Historic records

The Village Society now has early records of the following:
Baptisms for Holmesfield, Dore and Totley1744?1812;
Baptisms in the Liberty of Beauchief1770?1816;
Marriages in Beauchief Chapel1696?1837.
Margaret Oversby has kindly made an index so that you can check if it's worth looking through the records when researching your family history.The DVS room is open as usual on the 1st Saturday of the month for those interested in talking to members of the committee about local issues or the history of Dore.

Jean Recalls

During the war, when we lived at Door Moor Lodge, we were so excited when Lady Grant told us that a European Queen was to spend the night at the Big House and we could stand on the drive to see her arrive. In due course a large car arrived, led by Police Outriders. Out stepped this sombre lady dressed all in black. What a bitter disappointment. Queens to us wore crowns, were covered in jewellery, were garbed in lace gowns and always smiled. We didn't hang round after that. I think she was the ex-Queen of Romania, fleeing the Russian advance, but I could be wrong. Anyway we lost all interest in her.

One of our local electricians during my childhood was John Furniss, who lived in a caravan on the site of No21 Brickhouse Lane. Besides doing general repairs and re-wiring he also demonstrated the new household gadget: The Vacuum Cleaner. He was fond of reciting - "It beats as it sweeps as it cleans". Tales were told that he went to demonstrate at one house, liberally sprinkled their carpet with dust and dirt, and then discovered they didn't have an Electricity Supply.

Electricity did not come to Dore Moor House from the main grid until the middle of the Second World War. Prior to that the power was supplied by an engine next to the garages. I remember that when the workmen arrived to connect us up I was in bed in isolation with Scarlet Fever. Lady Grant had used her influence to allow me to stay at home. She did not relish the idea that her Head Gardeners daughter should mix with the poor Sheffield children. A man used to call regularly to collect the skin that I had peeled off.

One modern day eccentric, as I like to call him, was Neville Greaves. Neville lived all his life at Glen Head, Limb Lane. His father was a son of the Greaves of Nab Farm. Neville lost a lot of his schooling because he caught TB from infected milk. He worked all his life on the land until arthritis curtailed his working life, when he should have been in his prime. He worked from leaving school for a time, for Tom Pearson of Hallfield Farm. He used to laughingly say that they had pork pie every day, but it was probably not as often as that. He worked for Peter Godley of Godley Gardens (now Abbeydale Garden Centre) and did various gardening jobs when Peter stopped his business. Neville never married and lived with his parents and sister and latterly on his own, when his sister died.

His passion in life was his animals: hens, ducks, rabbits and his little dog. When he had to give his animals up, he suffered a stroke and tragically died. Another old Dore character gone for ever.
A photoshows Neville and I think Mr Pearson, and another of Neville's great loves - Working Horses. He and his sister supported the

ransby Home of Rest for Horses at Saxilby, even though they had very little spare cash themselves. Always thinking of others, that was Neville. Perhaps some of the readers of this paper might like to support them also, if they have a little cash to spare. The horses, not Neville!
It is a well known fact that I love foxes. I know a lot of people in this area don't agree with me but we are all entitled to our own opinions. There was a time when I was as keen a follower of the Barlow Hunt on foot I might add as anyone. But then I got hooked on Beatrix Potter and Mr Tod and I became a devotee.

I often see foxes in the early morning, before 7, when I am walking Spike and I never cease to be thrilled. Some are magnificent red-brown creatures, holding their brushes on high and others are tatty and dark, sometimes almost black.
A photo shows a huntsman and some of the hounds on the corner of Whitelow Lane in the 50's. They had just made a kill in Wagg Wood. My mother used to watch the huntsmen before the hunt on the previous day stopping up the holes. A cruel practice but one they say is necessary. Ma unblocked as many holes as she could. She knew most of the holes in Wagg Wood and in the woods at Dore Moor House.
Can I thank all the readers who missed me in the last edition, for their kind words. I really appreciate being complimented. I shall not be able to get my hat on next winter, at this rate.

Jean Dean

Letters

Dear Sir,

I recently obtained a copy of a book on Dore and Totley by Brian Edwards. As I spent my childhood and youth in Dore Village I very much enjoyed reading it. It has prompted me to write to you as Editor of Dore to Door.

I was born in Dore in 1929, lived in a house sited on Savage Lane, then called Wilson Hill, behind the school and near the Hare and Hounds.
I would be very interested to know if there are people in the village who remember me and my parents, who were Rhoda and Billy Crookes. They lived in the village from about 1928 to 1953.My grandfather, Thomas Crookes who had been in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, built houses in Furniss Avenue. I attended Dore School from 1934 to 1941 and then went on to Netheredge Grammar School and finally to Bristol University, to study Aeronautical Engineering.

I have many fond memories of Dore. I was in the church choir, the cubs and the scouts.

I am enclosing some copies of photographs, one of which is Totley Scout Troop, in about 1922. My father is third from the left on the back row, next to the scout mistress, Dr. May Andrews.Also enclosed are photographs of Dore Football Team and Dore school football team, both from the 1930's. Comments are written on the back.

I hope these will be of interest to the people in the village.

William Aubrey Crookes
Preston

Dear Sir,

Ellen Carter Alms Houses

Further to my request in the last issue, I was contacted by Mrs Collins of Bradway who was able to give me accurate information on the small building at the foot of Bushey Wood Road at the junction with Totley Brook Road.

Mrs Collins explained that her grandfather Christopher Carter was a director in the Sheffield Brewery Company called Carter, Milner and Bird who were at that time on Mowbray Street and later moved to Claywheels Lane at Wadsley Bridge. This brewery was responsible for the well-known Jubilee Stout and was eventually taken into the Bass Group. The three directors, who each gave their name to the company, put up £1,000 each to build the almshouses, in the memory of Christopher's mother Ellen. Originally they were for workers who had left the company and fallen on hard times.

There are actually three dwellings combined in the building and they are still run by the Family Trust. Apart from the aforementioned plaque, there is also a carving of an angel on the Totley Brook elevation. (The building is shown on a view from Bradway Bank, drawn from a postcard of about 1906/8).

The suggestion given to me that Ellen was a member of the Carter family who gave us Little Liver Pills is therefore not correct and I thank Mrs Collins for giving us the accurate history.
A photograph shows Christopher Carter with his wife and children (plus donkey), taken in their Wadsley garden, around 1910 when he was about 56.

Brian Edwards

Dear Sir,
I am researching my family tree on my mothers side. My great great grandparents Elizabeth and George Reeve married in Dore in the year 1861. They had five children:

Annie E born approx 1864; William Thomas born 1865; Mary Emily born 1867; Harriet Wall born 1871 (my great great grandmother); Frances Jane born 1873.

I am now married and my married name is Reeves and my in-laws names were Elizabeth and George Reeves from Manchester.
It is the name similarity that makes me want to know more of my own ancestors. I would love to make connection with anybody that could tell me what Dore would have been like in the 1860's and I wonder why they came to New Zealand. They traveled to Greenock and got a boat here on the 26 January 1874 arriving the 6th May 1874. I hope somebody is able to help me out with any information. I do know they farmed at a place called Sheep Hills. Hoping to hear from somebody.

Melody Reeves

Ed. This request came via our news and messages pages on the Dore Village Web Site.

Census 1891

We've all just completed our 2001 census forms with its umpteen pages of questions. A typed copy of the 1891 census for the parish of Dore and St John's Abbeydale is now available for viewing in the Dore Village Society room at the Old School.

This is the most recent census to be released. It consists of one line for each person in the house and 12 columns. In 1891 they wanted to know the name of the road and the house, whether or not it was inhabited, number of rooms if 4 or less, name of the person, relation to head of the household, married or not, age, profession or occupation, employment status and where they were born. There is also a column headed Deaf & Dumb, Blind, Lunatic, Imbecile or Idiot. There are no entries in this column.

The entries start on Totley Brook Rd, along Abbeydale Rd, up Dore New Rd, (Dore Rd), Ashfurlong Cottages, across to The Moss, Moorside (this appears to be what is now Long Line), on the Sheephill to Stoney Ridge, Riper House and White Lodge, then back down to Dore Moor Newfield Lane and Brickhouses, then on to High Greave, Wag House & Roundseats, Causeway Head, Parkers Lane and Rushley, finishing up in the middle of the village. Names are mainly those of the terraces. Road names don't feature much. Ivy Bank, Dore Hall, Elshaws Row, The Vicarage, Sycamore Cottage, School Green Rd, Spry's Row Townhead, Church & School Lane, Croft House, Drury Lane, Townhead, Fearnehoughs Row, Post Office, Barkers Row, Old Cottages, Town Street Furniss's Row, Hare & Hounds, Town Street, Pryors Row, Devonshire Arms, Greenwood Mount and Devonshire Terrace appear in that order.

Although the form is minimal compared to the one we've just had, it tells a lot about the movement of people and their differing lifestyles. The railway was just built and many of the Totley Brook Rd houses are occupied by railwaymen, most of them from other parts of the country. No one working on the railway was born in Dore.

For example, Joseph Avery, age 27, lived at the fifth house on Totley Brook Rd. He was an inspector on the new railway and came from West Drayton in Middlesex. His wife Charlotte was also 27 and was born in Chiswick. They had a 2 year old daughter Elizabeth born at Aylestone in Leicester and two sons William and Sydney aged 1yr and 7 months both born at Totley Bents. They also had 2 boarders living with them. They were bricklayers aged 20 & 29, single, and both from Chiswick.

Most houses in the St Johns parish had at least one servant and some as many as five. Out of 323 people living in these 55 houses only 24 were born in Dore. 19 of these were young children born to parents from other places and the other 5 were domestic servants; Annie Kitchen, Catherine Fox, Anne Green, Annie Chapman and Mary Rudd.

Occupations of residents in this area included; tailor & draper, optician, dressmaker, railway inspectors, schoolmaster, shorthand clerk, bricklayer, railway labourer, chemist & druggist, bank clerk, civil engineer, foreman, hammerman, forgeman, chartered accountant, magistrate, silversmith, vicar, town counsellor, carpenter, platelayer, station master, signalman, general manager of Sheffield Gas Company, corn merchant and brewer, mechanical engineer, analytical engineer, Inland Revenue Inspector, stationer & printer, estate agent, cutlery manufacturer, iron & steel merchant, pork butcher, laundress and silver buffer as well as numerous different types of domestic servants butlers and grooms. Not until we get to Ashfurlong are any farmers mentioned.

Carrying on up the hill, Joseph Moseley, 63, lived at Ryecroft Farm along with 5 other members of his family and 2 servants. William Stratford, 35, was Mr Wilsons gamekeeper at the cottage in Ryecoft Glen, and Hannah Wilson, 62, widow living on her own means lived at The Moss, now the Whirlowbrook old folks home on Limb Lane.

The name Long Line doesn't appear but 8 properties are listed on Moorside which I think must be the same place. William Siddall, 46 farmer, lived in one of them with his wife and 7 children. The youngest was Albert aged 6, who many of us remember. William Unwin, 58, his wife Sarah 47, 6 children and brother in law lived at Old Copperas Farm.

In another article Hazel Hoffman quotes from the Old School log book and mentions the Peats at Stoney Ridge. George Peat, 31, is shown as a besom maker. Hazel also mentions Eliza Flint who was a thorn in the schoolmasters side. In 1891 census she is shown living at School Green Road aged 18. Her father William Flint, 59, was unemployed and her mother Sarah, 56, was a laundress. Two brothers were grinders and the other was still at school.

The vicar John Aldred, 71, came from Rotherham and his wife Mary, 65, from Liverpool. One son, Shirley 36 was a chemical manufacturer and the other, John 38, was a physician and surgeon duly registered. Shirley seems to have been quite a common boys name, five are listed in Dore.

Three properties are listed on Parker Lane (sic). One lived in by Joseph Parker, 67, widower, general labourer and his son Joseph 26 coal merchants agent, and daughter Joanna 30 had 2 rooms. One house was empty and the other with 3 rooms was occupied by Samuel Sykes 72, widower, coal miner and his niece Eliza Sykes described as housekeeper.

One house on Elshaws Row was lived in by Alfred Pybus, 38, joiner, from Froggatt and his wife Ann 38 from Curbar. They had a son Harry aged 8 and daughter Francis 1 both born in Dore. We hear Harry's name read out every year on Remembrance Day.
Rushley Farm was occupied by Joseph Hancock 71, and 5 others.

Three houses later in the list is Ivy Bank which must have been at Rushley somewhere. Listed in order are Annie Marshall, 19, servant, Ellen Hancock daughter 7, Francis Hancock 5, and Emma Taylor 19, governess, all born in Dore. This shows one of the shortcomings of the census in that there is no head of household.Presumably they must have been away on census day and are just not recorded. There is only one other example of this in the 213 properties on the list. One house on Dore New Rd has the butler at the top of the list. Probably people didn't travel as much then as they do now and the census was not done at a holiday time of year. Even so we have no way of knowing how many children are not listed simply because they were away on that day. I note on the 2001 census it says list all members of your household who usually live at this address, including yourself. In the 1891 census in the column headed "Relation to Head of Household" in several cases it says "visitor". If people normally resident were listed when they were absent they would be counted twice, maybe they were! This could account for some apparent discrepancies, for instance the Brook family farm next to the church doesn't seem to be mentioned and what you'd think are old street names like Savage Lane, Vicarage Lane, Wilson Hill and High Street aren't either.
The occupations on this part of the census are far more rural than those along the Abbeydale Rd area. They include many farmers and farm workers, general labourers, gamekeeper, millstone maker, besom maker, shepherd, file forger, stone mason, scythe smith, saddler, railway tunnel miner, edge tool hardener, silver chaser & fluter, miller, coal miner, joiner, woodman, file and table blade manufacturer, brickyard labourer, road labourer, salt dealer, grinder, grocer, blacksmith, wheelwright, milk dealer, innkeeper, painter & whitewasher, road foreman & rate collector, and sheep shear maker.

The 1891 Dore census can be seen in the DVS room at the old school or is available on floppy disc in Microsoft Excel format for £2 +P&P.

Richard Farnsworth

The Old School Dore 1800-1965

Continuing the story.... Part 2

The 1870 Education Act required the keeping of log books, and the Dore School log books, long believed by the present Trustees to be lost, have recently surfaced at Dore Junior School. It was as a result of reading them that I have put pen to paper; coming from an old Dore family myself, I found them fascinating reading.

The Masters varied greatly in what they wrote in the log books: some restricted themselves mostly to attendance, indeed that was the prime purpose of the records; the names of "irregular children" were handed to the attendance officer. However others are more forthcoming about school life and the records are sprinkled with the names of old village families, for example Fearneough, Farnsworth, Ashby, Gill, Fletcher, Hancock, Greaves, Siddall, Coates and many others.

The essentially rural nature of the village in the late 19th century is clearly apparent; in particular the way it affects attendance. Haymaking in 1878 reduces the numbers to 22 pupils in school. (By now the number on the register was about 100) Later in the same year boys were "engaged in the corn". Potato and the annual blackberrying also decimated the number; girls were frequently missing for Spring cleaning. There were frequent holidays - for Dore Flower Show, Dore Feast, Choir Trips, Bonfire Day, Shrove Tuesday, Sunday School outings and Empire day. "Boisterous weather" frequently closed the school, snow drifts of 8 or 9 feet being often noted. Outbreaks of diptheria, scarlatina, scarlet fever, are frequently recorded and measles closed the school for a fortnight on several occasions.

The parish of Dore is large and in winter the closing register was often taken before 2pm to allow pupils to walk home before dark. The Stones children from Stoney Ridge House walked to and from school each day. An interesting reflection on today's children.

Girls, as well as well as boys, were addressed by their surnames: unfortunately the punishment books have not survived but from the logs it appears that corporal punishment was rare, though the behaviour of some of some pupils, especially the girls, clearly presented a problem. Mr Deane had a long standing battle with two girls, Ann Coates and Harriet Siddall, which ended by the vicar being asked to come to school. The girls refused to "fold their arms" in front of the vicar, when all the rest had complied with this request. They also refused the vicar's request to do the same. Siddall was the more defiant: she had already refused a request to "go into the closet" (presumably a cupboard of some sort). Guarantees of good behaviour had to be made before the girls were allowed back into school.

The young Mr Agar was sorely tried in 1883 by the "insubordination and insolence" of Eliza Flint: the vicar's support had to be obtained in expelling her for breaking windows, swearing, breaking into school, lying and stealing. The girl's mother evidently supported her daughter and "seemed to think the school existed for her daughters benefit and she could do as she liked" So interesting all this; we assume nowadays that bad behaviour in school didn't happen in the good old days.

The school lost an "old and valued friend" when the Rev Aldred died in 1894. He had played an energetic and sympathetic role in the life of the school. As the century drew to it's close, the children of Dore and Totley were all presented by the Trustees with a book to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Copies of this book "The Queens Resolve" still survive and make interesting reading. Though Eulogistic by modern standards, it emphasises the Queens virtues and the sense of duty which she certainly possessed.
Reading "The Queens Resolve" alongside the log books, the most striking thing was the patriotism which the education provided was aiming to cultivate in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Empire Day was always the occasion for a lecture by the Headmaster or the Vicar or some other notability. The pupils sang patriotic songs on the Village Green. On George V's coronation a medal "Deeds that won the Empire" was presented. The "duties and privileges of Englishmen" was a constant theme for talks to the pupils. Pictures purchased for the school were "Nelson's Farewell", "The Army off Gravelines (1585)" "Death of General Wolfe" "The Gunners at Gollenzo". Poetry set for learning, was on a similar theme and consisted largely of patriotic ballads. Nothing reminds me so much of how greatly our society and the teaching provided has changed since the second world war.

The early part of the 20th century saw two long tenancies; that of Mr Bone as headmaster from 1901-25 and that of the Rev WR Gibson as vicar from 1894. The latter was equally assiduous as his predecessor in his attitude to the school, frequently visiting, checking registers and teaching scripture. He and Mr Bone appear to have been on good terms. The headmaster must have been sorely tried by the frequent absences of his staff. I am surprised at the forbearance of all the Masters at these absences on apparently trivial grounds. Pupil attendance was equally erratic; all present on a day in 1907 was "a truly remarkable occurrence"

AlthoughtheDiocesanInspector continued to be most complimentary in their reports, the State Inspectors continued to complain about the buildings, the lack of cloakroom space and the "foul smelling closets" and the lack of lavatories, "although there is running water". Mr Bone, clearly stung by an inspection in 1908, hit back, in the logs, at the unfairness and the inexperience of the inspectors in their assessment of the children's achievement. He himself had to leave the schoolhouse on the premises, where all the previous masters had lived, to provide extra accommodation for the increasing number of pupils.

In 1909 the school took part in a pageant, written and produced by Mrs Milner of Totley Hall. She had always been a visitor to the school and her play was based on the meeting of King Eanred of Northumbria and King Ecgbert of Wessex, which took place at Dore is now commemorated by the stone on the Village Green. Without doubt it was an actual historic event, written up in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The school was closed for the performance and from the proceeds a large portrait of King Edward VII was purchased and hung in the school.

In the following year, the King's death led to a long lecture by the Rev W Gibson on "the great loss the country has sustained" and "the duties and privileges of Englishmen". On Empire Day on another occasion, the pupils produced monologues on "Deeds that won the Empire"-these included Drake, Nelson, Frobisher, Cook, Clive, and Wolfe. It was "admirably executed" and a holiday was given. Mr Bone was clearly a well intentioned and well educated Headmaster. He tried to enlarge the curriculum, but with such limited accommodation it was obviously difficult. By 1917 there were 129 on the register and two age groups had to be taught in one room. an innovation was cookery classes taught in Totley.

Mr Bone's regime 1901-25, as attested by my father and his generation, was firm, well informed, disciplined but kindly, seeking above all for pupils to absorb and learn whatever they could from observation or books. His essential tolerance appears from the logs when he reprimanded a teacher for "striking a girl with her hand in a most severe and cruel manner". He felt obliged to report this matter to the trustees.

Hazel Hoffman

To be concluded in our next issue.

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