Life In A Court, Ramsden's Yard, 1871

[Bayleaf]

The neighbouring hillside, rising from the broad thoroughfare called The Wicker, was occupied by steep streets and cross lanes, lined on both sides with cottage homes built two deep. The back house of the two-deep pair opened into a yard, or court, into which the inhabitants had access through a covered passage called a jennel.

Before the building of the railway, and the iron and steel works along each side of it, the hills and valleys deserved the name of Brightside.There was a time when meadow, grove and stream delighted the eye, but this was many generations before I was born in Ramsden's Yard.

I can only fancy the celestial greenness of a former outlook from the observation that when foundations were being laid for Cammell's planing shops the workmendug up hundreds of tree roots; and there were still bits of old buildings about of rural origin; but there were no flowers in their crannied walls.

Ramsden's Yard contained eight houses, four on each of two opposite sides of a square. One of the two remaining sides was occupied by a low boundary wall separating it from the next lower yard on the hill; and on the other side a high boundary wall separated it from from the yard next higher on the hill.

Against the higher wall was a square brick building accommodating a midden and two pairs of conveniences which could not be acuartely described as WC's.

Near the middle of the yard stood the communal water tap, or 'branch' as it was called, from which twelve families drew their water supply. It was just the kind of tap to be seen on any building plot as a temporary supply of water for the workmen, but its frail piping had been supported and protected from damage by a stout wooden post to which it was fastened.

The yard itself was as the builders had left it, neither flagged nor asphalted, but its surface had been trodden hard and reasonably flat; and it was black, as black as soot, which is not surprising, as it was liberally sprinkled with the soot which floated continuously in the atmosphere over the industrial part of Sheffield.

Life in Ramsden's Yard could not be called either select or lonely, but there was an air of limited seclusion about it. In the warm weather the mothers would roll the 'peggy-pot' off the door step and do the washing out of doors. They said it kept the steam out of the house and made it cooler. But there were other reasons: mothers of a growing family could keep their eye on the children, playing in the yard, who were not big enough to look after themselves in the street.

From small incidents came unsuspected events, and without any thought of doing so, the mothers' care for their small children fostered a yard patriotism which flourished in Ramsden's Yard, as in others, on minor festivals, such as bonfire day, Shrove Tuesday with its pancakes and shuttlecocks, and Whitsuntide with its bits of childish finery.

Harry Brearley, Knotted String, autobiography of a steel maker, 1941 (writing about 1871)

(Currently for sale, here , signed copy on eBay, a snip at £199.99!)

[vox]

Harry Brearley was born in Ramsden's Yard near the Wicker on 18th February 1871.

He invented the stainless steel. He worked as a chemist.

He died in Torquay, England in August 1948 aged 77 years and 6 months old.

Harry Brearley

[RichardB]

(Currently for sale, here , signed copy on eBay, a snip at £199.99!)

A fine piece of work, but £200 ... no Thanks. It's always for sale, wonder what the rest of the book is like, has anyone read it please ?

Thank you for posting this extract up.

Any maps showing the yard anyone please ? Or a modern map showing where it was ?

[siren]

A fine piece of work, but £200 ... no Thanks. It's always for sale, wonder what the rest of the book is like, has anyone read it please ?

Thank you for posting this extract up.

Any maps showing the yard anyone please ? Or a modern map showing where it was ?

I've got a copy of the book,dated 1949. Its a withdrawn stock Sheff City Libraries copy. There are no maps or pictures in it, but the content is very interesting. I bought it years agao for about £5 in a now defunct 2nd hand book shop. It is not signed

[RichardS]

Theres a few cheaper copies on abebooks:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?an=HARRY+BREARLEY&bt.x=63&bt.y=16&kn=knotted