Old West Riding Boundary

[hilldweller]

Cogitating the other day (they can't touch me for it now that I'm 64), my mind drifted to long ago evening walks around Stannington, Loxley and Worral. The thing that I remember was that street lighting, where it existed, was by mercury-vapour discharge lighting. This gave a distinctive green-blue-pinky effect and was apparently the lighting system of choice for the West Riding County Council. Sheffield Council were still using incandescent lighting or gas lighting at that time.

This then got me thinking of where the West Riding County boundaries lay in the 1950's.

I remember a West Riding Works depot at the Penistone Road end of Claywheels Lane with real steamrollers parked overnight. When we walked back from Beeley Woods exhausted and mucky after a days play we used to peer through the wire netting at the slowly cooling machines. There were of course West Riding Council offices at Grenoside.

I understand that the modern terrace of houses in Ringinglow Village came under the West Riding.

I've looked at old maps and can't find any reference to any boundary. I know that the Hillsborough district came into Sheffield in the early 1900's but I'm not sure when the rest of the north-west districts came into Sheffield.

HD

[Bayleaf]

Cogitating the other day (they can't touch me for it now that I'm 64), my mind drifted to long ago evening walks around Stannington, Loxley and Worral. The thing that I remember was that street lighting, where it existed, was by mercury-vapour discharge lighting. This gave a distinctive green-blue-pinky effect and was apparently the lighting system of choice for the West Riding County Council. Sheffield Council were still using incandescent lighting or gas lighting at that time.

This then got me thinking of where the West Riding County boundaries lay in the 1950's.

I remember a West Riding Works depot at the Penistone Road end of Claywheels Lane with real steamrollers parked overnight. When we walked back from Beeley Woods exhausted and mucky after a days play we used to peer through the wire netting at the slowly cooling machines. There were of course West Riding Council offices at Grenoside.

I understand that the modern terrace of houses in Ringinglow Village came under the West Riding.

I've looked at old maps and can't find any reference to any boundary. I know that the Hillsborough district came into Sheffield in the early 1900's but I'm not sure when the rest of the north-west districts came into Sheffield.

HD

I'm not sure about the houses at Ringinglow HD, wouldn't that have been Derbyshire? Back in the 18th century the county boundary ran down by Hangram Lane.

[RichardB]

We just need a more accurate map of the Strafforth and Tickhill Wapentake he says, making it sound, Oh-so-easy.

[RichardB]

1720 map of West Riding

[RichardB]

R W Searle 1764

Hurts my eyes !

[RichardB]

1795

I have "40 Miles around Manchester" on CD somewhere ... might be a better map.

[hilldweller]

We just need a more accurate map of the Strafforth and Tickhill Wapentake he says, making it sound, Oh-so-easy.

What I was looking for really was an idea of what the situation was in the 1950/60's before the SYCC came into being.

It seems strange that parts of what has been Sheffield for ages, came under the West Riding. I was told by someone who lived in one of the Ringinglow houses that they were built by the WRCC. Certainly Loxley / Bradfield and parts further north seemed to come under the West Riding County Council. I know that Sheffield has always been considered to be historically part of the West Riding but I'm interested in the areas that came under the WRCC.

HD

[Bayleaf]

What I was looking for really was an idea of what the situation was in the 1950/60's before the SYCC came into being.

It seems strange that parts of what has been Sheffield for ages, came under the West Riding. I was told by someone who lived in one of the Ringinglow houses that they were built by the WRCC. Certainly Loxley / Bradfield and parts further north seemed to come under the West Riding County Council. I know that Sheffield has always been considered to be historically part of the West Riding but I'm interested in the areas that came under the WRCC.

HD

The revision that created SYCC was in 1974. The old WRCC ceased to exist and Stannington etc out to Bradfield and out along the Don valley to Stocksbridge became part of Sheffield. The previous one was in 1967, which is when Frecheville came into Sheffield, and Parson Cross in the north. can't go back any further I'm afraid.

[Guest Steve Bush]

and Parson Cross in the north. can't go back any further I'm afraid.

In Parson Cross, the boundary was the small stream, The "Tongue Gutter", which flowed paralled to Deerlands avenue, just on the eastern side, all the way from Halifax Rd right through to Barnsley Rd, at The Huntsman.The estate on the West Riding side was known for some time as "New Parson Cross" and the Sheffield side as "The Old Estate", although these terms all but disappeared in the late 60s and it became "Parson Cross"

When I was at junior school, St Thomas More on Creswick Lane, the pupils were 50/50 Sheffield and West Riding. On 11+ day (ask your dad) we had to go to different schools to sit the exam. WR pupils went to Monteney and Sheffield pupils went to Chaucer (I think)

On Wordsworth the road surface changed at the border, Concrete in Sheffield, Tarmac in WR. We had concrete street lamps, they had iron lamps in Sheffield.

Never the twain......

[Bayleaf]

Extensions to the Sheffield /Yorkshire boundaries were always a bone of contention with locals, often because the rates were higher under Sheffield. When Stannington village became part of the city in 1974, the sign outside the local library was changed from "County Library" to "City Library". The new sign mysteriously disappeared several times and had to be replaced before things settled down.

When frecheville became part of the city in 1967, it also became part of Yorkshire whereas it was previously Derbyshire, so the resentment was double! The bone of contention there was that the rates went up, and the street lights, which previously went off in the early hours, were left burning all night. The argument only subsided when police statistics showed a significant reduction in the number of burglaries!