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Flour mill in Sheffield ?


beemerchez

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While we are on Club Mill Road,

Nice crozzle, wasn't that the crunchy bits in the bottom of a bag of chips ?

<Richard hides>

Newcomers to the site, search the site for crozzle; we have discussed it at length :rolleyes:

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Guest plain talker

Oh NO !!! Richard's "gone off on one, again !!"

Runs for the Hills !!

Surely you mean run for the Mills!

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thank you everyone

blimey never knew they was so many.

will print all the replys off.

this info is for my uncle who is in a nursing home

he is on one of his all our yesturdays moods..lol

this will keep him interested a while thanks

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thank you everyone

blimey never knew they was so many.

will print all the replys off.

this info is for my uncle who is in a nursing home

he is on one of his all our yesturdays moods..lol

this will keep him interested a while thanks

Hi beemerchez Here's one your uncle might find interesting in fact the whole site is very good.

THE STEAM CORN MILL.

Walk along Attercliffe road-or CarIton road as it was called in earlier days-for about a hundred- and-thirty yards, from the eastern end of Bridge terrace to No. 457, just beyond Armstead road. This distance indicates the frontage of the old Attercliffe steam mill property. Turn along Armstead road and note the houses numbered 8 to 16 on the right. flow they differ from their neighboursI The old-fashioned roof-tiles proclaim their old age! They formed the dwellings of Robert Bunby and other employees at the corn mill more than sixty years ago. Within the memory of many Atterclevians, here, at No. 8, were " The Attercliffe Turkish Baths " with Thomas Garbutt as proprietor and medical botanist,

the best sixpenny Turkish Bath in England 1 " Cross over Stevenson road into Birch road: note the gloomy-looking stone building bearing the informative description " The Sheffield Foundry Workers' Club and Institute." That was. the Mill House once upon a time. Before the club had it 11 The Self-supporting Dispensary " was here in CarIton Hall its it had come to be known. " Poor persons can have medi cine by paying sixpence "-so ran a contemporary notice fifty years ago- provided they attend before eleven in the mornings, except on Sunday. Members pay one penny weekly, which entitles them to attendance and medicine. Mr.. O'Meara is chief, assisted by Mr. Turner." " The buoyant and vivacious Timothy O'Meara 1 His memory will long be fragrant in the recollections of hundreds of Attercliffe, people. And the same can be said of William Turner, who died at the dispensary on the seventh of February, 1893, an

unqualified practitioner from the technical point of view, but credited by the thousands to whose ailments he ministered as a physician of rare discernment and skill."' Later, John Columba Byrne, physician and surgeon, carried on the beneficent work. Then followed the club and institute.

The mill itself stood a little to our right as we walk from the Turkish Baths to the Dispensary, one corner in Birch road and another on the far side of Stevenson road. The 1795 Fairbank map shows a corn mill on this site, but a 1792 record states that William and John Hartop were proposing to take a part of Washford Meadow on a 99 years' lease. It is quite possible that this record gives us a clue to the early days of the mill. When it became a steam mill is not clear, but it carried this description in 1805. William Hartop was the miller, and in 1819 he was living in Heppenstall lane. Built into the wall of the new premises at the eastern side of Zion Chapel is an old tombstone, removed from the nowcovered part of the old graveyard, bearing the inscription " In memory of Mary Ann Hartop, the only child of William and Sarah Hartop, of Attercliffe, who died July 10th, 1817, aged 19 years." Mrs. Hartop, described in the Zion records as 'I the miller's wife," was also buried in this yet-revered God's acre.

In a 1787 Attercliffe rate-book I find William Hartop and Company credited with two coal pits, an ironstone pit and a brickyard, but, unfortunately, the whereabouts of these centres of activity are omitted. Further, in the Minutes of the Overseers of the Poor under date July 30th, 1819, the names Wm. Hartop, Esq., and Mr. Jonathan Oakes, occur in the somewhat lengthy list of overseers present. Miller Hartop will long be remembered for his great generosity in the days of high prices of flour at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. It is recorded that in 1801 the bellman announced that the people could be supplied with 1 Hartley for 1888 and 1894. flour at Michael Raybould's, in Snig hill, for 1016 a stone.' In August, 1795, it was 516, but Mr. Hartop, sensing the hardship laid on the working classes by demanding such a price, promptly sent his wagons into the town laden with flour at 2/7 a stone. In their gratitude' the people harnessed themselves to a coach and dragged it to Attercliffe for the purpose of bringing the benevolent miller to Sheffield and drawing him in triumph through the streets of the town. He declined the honour, but the importunity of the populace induced him to permit his servants to go instead, and the coach proceeded to the town amidst continual acclamations of Joy.

This mill was destroyed by fire in 1805. Here is the account of the fire as it appeared in The Iris for October 31st. ---Thismorning at five o'clock the Steam Mill at Attercliffe was discovered to be on fire. The flames burst through the windows and raged with such fury that nothing could be coved. The roof fell in about six o'clock. All the grain, Machinery and so forth were consumed." .

However, a new mill was shortly erected on the same spot. Fairbank, 1819, shows that the estate, just over three acres in extent was in the hands of William Hydes' executors and in the tenancy of John Shirley. There were two ponds, a house and garden, a small plantation and an acre enclosure adjacent to the highway, and then the 'steam engine, corn mill, stables, etc.,' to the right of the house. In 1822 we get J. mod T. Shirley: 1833, John Shirley, miller and maltster: 1838, Shirley and Parker, corn factors, miller& and maltsters (Benjamin Shirley at the mill house, Henry Parker at Hall Carr). In 1839 John Shirley is a corn miller and merchant me Not 10 Corn Exchange and at our steam mill. This takes tic sotto the Old Town when the Corn Exchange stood a little to the east of the River Sheaf (then-running in the open, not, as now, underground) between the Canal bridge in Exchange street and the Sheaf bridge in Broad street. In front of it was the New Haymarket, the site now occupied by the 'Wholesale Fruit Market. Thomas Shirley, grocer and flour dealer, 26 Church street and No. 1 Haymarket, supplies us with another memory of the old town in his further business description of " Corn Miller, Albion Mill, Shemeld Croft." Our present Commercial street viaduct approximately runs over the old croft, and down there in the Sheaf Market the Albion Corn mill is still standing and known as the Live Stock Market. Getting back, however, to Attercliffe, in 1849 Jackson and Smith were here, Samuel Smith being the resident partner. They were also the millers at the quaint little flour mill at Canklow which is now merged into John ,Brown's colliery premises there. Jackson and Sons were the millers in 1852, and then followed Philip Stevenson in '54, with Stevenson and Dodds a little later. Isaac Dodds was the senior partner in the firm of Dodds and Sons, engineers, millwrights, etc., at the Holmes Engine and Railway Works, Masbro' : whilst miller Stevenson (or Stephenson) resided in the mill-house with its " shrubbery, garden, greenhouse, fruit walls, stable and carriage house," to quote the 1861 rate-book description of the residential part of the mill property. The partners, had their own malt-kiln and wharf on the canalside, along with nine tenements, at the top of Wharf yard or Courts 20 and 22 near the Royal Oak Inn. It was in this yard that Tom Gill resided, the night watchman at Hornby and Elliott's chemical works (see p. 91), who, on the night of the Sheffield Flood in 1864, was suddenly alarmed by the rushing waters, gave a wild shriek, and perished in the flood.

Calamity again overtook our mill: here is the Sheffield Daily Telegraph account of the second fire on July 24th, 1863.

Great fire this morning. Destruction of the Attercliffe Steam Corn-mill. These extensive corn and flour mills, the property of Messrs. Stevenson and Dodds, were destroyed byfire this morning in about one-and-a-half hours. The main building was 25 to 30 yards long, and five storeys high, containing 300 sacks of flour and 1200 of corn, a very small part of which was saved. The fire engine arrived half-anhour after the outbreak was discovered, but the fire had then gained possession of the premises, and soon the building was a mass of flames. The stables, haylofts and other outbuildings were preserved. Several of the onlookers stated that they remembered the previous conflagration in 1805. The damage is estimated at £5000." Mr. David M.. Chapman says that the stones taken from the ruins were used in building the shops at the corner of Church. lane and Attercliffe road, where Lomas Clapson's clock-face on the front wall for so many years reminded us of his tenancy of No. 717 in the eighteen- seventies.

Let us roam in imagination. over the steam-mill estate of eighty or ninety years ago, guiding ourselves by present-day landmarks. Walk a short distance along Stevenson road: we are really on the big lawn in front of Mr. Stevenson's residence, having made an entrance through the border of trees behind the CarIton road boundary wall 1 There's a fine shrubbery on our right, screening the mill department from the house. On our left, where is now Bessemer square, commenced a ten-foot carriage. drive from the road to the front door, and beyond that row of trees along its edge are a smaller lawn, a little copse, and a reservoir connected by a narrow channel with the larger one behind the house, the remotest corner of which miniature lake is fairly indicated by the junction of Birch and Livingstone roads. From this second dam a straight water course, about 900 feet long, ran, to the Don which it joined behind the Crown Works in Bessemer road. There seems to have been an underground water-supply for these dams from the Woodbourn estate and beyond. Mr. Paul, discussing the point some years ago, said that he remembered such a channel being 1 cleaned out' at the Stoke street corner. The house side of the property we notice is well wooded, but the mill section is devoid of such sylvan amenities. Armstead road represents the wagonway to the mill buildings: on our right are the employees' dwellings, and behind them a row of sheds and warehouses ending at the reservoir edge. A study of the 1819 plan on page 72 will materially help us in our 1 fairyland' ramble in 1850. The long, straight water course mentioned above is indicated by the division line between James Simpson's holding, number 51, on the right, and Joseph Read's, numbered 48 and 50, on the left.

http://youle.info/history/fh_material/attercliffe_p3.html

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thanks for that syrup

printed all 8 pages off :o

i was dragged oops i mean brought up in attercliffe in the late 50's 60's

left there around 1970 when they pulled the houses down.

my grandad used to be the caretaker of st barts church at the top of carbrook street

i lived next to it over the wall Newton terrace next to clifton street.

Newton terrace isan't even mentioned in the archives :(

would love a pic of our house,

but back then you was posh if you had a camera..lol

thanks again all for the great info.

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thanks for that syrup

printed all 8 pages off :o

i was dragged oops i mean brought up in attercliffe in the late 50's 60's

left there around 1970 when they pulled the houses down.

my grandad used to be the caretaker of st barts church at the top of carbrook street

i lived next to it over the wall Newton terrace next to clifton street.

Newton terrace isan't even mentioned in the archives :(

would love a pic of our house,

but back then you was posh if you had a camera..lol

thanks again all for the great info.

Have you checked in the Local Studies Library rather than the online Picturesheffield? I know the library had a policy going back to the 60's to photograph every road due for demolition or redevelopment, and the online collection, brilliant as it is, is only a fraction of the whole picture collection.

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Guest Gramps

Just to add there was a family of millers called Wigful in Sheffield from the late 18th. century. I believe they moved here from Rotherham and set up a corn mill at he Cinderhill wheel on the Porter.

I found a small privately printed history of the company languishing on ebay so I bought it - for a fiver I think and gave it to the Local Studies library. They lived in Clough House near St. Mary's church for a while.

The book contained some useful family history.

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Guest codeyes

Malin Bridge Water Wheel.

Remember this at the bottom of Stannington Road when i was a kid in late 50's.......

Records show that this waterwheel was used for grinding knives as long ago as 1794. It is one of the few remaining examples of an "undershot" wheel in the country. Water usually passes over the top of a waterwheel, but in this rare instance, the water passed underneath the wheel, which is approximately six metres in diameter and 2.5 metres wide. This wheel was one of many damaged in the great Sheffield Flood of 1864 and was later used for a corn mill. The wheel (which is now not used) is situated near the junction of Stannington Road with Holme Lane and an excellent overview of it can be obtained from the bridge on Stannington Road.

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Malin Bridge Water Wheel.

Remember this at the bottom of Stannington Road when i was a kid in late 50's.......

You will probably be pleased to learn this wheel is to be refurbished and put back into working order as part of the redevelopment of the old mill site into - 'apartments'....what else :P

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Reading through the thread again I notice nobody has mentioned Sheffield's original Corn Mill. Established by William de Lovetot, lord of the manor, sometime in the early 12th century it continued grinding away until early in the 19th. century I believe. I imagine it was put out of business by mills like the Crown Mill just across the river which would have had a much greater capacity to meet the demands of a fast growing town.

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Guest Gwyn

George Hill (born Owston Ferry in Lincolnshire) built the Attercliffe Windmill around the end of the 18th century. Records show that it was there in 1806. George was my g. g. g. grandfather. There are several pictures of the windmill on the web. I believe that it was destroyed around 1940. George's son, Ernest, who married Sarah Styring, created the engineering firm Ernest Hill and Co, which operated for years just off Glossop Road <_<

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Guest billsaville

I used to work at Aizlewoods. It wasn't just a flour mill it produced all sorts of animal feeds too. The flaked maize was just like corn flakes. Moths were a bugbear. they built nests in the wooden chutes where the ground wheat and flour used to flow and periodically block them. It was like grey cotton wool and everything taken out was put back in to be ground. I remember when I first started a chap was showing me round and in this one machine with a glass side I could see lovely twinkly things slowly rising up. They were in fact moth wings, you could grind the moths but the wings were removed by a warm updraft of air. I never ate bread for years.

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Guest Gwyn

I have a letter dated 19 August 1845 from James Hill to his father simply addressed "Mr Hill, Attercliffe Windmill, Sheffield, Yorks". From the address, I assume that there was only one windmill at Attercliffe on that date. I understand that it had 12 acres of farm land, along the river, near to present day Amberley Street. I think that George Hill became one of the first three town councillors representing Attercliffe on Sheffield Town Council <http://youle.info/history/fh_material/attercliffe_p3.html> A drawing and details of the windmill appear at <http://www.rimmo.dsl.pipex.com/wta/historical/attwind.htm>

Reading Vine's article on the Youle site, it is quite clear that Hartop's steam mill was located near to Stevenson Road at the corner of Birch Road, and destroyed in October 1806. Clearly the steam mill was at the other end of the Cliffe (more than a mile away) from the windmill owned by George Hill. George Hill's windmill apparently became a steam mill about 1832.

A windmill is mentioned in Attercliffe by a book by Joseph Devey, published by Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, London, 1862, The Life of Joseph Locke (Civil Engineer MP FRS Etc Etc). Chapter II, p19 states “Joseph Locke, the youngest of the four sons and the sixth born of the seven children of the brave good man whose story we have just rapidly narrated, was born at Attercliffe, near Sheffield, on the 9th day of August, 1805.

The house in which he first drew breath is situated in what was then virtually, and is even now still designated Attercliffe Common. The house, and a windmill but some quarter of a mile away, were the only landmarks of the quiet suburb. When six months or so back, we visited it, we seemed, even on arrival, scarcely to have escaped beyond the steel-dust and irksome clamour of an offensive town. The snow was still white on the Derbyshire hills……”

However, this book by Devey leaves me wondering why Locke would have seen the windmill but not the steam mill, which were both apparently there in August 1805. Could it be that Locke was born nearer to Meadowhall than to Sheffield, and therefore the steam mill would have been "over the rise in the road"?

Try searching Google books on the matter of the Attercliffe windmill and on Hartop for quite a good read.

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Guest jollymiller

My family were millers in and around Sheffield for over two centuries. They owned a mill at Aldewarke and in 1773 took over

Pond Mill.

The latter was roughly in the area of Leadmill Street today and had both steam and water power. My Great Great Grandfather Joshua Wigfull built a

Maltings alongside the mill. The lease on Pond Mill terminated in 1860 by which time he had sold Aldwarke. By 1866 Pond Mill was demolished.

The business continued as Joshua Wigfull and Sons at Sheaf Steam Corn Mill on Forge Lane. In 1885 they moved into the newly built Star Corn Mill on Walker Street swithcing to roller milling in 1890. A new mill was built on the same site in 1911 and by 1947 it was a very large mill by any standard.

I believe it closed shortly afterwards due to family circumstances.

Pond_Mill.BMP

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Sorry if this as been mentioed but as a child in the 60's (And before transit says anything I mean the 1960's) I remember walking down the little lane next to woolworths at hillsborough and comming out in the pub yard on bradfield road - sorry cant remember name. But on the left behind woolworths was a place that always had lorrys (ERF's/AEC's) with floor sacks on dont know if it was a warehouse or a mill.

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Hi Bus Man. Thanks for reminding me of that lane down the side of Woolworth's. I used to live on Wadsley Lane and I used to walk down to Hillsborough every Saturday morning. The Saturday shopping trip included going to the butcher's shop at the corner of Hillsborough Road, opposite Woolworth's, then walking past Woolworth's, down that small road and to Tesco. My cousin, Malcolm Allen, was the butcher's assistant. The pub on Bradfield Road, next to Tesco, is called the Ball Inn (or at least it was), and the small lane is still there (according to Google Earth). I have no recollection of a flour mill in that area, but there were lots of steel mills and forges along Pensitone Road. My grandfather, Charlie Allen, ran a steel mill at the bottom of Leppings Lane (where Law Brothers later set up their garage). In the mid-1960s I worked for 3 months at High Bridge forge on Penistone Road. Curently, I am living in Barbados :)

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I seem to recall reading that there was some sort of windmill at Shiregreen/Firth Park area - I suppose Windmill Lane may give it away?

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George Hawke WOOLLEN Miller & corn & flour dealer 33 Church Street and Rivelin Mill White's 1852

Perhaps this "Rivelin Mill" was the one on this old postcard (postmarked August 1920) showing the "Old Flour Mill". The location seems to be near the bottom of Hollins Lane. The weir is of course still there, just below the paddling pool. If I have got the location right, then the building in the background (left of centre) would be the Holly Bush Inn, with houses on Low Road behind this. So the flour mill would have been the next one below Spooner's Wheel (which stood near where the 'Pudding Ladies' have their café).

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