Jump to content

Walkley Hall


Bayleaf

Recommended Posts

This article first appeared in the Transactions of the

Hunter Archaeological Society and is reproduced by kind permission of the Society.

WALKLEY HALL.

THE following descriptions of Walkley Hall and its owners have been prepared by three members of the Society; their names are attached to their respective contributions, which, in conjunction with the illustrations, form a valuable record of this old house.

The view of the Hall from the north-east is reproduced by the kind permission of Mr. Thos. R. Ellin, for whom the original photograph was taken. The other illustrations are kindly provided by Mr. Elgar; his measured plan and details are extremely valuable now that the building has been demolished.

Mr. W. H. Elgar writes:­

The picturesque stone built dwelling-house known as Walkley Hall was demolished by the Corporation of Sheffield in January 1926 to permit of the completion of a housing scheme. Some people were disappointed that the building was not saved, and suggested various uses for it. No attempt to defend the action of the authorities is intended, but it is only right to say that the long side wall facing south-east was bulging more than nine inches near its centre, at the point where it was joined by the partition wall between the living room and kitchen.

Further, a great buttress, five feet wide and pro­jecting seven feet, had been placed against the outer wall of the cellar to counteract a serious settlement above. It should be remem­bered also that the walls were without damp-courses and that the building could not have been adapted to any other use than a dwelling­house without destroying its character entirely. Whether the architectural and historical interest were sufficient to warrant the preservation of the building, in face of these facts, is left to the judgment of the reader.

A survey, made during the demolition, to obtain a knowledge of the first state of the building-before it was divided into tenements and defaced with comparatively modern fittings, its window mullions cut away to make room for frames and sashes and some of the old features blocked up-reveals that as first erected the house consisted of nine rooms, three on each floor, and a cellar under the sitting room.

The house was entirely stone built, the walls being 22 inches thick throughout from top to bottom. The roofs were gabled and covered with stone slabs or slates.

The front faced nearly north-east and consisted of a flat wall marked into stories by two stone string courses, both alike, running just above the windows; no string courses occurred on any other side of the building.

The front was surmounted by four similar gabled dormer windows. The entrance in the centre was protected by a gabled porch. The picturesque effect of these interesting features was principally due to the bold corbel stones, simply hollow-chamfered, which projected from the angles and supported the returns of the plain chamfered coping crowning the gables. All the roof gables were similarly treated.

Among notable peculiarities were the numerous small windows - several rooms had three or more and all at least two. The probable reason for this was to enable light and air to be admitted from whichever side seemed desirable, according to the direction of the wind. Originally these windows seem to have been without glass, for each opening was provided with two upright iron bars and wooden shutters. Among the illustrations will be found a section of the two light windows. It is quite typical of the many others of about the same period in the neighbourhood, and was formed of five stones only, the head, sill, jambs and mullion, each being single stones. The section shows the jambs, the head was similar; in the sill the outward slope was continuous and not broken by a rebate.

Quite as typical was the string course, of which a dimensioned section will be found by the general plan of the house. It was formed by chamfering the projecting four inches of stone at the top slightly downwards, that is, for 11 inches and underneath, upwards for two inches, this latter sloping surface being hollowed to produce what is technically called a "drip," thus preventing rain from running uninterruptedly dawn the wall.

The porch entrance possessed considerable individuality; its jambs were formed of equally balanced stones, alternately wide and narrow, similar to those in the living room fire-place described later; the door head or lintol, upwards of two feet deep, was crownd by a string course similar to that on the front wall. One unusual - perhaps unique - detail, was found in the left wall of the porch. It consisted of a window formed of two almost circular openings, side by side, each cut in a separate stone, and placed close up to the wall of the house. It appears likely that this peculiar window, close to the main window of the living room, was introduced to permit the inspection of a visitor before opening the door, an evident advantage in a lonely place during troublous times. A similar, but single, window was found in the south-west wall of the back bedroom on the first floor and immediately over the original back entrance.

The subsequent erection of a wash-house, just beneath this opening, made it useless for the purpose for which it and the porch window were intended. The small photographs show this window at the time of demolition and incidentally the adjoining quoin of regularly squared stones placed alternately lengthwise and endwise, the rest of the walls consisting of coursed hammer dressed rubble. This class of walling was quite characteristic of the period and locality.

In considering the interior of the house we find much to show that the builders were as fully alive to convenience as to careful construction.

Under the room to the right of the porch was a cellar of similar size lighted by three windows equal in dimensions to those in the room above. The cellar was approached from the kitchen by a stone stair. The steps were three feet wide, broad, and between four and five inches in rise; in this they were much superior to many more recent in construction. A small, widely splayed window in an angle of the kitchen lighted the stairs.

The room above the cellar had originally but one doorway - ­ that leading to the front entrance - and it seemed to have contained the stairs leading to the upper floors. On the right of the fire-place was a great recess 5 feet deep; adjoining it, in the outer wall, was a window unevenly splayed but otherwise similar to that which lighted the cellar stairway.

In the apartment which I have called the living room, and formed in the mass of masonry between the two front rooms, was a boldly arched fire-place two feet deep; its jambs were formed in the same manner as those already mentioned, but more carefully and regularly. The elongation of the beds of the two massive springing stones, thus carrying the upper arch line down to springing level, is mainly responsible for the simple striking effect of this leading feature of the room.

The voussoirs or arch stones were only three inches thick, and their lower edges were chamfered for 11 inches, yet they perfectly supported the chimney breast, no settlement being visible though great spikes had been driven into their joints to secure blocks for fixing a later wooden mantel, and upwards of 250 years have passed since the arch was set in position.

An examination of the plan will show that the great beams or bearers usually found crossing the rooms so as to rest on the chimney fronts were here in the opposite direction. The mason evidently had his way in everything connected with this house. There was no elaborate framing anywhere; even the roof timbers were simple, massive beams, resting on gable walls and supporting rather light rafters, crossed in their turn by oak laths covered with stone slabs.

Doubtless this simplicity of construction, dominated by the Masonic idea of placing one stone upon another, was mainly responsible for the subtle charm of this old house which has now become but a memory.

Mr, Charles Drury writes:­

The descent of Walkley Hall seems to be perfectly clear from the year 1748, when it was in the possession of the Rev. Thomas Wright who, it is said, acquired it from his aunt Mary Wright, who was then dead. By a deed of the 24th January 1748, Thomas Wright, clerk, of Romely in co. Derby, sold for £700 to John Birks of Walkley, tanner, Walkley Hall and the closes of land as they were late in the possession of Robert Bagshaw.

John Birks left it by Will in 1775 to his five daughters., viz. :-­Mary, wife of John Poynton; Elizabeth, wife of George Birks; Gertrude, wife of Joshua Birks; Ann, wife of John Lalonel; and Martha, wife of Jonathan Hague.

Jonathan Hague became sole owner, having apparently purchased the shares of his wife's sisters. This was in 1791. He mortgaged it at this date to Elizabeth Fox of Sheffield for £400. In 1794 he raised a second mortgage on it of £1,000 from John Henfrey. He then became bankrupt and the hall was sold in the last-named year by the trustees for his creditors to Joshua Spooner of Hallam Gate for £2,291 9s. 6d.

In 1831 Joshua Spooner, by deed of gift, made it over to his younger son, Peter, who, in 1876, bequeathed it by Will to Edward Smelter Cadman, one of the sons of his cousin William Cadman of Wath, deceased.

In 1908 Edward Smelter Cadman sold a piece of land, part of the Walkley Hall estate, to John Edwin Nadin of Western Road, Crookes, and in 1912 to the same buyer the remainder of the land with the hall.

From Nadin the estate passed by purchase to the Sheffield Corporation for building purposes.

It is a great pity that documentary evidence has not come to light to prove the earlier history of this old hall, as, without such evidence, one can only surmise from other facts what the history may have been. It is very probable that it was built by one of the Rawson family of Upperthorpe, one of the principal families of the town at that time.

William Rawson, the eldest son of Edward of Upperthorpe, was of Walkley and possibly the builder. He was born in 1574 and his Will proved in 1649.

Edward, the son of William Rawson, was also of Walkley. He had a daughter, Mary, who married Robert Rawson of the Wardsend family, and their grand­daughter, Hannah, was the wife of Peter Birks of Handsworth. This marriage was solemnized at Handsworth in 1734.

Here we have the connection between the families of Rawson and Birks, both families being tanners by trade. Peter Birks had an elder brother John, and there can be little doubt but that he was the John who purchased Walkley Hall.

Joshua Birks, who as was shown earlier on as the husband of Gertrude, one of the daughters of John Birks, was of Brampton-le-Morthen near Treeton, and it is almost certain a connection of the Birks of Handsworth.

The descent of the property from 1791 is proved by an abstract of title in the possession of the Corporation of Sheffield, and the sale in 1748 by a note by the late Mr. J. D. Leader in Local Notes and Queries published in The Sheffield Independent of January 6th 1876.

Mr. Edward G. Bagshawe writes:­

The owners of Walkley Hall at the time of its erection appear to have been the Rawsons of Upperthorpe, a branch of one of the oldest families of Hallamshire yeomanry. Their pedigree is set out in Hunter's Hallamshire. For several generations they carried on tanneries at Upperthorpe and Walkley.

In 1599 William Rawson, eldest son of Edward Rawson of Upperthorpe married Alice Dale at the Sheffield Parish Church; he seems to have been the first of the family to reside at Walkley, where he was the principal landowner, as appears by Harrison's Survey made in 1637. He died in 1648, and was succeeded by his eldest child Edward, a tanner, who resided at Walkley until his death in 1678.

Edward made his Will dated the 12th April 1676, by which, under the powers reserved in an Indenture dated the 9th July 1651 (presumably his son's Marriage Settlement); and made between himself and John Griffith of Sheffield, gentleman, and William Wadsworth of Sheffield, scrivener, and by virtue of the like powers reserved by a copyhold surrender on the 8th July 1651, in the Manor Court of Sheffield, he gave to Ann his wife for her jointure six closes of ground at or near Walkley called "Storths" and "Little Meadow" and the house wherein Sarah Rawson, widow and relict of his son John Rawson deceased then lived; and the half of one oxgang of land in Walkley.

To his daughter Martha, wife of Francis Woodhouse of Preston, Lancashire, twelvepence. To his son William Rawson £5. To his daughter Alice, then widow and relict of William Moore, deceased, £5. To his daughter Mary, widow and relict of Robert Rawson £10.

To his younger children, Sarah, Edward, Hannah, James and Thomas, £120 owing to him by Bond from his son John Rawson deceased, and all the residue to Anne his wife.

The witnesses are John Webster, junior, and James Hill, junior. Edward Rawson (the testator) died in 1678, and the Walkley property then appears to have passed to the issue of his eldest son John, who was baptized 14th September 1628, and married on the 16th August 1651 at the Sheffield Parish Church to Sarah Skargell. He was buried on the 15th January 1669/70, leaving four daughters, Sarah, Martha, Anne and Elizabeth, all under age, and on the 7th March 1669/70, administration of his estate was granted to his widow Sarah Rawson at York.

He had also a posthumous child, Joanna, born 25th August 1670. Of these five daughters who appear to have inherited the Walkley Estate as co-heiresses, I find that Martha was married on the 3rd March 1680/1 to John Boughton of Sheffield and had issue; amongst others, a son, Rawson Boughton, baptized 1682.

Joanna, the youngest daughter, married Robert Clay of Chesterfield, who, for some time, resided at Walkley and was the ancestor of the Clays of Bridgehouses in Sheffield.

This Robert Clay, describing himself as of Bridgehouses, made his Will on 13th September 1736, and gave to his wife Joanna his estate at the Upper House at Walkley, being upwards of £50 per annum, and to his son Joseph all the residue of his lands and houses at Walkley and Stannington.

There is nothing to show definitely how the Walkley property passed from the co-heiresses of John Rawson into the hands of its subsequent owner, the Reverend Thomas Wright, nephew and heir of Thomas Wright of Bridgehouses, a lawyer with a large practice in Sheffield and Clerk to the Town Trustees until his death in 1741.

The lawyer by his Will on 8th December 1741 left to his wife all his lands at Bridgehouses and Sheffield and at Romely, Woodhouse, Barlborough and Oscroft, and the use of his furniture in his two houses at Bridgehouses and Ramely and, afterwards, he gave to his niece Garland, one of the said houses and use of the furniture as she should choose during her life.

He left to his nephew, Thomas Wright, then Rector of Birkin, the Manor of Birkin and all the residue of his estate, and also mentioned his (testator's) brother, who had a wife and daughter then living.

The Will was proved on the 23rd February 1741/2 at York by the Rev. Thomas Wright; and it is possible that the Walkley Hall Estate, though not mentioned in the last Will, may have formed part of the lawyer's property.

In a note by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, [1] he is said to have come to Sheffield as a clerk to Mr. Simpson, a leading attorney, and to have married Mary, widow of Richard Bacon (the Duke of Norfolk's Agent in Sheffield) and daughter of William Clayton of Whitwell, of whose family a pedigree appears in Hunter's Familae Minorum Gentium.

Soon after his arrival in Sheffield he seems to have acquired con­siderable property in the district. In 1715 his wife's nephew, Vanham Clayton of Romely, devised to him the Manor of Birkin, near Selby, Yorkshire.

The following account of the Rev. Thomas Wright has been kindly supplied by Mr. J. A. Venn, Editor of the Alumni Canta­brigienses, now being issued from the Cambridge University Press.

WRIGHT, THOMAS.-Adm. pens. (age 19) at ST. JOHN'S, May 22, 1734. S. of Joseph, goldsmith, of London. B. inIreland.

Schools, Chesterfield, Derbs. and Westminster. Matric. 1735; B.A. 1737-8; M.A. 1741. Ord. Deacon (Lincoln) June 1; priest, June 29, 1740. Rector of Birkin, Yorks. (and Lord of the Manor), 1741-88. Chaplain to George II. Friend of the poets, Gray, Mason and Whitehead. Died Mar. 28, 178$. (Scott­Mayor, III. 45l.)

By Indenture dated 24th January 1748, being then resident at Romely, he conveyed to John Birks of Walkley, Tanner, in con­sideration of £700 the rnessuage called "Walkley Hall" and closes called "The Croft," "The Orchard Field," "The Laith Field," "The Upper Cockshutt," "The Nether Cockshutt," "The Little Close," "The Great Goose Field," "The Little Goose Field," "The Heavy Gate Close," "The Upper Well Field," "The Nether Field," late in occupa­tion of Robert Bagshaw. The deed makes mention of Mary Wright, widow, then deceased, aunt of the Rev. Thomas Wright.

Notes

[1] British Museum Add. MSS. 24460 No. 381.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link ..Crookes/Walkley Area 1849

Will put a Then & Now map together later,

if anyone wants to have a go then feel free to do so.

I probably lived within Spitting distance/cricket ball distance, but looking forward to your map.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I probably lived within Spitting distance/cricket ball distance, but looking forward to your map.

A Sister once lived on "Bankhouse Road", is that right ? was it near ? is it the reason for the name ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to Flash Earth

Nephew, son of said Sister lived in houses (raised from Street level) opposite the Walkley Cottage, got to be within 50 yards ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nephew, son of said Sister lived in houses (raised from Street level) opposite the Walkley Cottage, got to be within 50 yards ...

Polite request for a photo from the Cottage car park looking across the road, there are a bunch of houses, raised from Street level behind some iron railings .... any dog walkers ?

Thank you in advance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Walkley Hall, Heavygate Road, Crookes, probably built by William Rawson in 1600. The Hall was demolished in 1926 to make way for the present housing estate.

1885s05618.jpg.16c736f41385a7fcfea5593a6180b84b.jpgs05618

The girl in the photograph is Lilian Stacey, at the age of around 13 years old. As an old lady and the widow of Walter Smedley, she lived in a cottage (now demolished) in Orchard Road, Walkley. y01662.jpg.41f8ba9f97780cc06a55ab91b15497a0.jpgy01662     

s05614.jpg.ac0240826a4a7e897e8cae8bd5b4ef0c.jpgs05614

Front Doorway. s07916.jpg.e5ef20a103975d588348e8d0473d2edf.jpgs07916

Fireplace in Walkley Hall. s07846.jpg.fa2f3aab44fdc6df4a6a085f2c6feed7.jpgs07846

Information with the photograph: Carved oak from Walkley Hall, acquired about 1905 by Mrs. H. S. Goddard Himsworth, from a cobbler, a tenant after the Hall had been divided into tenements. It was later given to Mr. Basil Doncaster and is now in Cartledge Hall. 

y01699.jpg.80a67792b6bc0d0bfaa5f453fb6c715f.jpg

y01699

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...