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Highfield House Estate - Auction of Lots 1879


Leipzig

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A newspaper notice appearing in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 12 July 1879 as the result of a legal action, announces a forthcoming auction of property lots relating to the land belonging to the Highfield House Estates. Up for sale in lots 5 & 6 are the dwelling houses of Highfield Terrace which are now situated on St Barnabas Road. Lots 7 & 8 relate to vacant building land, being part of the Highfield House Estate. It would be nice to know which areas of the map this vacant building land covered.

When looking at the 1950s map of Woodhead Road - Thorp  Road - Harwood Street, there is a noticeable line through the properties on the 1950s Ordnance Survey map. This resulted in a few non-rectangular houses. I believe this to be the field line which is shown in red on the 1849 map of the area.

The 1871 England & Wales Census (2 April 1871) shows that this area of Highfield at the time had not been fully developed as only some of the houses were built on the 3 above roads at that time.

The hope was that by analysing the lease dates of the lots it might have been possible to work out some order in which the properties were built and the estate developed. Unfortunately most of the auction lots refer to multiple lease dates, with no indication as to which specific properties the leases refer to; so a bit of a dead end there.

N.B. The Pictures are large files and may take a while to download

Auction Lots in Sheffield Daily Telegraph 12 July 1879.png

Highfield 1950 - 1879 Lots indicated.png

Sheffield 1849 Map - Highfield House.jpg

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Guest leksand
11 hours ago, Leipzig said:

A newspaper notice appearing in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 12 July 1879 as the result of a legal action, announces a forthcoming auction of property lots relating to the land belonging to the Highfield House Estates. Up for sale in lots 5 & 6 are the dwelling houses of Highfield Terrace which are now situated on St Barnabas Road. Lots 7 & 8 relate to vacant building land, being part of the Highfield House Estate. It would be nice to know which areas of the map this vacant building land covered.

When looking at the 1950s map of Woodhead Road - Thorp  Road - Harwood Street, there is a noticeable line through the properties on the 1950s Ordnance Survey map. This resulted in a few non-rectangular houses. I believe this to be the field line which is shown in red on the 1849 map of the area.

The 1871 England & Wales Census (2 April 1871) shows that this area of Highfield at the time had not been fully developed as only some of the houses were built on the 3 above roads at that time.

The hope was that by analysing the lease dates of the lots it might have been possible to work out some order in which the properties were built and the estate developed. Unfortunately most of the auction lots refer to multiple lease dates, with no indication as to which specific properties the leases refer to; so a bit of a dead end there.

N.B. The Pictures are large files and may take a while to download

Auction Lots in Sheffield Daily Telegraph 12 July 1879.png

Highfield 1950 - 1879 Lots indicated.png

Sheffield 1849 Map - Highfield House.jpg

Apologies if you are already aware, but certain aspects of your map suggest the following may not be completely apparent.

It is worthwhile being very cautious with property numbering appearing in the 1871 census, particularly in areas which were recently developed or under development. For large areas of Sheffield the "modern" numbering was not imposed until the mid-1870s. London Road property numbers in what had previously been addressed "Highfield(s)" (as opposed to "Little Sheffield") on the 1871 census do not bear any resemblence to those brought in subsequently and I expect the gap in developed properties appearing between Alderson Rd & the Royal on your map is more reflective of that offset than of what had actually been built. It is also the case that for at least some properties then existing on Alderson Road there was significant alteration to the numbers initially designated.

Though this poses a complication it should not be too difficult to accurately survey what was developed by 1871. Census routes which at first look irregular often highlight voids, plus there are ample standard candles on London Road to be able to accurately adjust to latter numbering protocols.

Though I have not investigated in depth I suspect that if any part of your map remained to be be developed by 1879 it would be certain sections to the far south. By chance my own investigations earlier today included Staveley Road, a little further south, which appears to have been under developement around 1879 and becoming occupied around 1880.

 

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Hi leksand

 

Thank you for your reply, I will take your advice on board. Could you expand please on what you mean by 'standard candles'.

I have just managed to find a picture on picturesheffield.com, which is a map by Wm Fairbank (1777) which shows Four Closes at Little Sheffield (London Road), held of the Duke of Norfolk by Samuel Walker. It also shows the names of others who I presume held the land surrounding these Four Closes.

I have over-layed the 1849 map with the Fairbank map of 1777 as best I can to show the area these Four Closes occupied.

Kind regards

Leipzig

 

Fairbanks map 1777 - Highfield.jpg

Map of 1849 overlayed withh 1777 map.png

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Guest leksand
6 hours ago, Leipzig said:

Hi leksand

 

Thank you for your reply, I will take your advice on board. Could you expand please on what you mean by 'standard candles'.

I have just managed to find a picture on picturesheffield.com, which is a map by Wm Fairbank (1777) which shows Four Closes at Little Sheffield (London Road), held of the Duke of Norfolk by Samuel Walker. It also shows the names of others who I presume held the land surrounding these Four Closes.

I have over-layed the 1849 map with the Fairbank map of 1777 as best I can to show the area these Four Closes occupied.

Kind regards

Leipzig

 

Fairbanks map 1777 - Highfield.jpg

Map of 1849 overlayed withh 1777 map.png

Apologies Leipzig

By standard candles I mean sites/properties for which usage or occupation does not change through the period of transition - that is to say places that can be readily identified irrespective of the alteration of their address and hence offer evidence as to the broader manner of the modification.

It may also be worth bearing in mind that corner properties, particularly those constructed in the earlier phases of the developments in question, could be addressed on both roads on which they were sited. Perhaps it doesn't need stating, but generally only one of the alternatives would be quoted under normal circumstances, though it is not that uncommon to see the "wrong" number applied to a particular street for a particular property (however, when this appears on census it is generally fairly evident).

There is also the matter of subsequent address revision in the period up to the 1950's, though I think you'll be OK in the area covered by your map as there probably wasn't much in the way of major redevelopment. However, numbers may be "missing" where neighbouring properties, particularly commercial properties, have expanded and "taken them in". Amongst the later developments of your survey there will probably be absent numbers which never existed other than, perhaps, nominal designations to proposed plots subsequently occupied by a thoroughfare. (A case in point here is seen at the intersection of Staveley & Wolseley Roads).

I'm not sure it will be of much use to you, but I can advise that every single property marked "PH" on your map was there in some form at the 1871 census. The usage isn't always apparent from census returns, and indeed most of them were not fully licensed at that time, but you can confidently mark them in yellow if you wish.

Lastly, perhaps not relevant, but the areas of Highfield in Sheffield township (that is to the east of Bramall Lane) were under development later than the parts of Ecclesall Bierlow to which they sat closest. I think it may well be the case that certain areas around there, much closer to town, were still to be built by the late 1870's and so, perhaps, could be the subject of the vacant lots to be auctioned.

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