No 1 Victoria Road Former home of Daniel Doncaster and Beyond

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No 1 Victoria Road and Beyond

 

The ornate gatepost can be found at No 1 Victoria Road, the Abbeydale House name gives the house a certain air of respectability and so it should as it was the home of Sheffield Steel manufacturer Daniel Doncaster who was the son of the original Daniel Doncaster who in 1787 was working out of premises on Copper Street as a File Smith by 1833 he was in partnership with his brother William, in Whites directory of 1833 they are listed as; Doncaster Wm. and Daniel, merchants, file mfrs. and steel converters and refiners, 15, Allen street, William was also living in Allen Street in fact he could have been living on their premises, while Daniel had a house at 6 Howard Street, as you look through the old directories you can see just how well these two brothers were doing, simply by the size of their premises and the areas they moved to, I suspect that Daniel Jnr had 1 Victoria Road specially built for himself and his family, on researching the family the profits from the business must have been huge judging the size of the houses that members of the Doncaster family bought, Daniel lived at Fairthorne Lodge at Redmires, James Henry lived at Birchfield House Abbeydale and Samuel had Whinfell at Parkhead.
On the 25th of August 1886 a terrible accident occurred in Sheffield, the newspaper headlines read, "Appalling Disaster in Sheffield - Eight children killed", the story was as follows,
On Wednesday evening a terrible accident occurred at the works of Messrs. Daniel Doncaster and Sons, steel converters, in Sheffield. Their premises are situated in a densely populated part of the town and are skirted on the right by Matthew Street. On this was the warehouse where there was stored steel and iron bars roughly estimated at from 600 to 1,000 tons; the greater portion of this pile was stored against the wall which, in addition, supported the roofs. About 5 O'clock the wall suddenly gave way and fell into the street, carrying with it the immense mass of steel with the timbers of the roofs and slates. There was a report as of thunder but for several minutes nothing could be seen for the dense cloud of dust which rose high into the air. In the road lay the steel piled up to a height of about 10 feet, and as several children had been seen a few minutes before playing under the warehouse wall the worst fears were entertained as to their fate. The workmen of Messrs. Doncaster, of Messrs. Southern and Richardson and neighbouring firms, at once commenced to remove the steel but when it is stated that some of the bars were as much as three or four man could lift the nature of the task before them may be imagined. The chief constable with a strong force of police arrived, and their services found to be very valuable in keeping back the crowd, for news of the disaster had quickly spread, and not only Matthew Street but all adjacent streets were blocked by the excited people. After some tons of metal had been removed it was decide to open passages into the mass, the more readily to ascertain whether any bodies were buried or not for the parents of five children had already reported the missing, and they were frantic with grief with the possibility of their having been crushed. 
The following is a list of the dead - Martha Armitage aged 10 years and John Armitage aged two, children of John Armitage, Hoyle street: Henry Crisp aged six years whose parents live in Adelphi Street, William Cullingworth, aged seven years, son of  Tom Cullingworth of the Burnt Tree Tavern, Hoyle Street, Clifford Anderson aged seven years whose parents live in Burnt Tree lane, Samuel Oates, five year old son of John Oates, table blade grinder, Hoyle  Street, William Henry Ward age five, son of a table blade grinder.

During an examination of the bodies, some heartrending scenes were witnessed. fathers and mothers came forward and identified their dead children by their garments which alone afforded a means of identification. Two children were also removed to the infirmary suffering from severe injuries. The wall was 25 yards long and 18 feet in height. A person who was near the spot at the time of the accident said that two sharp reports like pistol shots were heard and then a great crash and clouds of dust obscured everything as the mingled bricks and mortar and metal fell in confused masses. 
Thursday morning's search among the debris revealed another body, that of Herbert Crookes aged five and a half years old. His corpse was fearfully injured, and the father could only identify it by its clothing.
The men worked with energy, and by seven o'clock one opening in the metal had been made and underneath were found the remains of three children, mangled almost beyond recognition. A little later another body was found and was identified from the clothing as that of a boy called Cullingworth whose parents keep a tavern close by. The work of removing the metal now proceeded more rapidly and by nine o'clock three more bodies had been found making seven in all. A further accident in 1899 at Southern & Richardson’s Cutlery firm just across from Daniel Doncaster’s  puts a chilling perspective on the tragedy - This devastating explosion in which seven people were killed occurred just fifty yards from and thirteen years after the Matthew Street wall collapse, in which eight children died. It will be noticed that one of the victims of the Matthew Street tragedy was seven-year-old Clifford Anderson, of Burnt Tree Lane, and one of the boys killed in 1899 was Frank Anderson, aged fifteen, of No.4 court, No.3 house, Burnt Tree Lane. They were brothers; a sad and unlikely coincidence.