In describing the building known as ‘The Blacksmith’s Arms’, ‘The Hammer and Pincers’ and ‘The Old Coffee House,’ Colin Cooper refers to a Fairbanks plan dated 1792. The plan shown below is from their 1795 plans of Upper Hallam. The buildings to note are the two small buildings to the South East of the plan, extending into field 793.
Stumperlowe Hall was then owned and occupied by James and Mary Glossop, who also owned the three large fields (793, 794, and 795).
Colin Cooper points out that the buildings have the same basic shape as what was later to become the inn and the smithy. He also states that in another Fairbanks plan of this era, those buildings are labelled ‘School’. From my experience of looking at plans of this era, barns are not shown on plans so it would seem as though these buildings were significant and substantial. The name of the adjoining Green was Stumperlowe School Green.
By1808, Stumperlowe Hall had passed into the hands of Christopher Oates. An abstract from the Deeds of the present owner, Ann Barraclough show that on 8th October 1808 the buildings and a strip of land were conveyed by Christopher Oates to a blacksmith named F Harrison. This was Farewell Harrison, and it is possible that he already worked at the forge before he purchased the site in 1808.
Having actual sight of the deeds might indicate whether Farewell Harrison already occupied any part of the site. There may even be a plan showing the buildings at that time. Memorials however describes the buildings as
“two dwelling houses or tenements, (formerly one tenement and used as a school)”
Colin Cooper states that Farewell was also a farmer and farmed 17 acres of land in the vicinity. Some fields were certainly rented from the Silcock family then owners of Whiteley Wood Hall, but whether these are the ones he refers to is unclear. So far I have not found out where he lived in 1808, but the deeds may reveal this.
By 1828 there was certainly a house adjoining the smithy and what had been described as ‘a School’ was then described as ‘a Clubhouse’. In 1825 a licence for the sale of alcohol was granted. Below is a plan showing two indistinct, but substantial building’s adjoining and fronting the old Fulwood Road below field 793. It is taken from a Tithe plan dated 1826. An inspection of the site, following a kind invitation from the owner, reveals several different kinds of stone and what appears to have been different building times. There is also evidence of the re-use of stone outside, and old timber beams inside the house. It is more than likely that the present house incorporates much of the pre-1792 schoolhouse.
Going back to the deeds, in 1838, there were Marriage articles which declared how property brought into the marriage of Farewell Harrison by him and his second wife, Catherine Wagstaffe, would be dealt with. That deed is available, and should be consulted. It makes provision for what should happen when one of them died. Some evidence of this is contained in Farewell’s will.
Farewell Harrison died on 23rd March 1847 and was buried at Ecclesall Church,. We have details of his will which was proved in July 1847. His Executors were Isaac Deakin a grocer of Ranmoor and William Pitchford, a razor maker of Upper Hallam. It seems as though the marriage settlement of 1838 relates to Farewell’s marriage to his second wife, Catherine Wagstaffe and she received the assets mentioned in the marriage settlement which also gave her an annuity of £20 to be paid each year for the rest of her life out of income arising from Farewell’s assets. This explains why his estate could not be wound up before 1858 as that was the year of her death.
Farewell’s three children were William Harrison, Ann, the wife of Joseph Andrew, and Mary, the wife of Isaac Swinden. Ann was to take on the Inn and she and her husband lived together very briefly at the premises. Her husband Isaac died in February 1849, but Ann quickly remarried and her new husband was David Woodhouse, who took a transfer of the inn licence from his wife.
Two years after the death of Farewell’s widow, in 1860, his Trustees conveyed the House, Inn and Smithy to David Woodhouse who took out a mortgage to finance the transaction. He did not retain ownership for long however, as in the following year the properties were conveyed to the owner of Stumperlowe Hall, Henry Isaac Dixon. It seems as though the mortgage responsibility also passed to Mr Dixon as it was only in 1870 that it was paid off by him.
The schedule of deeds shows that the Dixon family conveyed the properties to T K Wilson in 1919. He had married Beatrice the daughter of Henry Isaac Dixon and it remained in that family until 1947, when the house became owner-occupied again. The full deeds schedule supplied by the present owner is shown below
8th October 1808 RELEASE Christopher Oates and others to F
Harrison
17th March 1838 ABSTRACT of Marriage Articles
1859 ABSTRACT of the title
18th February 1860 CONVEYANCE Trustees of Farewell Harrison and David Woodhouse
20th February 1860 MORTGAGE David Woodhouse to George Grayson
16th October 1861 RELEASE David Woodhouse to Henry Isaac Dixon
1878 ABSTRACT of the will of Charles Grayson deceased
25th July 1870 RECONVEYANCE of Thomas Marshall & others to Henry Isaac Dixon
1919 ABSTRACT of title
24th June 1919 CONVEYANCE James Dixon and T K Wilson
24th June 1919 ACKNOWLEDGMENT James Dixon and T K Wilson
29th March 1923 CONVEYANCE (att,copy)T K Wilson to Sheffield Corp
14th October 1938 ASSENT P.R.’s T K Wilson and the Testatrix
25th October 1947 PROBATE of the Will of the Testatrix
The Deeds however only tell the story of who owned the Inn and what was described in the deeds as a Blacksmith’s shop. Once the properties had gone back to ownership by those who lived at Stumperlowe Hall, the Inn was occupied and run by several tenants, one of whom applied to transfer the licence elsewhere but was refused on account of her record of allowing drunkenness at the Inn. At various times in its’ history, the name of the Inn seems to have alternated between the Hammer and Pincers and the Blacksmiths Arms, sometimes appearing as one in an official record, but as the other in another record of a similar period.
We left the story of the occupants of the Inn with the sale to Henry Isaac Dixon in 861. It seems however that David Woodhouse and his wife continued to run the Inn as tenants. Mary (his wife) appears in the Poor rates list in 1863 as the occupier of The Hammer and Pincers. David died, aged 42 in 1867 and within 9 months Mary had also died, thus ending Farewell Harrison’s family’s connection with the Inn.
The licence was held by a man named Thomas Gee in the late 1880’s but it seems he let it lapse and the opportunity was seized by the strictly teetotaller Vicar of Fulwood, the Reverend Hewlett, in alliance with Mr Dixon as owner of the premises to use the premises as a coffee house from 1888. That use remained until it closed in 1931. It seems as though the smithy or blacksmith’s shop next door had long been run as a separate business as from 1851 a George Hodgson, blacksmith was listed as being the occupier of the blacksmiths shop. Like Ann, the daughter of Farewell Harrison, he too was married to a Woodhouse. Like so many old Blacksmith’s shops the use changed over time into repairing and servicing cars, a use which continues to this day.
Over the years there have been many changes to the history of the Inn. In its’ early days auctions were regularly held there and it was also the place where inquests were held if anyone had died in the area and the circumstances needed to be investigated by the Coroner. The Fulwood Silver Band had its’ headquarters there and it was the starting and finishing point of their Bank Holiday marches up to the Norfolk Arms at Ringinglow and back followed by holidaying crowds. Snooker and bowls were played and the field behind the Inn hosted cricket matches between local teams. There was even a flagpole which could fly the flag when events of national importance occurred.
The old Inn is now a charming house, complete with old windows, sturdy oak internal doors, ancient beams and a large barrel-roofed stone cellar. The old well that was in the garden has now been covered over but everywhere there are glimpses of the house’s past history. All it now needs is for an expert on vernacular buildings to explain which parts of the building belong to which period of its’ history and how much of the old pre-1792 school may remain…………..