARD : A good story, which I will cap with another, also appropriate to the locality, and also with a clerical flavour. About the middle of the last century there lived at Malin Bridge a working man, in humble circumstances, but who bore a good character amongst his neighbours for integrity and moral worth, and who was, moreover, a strict Churchman. He had a son named William, who had attained to an age suitable to receive the rite of confirmation, according to the ritual of the Church of England, and his father became very solicitous that this matter should be attended to without any unnecessary delay. On a certain day the Archbishop of York held a Confirmation service in the Parish Church, and this worthy man accompanied his son to Sheffield for the purpose of attending it. From some misunderstanding *as to the time, it so happened that on their arrival at the Old Church, the Confirmation service was over, and the Archbishop, clergy, and congregation were dispersed. What was to be (lone ? A man of ordinary character would just have returned home. But, instead of doing so, he ascertained that the Archbishop had gone down to the house Mr. Leighton has spoken of, in Watson's walk, and thither the father and son followed him. The servants refused them access to the Archbishop, as he was just sitting down to. dinner; but, happening to overhear the altercation, his lordship came to the top of the stairs and asked what was the matter. The father explained the circumstances, and the Archbishop, after asking some questions, and hearing young William. repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, confirmed him on the stairhead of the public-house! The father and the boy, we may well suppose, trudged home highly gratified with the enjoyment of so special a privilege. The son was afterwards the grandfather of a highly esteemed magistrate recently deceased. LEONARD : I do not see why you should hesitate to add that the boy so confirmed was the grandfather of the late Mr. Thomas Dunn. He who had shown so much determina ion to get the rite administered to his son was the first of the Dunns-the first also of the Thomas Dunns-resident in this neighbourhood. He had come from Boston about the year 1780, to be apprenticed to an ancestor of the late Col. Fenton. His Malin Bridge house was a neat, substantial cottage, with a pointed gable, covered with a fruit-tree. It was swept away, along with adjacent buildings, by the great flood of 1864. The son, William Dunn, the hero of the confirmation story, was, as that sufficiently shows, brought up a Churchman ; but, as he subsequently married a strict Dissenter, his son Thomas, father of the late Mr. Dunn, was educated as a holder of Nonconformist tenets, and, with his family, he attended Queen Street Chapel for many years. He was a self-taught man, of much natural ability, and his tastes are indicated by the fact that he was the first person who lectured in Sheffield on electricity. His wife was a Holland, the daughter of a resident at Shiregreen. She was eight months old in 1745, when the Young Pretender and his followers wore marching south; and, as it was confidently affirmed and implicitly believed that the rebels would impale every baby on their swords, she was hidden in a holly bush. The rebels are said to have been within a mile of her father's house at that time, and every man in the hamlet had gone out to fight. LEIGHTON : The fighting may be problematical. LEONARD : Yes; it is possible that curiosity, rather than valour, had taken the men away, for we know, as a matter of history, what an unopposed march the rebels had. This story, however, reminds one of the tradition that, on his return northwards, Prince Charles Edward visited Sheffield, and was a guest of the Heatons, in the Pickle. I went into that question once (as Mr. Brooke, in " Middlemarch, " would say), and I came to the conclusion that the evidence in support of the story was very feeble. lt consisted chiefly of dim remembrances of mysterious transactions, handed down by old Mrs. Heaton, who was a little girl in 1745, to her descendants, and the cherished belief of the family that a harpsichord, a sword, a wine-glass, and other articles were presents from the Prince. On the other hand, the known facts of the Young Pretender's progress and retreat lend no countenance whatever to the legend. EVERARD: Mr. Leighton has mentioned the Mechanics' Library, and I think perhaps you may be interested in hearing some account of an institution very popular and useful in its day, that has been drawn up by one who was intimately associated with its management. Do you care to hear it? ALL: Much. EVERARD (roads) Half a century has nearly elapsed since the Mechanics' Library was first established, by resolutions passed at a public meeting, held in the Town Hall, on December 27th, 1823. Most of the individuals who took a prominent part in that meeting have passed away, including Montgomery, the Rev. Dr. Sutton, Sir Arnold Knight, Mr. Edward Smith, Mr. Asline Ward, the Rev. Thos. Smith, and others. " From a small beginning the institution went steadily forward, advancing year by year in public esteem, and strictly adhering to its original intention of the purchase and circulation of books, without allowing its funds to to diverted to any other object. In the course of thirty years it had accumulated 8,000 volumes, enrolled six hundred members, and had a weekly issue of six hundred books. Of the general charactor of these works Mr. Montgomery, who was from the first the president, on a certain occasion bore this testimony:' I offer it as my deliberate opinion that there does not exist in this kingdom a public library of miscellaneous literature in which will be found a smaller proportion of objectionable volumes than in this of the Sheffield Mechanics. Without meaning the smallest disparagement to what is called the Gentlemen's Library here, the proportion of books not calculated to be particularly profitable to the reader, or permanently enhancing the value of the property itself, is far greater ;' and which difference he attributed to the large admission of novels, romances, and plays. " By a certain clause in the 24th rule of the Mechanics' Library, 'novels and plays' were excluded. After things had gone on quietly for some years, at length the abrogation of this law became the subject of animated and even stormy debates at the annual meetings. On the one side the ' Repealers' asserted that to exclude so large a portion of the current and popular literature of the day was inconsistent with the library being regarded as a public institution, and also with the fact of the actual admission of works of ' fiction ' at all; and that it was unfair towards those members who possessed the taste for that kind of reading, and was opposed to the entire spirit, freedom, and liberality of the age. To all this, on the other hand, the ' Constitutionalists' stoutly maintained that the clause in question was a fundamental principle of the institution, and could not be repealed without a broach of faith with the original donors of money and books, which had been solicited and given on that express under. standing; that to make the change required would be to alter the entire character of the library, and to lessen it in public esteem and confidence; that the funds were much more wisely and profitably expended in solid standard works, which would tend to improve the intellectual and moral character much more effectually than the reading such ephemeral productions as 'novels;' and that, whatever the library might happen to lose in subscriptions by adhering to the rule, it would be likely to lose much more by cancelling it. " So the controversy went on at the annual meetings with more or less of acrimony, common sense, wit, and logic on both sides; but, on the whole, it was carried on in the spirit of fairness. This yearly breeze did the institution no harm, but rather good. It tended to purify the atmosphere and invigorate the life, and was not the occasion of anything worse than a very slight and temporary interruption of the general good feeling prevalent amongst the members. " In 1853 a soiree was held in the Cutlers' Hall, on which occasion the Mayor, Francis Hoole, Esq., was in the chair, and the late Earl Fitzwilliam was present and made an excellent speech. The object in view in holding this meeting was of a strictly practical nature, namely, that of placing more prominently before the public the claims and privileges of the institution. One thing that especially commended it to favour was that it was not sectarian either in religion or politics. Its members consisted of every class of religion and all shades of politics. " The Mechanics' Library thus went on year by year in its unostentatious course of practical usefulness, furnishing the means of self-improvement and intellectual gratification to hundreds who, without such provision, would not have entered on the course of life with the same advantages, and many of whom now, in middle life or advanced in years, look back upon the institution with no ordinary feelings of kindly regard and thankfulness. "The Mechanics' Library had been established about seven years when Mr. Hebblethwaite was appointed secretary, which office he sustained, with only a brief interruption, for nearly thirty years. He had been a member from its comenencement, and, in a speech delivered on the occasion of the presentation of a testimonial at the close of his services, he remarked:-' I was present at the origin of this library, at a meeting in the old Town Hall, on Saturday morning in Christmas week. It was an inauspicious time, but yet the room was crowded to excess. I have now before me the names of those who addressed the meeting. I was then a stripling, but I was intensely interested in the proceedings. I stood for three hours-for I could not get a seat-to hear the addresses, and none made a greater impression upon me than a speech of the late Rev. T. Smith, who was then at his best. It had a great influence on me at the time. He beautifully depicted the benefits such an institution might confer on the working men of Sheffield, and he mentioned the case of a working man of his acquaintance who, though spending forty years of his life in a cotton manufactory, had mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, was well versed in mathematics, and had considerable knowledge of medicine. This man had had a wife and seven children to maintain by his own labour, but no family in the town was more respectable, no children were better fed, clothed, and educated, and several of them were reading Latin, Greek, and Hebrew with their father. This account of what a working man had done stimulated me to desire to do likewise, and renewed my ardour in the studies in which I was engaged. Thus the institution has imparted a bias to my life and character, and no doubt it has done the same thing for many others. It was no slight *privilege as secretary of this institution to enjoy intercourse with its late president, Mr. Montgomery. I frequently saw him, and received from him such kindness as was most important to a young man in the position I was called to. The benefits that have resulted from this library, directly and indirectly, have been great. It has been the pioneer of some other institutions that have since flourished.' " The office of secretary, to which Mr. Hebblethwaite was appointed and which he so long satisfactorily filled, was not one of honorary distinction, but required much time, thought, and work. These duties he discharged with a punctuality that seldom failed, and with uniform courtesy. One of his chief qualities was that of aptitude in matters of business. In fact, he may justly be said to have been a ' model' secretary. All that he advised and did bore a certain impress of clear- sightedness, promptitude, and despatch. At the committee meetings (at which Montgomery, as long as he could, attended) there was scarcely ever a document wanting, an account incompleted, or minutes unentered, or any special business that he had engaged to do unattended to. All the matters to be considered and determined were clearly and orderly arranged. The discharge of these duties involved an amount of time and labour, cheerfully devoted to them, of which few can form any adequate conception. There can be no question that the institution was greatly indebted to his steady attentions and personal influence for the extent of its usefulness and the estimation in which it was held by the public. Besides his connection with the library, Mr. Hebblethwaite, for not less than thirty years, was the teacher of a large and efficient day school, and also, for more than the same period, the superintendent of a Sunday school; so that it may be safely affirmed that few menperhaps no manever exerted a greater or more beneficial influence on the minds of the youth in this town. Highly and generally esteemed by the members, as well as by the rest of the community, after a long course of honorary service, Mr. Hebblethwaite retired a short time before the institution was merged into the Free Library. " On the formation of the Free Library it became quite evident that an institution supported by a public rate levied on all householders must seriously injure, and eventually destroy, one sustained by voluntary subscription. Such was the result. The Mechanics' Library became absorbed into the Free Library, and now only exists as a pleasant memory of the past. " But as naturally identified and long connected with that institution, we now proceed to notice the librarian. Mr. Alfred Smith was as much a Sheffield notability, and in certain respects of a similar old-fashioned type, as the late Mr. John Holland. His father was a currier, for some time living in Queen street, but afterwards he removed to Fig Tree lane. Mr. Smith brought up his two sons, Alfred and Frederick, to the business; and I have myself often seen Alfred with his apron on and shirt sleeves turned up above the elbows, standing at the shop-door. That shop was a stone building, apparently two centuries old, with small leaded window-panes, a little above Mr. Haxworth's surgery, in Fig Tree lane. Alfred's father was a respectable and shrewd man, possessing more than an ordinary share of information, and well known to the public men of that day. He greatly admired, and was intimately acquainted with ` Montgomery, and stood by the poet on one of the occasions when he was examined and committed to prison by the magistrates, and went to fetch the persons who became his sureties. "Mr Smith, the father, was a stanch Liberal in politics, and the old 'currier shop' was a kind of meeting-place, where the most active local politicians of the time used frequently to resort for the purpose of learning the news and discussing public affairs. To that spot the late vicar, Dr. Sutton, used to repair to obtain information as to any event that was exciting public interest. It must be remembered that at that time there were no daily penny newspapers, or railway conveyance, or transmission of communications by telegraph. Young Alfred, as he listened to these discussions with attentive ears and eager interest, imbibed those political views and principles which, in a modified form, he ever afterwards held and believed in. He became in early life well known to Montgomery, and ever entertained for the poet a profound respect. He often spoke of Mr. Montgomery in such terms of high eulogy as seemed almost to amount to a kind of idolatry. " For some time after the Mechanics' Library was first established, the work of librarian was done by voluntary services. Afterwards, Mr. Clegg was appointed to that office, and, on his resignation, Mr. Alfred Smith. On the occasion of the election Montgomery spoke of him in very kindly and favourable terms. On being duly installed into the office, his manners of old-fashioned politeness and efforts to oblige soon won the good-will and esteem of the generality of the members. With kindly feelings will many of them, recall to memory his personal appearance. There was certainly something striking about it, including the bald head, high forehead, and long, pale, and unwhiskered face. His countenance, it will be remembered, was naturally grave, and on certain special occasions it was apt to assume that stronger expression of gravity that approached very nearly to the stolid and impassive. " But, unlike this outward appearance, he was of a very cheerful, kind-hearted, and genial disposition. He had an extensive knowledge of books of a certain kind, and his ordinary conversation was rendered interesting by curious scraps and quaint conceits. His memory was very extraordinary, and, indeed, was the chief faculty of his mental constitution. He knew the greater part of Hudibras by heart, and could give citations to any length. Montgomery, of course, was a very favourite author; and he often repeated passages both from his published poems and also from some others, which I suspect have escaped even the keen scrutinising search of the late Mr. Holland. In his younger days he had himself composed a considerable amount of poetry, which he could repeat to any extent. But it was in the doggerel style and Hudibrastic vein ; and it is very doubtful whether he possessed the requisite literary taste and ability to have written anything that would at all have stood the critical ordeal if printed in a volume. " Notwithstanding some manifest imperfections, he yet succeeded to a considerable extent in giving satisfaction; and it may be questioned whether a more clever business man would, on the whole, have served the interests of the library better than the good-tempered, humorous, gossiping, and somewhat eccentric ' librarian.' He certainly bad often to manifest a great deal of patience ; but, on the other hand, it is only fair to say he frequently required a large exercise of that said excellent quality towards himself. On certain occasions, whilst he was reciting poetry or telling some ***** story, might be seen more than half-a-dozen youngsters waiting for an exchange of books, who, with eager looks were listening with delight to what he was saying; whilst amongst them might be a man who thought his time of some value, who would, with signs of anger and impatience, remonstrate against such delay. Instantly the tale would be cut short, and the applicant's wishes attended to, with many apologies and efforts to conciliate and oblige. " On the occasion of Montgomery's funeral, with a large scarf around his hat, Alfred Smith was mounted on the box beside the driver of the carriage in which were the secretary, vice-president, and other officers of the Mechanics' Library leading up the procession. All along the road lined with spectators he was quietly recognised, and thus, by mere Accident, occupied a prominent position in paying his tribute of respect to the venerated poet. Soon after this event his health began visibly to fail, and he gradually sank into a debilitated condition; but still, notwithstanding all persuasions to the contrary, he resolutely attended, to almost the last day of his life, at the library, thus finishing his twenty-five years of faithful and conscientious service. During that period it was the writer's privilege to enjoy very frequent and pleasant intercourse, and also at the end to follow him to his grave, and see his mortal remains interred in the Pitsmoor Churchyard. " With his name the remembrance of the Sheffield Mechanics' Library will ever remain closely associated-an institution which may fairly claim to have fulfilled its original design for about forty years, by furnishing the means, at little cost, of reading valuable works on arts, science, literature, and religion, which were adapted to improve the intellect and to form and establish the moral and religious character." WRAGG: Thank you. Our friend Leighton has, I see,fallen asleep, which is a reminder that we ought to be going home. [Exeunt.] This out of copyright material has been transcribed by Eric Youle, who has provided the transcription on condition that any further copying and distribution of the transcription is allowed only for noncommercial purposes, and includes this statement in its entirety. Any references to, or quotations from, this material should give credit to the original author(s) or editors.
  13. Lysanderix

    The Price of Carrying the Coals

    Many local steelworks had their own barges. Tinsley Rolling Mills brought coal to the works on their own craft until , I believe, the 1920s. One was wrecked and it’s remains could be seen when the River Don was in low water. One of the companies long serving workman, Darkie Hercock ,was actually born on one of the Companies barges.
  14. History dude

    The Price of Carrying the Coals

    It looks to me like something put out by the Canal companies about the impact of railways on their business. However, I would take the rail figures with a pinch of salt. As we know, the Railways slaughtered the canal traffic and the cost by rail and being cheaper was enough for them to get scared of this new method of transport. With something like that document, you have to take in the motives of who would pay for the expense of publishing it. The document does say "probable" costs. It might be something to do with the canal interests trying to stop Coal Companies actually backing or investing in future rail developments! Showing they wouldn't save much on the short distances and loose on the long ones. There was often some strong opposition to rail expansion.
  15. A plan of 1751 refers to the Mill Dam at Kellam Wheel as Clayton Dam. A map of part of the Close in William Aldam's possession proposed to be taken into the Lane near Clayton Damm containing 166 superficial yards, with the lane, etc adjoining. 1751. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc03303&pos=16&action=zoom&id=98496 A simple plan including only the cartway and additions, a footway, a potato-piece and the Butts in Clayton Dam. Kelham / Kellam Wheel, also known as the Clayton Dam; this was on the River Don near Green Lane. Kelham Wheel The name derived from Kellam Homer, the town armourer, who along with George Smedley and John Swyfte were, in 1604 the earliest recorded tenants of the grinding wheel positioned on the head goit to the Town Corn Mill on the land of Earl of Shrewsbury. From the Court Leet of 1609, the tenants of the grinding wheel were required to open the by-pass goit when their wheel wasn't working to ensure a supply of water to the Town Mill. Tenants recorded: 1637; 1641 George Smedley & John Swyfte. 1650 & 1654 recorded as destroyed. 1664-1695, Kellam Homers' son, Kenhelm followed by his wife. 1701 & 1704, Mrs Whatmoore. 1715, James Crawshaw, 21year lease with a rent of £15 had to rebuild the wheel and also ensure the water supply to the Town Corn Mill. A series of repairs from 1712 in the Woodwards accounts suggests major rebuilding. 1736, Walter Briddon on behalf of Johanna Crawshaw. The wheel had two ends of 6 and 5 troughs. Goslings Map 1736 the wheel is shown built across the race. 1758, Mary Briddon was paying £30 rent for 8 and 7 troughs. 1760, William Bower the silk mill builder. The Earl of Surrey’s tenements in Long Croft, Gibraltar [Street] and Bower Springs. 1782 The names of a later date have been added by Josiah Fairbank, and the line of Russell Street and Green Lane, and Bowling Green Street, added. Tenants named. Kelham Wheel marked. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04123&pos=12&action=zoom&id=103838 Spring Street. Colson Crofts measured for the Duke of Norfolk, including the Cotton Mill, the Stream Engine Grinding Wheel, and T Holy’s land laid out in streets, 1805 https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04089&pos=6&action=zoom&id=103413 Shows: Cotton Mill Co., goight to footbridge, Cotton Street, Bower Street, north side of an ancient cut of fish pond, Spring Street, Water Street, Pear Street, Plum Street, Love Street, Engine Street (changed to Steam Street) and steam engine grinding wheels. For more information regarding The Silk and Cotton Mill see separate post: "Cotton Mill Co., Cotton Street" Kelham Street. The Cotton Factory, the Cotton Mill (formerly Kelham Wheel) etc in lots for sale, 1815. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04087&pos=11&action=zoom&id=103381 1815, after a fire 1810 the freehold was sold, the larger of the two Cotton Mills became the Workhouse in 1828 and the smaller water powered Mill converted from the Kelham grinding wheel, also housed a 20hp Bolton and Watt steam engine, reverted to its original grinding use. 1822; 1828 & 1833 occupied by John Parkin, pen & pocket knife maker. John Parkin & Company https://hawleysheffieldknives.com/n-fulldetails.php?val=p&kel=2240 1835, 1837/8 Thomas Dunn of Dunn Wheel Co. A plan of a piece of land agreed to be purchased by Messrs Peace of Thomas Dunn. Land at edge of Kelham Wheel, 1837-1844. Shows Kelham Wheel Dam. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc03643&pos=9&action=zoom&id=99194 1841 and 1850 Directories record John Pearson, a wood turner and circular sawyer. 1845 Rate Book records Dunn had bought the wheel and it was he as owner who made the Flood Claim in 1864 when the goits were not too seriously damaged. Thomas Dunn, coal owner of Richmond Hill, Sheffield, claimed for damage to Kelham Wheel, Dam & Sluice. https://sheffieldfloodclaimsarchive.shu.ac.uk/claimSummary.cfm?claim=6-5362 After the Flood, the Wheel converted to a Corn Mill and was operated in 1875 by owner James Crossland and William Smith. 1879 White's Directory H & W, Ibbotson, corn millers & corn merchants, Britannia Corn Mills, Alma Street & Corn Exchange. Alma Street. Plan of Kellam Cottage and land adjoining as divided into lots for sale. No date. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04159&pos=14&action=zoom&id=104122 Marked: Marked: River Dun [River Don], Kellam Wheel Goight [Kelham Wheel Goight], Green Lane, shuttles, Kellam Wheel [Kelham Wheel], wash, Kellam Cottage [Kelham Cottage]. Tenants / owners: John Yealdon / Yeadon, John Crowley, Emmanuel Pearson, George Hattersley, James Armitage, William Charles, John Charles, William Charles junior and Henry Travis. Ordnance Survey Map 1890 (294.8.6) shows buildings astride the goit and named Britannia Corn Mills (top of map).The buildings were demolished 1975 but the nine stone piers are still visible. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;q00077&pos=1&action=zoom&id=108114 Water still flows from the shuttles at the head goit into the side race culvert, that formerly fed the silk and cotton mill was still being used for cooling in the rolling mill at Apollo Steels until 1986*. Nothing remains of the main Cotton Mill but traces of ancillary buildings in Globe Steel Works, Alma Street. Kelham tail goit is culverted beneath Alma Street and the outfall to the River Don, Nursery Street. * Information from: "Water Power on the Sheffield Rivers" edited by David Crossley with Jean Cass, Neville Flavell & Colin Turner. W.A. Tyzack and Sons Co. Ltd., Horsemans Works, Alma Street looking across the Mill Race from Kelham Island. t03710 Entrance to Kelham Island showing the rear of the Britannia Corn Mills. t07951 Kelham Island remains of the Britannia Mill and Mill Race. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u04111&pos=1&action=zoom&id=39621 Redevelopment of Kelham Island showing (background) the Fat Cat public house, No. 23 Alma Street t07955 Renovation work, Kelham Island showing (centre) Woodhead Components Ltd. and the Globe Steel Works, Alma Street. 1987 u12859 u12858 Renovation work, Kelham Island showing (back) Richardson Sheffield Ltd., cutlery manufacturers and Globe Steel Works, Alma Street. t14243 t08050 Renovated bridge, Kelham Island with Kelham Island Museum in background (right) t08039 Kelham Wheel. https://sheffielder.net/tag/kelham-wheel/
  16. MartinR

    The Price of Carrying the Coals

    Not always. Many collieries had their own staithes, but then other collieries had rail loading facilities. Wagons are often shunted and spend time in sidings awaiting the next train, boats keep going. Large consumers or merchants may have a private basin, then again they may have a rail connection. You'd need to know the detailed provision for each trip to get an idea of speed. The document is dated 1800-1850, but the start date is way too early, the S&D opened in 1825 and the L&M five years later so what the earliest rail to Sheffield was I don't know. At that early date what speed did railways operate at? Finally, coal does not deteriorate in the timescales we are talking about so does speed matter at all? 30 miles is a day's canal journey, but then add lockage time, may be a couple of days.
  17. Joseph Clarke & Co., coal merchants, 171 Western Bank, depots under Arches No. 4, 5 and 6, Canal Wharf and at Midland Station, Saville Street East, Office Canal Wharf. Advertisement from Illustrated Guide to Sheffield, Pawson and Brailsford. 1862. Not recored in Whites Directory 1849 Whites Directory 1852 Clarke, Joseph & Co. factors and general agents, 25 Carver Street, Northumberland Road Advertisement from Whites Directory 1856 Whites Directory 1856 Clarke, Joseph & Co., coal merchants, 25 Carver Street, Midland Depot & Canal Wharf. h. 10 Northumberland Road. Whites Directory 1862 Clarke, Joseph, coal merchants, Midland Station, Canal Wharf & Effingham Street. h. 171 Western Bank. What happened to Joseph Clarke? Whites Directory 1879 Clarke, William, coke and coal merchant, 85 Bright Street, Carbrook Clarke, Wm, coal merchant and draper, 123 West Street. Clarke, William, coal leader, 176a Pitsmoor Road. Lundhill Colliery Explosion 1854 https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/accidents-disasters/yorkshire/lundhill-colliery-explosion-barnsley-1854/ Explosion 1857 https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/accidents-disasters/yorkshire/lundhill-colliery-explosion-barnsley-1857/ https://hemingfieldcolliery.org/2021/02/19/lundhill-colliery-disaster-19th-february-1857/ Grassmoor Colliery https://www.oldminer.co.uk/grassmoor.html Explosion 1933 https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/accidents-disasters/derbyshire/grassmore-colliery-explosion-chesterfield-1933/
  18. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354629914775
  19. Ponytail

    Birley Collieries Branch Line

    Colliery Engine 'Birley No. 5', most probably at Beighton Colliery Sheffield Coal Co.s15051 Hudswell Clarke 0. 6. 0 ST 'Orient', shunting locomotive built for Birley East Colliery. 1890. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;v00054&pos=32&action=zoom&id=41924 Colliery Engine 'Birley No. 6, Peckett 0. 4. 0 St' and Coal Wagons at Brookhouse Colliery with Water Cooling Tower in the background. 31st March 1938. s15047 Built Bristol 1925 Works No. 1653 Colliery Engine 'Birley No. 6, Peckett 0. 4. 0 St' and Coal Wagons at Brookhouse Colliery. 31st March 1938.s15046 Steam Locomotive W D G Peckett 0. 6. 0 ST at Brookhouse Colliery. 1956. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;v00057&pos=9&action=zoom&id=41927 Steam Locomotive Hudsweel Clarke 0. 6. 0 ST 'Orient' at Brookhouse Colliery. 1956. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;v00055&pos=8&action=zoom&id=41925 Steam locomotive T R G at Brookhouse Colliery. 26th November 1966. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;v00056&pos=2&action=zoom&id=41926 Reminiscences from John A Thickett: 23 November 1966, a Saturday afternoon, saw me loafing beside the ex-Midland Railway line at Beighton. The reason was to see a railway enthusiast's special (in this context meaning an excursion) on its way towards Rotherham. During my wait I was surprised to see activity on a different line, about a quarter of a mile to the south of my position. An anonymous, shining-green tank-engine hauling open waggons was carefully negotiating a steep descent in the Rother Valley (see the white gate visible in s35507). After a while the same engine stormed sure-footedly back with another rake of waggons, this time empty. The waggons all had the initials 'U.C.C.' (United Coke and chemicals) painted in white on their sides. A minute or so later I heard the engine suddenly shut-off, no doubt because at its summit the climb had eased into level ground. These out and back runs occurred several times during my sojourn here. Mr Thickitt watched this activity for several hours from beside the main line railway/Chesterfield Road. Photo Mr. Thickitt refers to s35507 Beighton Castle area in the 1950s View northwards showing, gently curving away through the centre of the photograph, the largely freight-only, ex-Midland Railway Old Road . (The line running between Chesterfield and Rotherham, which was built years before the route through Sheffield city centre). Note this line has four tracks. On the left skyline a viaduct carried the ex-Great Central Railway's Sheffield to Lincoln line over the Old Road and the River Rother. To the right of the line towards Rotherham, the 'North Staveley Curve' leaves eastwards, perhaps still to access North Staveley Pit. On the 1:25000 Ordnance Survey map, surveyed during the 1950s, the line continued eastwards into Brookhouse Pit yard. (This line should not be confused with the out of picture but nearby, ex-Great Central Railway 'Waleswood Curve). The focal point of the scene, an eye-catching, white gate identified the boundary of a private-owner line. In this case operated (in the mid-1960s) by United Coke and Chemicals and leading (along a short, steep ascent) further east to Beighton Coking Plant. (this Beighton site was beside Brookhouse Pit and some distance from Orgreave Coking Plant). Further left, in the mid-ground to the west of the river was the Ex-Great Central Main Line (not visible) with Beighton Station not far ahead. Observe the bridge over the River Rother; a footpath across this had been reassuringly walled-off from the railway track! The river itself shows a vertical deep bank suggesting the Rother had already been canalized and embanked to prevent flooding. These works possibly occurred during the 1950s. Beyond the white gate, the sheet of water was probably a flash , the local name for a pond or lake formed by mining subsidence. Housing puncturing the skyline was on Park Hill, Swallownest. Information from J Thickitt.
  20. Hartley Old Pit was started in the 13C, the first records mention it in 1291. It was abandoned in 1844. The Hester pit, aka New Hartley Colliery, (for which I quoted the depth) was then started and reached the low main coal on 29 May 1846. It was a single pit colliery. It was sealed after the disaster of 16 January 1862 and never reopened. In 1874 a new colliery consisting of the Hastings and Melton pits was started nearby which eventually broke into the old workings in 1901. The whole colliery was abandoned in 1959 leaving 70 years of coal below ground. Both Hartley and New Hartley collieries had workings reaching out beneath the North Sea. Thanks for the info on the Sheffield collieries. I've re-read page 20 and can't see a mention of the Watt engine. Page 20 is "Instructions to the Founder" concerning the making of the corf. The description of "The Fire Engine" starts on page 37. Just in case we're looking at different publications, the URL is https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-coal-viewer-and-eng_1797/page/n19/mode/2up WE both agree that the point of the book is to promote his own designs and inventions, it was the lack of even a passing reference that surprised me, that's all.
  21. The Coal Viewer and Engine Builder's Practical Companion, by John Curr of Sheffield. Quite a difference in Price! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Viewer-Builders-Practical-Companion-Sheffield/dp/1379973619 https://www.forumauctions.co.uk/61/Curr-John-The-Coal-Viewer-and-Engine-Builder-39s-Practical-Companion-only-edition-Shef/1?view=lot_detail&auction_no=1002 https://www.michaelkemp.co.uk/products/author/JOHN CURR, of Sheffield Or download: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-coal-viewer-and-eng_1797
  22. Hickleton Main Coal Co. https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/coal-mining-in-the-british-isles/yorkshire-coalfield/doncaster/hickleton/ Manvers Main Colliery. https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/coal-mining-in-the-british-isles/yorkshire-coalfield/doncaster/manvers/ Yorkshire Main Colliery. https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/coal-mining-in-the-british-isles/yorkshire-coalfield/doncaster/yorkshire/ Rossington Main Colliery. https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/coal-mining-in-the-british-isles/yorkshire-coalfield/doncaster/rossington/
  23. John Curr obtained a patent for flat rope in November 1798. John Currs 1798 flat rope patent The rope was made by stitching together several round ropes. The advantage was that for winding up coal from a pit the flat rope effectively increased the diameter of the pulley as the load neared the top, allowing the speed to increase, the weight of rope decreasing as it wrapped around the pulley. Initially he bought in round rope from others, to stitch together using machinery which was situated on the site that would later be the lake in the grounds of "The Farm" and was within yards of his new 1803 house, Belle-Vue. By 1803 he had made arrangements for a warehouse in Tipton to service the West Midland Coal industry with his products. In April 1803 the cost of the ropes was a shilling per pound, with a month's credit, and the coal masters to pay for the carriage by barge. The ropes were warranted to last as long as six to eight round ropes of equal weight. Almost immediately though, users found problems with durability due to the quality of the round rope incorporated in Curr's product. Curr investigated and obtained two further patents: in March 1806 for spinning hemp to make yarn, and in August 1806 for twisting that yarn to make round rope. He then commenced making his own round rope in various sizes up to 7 inches in circumference. In 1807 Curr's patent round ropes were also being made in the ropery of W.Bourne and Son at Hull, for shipping use. Curr's round rope was a good product in itself and contributed to the quality of his flat ropes. Description of Currs Rope patents By 1813 rope production was so successful that it warranted a dedicated ropery building. The works he put up in 1813 (see Fairbanks' plan), was between his house, Belle-Vue, and the town, the land being an addition to the land already on lease from the Duke. Plan of Currs Leases from the Duke There were four storeys to the works, the three lower ones were occupied as cottages or perhaps warehousing, and the rope making was carried out on the fourth, which was continuous for the length of the building. The ropery crossed the already existing South Street, so an arch was required to allow traffic along the street. Derbyshire Archaeological Society Bulletin No 15 (Spring 2000) refers to two Josiah Fairbanks field books in Sheffield Archives (ref SAFC FB 137 & 138 ) which supposedly show a railway between Curr's (flat) "Rope place" on the site of The Farm's lake, and the later (round) Ropery. By 1820 Curr had sold the rope patent rights and manufacturing machinery to Richard and William Furley of Gainsborough, who also maintained a warehouse in Tipton. When no longer required to operate as a ropery, probably in the 1840s, the building was reduced in height and partitioned, to facilitate its use as 2 room cottages. Possibly some of the lower storeys had previously been used as warehousing for raw materials and finished goods. The length of Ropery Row was originally about 270 yards and it was still the full length in 1823. By 1831 the row had been broken up with a section in the centre removed, so it was down to about 180 yards. The 1850 map shows it as comprising 2 sections - "Low Ropery" which was probably where the meeting rooms were, west of South street, and the eastern section comprising 22 dwellings, 100 yards long. Large rooms remained in existence above the Low Ropery section. In the 1850s there was a school there. The United Methodist Church (Shrewsbury Road) were based in the Row in the late 1850s, and in 1872 there was a Temperance Hall. Political meetings of 500 electors were held there in 1886 and 1892. In 1876 Sale Memorial Church (St Lukes) was erected on this site of the western end of the Ropery, part of which had been purchased and demolished for the purpose. In 1841 the census showed almost half the one-up-one-down cottages in the Row unoccupied and in that year Mr. Mudford was operating a ropery in a large room above three of the cottages. From the 1851 to the 1911 census the cottages were numbered 1 to 21 and fully occupied. The Row was demolished in 1912, at which time there was a chip shop at one end, seen in the PictureSheffield photo (incorrectly dated as 1925 - it appears in a 1912 newspaper article about the demolition). Ropery Row before demolition 1912
  24. Ponytail

    Middlewood Hospital

    Built in 1872 as South Yorkshire Asylum; 1889-1929 The West Riding Asylum, Wadsley; Converted Spring 1915 into Wharncliffe War Hospital; 1930-1948 known as Wadsley Mental Hospital; 1948-1959 Middlewood (Mental) Hospital; 1959-1972 Middlewood (Psychiatric) Hospital. For more information see: Middlewood Hospital 1872-1972, Thorpe. Local Studies Ref: 362. 209 S. South Yorkshire Asylum - Plan of Estate. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01407&pos=7&action=zoom&id=65677 Shows: Hospital Buildings, including Female and Male Wings, Administrative Block, Nurses' Residence, Laundry House and Dining Hall, as well as Airing Courts, Drying Green, Boiler buildings, Wood and Masons' Yards, Farmery, Kitchen Gardens, Isolation Hospitals (2), Church, Nursery, Gardener's Lodge and Entrance Lodge. The extent of the estate shown is bounded by irrigation land and the River Don to the north north east, Worrall Lane to the west south west, land belonging to Elijah Eaton and Mr. Newton to the north, and land belonging to Messrs. Brooke and Sons, the Trustees of George Miller, and Mr. Fowler to the south. Whilst the date of the plan is unclear, the layout of the buildings shown correspond to a period covering approximately 1889-1901. The name West Riding Asylum was used between 1889 and 1929, and it is known that a second dining hall for women, adjacent to the female detached block, was built in 1901. This hall is not shown on the plan. Printed by Pawson and Brailsford, Sheffield. Scale: 1 inch : 22 yards. Four sections pasted together. Original at Sheffield City Archives X71/2/1. Asylum Entrance Gates & Middlewood Road. t08535 The Gate, looking towards Middlewood Road. s05403 Asylum Lodge. s05404 Kingswood Block, Wards 9 - 13, February 1990.s23410 Queenswood Block Wards 25-28 with Clock Tower Administration Block in the background. February 1990.s23414 South Yorkshire Asylum, Wadsley Park- Basement Plan. Feb. 1875. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc07350&pos=179&action=zoom&id=106493 Marked: tailor's shop, shoemaker's shop, attendant's rooms, scullery, wc, shoe rooms, dormitories, single room, day room, ashes, coal, lavatory, bath room, dressing rooms, etc. South Yorkshire Asylum - Workshops (boilerhouse, Bakehouse, Brewhouse, Weaving Shed etc.) Plan and Section. 7th Jan. 1871. Architect: Bernard Hartley. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc07351&pos=177&action=zoom&id=106489 Marked: smith's shops, boiler house (with boilers), bake house (with ovens), brew house, plumber, weaving shed, joiner's shop, bread store, malt [store], painter, yard, carpenters' shop, timber yard, urinals; bookbinder, upholsterer, hair picking room, mason's shed and old metal [store]. South Yorkshire Asylum - Washhouse, Laundry, etc., Plan and Sections, c.1871. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc07352&pos=178&action=zoom&id=106491 Marked: laundry, yard, drying closet, wringing machines, troughs for hand washing, washing wheel, copper, stock for rough clothes, rinser of galvanised iron, W.C.s and urinals, engine, bevel wheels, stone heeping pits, ironing stove, cold air flue, sorting and folding room, office, women's distribution room, hot water cistern proposed over engine house, women's lobby, women's receiving room, men's distribution room, men's lobby, men's receiving room. South Yorkshire Asylum - Laundry Residence Ground Plan, 1884. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc07353&pos=181&action=zoom&id=106546 Marked: day room, scullery, kitchen, W.C.s, nurse, buckets, single rooms, dormitory, bath room, dressing room, etc. South Yorkshire Asylum - Laundry Residence Chamber Plan, 1884. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc07354&pos=180&action=zoom&id=106541 Marked: dormitory, stores, W.C.s, nurse, single rooms, bed room, and single rooms. South Yorshire Asylum - Male Block, Second Floor, c.1908. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01414&pos=170&action=zoom&id=66496 Proposed Adaptation of Recreation Hall for Cinematograph Entertainments. 1924. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01413&pos=58&action=zoom&id=66495 Proposed Hospital for Tuberculosis Patients. 1925. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01415&pos=59&action=zoom&id=66497 Sanitary Accommodation for Ward 23. 1925 https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01410&pos=55&action=zoom&id=65680 Southwood Block Wards 14-24, February 1990.s23409 Ward and Proposed Solarium. Ground Plan & Elevations. 1926 https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01419&pos=63&action=zoom&id=66502 Proposed Solarium marked on Estate Plan. 1925. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01412&pos=57&action=zoom&id=66494 Northwood Block, Wards 5 - 8, February 1990. s23413 South Yorkshire Asylum Church Ground Floor Plan showing dimensions and layout of pews to accommodate 631 people. 1873. https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01853&pos=175&action=zoom&id=3264 The Asylum Churcht06703 u01197
  25. Ken Loach film - filmed in Sheffield - starring Bobby Knutt I need to find this on video or dvd Does anyone know where I can get a copy from ?
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