The Old Red Lion Grenoside

[Stu]

Whilst recently visiting friends in Grenoside we were discussing the pubs in the village. The Old Red Lion or the Top Red Lion, as it is sometimes known by the locals, on Main Street (formerly High Street) is situated at the top of the village on the old turnpike road opposite to where the Toll Gate cottage used to stand at Greno Gate.

The existing main road through the village was made into a turnpike in 1777 coming from Sheffield via Wadsley, Foxhill, Grenoside, Wortley, Penistone and on to Halifax. The toll bar cottage latterly known as Ray Cox’s cottage was demolished in 1983 (shame). Prior to the road being made into a turnpike the road was used as a packhorse route sometimes leaving the main Cheshire to Rotherham saltway route to enter Sheffield from the North.

The Old Red Lion, built in the mid 1700s, was probably two or three cottages and converted to a coaching inn as it had stabling and outbuildings associated with being an inn of its time. Most of these outbuildings have since gone. The inn probably serviced the Sheffield to Halifax route but not the Sheffield to Manchester route as this went through Castleton. The Grenoside part of the route was superseded in 1823 by a stretch of road that took the line of the present A61 (known as the Bottom road in Grenoside) to avoid the steep Foxhill.

Whilst discussing the pub’s history we learned that, prior to the village having a mortuary, bodies were held at the pub on a stone slab behind a curtain (a dead or alive place) awaiting the undertaker. Locals just got on with it. Pubs used to open long hours 6.00am to 11.00pm to accommodate the workmen mostly quarrymen (who were rained off) together with filemakers, kitchen steel makers, miners, screw makers, steel makers and nailmakers.

John Hobson Victualler Red Lion (now the Old Red Lion) 1825

George Swift Publican Old Red Lion 1901 Census

The inn belonged to the Swift family for over 100 years. The Swifts were a quarry owning family

In the 1920s the burial technology had moved on a little. Bodies were collected by the then undertaker Mr Harry K Hoyle and taken to the mortuary that used to be on Salt Box Lane on a handcart. Harry Hoyle was a fine craftsman carpenter and used to make the coffins by hand and his wife made all the silk linings. Harry Hoyle, as an apprentice under Mr Dove, helped restore the oak panelling at Whitley Hall. There was also another undertaker called Mr Heward so there was a bit of rivalry.

Harry K Hoyle founded the local Grenoside cricket team. The Hoyles were a keen cricketing family, with daughter Dorothy (Dot) being the scorer and CJ Hoyle being the rumpus arbiter.

The Old Red Lion is still there on Main Street, which is sometimes called the Top road, serving good beers and food. Long may it do so.

The villagers in Grenoside are proud of its history and have in the past gone to great lengths to document its ever changing living, working and social environments.

If you get the chance to read any of the following documents please do so as they are a fascinating insight into the rural/industrial past of village life.

Grenoside – A brief historical survey; Chris Morley 1999

Grenoside Recollections; Harold Wasteneys

Growing up in Grenoside; Hannah Brodie

Memories of Grenoside; Grenoside Local History Group

The Truants Return (Poems & Stories); Jim Beever