Author Archives: Keith Pitchforth

127 Brookhouse Hill

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The property

The Front Elevation

127 Brookhouse Hill has been empty and has been ‘for sale’ for a few years. After the initial sale fell through, it a second sale has been agreed, subject to the usual processes being successfully completed.

The house sits in a substantial garden which is now slowly returning to nature. You approach the house via a short, steep drive that is immediately after the last of the row of cottages on Brookhouse Hill.

For some reason the house sits between the access to No. 121 and the drive to No. 123.

Who built the House?

To answer this question, we need a bit of genealogy and property ownership.

By 1911 Jemima Hodson owned the cottages. Jemima was the daughter of Henry Swift, a file smith, of Ranmoor. One of eight siblings, she was born in 1855 and by 1871 was housekeeping for her widowed father and her pupil teacher younger sister. In 1875 she married William Hodson who was a native of Fulwood where his father, George, was the blacksmith. William found work as clerk to a merchant, a career he followed until his death in 1905 at the early age of 47. After a few years living in Crookes, William and Jemima moved to 115 Brookhouse Hill. It was here that in 1885 Jemima gave birth to Annie Winifred and a year later to Beatrice. Beatrice died aged 2 years at Bournemouth and is interred there.

Jemima received a boost to her finances when George Hodson, her father-in-law, died in 1908, leaving her the house on Brookhouse Hill where she lived and £1000. When the surveyor did his rounds in 1912 for the Land Tax, he recorded that Jemima owned the six cottages that look onto Brookhouse Hill (Nos. 111 – 121) and the four cottages (Nos. 95 – 101) Jemima continued to live in number 115 until her death in 1930 when her estate was valued at £3,400.

Jemima also owned the substantial plot of land that was sold in 2025. This is outlined in green

Land owned by Jemima Hodson in 1912 outlined in blue.

Down in the valley, at the Fulwood School, Thomas Holmes lived at the School House. His father was the Head master. In 1901, aged 15, Thomas was a mechanical engineer. As the way with such matters, in 1911 Thomas married a local woman: Annie Hodson the daughter of Jemima. Annie had inherited Willow Cottage from her grandfather and this was their first home.

Thomas set up in business as an automotive engineer with premises on Ecclesall Road and with the increase in car ownership and increasing use of lorries, his business prospered. Family discussions followed and Jemima made the plot of land available.

There is no record of the building marked with a ? on the map in the Land Tax Assessments of 1912. If it was a dwelling, then it reasonable to assume that Thomas and Annie would have moved in after their wedding. But they were living in WIllow Cottage until at least 1921.

The south aspect of the house

The current house was built for Thomas, Annie and their daughter Dorothy (born in 1913) around 1924. Thomas and Annie lived in the house until at least 1972, the year that  Annie died. Thomas’ death two years later was recorded at a house on Hopefield Road at Frecheville, probably living with his daughter and her family.

The house underwent a modernization externally, much of it superficial, in the 1970s.

The Future

The estate agents suggested three ways of developing the house and site: renovation of the house and grounds, demolition of the existing house and construction of a new one or dividing the land for a number of houses.

We will have to wait to see what happens to the house and land

Intrigue about the Chapel

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The Independent Chapel on Whiteley Lane has been an object of interest for many years, primarily for its age – it is nigh on 300 years old.

In the early 1940s Ivor Gatty had a correspondence with Henry Bamley who was associated with the Upper Chapel n the centre of Sheffield. Some the letters exchanged, or rather, carbon copies of the letters found their way into the archives of Fulwood Church.

There is mention of the Fulwood Spa

I have transcribed these letters and provided brief biographies of the correspondents. the resulting PDF file is here

Notes on Old Fulwood

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Colin Cooper wrote many short articles on aspects of Old Fulwood. Muriel Hall used some
of these in her book “More of the Mayfield Valley” and she noted that she was grateful to
Cooper’s widow for permission to use these. These two articles were found in the Central
Library and copied by Alan Crutch. He notes that he has not found them since.
Alan’s copies are photographs. I have used OCR to transcribe these in this PDF document.
There are some biographical details of Colin Cooper at the end of this paper.

The articles are here

THE ROMANCE OF METHODISM – WESLEY LIKED TO BATHE IN RIVER SHEAF

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The Seffield Independent carried an article by John Austin relating the links between John Wesley, early Methodism and Sheffield. The somewhat racy headline to the article was perhaps the work of a sub editor rather than Austin. The text is below is transcribed, but keeps the paragrah as they are in the article which was printed in somewhat narrow columns of 5 or 6 words.
Austin was certainly not the last and probably not the first to perhaps over emphasise the association of Wesley to Sheffield when he writes that “there is but little doubt that Wesley visited Booth Farm whenever in the Sheffield district but these visits are not always recorded in his journal.”
It is interesting that Austin encourages his readers to visit the farm at Goole Green which by this time had become rundown. It was demolished in the 1950s (I think)

Shoreham is in Sussex!
Continue reading →

Extract from papers relating to the Fulwood Society

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Background

The Fulwood Society came into existence in the 1970s with the object of acting as a voice for conservation in the Fulwood area. Fulwood History Group has recently acquired the Society’s archive and members have been working through the material. This is a transcript of one of the items. I have added the notes.

The item

J H Hewlett writing to his parishioners on April 1st1895 after a terrible winter when 10 parishioners died between 1st January and 31st March praises them for how they put aside their differences and prejudices to support each other through the worst of the weather when the temperature rarely rose above freezing for several weeks in February. He goes on to say: –

I often hear news from Pendeen and some have passed away from among our friends there since we left in December. I should like to include the Pendeen Families in sending this message of sympathy and remembrance from all at Fulwood Vicarage and I shall post copies of our Quarterly Messenger not only to Cornwall but also to South Africa to some of the good, brave fellows who have had to go from their loved homes in Pendeen to seek a livelihood in that far country.

Being Chairman of the Committee of the “Fulwood Coffee House and Inn” I have much pleasure in announcing that our seven year effort will now be carried forward by Miss Fanny Bower who, as Mr Dixon’s Tenant has become the Landlady of the Coffee House. I desire to express the hope that great success will attend her on her return to the parish and I trust that every well-wisher will try to do something to help bring about the success.

I desire also to express my gratitude for all the help given in the past years by all the Members of the Committee, more especially to my valued Friend Mr. W. W. Harrison without whose unfailing interest and unfaltering judgment the whole effort could not have prospered as it has done.

Notes:

  1. Fanny (Emma) Bower had been a parlour maid at Stumperlowe Hall, the home of Henry Isaac Dixon. She was keen to develop the Café, announcing in April 1895 that

“Miss BOWER begs to inform the public that she has taken the above old-established house, and will provide TEAS, &c on the shortest notice. Special arrangements for large Parties. First-class Sitting and Bed Rooms. Also large Clubroom. N.B.—Open on Sundays”

Emma had left the Coffee Shop by 1901. No further records of Emma have been found

  1. Arthur and Ann Wostenholm had taken on the Coffee Shop according to the 1901 census. The Wostenholms stayed at the Coffee Shop until about 1936. Anne died at the Coffee House in 1936 and Arthur moved to Frickley Road where he died in 1952.
  2. William Wheatcroft Harrison (born 1830) was a manufacturer of silver and elctro-plate according to the 1891 census. He and his family – his wife Eliza and daughters Ellen and Lucy – lived on Belgrave Road. By 1901 they had moved to Park Avenue. William died in 1904.

Gleanings from the Court Rolls

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Back in the late 1990s, Robert Hallam who lived in British Columbia contacted me. He had been researching the knotty problem of Waltheof’s Aula. Some writers had suggested it was located at Burnt Stones, others that it was on the site of the Castle by the river Don. Hallam thought he had found eveidence that the location was on the site of the present day Hallam School.

Our conversations, including at a restuarant when he visited Sheffield, got me intrigued and I spent a few hours at the Local Studies Library looking through printed transcripts of the Court Rolls. From these I wrote up my findings which were duly filed in the attic where they lay for about a quarter of a century.

A few weeks ago, I came across the paper and research notes which were all paper based. I have scanned the document and corrected any OCR errors I’ve found. I have not carried out further research apart from looking at the registers of Sheffield Cathedral which are online and adding dates of birth, marriage and death for the few people in the trees that I am reasonably confident are the same as those named in the register.

I hope that those who know far more about the period (approximately 1550 – 1650) will post comments adding further details and, of course, highlight errors in the original paper.

The paper does confirm that Stumperlowe has been inhabited and farmed for many centuries and the names of the families living in the Tudor and Jacobean periods are still existent today.

The paper is here: Tudor Stumpelowe

Richardson’s Story of Fulwood

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This is a small booklet written by Henry Richardson and published in 1931. We don’t know why he wrote it. In its 8 pages, he recounts how some of the older buildings came into existence.

John Henry Richardson was an accountant.He was born in 1862 in Sheffield to Henry, a coal merchant, and Eliza. As a young man he found employment with a firm of Drapers, likely to be J R Robert Ltd with premises at Townhead Street. He married Lavinia Case at the Weston Street Chapel on March 20th 1889 and their first child was born  in 1891. At the turn of the century, Richarson had ceased using his first name and was a cashier at the Drapery store. The family, now with 3 children was living on Crookesmoor Road.

Ten years later, the family was at Nethergreen and in 1912 they moved into No 139 Crimicar Lane. After Henry’s death in 1932, Lavinia continued to lived in  the house, along with her daughter who was a teacher.

It is possible that writing the pamplet was a retirement project for Henry.

I have scanned the document and reproduced it, using different images where approriate but keeping much of the original wording.

The booklet is here

The Ladies School

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This was a small private school run by Sarah and Mary Rhodes who were the daughters of Hugh Rhodes, the minister of the Independent Chapel on Chapel Lane. Sarah had been born in Buxton and Mary who was eight years younger than her sister was born in Sheffield. By 1865, and probably earlier (in 1861 the sisters described themselves as ‘school mistress’), they had established the school at the ‘Chapel House’. The Chapel did not function as a place of worship between 1873 when Hugh Rhodes died and 1899 so the school might have provided an alternative use. Although named as the Ladies School in the 1881 census, the Rhodes sisters did not use this title when they advised readers of the Independent in January that they would ‘re-open their school’ on Tuesday 18th of that month and that they had a vacancy for two boarders[1]. They used this phrase in their announcements that were published just before the start of each term.

The census of 1871 recorded 6 girls between the ages of 10 and 14

The House and Chapel

The chapel had a school room and a house for the minister and his family but neither are large, so the house, at least, must have been quite crowded on census night 1881 when eight scholars slept there, along with the two sisters, their nephew Sydney and a 14 year old servant.

There is a gap in the newspaper announcements between September 1889 and September 1893 although Mary and Sarah continued to live in the Chapel House. The last entry is year later, in 1899 when Sarah was approaching 75 years of age and Mary was 60, so perhaps managing 6 vivacious girls was getting too much for them.

Perhaps the development of State Education (e.g. the Fulwood Board School) had reduced the demand for schools like this. In their notice in the Telegraph in January 1899 they said that they “Do not object to take Delicate Children” which suggests the sisters were not recruiting as many pupils as previously. This may explain why they began to let rooms in the Chapel House. Their notice in the paper in 1897 offering to accommodate bicycles suggests short stay lets, perhaps an early form of Airbnb! By 1904, they were looking for long term lets, offering 2 bedrooms and a sitting room in the house which was only 15 minutes’ walk from the terminus at Nethergreen!

Sarah and Mary Rodes disappear from the records from the middle years of the decade by which time the Chapel had become a home to a vibrant congregation. It was the location for ‘Pleasant Sunday Afternoons’ but that another story!

[1] Sheffield Daily Telegraph 08 January 1881

The Tip at Fulwood (1908)

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Signs of Fulwood becoming a suburb were evident by 1908. Crimicar Lane and Brookhouse Hill had new housing and Silver Birch was being developed. The photograph shows the junction in the early C20th, the foothpath that would be superceded by Brooklands Avenue is on the left and the houses, also on the left of the picture, are at the bottom of Crimicar Lane. The land  for these houses had been purchased by Samuel Hancock from Henry Isaac Dixon of Stumperlowe Hall in 1905. The land in the west of Crimicar Lane drops away from Brookhouse Hill.

The plans to create Brooklands Avenue were in existence at least from the early years of the new century: a plan of land being sold by Henry Isaac Dixon’s executors in 1913 shows the proposed road and the ramp is clearly shown on the picture of 1912 to the right.

But the new residents of Fulwood valued its rural nature and the sight of rubbish being tipped did not go down well. The independent reported on the 18th March that ‘there is some protest which is growing’ over the use of refuse ‘of an objectionable kind’ being used for road building. Charles Needham, newly established in a villa opposite the church initiated the flurry of letters to the editor of the Daily Telegraph (the Idependent and the Telegraph were not averse to printing articles as direct copies of that found in their rival’s newspaper) . Needham’s letter was written soon after the tipping began and takes a swipe at Dixon as the landowner who had permitted and was being paid for allowing the tipping. T D Nichol was quick to support Needham, writing as soon as he read Needham’s letter. The rubbish being tipped was from households as the reference to ‘tined meat cans’ shows.

An Election Issue

October that year was a time of elections to the City Corporation and the candidates claimed and counter claimed as to who had ‘stopped the tipping of night soil’ with the Telegraph reporting that despite the claims of Coucillor Ashmore to this, it was in fact the landowner, Dixon, who had stopped the tipping. The independent, more supportive of Ashmore reported at length on his rebuttal of the earlier claims. There had been correspondence between Ashmore and the Town Clerk with the Clerk confirming that he had instructed.

The Telegraph investigated the matter, rather than relying on letters received and reports of hustings meetings, and on 29th October. Its report confirmed that James Dixon (son of Henry Isaac Dixon) had requested the tipping as he wanted the land raised to the level of the road. John Smith, living opposite at 84 Brookhouse Hill, was ‘indignant’ and complained the Health Committee, which had agreed to Dixon’s request, The Lord Mayor and the Town Clerk. In the end it was Dixon who stopped the tipping, probably because what was being tipped was more than he expected.

The barbs continued to be exchanged through the campaign. The election took place early in November and both Nowill and Ashmore were elected.

Brooklands Avenue Today

As to the ‘ramp’ that Dixon had initially instigated, it was eventually completed and became Brooklands Avenue. I suspect that most people who visit the shops at Fulwood are not aware that the Avenue is built up. However, the next time you visit the hardware shop (or any others on the same side) take a look a the paved area. There is a void underneath which can be seen between the vacant shop and the house. On the other side, the access to the garage drops away from the road.

And finally, T D Nichol whose letter to the Telegraph was featured in a Facebook page seems to be ficticious. I cannot find him an any census or street directories of the period. Neither can I find a reference to a house named Lynwood on Crimicar Lane.

But both Charles Needham and John Henry Smith definitely were ‘real’ and feature in the records