A Nose for Sawdust

[RichardB]

Edited extract :

Sheffield born Henry Tyzack, the sawmaker, was thirty years old in 1839. He was at that age when the ambition of youth blends with the confidence of maturity. At thirty, unable to resist the lure of a good market for saws, he moved his family to Shoreditch. They settled in Curtain Road.

Henry's move corresponded with the opening of the Sheffield to Rotherham Railway line and the line from Masbrough to London. Masbrough is within a mile of Rotherham's centre. Before the Masbrough station had opened in 1840, the only way to London was by coach. Journey time from the Tontine Inn was little short of twenty-six hours. The Tontine Inn was about a mile north of the present site of Sheffield Railway Station. It was built roughly where Exchange Street is now. Thirteen coaches a day left the Inn. It had the hectic scene of bustle of any transport terminus. With Sheffield's growing links with the outside world of commerce, came an increase in traffic. The inn's courtyard rang to the clip of hooves, the rattle of wheels on the cobbles and the commands of the ostlers .

Then one day in May 1840 all fell quiet. From that day the North Midland Railway pulled into Wicker station Sheffield and made the journey to London possible in about nine and a half hours . Henry moved to Shoreditch around the time of the first trains.

http://www.tyzack.net/hackney.htm