Sheffield's Secret Museum

You will find yourself stepping back into Sheffield's rich past when you visit the Traditional Heritage Museum on Ecclesall Road. The museum features exhibits of local trades, crafts, occupations and traditional lifestyles in a fascinating mixture of domestic and industrial cameos.

As you enter the Museum through the pawnbrokers, you step back into an era when the pace of life was much slower and there was time to linger. Here is the old corner shop that supplied all your needs, everything, from pan scrubbers to pot-menders, coffee to candles and soap powders to soup powders. Next to it is the cobbler's, with clogs and shoes under repair, tins of polish, laces and shoe protectors. Behind this is the basket maker's, with a variety of baskets for every need and occasion, all made from the finest reeds and willows.

The city's industrial heart is not forgotten. The grinding hull is where the grinder would have put an expert edge on the knives; the horn workshop where the handles were prepared; the silversmith whose intricate work adorns much of the cutlery - all these and others.
Perhaps you worked in an office and would be interested in seeing some of the latest gadgets. There are many of these on display, and, if the ledger clerk is not around, you can examine them, including the latest idea, the typewriter.

Step into the chemist's and inhale the smell of camphorated oil. Lotions and ointments to cure any ailments cram the shelves and weird and wonderful medical contraptions can be seen. Next door is an optician's with a wonderful range of spectacles and whose eye-testing machine was the envy of all others.

The domestic department has not been overlooked - rubbing boards, flat irons, possers and soap savers all help to lighten the burden of washing day. There is even the latest labour saving device, a washing machine and for the housewife with electricity, the wonder of the age, the vacuum cleaner.

Because the Museum is run by a handful of volunteers, it is only open occasionally, usually the last Saturday in the month, or by prior appointment. For further information, phone Sheffield 222 6296. The next two open days are Saturday 30 September and Saturday 28 October from 10.30am to 4.30pm. Admission £1, concessions 70p, Family Ticket £3.

Traditional Heritage Museum, 605 Ecclesall Road, S11 8PR.

They sang 66 years

From The Star, December 4th 1943:-

In 1877 two village boys sang together in Dore Church, near Sheffield, for the first time, and except for occasional absence through illness, the pair have sung together there every Sunday morning for 66 years.

They are Mr. J. W. Farnsworth, of Dore Ryecroft Farm and Mr. John Joseph Stones, the village blacksmith. They went to school together, joined the old St. Cecilia Choral Society, which met in the Albert Hall, Sheffield, and both were members of Dore Parish Council.
Mr Farnsworth told 'The Star' that a member of his family had sung in Dore choir ever since the church was built in 1828.

Mr Stones was captain and stalwart of Dore Cricket club for 30 years with which he has been connected for over 50 years. He played his last match for the club when he was 64 and was top scorer with 20 not out.

Mr Farnsworth was time-keeper for Longshaw Sheep Dog Trials for nearly 40 years and afterwards referee. He is still the oldest member in years, of the trials.

Mr Stones has been the village blacksmith for 50 years and though he now has few horses to shoe, he welcomes a visit from his pal when he needs some of the farm horses attended to, like he used to when Mr Farnsworth was preparing for ploughing matches in connection with Dore Flower Show, which he started years ago.

One thing Mr Stones is proud of - he still has the best attendance at the church choir.

Totley Rise Dilemma

(Following up the article by Brian Edwards in our last issue).

If we go back 65 or more years, Mr. Chatterton's query could be extended. Between 1894 and 1935, before Sheffield took over the area, Grove Road (where I lived from 1935 to 1963) could have had its locality described as follows ? Totley Rise (postal district), St. Johns (ecclesiastical parish), Dore (civil parish) and Norton (rural district). I imagine the same applied to Vernon Road. Before the late 1870s it would have been Dore ecclesiastical parish and before the mid 1840s ? Dronfield. Living in Grove Road, although we were within the ancient boundaries of the Township of Dore, we always considered we lived in Totley. Dore was a separate and remote place.

As an aside, it is a reflection on the dilution of local democracy that 100 years ago, to quote from the 1895 Bulmer's Directory "Dore and Totley form distinct parishes, each having a parish council of seven members and one district councillor". The district councillor would have been the member serving on Norton Rural District Council; and these numbers were representing a vastly smaller population compared with today. I often think that Dore and Totley should campaign to have their parish councils restored. I have read that if a fairly modest percentage of a parish send in a petition to its parent city or county council, then the latter have to consider reinstating a previous parish council. Some Sheffield districts to the north?west still retain parish councils.

What is now probably a largely forgotten institution was Christmas post work, where teenagers (and older) were taken on by the Royal Mail to deliver letters. I remember it from the 1940s and early 50s; one could earn untold wealth, £5 to £10 for 7 to 10 days work. It may not seem much today but when the average teenager was lucky to receive 2 shillings (10p) a week pocket money, it doubled ones annual income.
The operation for the Totley Rise postal district was all handled from Totley Rise post office. Mr Jackson was the postmaster and the mail was sorted in a little back room that may now be incorporated into the shop, or it may have been in the basement. I still have a fairly clear memory of the northern part of the delivery area, it covered Grove Road, Totley Brook Road, Queen Victoria Road and I am fairly sure it extended down to the bottom of Twentywell Lane and included Abbeydale Park Rise, Devonshire Road and Bushey Wood Road (these latter three at that time were cull-de-sacs and did not extend up to Dore.

I relate this anecdote because it may be worth placing on record this memory of the original small Totley Rise postal district and it may now be forgotten that it operated from Totley Rise post office. The present day sorting office at St. Johns, with its much larger delivery area, of course came later.

Another anecdote about the complexity of our local boundaries. In the 1950s I knew a family who lived on Abbeydale Park Rise, they had a daughter who was confirmed by the Bishop of Derby. They in turn had some friends who lived on Abbeydale Road South, down near Beauchief Gardens, they had a daughter who was confirmed by the Bishop of Sheffield. They could not understand why they had different Bishops when they lived so near to each other. Only in recent years did I find the probable answer, Abbeydale Park Rise came within the Province of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Abbeydale Road South family were in the Province of the Archbishop of York, the boundary of course running down Limb Brook and the River Sheaf as far as Meers Brook. I believe it was the early 1970s when the boundary was changed to match the present county boundary.

Finally, on this subject of district names, in the 1940s we always referred to the area at the top of Mickley Lane, The Quadrant and Lemont Road as Heatherfield. I have mentioned this name in recent years but no one seems to have heard of it. Has the name completely disappeared?

Tony Smith, Bradway

West View Cottage

I was most interested to read the article on West View Cottage by Brian Edwards, since I believe that my late wife and I were the last people to live in it before it was demolished in about 1972.

We bought it [as The Cottage Abbeydale Road South] at Auction in 1962; and lived in it until 1969 when my work took me to London. Prior to 1962 it had been occupied by two maiden ladies, the Misses Lockwood who were related to an old Sheffield family, and it came on the market on the death of the last of these.

The house stood in 3 1/4 acres comprising:- an acre of preserved woodland; an acre of garden on two levels; and a paddock of 1 1/4 acres. It was approached from Abbeydale Road South by a narrow private drive across the railway bridge, which turned right into the property, and was connected by a public footpath to steps leading up to Queen Victoria Road. From there, a public footpath skirted the paddock and led through the woodland to the Baslow Road.

We were given to understand that the cottage had originally been the site of a Grinding Wheel. The woodland had been the dam [which had silted up when the Wheel was no longer used, and become overgrown with trees] which supplied water to the Wheel through a channel or goit which was still clearly visible. This led from the wood through the garden and eventually to a sluice, which was still in existence in 1969. The sluice discharged into the river Sheaf which formed the boundary of the wood and part of the garden. The outbuildings had housed the grinding machinery, and the house had originally been two cottages in which the manager and the foreman of the Works had lived.
It was also thought that the works were established in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries at a time when the Sheaf provided the water power for the large amount of industrial activity located in the valley. Certainly the Deeds of the property required the occupants to '... keep the goits and Culverts clear for the Rolling Mill at Abbeydale...'

It would seem, therefore, that this was indeed the site of the Upper Wheel referred to in Mr Edwards article; and that it was driven by water from its dam, subsequently silted up, which was fed with water from the Totley Brook which still flows past the end of the woodland. When we took over the property, we found two unused grindstones, presumably abandoned when the Works ceased production.

As will be seen from the photograph, the Cottage was a substantial property. It was stone-built, with walls three feet thick. It had three large reception rooms, each with an open fireplace, one of which was the entrance hall with a staircase leading to the first floor; a large kitchen and a utility room. The first floor had two bathrooms and five bedrooms, two of which were furnished with antique Georgian fireplaces. Although clearly the house could not have had a conventional 'damp course' when we were excavating near the outside walls we discovered that these went down a very considerable distance and were surrounded by triangular banks of coke, the vertical sides of which were flush with the waits, thus providing for rainwater to drain away. The roof consisted of large overlapping stone slabs. The far right-hand door led into the outbuildings, and the door next to it into a passage between the house and the outbuildings.

When we bought the property, a certain amount of refurbishment was necessary. Consequently we were not able to move in until late Autumn 1962, just before the onset of the worst winter since 1947! In early January 1963 the water supply to the Cottage failed and we discovered that water was delivered by a 4"iron pipe which led from the mains in Abbeydale Road South along the drive, under the railway bridge [with no insulation] and into the property. Apparently the large capacity pipe had been installed at the turn of the Century when it had been thought that a number of houses would be built on part of the land and in the absence of motorised transport, the narrowness of the railway bridge would be no obstacle to this development. Clearly one house could not use enough water to cause much movement in a 4' pipe some 80yds long and consequently it froze at the bridge. Fortunately the Water Board excavated the pipe and replaced it with a suitably lagged modern plastic pipe. During the period of two weeks which this work look we were regularly supplied with drinking water delivered in an unused galvanised dustbin and there was well in the paddock which provided water for household chores to a tap in the kitchen. Apart from this episode we encountered no problems during the time we occupied this delightful property.

We were extremely sorry to leave our beautiful house and very sad that it was subsequently demolished.

Henry D Turner

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