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Watson Walk


RichardB

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Is it the 'tunnel' that goes by the side of Argos (used to be where you queued up when it was the ABC) - sorry, I am getting confused now!

Argos used to be Cocaines / Schofields department store and Watsons Walk was at the side of that, the ABC was lower down Angel street, but cinema queues could well have gone up Angel Street and along the walk. In the 1970's on Angel street in front of Watsons walk was a bus stop where the 88 Middlewood bus would stop. If you had just missed one you could walk through Watsons walk to Hartshead, past the back of the Telegraph & Star works and the Cathedral to catch a no. 7 Malin Bridge from Townhead Street which would get you to Hillsborough corner just as quick, - a piece of information I am sure plenty of Owls fans stuck in town at two o'clock on Saturday afternnon before a home match were well aware.

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More left, more left, the tunnel ran onto Angel Street, towards the Markets, ran between the Department store and the Cinema, people used to queue up the tunnel (yes, it has a slope to it), and out into Hartshead.

So, even though I've never heard of "The Bankers", the tunnel is/was to the left of The Bankers, right in the corner, I think there might have been a multi-storey car-park, then Meetinghouse Lane.

Perhaps Watsons Walk has "moved" ???

He's a chunk of my 1991 A-Z, back then it definately went to Angel Street, does it exist ??

"More left, more left !" he cried ....

HI RichardB I worked at Cockaynes before the war, this shop's frontage in Angel st was from just above Watsons walk ,down to the Angel Hotel about 60/80 ft, but Watsons walk did not go down to Angel st ,it went to Cockaynes Arcade a well known place at this time,which l would say was about 50 long, with a big widow and door into the shop on the right side facing W w; just above on the other side, was a News and grocers shop, about 20ft further it met Hartshead ,and Meeting House lane ,opposite was the Dove and Rainbow on a corner with Aldine Court which led to Fargate l dont recall another pub in Hartshead there at that time . Cheers Skeets

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A couple of pictures of Watsons Walk as it is today, clearly labelled by a street sign although it is merely a walkway from Angel Street to Hartshead, as shown in the second picture. Both pictures are taken from the Angel Street end.

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Cinema ques did not go up watson walk in the late 70's / early 80's!!!

As previously posted by someone else, there was a second tunnel further down between schofields (argos) and the abc.

This just went to the multi storey but also catered for ques / emegency exits doors from the cinema.

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Cinema ques did not go up watson walk in the late 70's / early 80's!!!

As previously posted by someone else, there was a second tunnel further down between schofields (argos) and the abc.

This just went to the multi storey but also catered for ques / emegency exits doors from the cinema.

I tend to agree with this as Argos is on the old Schofields site. The ABC Cinema was lower down Angel street. the building is now a hotel.

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Having thought about it some more (and having spoken to my sister) the queue did indeed snake up the road, through the tunnel and into Hartshead finally coming to a halt somewhere down Meetinghouse Lane. My Father, of course, took the opportunity to have one or two in the Dove and I can recall the side entrance to the Schofields store (Man, I was bored of queuing by then).

Maybe the Star have pictures of the queues ?

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Watsons Walk, Hartshead 1832.

HI SteveHB , A little snippet while we are on re; Watsons walk on the old map you 've posted, if you draw a line through the words Angel inn right up to the white square,there was a lane named Angel yard,which ran from Angel st to the square and buildings which was a coaching yard and stables, and accom; above for staff, and it was were l went up Angel yard to get to the cabinet shop where l worked before the war, in differing places in this yard was old evidence on walls such as collar res ts on the outer walls , horse shoes ,nailed at varios places, one in particular had Lady cut in the stone under it [ probably the bloke thought more of the horse than his lady at home] these tales were handed down to all that worked up there over the years. Steve it would be interesting if evidence of Angel Yard could be found on some later maps CHEERS sKEETS. MORE LATER

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A couple of pictures of Watsons Walk as it is today, clearly labelled by a street sign although it is merely a walkway from Angel Street to Hartshead, as shown in the second picture. Both pictures are taken from the Angel Street end.

A view of Watson's Walk from the other end (Hartshead). Again the walk is clearly labelled and it is possible to see all the way through it to Angel Street. It is nothing more than a short straight tunnel with Argos on one side and a wall on the other.

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To try to clear up the confusion about the Dove and Rainbow, the Bankers Draught and Watson's Walk in Hartshead as covered previously by ADMIN I offer this panoramic shot of the area showing all three in one picture.

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I distinctly remember queing up this alley in the early 80's, however this is not Watson walk. There were two alleys, one either side of argos / schofields / cocaynes

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I distinctly remember queing up this alley in the early 80's, however this is not Watson walk. There were two alleys, one either side of argos / schofields / cocaynes

Great picture of the old ABC Cinema face which clearly shows "the other walkway".

I can remember this walkway and it being used by people queuing up for the cinema but it doesn't appear to be there today. The cinema is now a Premier Inn hotel and there doesn't seem to be a walkway between it and the next building up which is now Argos.

I cannot remember if this walkway, like Watson's walk, had a name or what it was.

Neither can I remember where this walkway ends, presumably into Hartshead like Watson's Walk, but once again little sign of it there today.

Anyone got any ideas?

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Great picture of the old ABC Cinema face which clearly shows "the other walkway".

I can remember this walkway and it being used by people queuing up for the cinema but it doesn't appear to be there today. The cinema is now a Premier Inn hotel and there doesn't seem to be a walkway between it and the next building up which is now Argos.

I cannot remember if this walkway, like Watson's walk, had a name or what it was.

Neither can I remember where this walkway ends, presumably into Hartshead like Watson's Walk, but once again little sign of it there today.

Anyone got any ideas?

I think this one just went to the multi storey car park although I seem to think it was much longer than Watsons walk. The Cinema exits / emergency exits also fed in to this walkway.

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Guest Jeremy

From R. E. Leader's Sheffield, in the Eighteenth Century:

In speaking of the "George" of former times, we must put out of our minds the inn recently known by that name (now, 1901, called "The Bodega"), on the south side of the Market Place. That, as will be shown presently, was really the "George and Dragon." The first " George" was Watson's, at the bottom of the Hartshead Passage. From 1721, "Watson's" looms large in connection with all meetings, and treatings, and festivities. In 1720 a Commission in Lunacy sat "at the house of William Watson, the sign of 'The Bush,' in Sheffield"; and this is the solitary note of a tavern of that name.* In 1723-1728 he was at the High Street "Rose and Crown." In 1739 he bought property extending from the Market Place "to ye top of ye Hartshead"; that is to say, the whole line between the Hartshead Passage and Watson's Walk, as far as the "Dove and Rainbow"--four houses and gardens. It was here, no doubt, that the "George" arose. The earliest reference to this sign is in 1761, when tickets for a performance in the primitive theatre in the "Angel" yard were "to be had at Mr. Watson's, at the George.'" Then, in 1764, there is in the Sheffield Public Advertiser (June 26) an announcement that George Smith and Matthew How had begun running, from the "George Inn," "The Sheffield, Matlock, Derby, and Birmingham New Machines in two days," fare one pound. And the same newspaper, on July 15-22, 1769, contains the advertisement of a sale by auction, "at the house of Mr. Thomas Watson, known by the sign of 'The George,' in Sheffield." The Directory of 1774 has the following entries: " Watson, Thomas, inn-holder, 'George,' Market Place. N.B.--He has a mourning coach, palls, cloaks, ad post-chaises to let." "Woollen, Matthew, inn-holder, 'George,' Market Place." This duality of tenure is puzzling. We meet the name Woollen (Christian name not given) in an advertisment (Iris, 1st Febrauary, 1796) announcing the sale by auction of "that old-established and wall-accustomed public house, 'The Three Fleurs-de-lis,' Angel Street, in the occupation of Mr. Woollen, with brew house, stabling for ten horses. In the Register, October 25, 1793, "that old and well-accustomed Inn, known as the 'George,' in the Market Place, where two hackney coaches are kept," and with stabling for forty horses, is advertised to be let, application to be made to Mr. Thomas Clark, on the premises; and this Thomas Clark is given in the 1787 Directory as inn-keeper, Market Place; so presumably he had succeeded the first Thomas Watson at the "George." We have already seen that Mr. Thomas Watson (son of the earlier Thomas) was landlord of the "Rose and Crown," High Street, from 1807 to 1812.

* In 1741 Mr. William Watson was elected a Town Trustee; he resigned in 1784, but he lived until 1791, when he died at Hags House, near Cannon Hall, Firvale, at the great age of ninety-seven. He was popularly known as "Fecky (Confectioner) Watson"; and Hunter appends to his pedigree (in "Familia Minorum Gentium") the remark, "said to have been a confectioner." He had twenty-three children, of whom William Watson, of Shirecliffe, died 1793, was the eldest and last survivor. This William, and another son Thomas, were also vintners. "Expenses at Mr. Watson's, junior," appear in the Surgery accounts in 1749; after that the entries are sometimes "Thomas Watson's," or "William Watson's," or simply "Watson's." Thomas Watson, who pre-deceased his father, was landlord of the first "George," in 1761. His sons. Thomas and John, inherited the Hartshead property, and of these Thomas, who died in 1832, continued in the business there into the nineteenth century. In 1796 Mr. Montgomery, writing from York Castle, directing payment of sundry small debts, says: "I owe Thomas Watson, innkeeper in the Hartshead, something for horse-hire to Doncaster. I also owe the other old Thomas, who lives there and lends horses, a trifle." The brother of this Thomas Watson, John, attorney, succeeded his uncle William at Shireclifle Hall, and was the father of that honoured citizen, Sir Henry Edmund Watson, whose decease (February 17, 1901) is recorded as this page is passing through the press.

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On 30/10/2008 at 09:06, dunsbyowl1867 said:

 

 

Isn't that building with the unusual curved 'feature' above the old Iris newspaper office?

I believe the ornate entrance was bought and exported to America when the Iris offices we’re demolished.

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From the Independent 1st February 1873:

 In the autumn of 1868 an old contributor to the Intelligencer [the Washington paper that Gales established] 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 obscure place. Where flowers of Parnassus once bloomed, the votaries of Bacchus then revelled. In short the building had been turned into a beershop. When the wandering American  approached to pay homage at the shrine, joiners, obeying the behests of a pushing age, 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. Montgomery’s Hartshead shop is, we may add, at the present time, not a beershop but a grocer’s.

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10 hours ago, Edmund said:

From the Independent 1st February 1873:

 In the autumn of 1868 an old contributor to the Intelligencer [the Washington paper that Gales established] 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 obscure place. Where flowers of Parnassus once bloomed, the votaries of Bacchus then revelled. In short the building had been turned into a beershop. When the wandering American  approached to pay homage at the shrine, joiners, obeying the behests of a pushing age, 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. Montgomery’s Hartshead shop is, we may add, at the present time, not a beershop but a grocer’s.

This is a more in depth and eloquent report of the Iris doorway being saved.

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As you can see from the 1862 directory, it should be WATSON WALK.

Watson Walk.
1 Padley, Staniforth, & Co.,silversmith.,
1 House  & Martin,bookbinders
3 Bell and Sons,cabinet makers (later M M Bell)
3 Proctor George, shoemaker
5 Tompkin John, printer
11 Lea Thomas, tailor
15 Smith Samuel., basketmaker
17 Cocking Thos.,cabinet. maker
Nuttall John, beerhouse
25 Ashley Elizabeth., oyster rooms
4 Schindler Morris, jeweller
6 Ridgeway Thomas.,furniture. broker (second hand dealer)
8 Topham Jane, butter dealer
10 Peat James, tailor
12 Hague Harriet, straw. basket.maker
14 Brugger J.&Co.,candlestick makers
16 Heppenstall Elizabeth ., tobacconist
18 Chappell Geo.,coffee rooms
20 Allcroft J., victualler., Shades
24 Gray Edward, eating house
26 Silke George, victualler, Waterloo Turf Tavern

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Ive often wondered just who Watson was, in the thoroughfare Watson Walk, Ive looked in the 1787 Directory and Ive come across this chap, " Watfon James, '1ontine Inn, Bullftake" (18th century " S " is "F" ), so could this be the chap who's name lives on with Watson Walk? Could it be that the landlord of the Masons Arms on Bridge Street be the same James Watson who kept the Tontine?

Tontine Hotel                                                                         Masons Arms

14 Haymarket & 2 Dixon Lane                                              18 Bridge Street

Open 1783 Closed 1850 Span 67                                            1825

Comments 1822 14 Haymarket                                             James Watson

Earlier

1783 James Watson

1787 James Watson


 

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6 hours ago, tozzin said:

Ive often wondered just who Watson was, in the thoroughfare Watson Walk, Ive looked in the 1787 Directory and Ive come across this chap, " Watfon James, '1ontine Inn, Bullftake" (18th century " S " is "F" ), so could this be the chap who's name lives on with Watson Walk? Could it be that the landlord of the Masons Arms on Bridge Street be the same James Watson who kept the Tontine?

Tontine Hotel                                                                         Masons Arms

14 Haymarket & 2 Dixon Lane                                              18 Bridge Street

Open 1783 Closed 1850 Span 67                                            1825

Comments 1822 14 Haymarket                                             James Watson

Earlier

1783 James Watson

1787 James Watson


 

According to the Street Names of Central Sheffield     "Watson's Walk was called after John Watson of Watson Pass and Company, Silversmiths, who had a workshop in the passage from 1810 to 1825."    ( Before I am corrected please note that I use the word Watson's  here only as a quote from that study guide)

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