Heritage Open Days 2024: Sporting Fulwood 14^th September

Here’s a summary of FHG’s guided walk around sites associated with sports in Fulwood

1. We began on Old Fulwood Road where AC provided historical background from Saxon and Medieval times to the twentieth century – see Alan Crutch’s article on our website: link here
2. Staying on Old Fulwood Road, we looked at how the former Blacksmith’s Arms/Hammer & Pincers, (now 4 Old Fulwood Road), played a significant role in local sport. Cricket and football teams were associated with the beer house and the Blacksmith’s Arms was a location for sporting activity too, probably on the field which lay behind the pub. 19^th and early 20^th century maps refer to this field as ‘School Green’ e.g. this one from 1894 (National Library of Scotland).From 1938, maps show the ‘new’, straight section of Fulwood Road running across this former sporting green. In the nineteenth century, teams in the main were made up of the local farming community. By the beginning of WWII, however, teams reflected how Fulwood had become a suburb, with members drawn from a wider area and from ‘white collar’ professions. The Health Authority Sports facilities, tennis courts and old sports hut are evidence of Old Fulwood Road’s 20^th century sporting association.
3. We also touched on Porter Valley sports such as swimmingand skating (see 1938 film footage Yorks. Film Archive) & Sheffield Independent 5th February 1912, boating – e.g. 1963 rescue . There was also model boat sailing on Wire Mill Dam which caused distress to local people. A Fulwood Society newsletter of 1972 stated that ‘the noise [made by the engines of the model boats] is so loud as to be heard more than half a mile away. We are not in favour of interfering with the way people spend their leisure hours but this excess noise is causing people who live nearby to feel ill and one family has had to move to another, quieter home’. The range of the noise these caused was confirmed by a group member. We drew on Chris Massey’s recollections of skiing, which took place further up the valley – see this link to Chris’ post on our website.
4. We moved a little further west to the Scout Hut/Farmer’s Guild area to consider more widely how sports reflected social history and change and hear recollections of games played in the area around Fulwood Church and of the  former Brooklands Tennis Club. We heard how the history of sport in Fulwood and how it was enjoyed and organised reflects the changing nature of Fulwood itself. From a small community or communities of people in even more specific localities such as Goole Green or Stumperlowe, etc., 4 miles west of the town of Sheffield, Fulwood became an affluent residential suburb; and so the change from the less formal teams of local people, playing on the pub or church sports fields, to works teams organised by business owners who had moved into the area as Sheffield prospered and grew. These teams themselves probably comprised mainly of people living outside the community. Then the private members clubs developed, founded during subsequent waves of residential settlement. This has been a fairly rapid change, and probably some overlap between these different communities.
5. We crossed over to the corner of Fulwood Road and Stumperlowe Lane where we learned about the extensive Rogers and Dixons works sports grounds which had stood on either side of Stumperlowe Lane and reflect on the role of large employers in supporting participation in sport for their workers.
6. We walked past the Fulwood War Memorial and turned up to Chorley Road and Fulwood Sports Club where we heard about its history and buildings.
7. The final location of our tour was Hallam Grange Sports Club, hearing of its connection with W.E. Harrisons, a renowned firm of steeplejacks founded in 1845 (and still running now). In 1923 they set up a tennis club at the top of Slayleigh Lane, with the clear intent of it being usable by the local community as well as employees of the company. Table tennis was also played. Perhaps unusual at the time women and families were equally welcomed to play, and to join the organising committee. By the 1960s the facilities were getting tired, and the Harrisons sold further land to enable the club to move to its current site further down Slayleigh Lane. This also gave space for bowls. The club had/has an excellent crown green lawn, despite the difficulties of a high and exposed site. Visitors on the walk discussed how the development of this club reflected changes in society during the first part of the 20^th Century, illustrated by the club’s continuing balance of social and competitive sports.