A Visitor Guide to Bradfield

A VISITOR GUIDE TO BRADFIELD AND DISTRICT

By Graham Kirkby

HIGH BRADFIELD THE WATCH HOUSE The stone building dating from 1830 at the entrance to the church near the gates is the watch house. It was circular with many windows and was built to shelter people watching for body snatchers who dug up corpses and sold them to doctors for research. Because cadavers for the study of anatomy were at a premium, even respectable doctors were prepared to trade with the thieves to obtain

outbuildings were demolished and the façade altered. Landlords have come and gone since then and the current mine hosts; Michael and Gordon Robinson have been manning the pumps since 1993. They have refurbished the Inn, which is very attractive inside and out.

There is a warm and welcoming atmosphere, with beautiful views across the Loxley Valley.

The Old Horns Inn may have acquired its name because of its link with the Bradfield Fair.

Apparently St. Luke was the patron saint of the fair, which was held annually in the Old Horns yard. It seems the symbol of St Luke is an Ox, which is depicted in the East window of the Church and in the panelling on the pulpit. As a pair of Horns plays such a conspicuous part in the activities, the inn may have taken on the name.

these “teaching aids” for themselves and their pupils. Legally they could only dissect the bodies of executed criminals so consequently a watch had to be kept over the graves of relatives and friends. This is the only surviving watch house in Yorkshire and one of the few still remaining in England. It now makes a pleasant home for the local verger and his family.

THE STATUTE HIRINGS In the street outside the Old Horns Inn, there was an old custom, which no doubt had taken place for hundreds of years, this was “THE STATUTE HIRINGS” that happened on the last Friday in October. Farm hands from miles around came here to be hired. Those available for work wore a symbol of plated straw on their jackets to indicate the job they did. The slapping of hands or the paying of a fastening penny made pledges.

THE OLD HORNS INN In 1760 the Landlord was George Stead, but in 1797 the inn closed and was used as a farmhouse until 1833 when the present building was erected. It reopened as an inn-cum-farm, and had stabling for six horses, along with a cowshed, pigsties, barns, and other outbuildings. In 1891 John Bashforth was the publican and farmer along with his wife Eliza, and two children. They also employed two servants. In 1892 the inn was sold for one thousand and twenty-five pounds. The

Usually on that day, there was a fair with coconut shies and “Aunt Sallys,” races were 2

run, games were played, people threw sticks for gingerbread, there was bear and bull baiting, cock fighting and grinning through horsecollars. Food abounded, and there was far too much drinking. There were stalls on both sides of Town Gate, and in its hay-day there were so many people, you could have walked on their heads from Woodfall Lane to Churchgate.

religious assembly and for law giving. While the other mound, also of Saxon construction is a “mote and bailey.” It is such a complete work that one can’t imagine it was constructed in haste, or to serve any temporary purpose. It is thought it may have been used as a military post, perhaps one of the frontier barriers of the kingdom of Northumbria and that it was used as a lookout and for defence, both mounds are now tree covered. These mounds near old English churches are not uncommon.

In the 1890’s, numbers began to fall, and the same happened to the cattle markets, which were held in March and November, although in November 1891 the Bradfield stock sale was a great success when one hundred and twenty sheep, thirty beasts, and some horses were brought under the hammer in the Old Horns yard. The Reverend Brown said that the “Bradfield Stattes” did much to enliven the dull monotony of village life, when times of pleasure were few and far between. “These times might surely have been mended, instead of being ended” he commented.

It was believed there was a subterranean passage under the town street of Bradfield with treasure hidden under one mound, so about 1720 Jeremy Fairest dug in from the top and found squared stones with marks of a tool on

THE OLD RECTORY The Old Rectory was an important house in the village, there were rooms set apart for guests

them, his excitement turned to disappointment when he realised it was for drainage and related to a “house sough.” Bailey Hill was sold at public auction along with the adjoining croft and plantation on the 28 September 1892, for £350 to C. Wilson; Esq. And was scheduled as an ancient monument about 1893 by General Pit Rivers.

and it was large enough to entertain strangers and travellers. It had large stables for the horses and could boast a good library.

BRADFIELD WORKHOUSE The first mention of a “Poor House” in Bradfield was when a meeting was held at Jeremiah Morten’s attended by Church Wardens and overseers of the poor, parishioners and inhabitants. This took place on 4 June 1768, when it was decided they would erect,

BAILY HILL Behind the church of St. Nicholas, 130 yards to the north-west, on the site of an earlier Saxon church, are two mounds; one mound is believed to be a burial ground, a place of 3

purchase or hire a house or houses for the better and more effectual support, keeping, and maintenance of the poor of the Chapelry of Bradfield.

In 1817 the old house, brew house and carthouse had to be pulled down and a stable was built alongside the workhouse using the materials from the demolished buildings.

The Bradfield Feoffees allowed forty pounds towards repairing a row of old houses, which were either empty or belonged to the church.

The row of houses was a three-story building with no back doors, but all stone-mullioned windows. It was twenty yards long and six yards wide, and there was land at the back.

Sometimes people were able to stay in the workhouse if they were on a long journey. This would happen when someone died and the dependants had to return to the village of their birth or where their husband lived. An example of this was a woman whose soldier husband was killed in Jamaica. She had to come from Portsmouth to Bradfield, and on the way she stayed at Petersfield, Goldaming, Liphook, Rupton, London, Michael’s Barf, Stevenage, Biggleswade, Weston, Wansford, Stanford, Grantham, Newark, Tuxford, and Worksop.

They were also given a travelling allowance, usually two and halfpence a mile. In July 1826 twelve widows stopped at Bradfield, for their husbands had been killed in Quebec, and they were on their way to Liverpool, Cheshire, Lancaster, and Denbigh.

The first accounts available are for 1775, when the average food bill was £10 a month. They used forty-five pounds of beef a week, plus oatmeal, bacon, potatoes, butter, hops, flour, milk, bread, malt, soap, tobacco, lime, a comb and nearly six pounds of wool and a doctor was appointed to look after the welfare of the paupers, he was paid twenty-one pounds a year.

Sometimes there was overcrowding and conditions were squalid, at other times it was much better, for example in one room there were two bedsteads, two mats, two chaff beds, three blankets, four sheets, two coverlets, two bolsters with cases, one box, one table, and three chairs. The able bodied were expected to work, and local people were asked to take apprentices or able bodied labourers. Some local people objected to being made to take on extra hands and threatened violence if they were compelled to take part in the scheme.

With the abolition of the Poor Laws during the 1840’s the properties became redundant. Any remaining inhabitants were transferred to the newly opened Union Workhouse at Grenoside.

In 1897 it was proposed that the Parish Council be desired to acquire the property, generally known as the old workhouse, and the cottages were taken over as a Convalescent Home and called Wesley Cottages. Then private tenants took over.

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LOW BRADFIELD enough his daughter Nellie started to help him.

After sorting, she did the long day on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, which meant walking twenty miles before lunch, and then on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday she only did eighteen miles!! When the weather was very bad one year, people could not get out to work but Nellie and her father managed, even though it sometimes meant walking on the top of walls to get through the snow. In 1926 Mr Gillott received the following letter from the General Post Office in London.

THE POST OFFICE In the early days of the Post Office, Bradfield did not have a postal service, and credit must be given to the Reverend Brierly Brown for his efforts in persuading the G. P.O. to provide some sort of service, albeit a meagre one. A postman walked from Hillsborough to Bradfield with the mail but the Post Office said it was too much for them to deliver it as well, so the postman waited all day and took any mail back to Sheffield with him. Sometimes German Wilson of Malin Bridge brought it up with his pony and trap.

Dear Sir, On the occasion of your retirement from the Post Office, I desire to express to you my appreciation of the faithful service you rendered to the State during a period of more than 27 years.

Yours very truly, W. Mitchell Thomas (Postmaster General)

At first the Post Office was in the Watch House by the church gates, but then it moved to the big house. People had to walk up the hill to buy a stamp. There was a letterbox in the front wall of the house and the first telephone was installed there.

Mr. Gillott died suddenly in 1935. He was 70 years old but no one in the village would accept responsibility and take on the Post Office, so it was taken over by Mr. Lawrence Barber who for many years carried on the good work. In 1946 it was moved to the “bottom shop” at Low Bradfield where it still remains.

“Postie Joe” was the regular postman and after he left the letters at High Bradfield he walked down to the small Post Office at the lower end of Burnside Cottages where he ate his sandwiches and passed the time. He was a friendly character and the children looked forward to him coming so they could go and talk to him.

Part of the Post Office has also been used as a Public House. As it was so near the Church gates it was known as Heaven House or Heaven’s Gate. Once it was the house of old Jeremiah Parkin and was said to have a parlour there called Heavens Parlour, which was the best public house in Bradfield. Later it became The Cross Daggers, and closed around 1895.

Mr Jonathan Gillott kept the Post Office for forty-six years and he sorted and delivered the mail six days a week. Then when she was old

CASTLE HILL There may never have been a castle here at all.

The name castle hill may be a corruption of an 5

Icelandic word “kastali” brought over with the Vikings which means a dome-shaped hill. The nearest it came to a castle may have been an earthen bulwark thrown up for the purpose of defence like those at Castle Hills in Eastby, Castle Hill in Egton, and Castle Dykes in Aysgarth which are merely ancient earth works.

crowded audience and was everywhere heard, and to one of the largest congregations I have ever seen in the Kingdom.” His day would start about five in the morning when he would preach to the workers before they began work, and he would preach again in the evening, staying for two or three days.

Bradfield was in the Sheffield circuit and the first Methodist Chapel was built there was in 1817. The land was secured through the good offices of Mr. George Senior, who later became the Master Cutler in 1910. The Chapel cost £1,585 and every last penny had been raised by the day of the opening. It is said that practically all the inhabitants of High and Low Bradfield attended, as well as a large number of visitors from Sheffield, including the ministers and officials of the Carver Street Circuit. There were not enough seats for everyone. To give an indication how the church flourished, in that same year there were fifty-two teachers, and one hundred and fifty-four scholars.

THE PINFOLD The pinfold beside the Sheffield Road was for stray animals. The person in charge of the pinfold was called the “pinner” and if owners wanted their animals back they had to pay him for damage to crops and for their keep while impounded.

Then on 5 April 1899 the new Wesleyan Chapel was opened almost directly opposite the first church. It had an elaborate decorated exterior, in contrast to the plain exterior of the first church and was a building of which anybody of Methodists people could be proud. The Chapel was opened by Mrs Robson of London, standing in for Mrs Osborn of Sheffield, who was absent through illness, and was dedicated to Mr. Joseph Ibbotson who died in 1892 after many years of devoted service. A beautiful stained glass window at the east end of the church bears the inscription “To the Glory of God and in memory of Joseph Ibbotson born 14 July 1816, died 6 January 1892” There are also three small memorial windows over the pulpit, all given by the Ibbotson family in memory of Mrs Ibbotson. The Chapel held its last service in 1993 and is now a private residence. The original Chapel is now the Council Offices.

THE METHODISTS

John Wesley paid his first visit to Sheffield in 1742, whilst on his way from Epworth in Lincolnshire, which was his family home. Eight days earlier he had been refused permission to preach or read prayers in his home church, so after the service there he preached in the Churchyard, standing on his father’s tombstone. He came to Bradfield again in 1743 then 1744 and his last visit was in 1788 when he was eighty-five years old, preaching “to a 6

THE PLOUGH INN

oatmeal.The Mill was swept away in the Sheffield Flood of 1864, and Mr Ibbotson who owned the corn mill at the time was given compensation money from the Sheffield Water Company, which enabled him to rebuild the mill.

It was then powered by a water turbine, which was an unusual and interesting feature of waterpower in the area. With money left over Mr Ibbotson was able to build the attractive Burnside House in 1875 which is situated further up the road from where the corn mill once stood.

The Plough Inn was opened officially in April 1847. It is said that in 1864 on the occasion of the Sheffield Flood, children ran to the Plough Inn for safety. In 1905 the Annual Bradfield Fair was held there, when dealers came from Penistone and Derbyshire. In 1964 two helicopters from the 651 Light Aircraft Squadron were forced down and the crews were given overnight accommodation at The Plough.

BRADFIELD CORN MILL Bradfield Corn Mill was situated between the garage and the bridge. It was built of stone and was three stories high. Gerard-de-Furnivall who died in 1219 left one-third of his mill at Bradfield to the Priory of Worksop. It had five pairs of large millstones, two of these were granite, one pair was grit-stone, and the newest pair were “composition� stone.

Then in 1940 a consignment of ground nuts from America, which had been sunk and recovered, were being dried out overnight, when they caught fire, and the whole mill was gutted. Work continued for a few years in the farm buildings at Thorne House, until Mr. Jehu Crapper retired and all was closed down in 1957

The pair of grit stones were used solely for shelling oats and then grinding them into

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EARNING A LIVING As well as the many farmers and stone masons in the community there were lots of other occupations, these being; blacksmiths, boot and shoemakers, butchers, corn miller, firebrick manufacturer, grocers, joiners and wheelwrights, pocket-knife manufacturers, postman, razor scale presser, saw grinder, shopkeepers, spring knife cutler, tailor, tent manufacturer, victualler, weaver and draper to which we can add car repairs in the garage at Low Bradfield.

bagging as many as forty to fifty brace of red grouse and in 1913 nine guns achieved a record bag of 1,421.5 brace (2,843 birds). So spectacular was it that on the “Glorious” 12th August thousands of Sheffielders came to watch and coaches were hired out especially for the occasion.

THE TERRAIN Generally, the soil around Bradfield is thin and poor and often the ground is covered in large stones. On these exposed hills the trees are stunted and fern, foxglove, and heather do best, as does the bilberry, the cowberry, and the more highly prized cranberry. With the right care grouse also do well on the moors. Although life is hard, the farms are highly prized and are passed down from father to son.

GROUSE Are a good source of income for any landowner and prior to 1821 the Duke of Norfolk preserved game on the Bradfield Moors. His gamekeeper was a man called Bamford and a lodge was built for him between Moscar and Hollow Meadows.

The lodge was built in the shape of a tower on high ground, which gave good views all around.

It is now a ruin but it is still called “Bamfords Lodge.” The gamekeeper neglected his duty to such an extent, that the grouse became almost non-existent.

In 1832 the game laws were changed, giving power over the game to the owner of the land instead of the Lord of the Manor. As the Duke of Norfolk was both the owner of the land and the Lord of the Manor the effect was to raise the rent to about four times its previous value and membership was restricted. The association preserved between seven to eight thousand acres of moorland The Duke of Norfolk is a member of the Royal Family who inherited Sheffield, Worksop, and many other manors from the Lovetot, Furnivall, and Talbot families. He continued the tradition of hunting in South Yorkshire begun by his ancestors and among other honours he inherited the titles of Premier Duke and Earl of England, Knight of the Garter, and Marshal of England. He is related to Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and is descended from King Edward I.

Then in 1822 a game association was formed and members paid an annual subscription of three guineas. The Duke of Norfolk undertaking to appoint new keepers. Although the improvement was slow in the beginning the grouse increased and the membership fee was raised gradually till members were paying thirtyfive pounds a year, with membership restricted to twenty-five. A good shoot on August 12 8

THE SURROUNDING AREA HOLLY RENTS

pub are still known today as the “Donkey Fields.” Then in 1670 along came a great iron master called Mr Copley, and for a reasons best known to himself, stubbed up all the holly, giving the hillside an appearance of general desolation.

The local people preserved the memory of Mr Copley’s devastation in the rhyme: If Mr Copley had never been born, Or in his cradle had died, Loxley Chase had never been torn, Nor many a brave wood beside.

MORTIMER ROAD

During the winter when there is little nutrition in the grass the sheep, mules and goats were fed on holly. The sheep would follow the shepherd round the field while he cut sufficient for their needs. Holly was a valuable commodity to the farmer and smallholder, so much so they were prepared to pay the landlord a rent dependent on how much holly they had growing on their land, this was known as the “Holly Rent.”

The Holly Bush Inn on Hollins Lane, Rivelin was noted for its holly. In the photograph is RACKER WAY as seen from Rivelin Street Walkley looking towards Stannington. The silver horseshoes were highly prized by Sheffielders and were worn on a necklace. The one show in the inset is thought to date from the reign of Charles II (1660 – 1685) and was found during excavations on High Street. It was thought to be hidden for safety during the Civil War and is now in the British Museum.

For easy identification Strines Inn is on Mortimer Road, which starts in Grindleford and ends in Penistone. The building of this Turnpike Road might well have appealed to the Duke of Norfolk, the owner being able to erect tollgates and charge people for its use. This project was the brainchild of Mr Hans Winthrop Mortimer (died 1807) He was the Lord of the Manor of Bamford and his father was medical adviser to the Prince of Wales. Hans was MP for Shaftesbury and owned property owner in Essex, Derbyshire, and London (there is still a Mortimer Street and Mortimer Market near the Tottenham Court Road). He had a large household of servants,

The Jaggers coming down Rackers Way from Sheffield to Stannington would stop at the Holly Bush Inn and the mules would satisfy themselves on the holly, while the Rackers did the same with the ale. The fields adjacent to the 9

two houses in London, and a countryseat at Coldwell Hall, three miles south of Buxton-onTrent.

and another at Sheephouse Height near Midhopestones.

Today, it is a beautiful drive for the leisure motorist, and because of the comparative quietness of the road and its switchback nature, racing cyclists find it a useful training route.

Walkers would be happier if there was a grassy verge or footpath to walk on and local residents would be in difficulty without it. Little other traffic uses the road, Halifax Road being a quicker and easier alternative.

Mortimer believed the turnpike road would develop the district and yield large profits, so in 1768 he raised a mortgage of eight thousand pounds against his estates at Bamford. In theory the project seemed a good one. Penistone was an important market town, and at the Grindleford end it would meet up with two other roads that ran through the village. One was the Sheffield to Buxton Road and the other was Calver to Newhaven Road. Also at Penistone it met the Doncaster to Manchester Road and the Sheffield to Halifax Road. In addition, crossing his planned road on an east/west axis was the Sheffield to Sparrowpit Road via the Hope Valley, and the Rotherham to Stockport Road via Woodhead.

AGDEN LODGE The word “Agden” means the oak valley.

Subsequent to the Bradfield Enclosure of 1811, Messrs. Parker and Sayle purchased the Emlin and Strines Moors allotments in 1824. The land was known as the Sheffield Reservoir Company’s allotment, and was preserved and shot over by the Bradfield Game Association.

Parker and Sayle’s ownership of the land ended in litigation in 1858. After the dispute the land was sold off. Thomas Birks purchased the Emlin Moor allotment in October 1859. He did not live long enough to do much with the land for in July 1861 the trustees of the late Thomas Birks offered the allotment for sale by auction. Samuel Fox bought it for £640.

The road was built taking all his money, he sold everything he had to pay for it, and he died bankrupt. His granddaughter wrote later that if he had not sold property where the University of London was later built he would have become a millionaire.

Mortimer’s road failed because; Produce from North East Derbyshire went east to Chesterfield and Sheffield.

Fox finished building the Lodge in 1870, but did not permanently reside there as the property was let out. He may have used it as a shooting lodge, the tenants possibly being also caretakers.

Goods for the Yorkshire woollen mills went via Wortley and Penistone on the present A61/A629.

BENTS Bents is a charming gabled stone house, erected near the site of the old Bents Farm. In this building some of the ruins from Peryhouse (or Pearshouse) and Bents Farm have been used. Some of these stones bear initials and dates.

The switchback road was too hilly for stagecoaches It was very exposed.

The road was so steep in places it was necessary for spare “chain horses” to wait at the bottom of the steepest hills. At the top of the hills was a stone marking the point where the extra horses were unhitched, these are called “Take Off Stones.” There is one stone near Strines Inn

BOLSTERSTONE There was a castle here in the 13th century on a site to the east of the church and parts of a 10

Gatehouse and gateway remain. The village stocks are thought to have come from the castle. Two large stones in the south-east corner of the churchyard may have come from an ancient stone circle or from stone crosses.

Another suggestion is that they were the bases of wooden execution posts. The village was once noted for its production of glass.

that in total there were either four of five houses on this site. There were four stones, which bore the dates 1311, 1640, 1773, and 1831, built into the porch of the last building.

In the hall stood the massive black oak dinner table dated 1588, the top of which measured fifteen feet six inches long and was nearly four inches thick, also there were two shuffle boards at one end.

BROOMHEAD HALL At one time this magnificent house built in the Gothic style on the edge of the purple moors was the principal house in the Chapelry of Bradfield. The first house was erected in the reign of Charles I (1625-1649) by Christopher Wilson born about 1595, whose family had lived in the area since the time of Edward I (12721307).

Capt. R. R. Wilson and his family last occupied Broomhead Hall in 1939 but it became too costly to run and he spent most of his time at his home near Cirencester. During the Second World War part of the house was used as a school, and the Rimington Wilson’s stayed there for part of the Second World War. One of their visitors being Guy Gibson. Then after the bombing of Sheffield, an insurance company used it for offices, and the Army took over most of it until 1946.

The last people to occupy the building were the farm workers who lived there in flats. Some of the rooms were used for the storage of grain and potatoes during the war years. It was demolished in the 1970’s and now is only a name and a memory.

The house went out of the family’s direct line of descent when John Wilson’s widow sold Broomhead to her husband’s cousin Henry who was a London Merchant, and he bequeathed it to his nephew James Rimington in 1819. It then passed to the great-nephew John Wilson, namely James Wilson Rimington, who on receiving the property took on the additional surname of Wilson.

Broomhead Moor where the house was sited was noted for the number and quality of the grouse, but its heyday was around the time of Queen Victoria and Edward VII. During the summer, crowds of Sheffielders came to pick bilberries, which are acknowledged as some of the best on the Pennines.

THE CONVENT Standing high on a ridge overlooking Bradfield, with the Loxley Valley on one side and Oughtibridge on the other is a grim looking building surrounded by a high wall, which people refer to as the Convent.It was built in 1871 and history was being made almost one hundred years earlier when in March 1782 the murdered body of Nathan Andrews was found in a copse across the road from where the convent now

James Wilson Rimington, married Jane the daughter of Robert Wallas, of Madeira in 1819 and it was in Maderia that his son Reginald Henry Rimington Wilson was born on 3 November 1852. Mr. James W. Rimington Wilson died in 1877.

The last hall was built in 1831, the previous building having been burnt down, and we know 11

stands.The building was erected originally as an Industrial School for Girls, which was a term used for places where orphaned children worked to help pay for their keep, which they earned in this particular instance by doing laundry. Unfortunately, there was no main’s water to the building and collecting rainwater, which was pumped in, by a windmill was very impractical. So in 1887 the children were transferred to St. Joseph’s at Walkley.

the sisters, the Bishop of the Diocese, and the reigning Sovereign.

The convent then stood empty till it became a reformatory for boys, some of who were sent there for burning their boat on the River Mersey.

Mrs Nellie Chapman of High Bradfield remembered seeing young boys dressed in sailor type suites being taken for walks along Kirk Edge Road.

During the 1914-18 war Miss Phyllis Browne, daughter of the Rector of Bradfield Church, and teacher at High Bradfield School, having lost her fiancée in action, entered the Convent taking the White Veil. Each Sunday Mrs Chapman and other friends visited her but were only allowed to converse through a double grill. Sometime later Miss Browne left the Convent and later married.

She ended her days in Bridlington in the 1970’s, where her old friend Polly Uttley lived.

Prior to 1958 the Nuns trained for six months as a postulant, twelve months as a novice and a further three years before taking their final vows, which used to be known as simple vows, although they were lifelong vows. After 1958 the Convent changed to a Monastery and the final vows the nuns took were Solemn Vows.

In 1910, the 15th Duke of Norfolk gave the surrounding eighteen acres of land to “The Reformed Order of Displaced Carmelite Nuns,”

EWDEN VILLAGE Was built to house workers constructing the Broomhead and More Hall Reservoirs between 1913 and 1929 for Sheffield Corporation, the village had a hospital, church and canteen. By 1976 only seven of the original buildings remained but new housing has been built on the site.

HOLDSWORTH HALL The Hall is a late 17th century building with a stone-tiled roof. Windows are divided into double lights by a central mullion and there is extensive out-housing. The Hall is perched on the summit of the tremendous hillside known as “The Bank” which falls almost precipitously from Onesacre to the river and overlooks Dam Flask.

The hillside was covered in early times with forest-trees, which had rooted themselves in the crevices between the rocks and boulders of the hillside. There are panoramic views over Bradfield to the moors beyond which are the uplands of the Peak District National Park.

Places as far afield as Derwent Edge and Norton Water tower can be seen and you can

which was a very strict order, first created in the 12th century, and then re-established in the 16th century by St. Teresa. The building needed considerable alterations and a new chapel was built as well as the surrounding wall some fifteen to twenty feet high, which was necessary to ensure the total seclusion, required. On the 16 July 1911 the Convent of The Holy Ghost was opened.

Inside is a Sacred Enclosure, which is cut off entirely from the rest of the building. It was so sacred that the only people allowed inside are 12

HAYCHATTER

tell the time from the clock in Lodge Moor Hospital. With a good pair of binoculars Swallownest and Worksop can be perceived.

Walter Hurt settled at Holdsworth about 1546.

He was descended from the Hurts of Ashbourne in the Peak and his family is related to the Eyres of Hope through the marriage of two of his children and two of his grandchildren who married descendants of Nicholas Eyre and who fought at Agincourt (1415). Of the Holdsworth branch of Hurts the only one who made a name for himself was Richard, who was thrice Mayor of Nottingham under Elizabeth and was a Member of Parliament at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. His name is on the great bell of 1595 at St. Mary’s Church and in June 1603 when Anne of Denmark with Prince Henry and “A glorious attendance” of peers and great ladies was riding from Edinburgh to the coronation at London, he had the honour of presenting them with a silver cup over two feet high.

The Haychatter Inn started life as a small farm with a cottage next door. The cottage only had one room upstairs and one room downstairs. In a will dated 1614 the pub was bequeathed to Thomas Broomhead and the croft to Elizabeth his wife, for which he had to pay two old pence a year rent. However, after the death of his wife he was to pay four old pence a year rent. Later, in 1880 it fetched one thousand six hundred and sixty-two pounds.

During the construction of the Dams it was a convenient meeting place for the workmen, so it became a beer-house. When the navies left the district the temporary license was taken away, but the inn was renamed “The Reservoir Inn” and had a seven day beer license. Then Florence Helliwell purchased the Reservoir Inn in November 1962 and sold it to Tennant Bros.

Ltd for fifteen thousand pounds and was renamed the Haychatter. The last owners were Mr. & Mrs. G. W. Siddall, but sadly Mr Siddall died in July 1975 and Margaret took over. Some episodes of “Last of the Summer Wine” were filmed around there, and it was thought to be a good location but there were not sufficient shops, cafes, etc. for the actors and film crew. It closed as an Inn, late 1999 and converted into a private dwelling.

HALLFIELD

Is the tall, elegant 17th century yeoman’s farmer’s house high on the western side of the Dale Dike Reservoir. Formerly part of the Fitzwilliam Estate, it was put on the market about 1980 and was sold for £6,000. Today it is the wonderfully restored home of the former chairman of the Sheffield Development Corporation; its ancient Cruck barn contains a swimming pool.

MORE HALL The Mores of More Hall date back to Saxon times before William the Conqueror invaded.

The Hall is thought to be the oldest inhabited 13

house in the whole chapelry of Bradfield, starting as an “aula” or wooden hall similar to the one at Hallam. It has been rebuilt, and modernised several times. The oldest part still standing dates back to around the time of Henry VIII. The coat of arms shows a dragon, and at the time of the conquest the More family would have been one of the most prominent in Bradfield. It is thought the family contributed to the building of St. Nicholas, and on the North east corner of the church is a gargoyle depicting a dragon. It was of course one of the More family who slew the dragon in Wharncliffe, so we are told. There is also a dragon on the garden wall of the Council offices, called the “Oughtibridge Dragon” because it was rescued from a derelict works on Station Rd. Oughtibridge.

Baptist. Soon after, the merchants of Amalfi helped financially and founded a brotherhood whose duties were not only to provide for the needs of pilgrims visiting Jerusalem but also to afford them protection on their journey.

Their work spread and they set up military hospitals on the main routes around the world, establishing in the Holy Land a hospital that could care for some 2,000 patients. It is said to have been especially concerned with eye disease, and may have been the first hospital to specialize in a particular field.

The First Earl of Wharncliffe (1827-99) bought the Hall in 1862 and one of his racehorses was called after the monster. When he refurbished the billiard room at Wortley Hall he commissioned the artist Edward Poynter to produce a picture of a legendary hero fighting a dragon. The picture was taken to Sheffield Town Hall for safe keeping during the Second World War, but it was unfortunately lost in the Sheffield blitz of 1940, although a photograph of it still exists.

The Knights Hospitallers themselves came under much persecution, the Turks being their main persecutors. The Seljuk Turks plundered the hospital and took the Superior prisoner. The following year in 1099, as the crusaders went from Constantinople, they took Jerusalem by storm and released the Superior. They themselves in return received much help from the brothers. In this party was Baldwin who became King of Jerusalem also William the Conquerors eldest son Robert, the Duke of Normandy, who was age forty-five at the time.

For the moment the Knights position was secure. The brothers took a vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience and at a later date pledged themselves to fight against the infidels and to defend the Holy Sepulchre. They wore a black robe with an eight pointed cross on the breast. After a break, the persecution by different factions continued, causing them to move on and eventually they re-established their headquarters in Malta, while still suffering fierce

PLATTS FARM Many years ago Platts Farm belonged to the Knights Hospitallers who were also known as “The Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem” and were the forerunners of the St. John’s Ambulance Corps. We know today. They were active some centuries before the first crusade, and many pilgrims to the Holy Land who suffered or died from fatigue, sickness or ill treatment, have reason to be grateful to them.

The Knights provided a rest house or hospice for the pilgrims in Jerusalem and after many years of giving help, the Caliph of Egypt gave permission for a hospital to be built. This was completed in 1048 and dedicated to St. John the 14

attacks from the Turks. The final blow came when Napoleon Bonaparte in June 1798 seized Malta along with all their treasures. This proved to be the end of the order in the Mediterranean, although they were settled in other places. The good work of these knights which was given voluntarily for the benefit of the crusaders and other pilgrims, brought them into contact with people of many nationalities, by whom they were invited to extend their work to the west of Europe, with the result that they spread into Germany, Italy, Spain and England where they were well received. In South Yorkshire; Waldershelf, Broomhead Hall, Ughill Hall, Plates Farm and Townend have been mentioned in connection with them, and it is believed they had twelve houses in the area, all of which were distinguished by crosses being displayed, indicating the farmstead was held by the Knights and was exempt from the payment of tithes.

and nieces. The farm has become a ruin since the land was acquired by the water board to prevent pollution of the water supply.

STRINES INN Originally the inn, which was built in 1275, was a manor house and farm. It belonged to the Worrall family around the 16th century and their coat of arms can be seen over the doorway. (A lion rampant between three cups, impaling on a chevron three trefoils; in chief an arm in armour, endowed between two wings, holding a dagger bend wise within a border engrailed, crest on a helmet with mantling cup”.)

The wife of William Peveril founded a hospital for the Knights Hospitallers in Castleton known as Spital Buildings. It was mainly for lepers and they looked after the needy until 1536 when the dissolution of the monasteries forced the place to close.

The Knights Hospitallers shouldn’t be confused with the Knights Templers, who were a different order and were formed later in 1119 AD at the time of the Crusades. The order was dissolved by the pope at the behest of Philip IV of France in 1312 (he died 1314) The Templars’ possessions were given to the Hospitalers and their last dignitaries were imprisoned or executed. The emblem of the Templars was a red cross on a white background.

There is a story of a pane of glass here, inscribed with the words. “Oh! Ye charming mistress, Dorothy Worrall.” Dorothy was the fair daughter of the house and a John Kynge may have put the inscription there in the 16 th century, who later married her. Unfortunately, a member of the family who had been visiting his ancestors took the pane of glass back to London.

ROCHER HEAD FARM Carved over the back door was “17TB41” in strange heraldic lettering, and near here were found in 1883 Neolithic or Early Bronze Age bone implements and also flint scrapers and knives. The last occupants of the farm were a brother and sister and the children’s bikes may have been brought to the farm by their nephews 15

Later it became a farm-cum-inn and callers shared the mighty fireside with the farmer and his staff. Cattle, sheep, and poultry shared the farmyard, which is now a tarmac car park.

been hired to pull carriages up the hill, were unharnessed. There were once stepping stones where the stone-bridge crosses Strines Dyke and it is thought the name of Strines originated from these stones or strides.

While the Worralls were there, two young women played a practical joke on a maidservant. They dressed up as men with the intention that one of them would pretend to be the maid’s lover. One stood near a window and whistled to attract the maid’s attention, while the other girl watched from the shadows. A member of the Worrall family hearing the whistle went to the back window. Thinking the young woman disguised as a man was a burglar, shot at the figure. Old records state, “The figure was seen to reel, and the shrieks of the young girl were heard.” Only then did the landlord realise his mistake. It is said; periodically the ghost of a grey lady appears at the rear of Strines Inn.

SUGWORTH HALL & BOOTS TOWER Sugworth Hall is a beautiful moorland house set in wild open country beyond Strines Dam. It was built by Mr Henry Boot who was the founder and head of great business organisations in this country, operating into France and Spain. Most of the house dates from Jacobean times, and was filled with beautiful furniture suited to such a house. The workmen of Sugworth were provided with a room within the Hall for their leisure time, known as “The Institute,” due to the kindly thought of Mr. And Mrs. Charles Boot. Mrs. Boot of Sugworth Hall died in 1926 at the age of fiftysix years.

Many years ago a travelling tailor, who had been doing his rounds in Bradfield spent the night there. Earlier he had been seen with gold ornaments but he was never seen again and the mystery was never solved. Rumour had it that the landlord may have known more than he would admit.

A more light-hearted story is told about a Bradfield tailor in the eighteenth century called Godfrey Jubb. He went to Strines on business, which usually took two or three days to complete. It was dark when he set off for home and he was aware of the stories about a ghost, so he was rather frightened when he saw a stationary figure in the middle of a field. Going back to the inn, the landlord accompanied him with a big stick, the tailor making sure he kept behind the landlord. After dealing the figure a hefty blow, it transpired the “figure” was a very large thistle, its airy thistledown scattering in all directions. Strines Inn was also known as “Taylors Arms.”

Near the house and belonging to it, is BOOT’S TOWER, which was built by the same family, the Sheffield building contractor Charles Boot, son of Henry who founded the firm. He also created the water gardens nearby. The fifty-foot high tower which people call “Boot’s Folly” was built around the time of the great depression (192030), to provide work for his men after the Great War (1914-18) when people had barely enough to feed themselves. Sugworth Hall is built in a hollow and has limited views, so the wide panorama from the top of the tower would be an added bonus, especially as there may have been an observatory in the room at the top.

At the top of the slope just beyond the inn is the “Take off” stone where extra horses, which had 16

Other reasons given for its construction are that he built it to entertain guests, and also perhaps he could see his wife’s grave in Bradfield cemetery from the top. They used stone and old mullions from derelict local farms. The tower is now in poor condition and during the Second World War, panels were removed for firewood.

Sometime later the lower part of the staircase was removed because a cow wandered up the stairs and became stuck. It caused a great commotion and the cow had to be blindfolded and lowered to the ground with ropes and pulleys.

Mr William Bramall’s mother, and who lived at Fair House planted the first tree. Later it became a children’s home but closed sometime around 1995.

UGHILL HALL

Near the tower are some carved stones, which are understood to have come from Brunswick Chapel, which was near the bottom of the Sheffield Moor, and was damaged during a bombing raid in the Second World War. Mr. Boot was given the task of making the chapel safe, and he brought much of the masonry onto the moors near his home. We can only speculate on his intentions.

Ughill Hall goes back to the time of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). The Lord of the Manor of Ughill was the Saxon, Aldene, at the same time as Earl Waltheof was the Lord of the Manor of Hallam. (When councillors were looking for a suitable alternative name for Coal Pit Lane near Loxley Common, they chose Aldene Rd because of this connection.)

THORNSEAT LODGE

After the conquest William the Conqueror seized the hall and gave it to Roger-de-Busli. An entry in the Domesday Book confirms it as belonging to Roger with adjoining land. Roger-de-Busli built himself a castle at Tickhill and garrisoned it with Norman soldiers. He also possessed other land for example at Kimberworth and Tinsley. He also held the land of Hallamshire in sufeuditary to Judith, who was the niece of William the Conqueror and wife of Waltheof.

The new occupants of the Hall were the Marriott family who comprised the brothers Rudolph, Augustine, and William. They derived their name from the Town of Marriott in Normandy. Their names also appeared in the Barron’s wars, the wars of the Roses, and also in foreign wars.

Around 1647 John Marriott was both fined and plundered by the Royalists of Sheffield Castle.

The Marriott’s must have survived because they were there for more than four hundred years

Sydney Jessop built the house during the Crimean War (1853-56) for his first gamekeeper Mr Jagger and his more famous brother Mr William Bramall. Afterwards it was used for a shooting and weekend lodge. It was built inside Thornseat Plantation, which was originally called “Miss Harrison’s Plantation”, but before the enclosure act of 1811 it was called Thornseat Moor. Jossy Sanderson, who was the uncle of 17

after the conquest. In the front wall of the building was a stone tablet with Thomas Marriott 1697. Whether he erected it then or enlarged it we are not certain. But many more additions and alterations have since been made to this substantial stone residence. In 1743 George Marriott was Master Cutler of Sheffield. After the death of Benjamin Marriott in 1761 the male line failed and Ughill Hall belonged then to Thomas Marriott Perkins. It is he who was a benefactor to the School at Bradfield. For many years the house fell into disrepair.

understood the boy lives with his natural father and his sight has returned. The solicitor fled to France, where he climbed onto the roof of a cathedral to escape capture but was brought to trial. Ughill Hall was later advertised for sale at about £250,000, coming on the market again in the autumn of year 2000 for £350.000.

WOODSEATS FARM Robert Ward, who came to the district from Almonbury, thought to be in the Huddersfield area, built Woodseats Farm in 1634 on the site of an older building. Robert Ward’s daughter Grace married Abraham Woodhead of Thwong and the Woodhead family lived at Woodseats until 1840. Grace’s grandson Robert, who died in 1732, left estate valued at £264. This included his Oxen, which he probably used for ploughing, eleven pounds. His milch cow four pounds ten shillings. His entire sheep flock valued at ninety pounds. Among his possessions was a clock, which only the very rich could afford in the 18 th century. His will was witnessed by Thomas Marriott of Ughill, and another farmer who was unable to write, but added his cross.

In more recent years many different families have occupied Ughill Hall. When George Elliott the auctioneer lived at the adjoining farm with his seven boys and two girls, it belonged to Charles Vickers of Sheffield, who during the summer months used it as their shooting lodge, bringing along many friends to enjoy the lovely countryside, together with their maids and carriage men, etc. having many parties there. In fact two of the maids married Vivian and Clement Elliott, two of the farmer’s sons from next door.

Then Mr Lomas owned the house and land for many years, never selling it as he wished to retain the land rights for his clay mining and clay manufacturing business.

John Woodhead (Robert’s nephew) who lived at Hallfield married Elizabeth Steade of Onesacre.

It is interesting to note that both Hallfield and Onesacre are built in the same Style as Woodseats. George Woodhead who lived at Woodseats but was also a merchant in Sheffield, died during the 1830’s leaving an estate valued at £60,000. In 1841 Woodseats Farm was worked by John Crawshaw and totalled one hundred and four acres. In 1881, John’s son Jonathan had inherited, and the farm was now 106 acres. Wilkin Hill (14 acres), which is now part of Woodseats Farm, was farmed by Mark Booth, who supplemented his income by being a milkman. The shepherd family came to Woodseats about 1904 and lived there until 1979 when David Robinson made it his home.

Another family who rented it was Mr and Mrs A. J. J. Ratcliff with their daughter Nora Elizabeth.

They were English lecturers at Sheffield College and Nora was well known for her plays and novels. Her play about the Sheffield Flood gaining high acclaim. During the war Roy-deGroot stayed there for a short while. Then there were Mr and Mrs Roseberry, Mr Brooks, Mr & Mrs Gaisford, Mrs Sykes then Ian Wood.

Coming up to date the house was rented by a Sheffield solicitor who tragically shot and killed his common law wife also shooting her two children, one died, the other miraculously lived.

It is said, feathers from the pillow entered his head causing him to loose his sight. It is 18

BAR DIKE The early history books describe Bar Dyke as an ancient British defence earthworks, situated where the enemy had to pass to avoid the more difficult ground around the Derwent Valley. It is less than a mile south of Broomhead Hall and was a ditch with an embankment. The width of the ditch, which is on the northern side is about thirty feet, about the same as the ditch on the north side of Hadrian’s Wall, and is about ten feet deep. About 300 feet to the north-west of the embankment is an earth circle with a diameter of about seventy feet. The Dike is about 1,500 feet from end to end and is almost in a straight line. At its northern end is a drop, and at its south-western end the ground rises and is very rugged. A mile to the north-west of Bar Dike, and running nearly parallel to it, is another entrenchment about three quarters of a mile in length. This is what the history books say, but it must have been flattened when the roads were made.

will hear echoing from all around. The Norse term for echo was “the voice of the dwarfs.”

DOOM-RING A short distance to the north of the entrenchment is another circle about fifty-three feet in diameter. Here short upright stones have been embedded in a rather wider ring of earth, and in this respect the circle differs from the one near Lady Bower called Seven Stones. Most of the upright stones are buried in the circling mound. It is possible that the circle near the Bar Dike may have been a doom-ring in which men were sentenced, with the short stones forming seats for the judges. The doom-ring was the bar within which the court sat in the open air. In early heathen times a ring of stones known as court stones formed the court ring and it is thought some of the so-called Celtic or Druidical stone circles are relics of these public courts.

Nearby is Raven Rocher and Gallows Rocher (roaches means; bare, smooth, rounded rock with a resemblance to sheep) and it is probable that men were either hanged in this place, or as the custom was, flung from the rock as sacrifices to Odin. Again perhaps it would be best to regard this story with caution.

CANYARD HILLS

WHARNCLIFFE ROCKS

This is something else which should be treated with a degree of scepticism. The hills were once covered with trees and known as Mouldy Cliffs.

Some say these artificial looking hillocks are where the dead from a long forgotten battle are buried but the general opinion is the hills are simply a natural feature. The small valley in which they stand is known as “the valley of the dwarfs” and it is said that if you shout loudly, you

The rocks were the haunt of a legendary dragon which was eventually slain by a man wearing an armoured suit covered iron spikes made in 19

Sheffield which is supposed to have led to the beginning of Sheffield’s steel industry.

Supposedly there is a carving in marble depicting a knight in armour killing the Dragon of Wharncliffe in Sheffield’s new Town Hall over the entrance. There is also a dragon gargoyle on Bradfield Parish Church and another dragon on the garden balustrade of the Council Offices,

which came from Oughtibridge. The crags afford good views as far as York and Lincoln on a clear day and are large enough for a good walk and picnic. Search out the Dragon’s Den and Well, shown on the large-scale Ordnance Survey map. Wharncliffe was described in Sir Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe” as “that pleasant district of Merry England watered by the River Don.”

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THE SHEFFIELD FLOOD It was a very stormy night when the embankment of Dale Dyke Reservoir collapsed.

The weather forecast was bad and Mr Gunson, the Sheffield Water Company’s resident engineer decided to visit the new Bradfield Reservoir, arriving there about 1500 hours. The water was about three inches from the top and the wind was so strong he had difficulty walking. Everything seemed to be all right though, and he set off for home in his pony and trap about 1600 hours. At about 1730 William Horsfield, an employee of the water board had to cross the embankment to go home. The wind was so strong he could not walk along the top of the embankment as he usually did, but had to walk along the side some way down. He noticed a small crack, just wide enough to insert the blade of a knife, about twelve feet from the top, running for about fifty yards. He thought it was probably a frost crack, something he often saw in winter, and nothing to worry about. Nevertheless, he mentioned it to a colleague called Greaves, who told a farmer called Samuel Hammerton. The farmer went to

they could not hear each other speak. By this time the crack was wide enough to admit a mans hand.Mr Fountain sent one of his sons; Stephenson on horseback to fetch Mr Gunson and the men opened the sluice gates to reduce some of the pressure, returning home between 2100-2200 hours thinking the danger was past.

Young Stephenson, making haste to fetch Mr Gunson had the misfortune to have the saddle girth break. He went to the Barrel Inn at Damflask, which was kept by Jonathon Ibbotson, and while the strap was being repaired he told him of the impending danger.

Word passed round Damflask, and although people were worried, they never suspected the impending danger. Stephenson’s mission was to fetch Mr Gunson as quickly as he could, so without stopping again he reached Mr Gunson’s house by 2100 hours. Immediately Mr Gunson and Mr Craven, another water board official set of in a pony and cart as fast as they could. As they passed Hillsborough Barracks the sentry came out of his box to see who was travelling by in such haste on such a stormy night. When they crossed the River Loxley at Hillsborough Bridge it was flowing normally. At Damflask some worried people were driving their cattle up the surrounding hills, and some had left their homes and were transporting what they could away from the valley. Arriving at the dam both men realised the danger and decided to blow up the weir with gunpowder to relieve some of the pressure. Unfortunately, the powder got wet and the explosion failed. Mr Craven alerted Mr Gunson who had gone to the valve house and both men ran for their lives just in time, as an opening appeared about thirty feet wide. Then within seconds the embankment collapsed altogether, and with a roar like a jet engine a raging torrent of one hundred and fourteen million cubic feet of water rushed down the valley. Massive boulders were ripped up and carried along by the floodwater, which swept before it houses, mills, cattle, trees, rocks, and

look at the crack, and being worried he informed a man called Swinden who was one of the Water Company’s supervisors. This was about 1900 hours. Mr Swinden and some of his neighbours took lanterns and went to examine the crack. By this time large waves driven by the now gale force winds crashed against the embankment, and one after another the lanterns were blown out, the wind was so loud 21

anything else that happened to be in the way.

The flooding of the valley took only forty minutes.

There was a house to the left that was completely washed away, fortunately no-one was in it. The house with the hole in it, all three occupants died.

known locally as “Sheffield Harry” who was in bed when the house was washed away and his body never recovered. Many shared his fate.

Night workers were drowned and hundreds of men lost their jobs because the water destroyed their places of work. Five miles from the reservoir the water reached Malin Bridge, which was a heavily populated area. The prosperous house and farm of James Trickett was destroyed with all ten inhabitants. A mother clinging to a lamppost with one hand and her little girl with the other, saw her eleven year old son who had been grasping her skirts, swept away and drowned by the deluge. Within a distance of only a few hundred yards both bridges were swept away and more than twenty houses were destroyed along with the loss of 102 lives, many more were made homeless.

Water continued to race through Hillsborough and destroyed a tollhouse close to a bridge drowning the toll collector. Part of Hillsborough Barracks was flooded and two little girls the daughters of the paymaster were drowned.

John Gannon, his wife and six children died together as their Neepsend house collapsed.

Three children perished in a cellar at Neepsend whilst their parents were at a funeral in Wakefield....Thomas Peters a leather dresser who had been working away from home returned to find three of his four children dead and his wife hysterical. Thomas Elston, a blade grinder who was seriously ill with “grinder’s disease” (inflamed lungs) had been advised to move to the countryside but delayed for a few days and as a result he, his wife and 12-year son died.

The school disappeared completely and so did Martin Hawke’s farmhouse and the wheelwright’s shop. The first victim was at Bradfield where a one-day-old baby boy was swept out of his mother’s arms. A few days later the baby’s body was found in the coal cellar underneath the house. An old man asleep next to a donkey perished, as did Henry Burkinshaw

The rushing waters covered the Midland Railway Station at the bottom of Spital Hill and when the flood subsided two bodies were found on the platform. The effects of the flood were felt in Rotherham and as far away as Doncaster where bodies and other items were recovered the following morning. Bodies were assembled for identification at the Sheffield Union Workhouse, but many were buried anonymously.

The first home the flood reached was Annett House, and that disappeared as if it had never existed, along with Annett Bridge. Fortunately, the family had been warned and the parents and three boys ran up the hillside in their night attire, putting on their day clothes when they reached higher ground. At Lower Bradfield both stone bridges were carried away, the blacksmith’s shop was destroyed, as was Joseph Ibbotson’s Corn Mill, which was a three story building.

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The newspapers rushed accounts of the drama into print, selling as fast as they could publish, and the city rallied round to assist the victims.

Pathetic advertisements appeared in the newspapers seeking lost relatives and livestock and debates and recriminations began. A distress fund was started and five thousand pounds were raised on the first day. Queen Victoria sent two hundred pounds, the City of London gave five hundred pounds and many working-men donated a day’s wage. Within two months fifty thousand pounds had been collected to help the twenty thousand people affected by the disaster

Everyone died in this house. There was a house to the left that was completely washed away but no one was living there at the time.

The government inspector, who had already formed his own conclusions, hindered the official investigation, which should have been an opportunity to get at the truth, and the inquest was a clumsy and ill-tempered affair.

The jury’s verdict was that, “In their opinion there was not the skill and attention in the construction of the works which their magnitude and importance demanded.” Mr Gunson could not believe his ears. His every waking moment had been concerned with detail and precision.

When the Water Company commissioned their own report the engineers stated that no fault could be found with the building, and it was their contention that the ground had slipped beneath the embankment. The reservoir was reconstructed and the embankment rebuilt on more stable ground a quarter of a mile upstream. It came back into use in 1887.The water company did not dispute their liability for the damage and paid out three hundred and seventy-three thousand pounds for injury and loss, they then raised their charges by a massive 25%, so as usual it was the public who paid. Sheffield City Council acting in the best interests of the city took over the Water Company in January 1888 for £2,092,014. Mr Gunson was unable to forget the terrible events of that night and he remained an emotionally broken man for the remainder of his days. He is buried in the General Cemetery on Cemetery Road.

The Sheffield Flood as it became known, was the greatest 19th century tragedy England ever had. The reservoir held seven hundred million gallons of water, which would have submerged St. Paul’s Cathedral, covering it by a further fifty feet. There were 240 people drowned, 798 houses completely destroyed, and 4357 houses flooded. Also lost were 693 animals and 15 stone bridges.

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DERWENT VALLEY The River Derwent is Derbyshire’s longest. It rises on Bleaklow, feeds the Derwent Reservoirs, and flows past Hathersage, through Chatsworth, Matlock, and Derby, to join the Trent at Shardlow. Howden Reservoir (the top one) was the first to be constructed and was in use by 1912. The Derwent Dam was in use by 1916 and Ladybower by 1945, it’s construction being delayed by the Second World War. These reservoirs supply water to Derby, Leicester, Sheffield, and Nottingham.

Special early morning trains brought workers in from Sheffield. There was also living accommodation in the quarry and at Birchenlee near the reservoir. This was known as “Tin Town” and had a population of about one thousand souls including the navies and their families. There was a hospital, a school, a mission hall, a library, and recreation room and mess rooms. Men from Chapel-en-le-Frith built the roads around the reservoirs. They had to take a weeks supply of food with them as they only returned home at weekends.

The famous Dam Busters trained here, and now at Fairhomes there is an information centre, shop and cycle hire. The valley is popular with walkers and cyclists. The roads are comparatively flat and traffic is banned for most of the reservoir’s length.

The overflow at Ladybower Dam was so spectacular in February 1946 due to heavy rain that people came by the coach-load to see it.

Then in 1949 the drought enabled people to walk the streets and lanes of the two lost villages. There was even talk of holding a service in the church, but water board officials worried about safety would not allow this. No buildings remain today and the church was later blown up. One man is said to have recovered stones from his old farm to build a rockery.

Stone for the reservoirs was quarried at Bole Hill, which is midway between Eyam and Hathersage. A standard gauge railway was built from the quarry to the Midland Railway almost four hundred feet lower down the valley. From there the stone was taken by rail along the Hope Valley to the specially constructed waterworks sidings at Thornhill, where a second narrow gauge line was built by the water-board to transport stone past Yorkshire Bridge to the site, some ten miles thereabouts along the valley in three hundred wagons. In the quarry alone there were over four hundred men working. There were two 12-ton cranes, nine seven-ton cranes, one five-ton crane, three locomotives, the winding drum, and about one hundred tipper wagons.

Under Derwent Reservoir was a grange founded by the White Cannons of Welbeck Abbey in the twelfth century. The monks built four chapels and two bridges, so that wherever the monks were working in the valley, they would always be reasonably close to a chapel for their devotions. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries the chapels fell into decay except the one in the hamlet of Derwent. This remained till 1757 when a new church was built on the site. It is said that the frightened villagers locked up Scottish soldiers who were part of a defeated army from Preston in the church.

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An English chieftain is reputedly buried in a large mound close by and in 1780 human bones and arrowheads were dug up from the low. During the construction of the reservoirs other interesting archaeological artefacts were found, including a well-preserved fossil-fish with armour plated scales and a Bronze Age mould for casting rings.

from Sheffield to Glossop before Ladybower was constructed, it was dismantled, all the stones were numbered, and it was put into storage. After the Second World War it was rebuilt in its present position and opened in 1959 as a memorial to John Derry who was the editor of a Sheffield newspaper and author of the popular guide “Across the Derbyshire Moors.” He loved the hills and did much to open up the countryside to ramblers.

King George VI officially inaugurated Ladybower reservoir in 1945. There is an oak tree at the northern end of the valley planted by King George, called the “Kings Tree” to commemorate the end of the Second World War. From the Kings Tree is a path to Slippery Stones and on to Penistone Market. A document in 1571 mentions it as “Cartgate” so carts may have used it as well. Today it is called “Cut Gate Track” and until the beginning of the nineteenth century was maintained by the Duke of Norfolk and local farmers.

DERWENT HALL One of the old buildings lost was Derwent Hall built by the Balguy family in 1672. A Balguy was a Member of Parliament in the reign of Elizabeth I. Another Balguy kept large sums of money in an iron chest at the Hall and once invited a friend to help himself to money from the chest, but he found it impossible because it was so tightly wedged in. Locals used the saying “that beats Bawgry” if anyone came into any money.

Nearby is the DUKE of NORFOLK’S ROAD, which has been labelled the “loneliest, wildest walk in South Yorkshire.” It is an ancient track between Smallfield and Abbey Clough in the Upper Derwent Valley, so named because it passes over moorland allotted to the Duke of Norfolk under the 1811 Enclosure Acts.

SLIPPERY STONES

The Duke of Norfolk who later owned the hall had it extensively altered and added a private chapel. The rooms were furnished with items of fine craftsmanship from all over the world, including a desk, which once belonged to the poet Wordsworth. In 1932 the Prince of Wales as a Youth Hostel opened it. Before the waters of the reservoir covered the Hall, the oak-

The bridge at Slippery Stones is a packhorse bridge and may have been built by the monks of Welbeck Abbey. A stone in the centre of the downstream parapet once held a cross. It stood originally, lower down the valley on the route 25

panelled interior was removed and installed in the Board Room of the Derwent Valley Water Board at Bamford; the carved stone pillars were re-erected at Yorkshire Bridge.

spot provided a safe place for worship.

Lookouts on the hills above signalled if they saw any soldiers approaching down the valley to give the congregation time to disperse.

PIKE LOWE STONES Is a large ancient barrow. There was large cairn here possibly fifteen feet high which at one time was a landmark in the area. The cairn has been partially destroyed and two shelters were made out of it at one period. The old 40 yards square sheepfold nearby was probably made from the cairn in the late 18th century and used by a farmer who lived in a house, which was demolished when the Midhope Reservoir was built, and who sold his sheep at Woodhead.

In later years John Wesley is said to have preached here on several occasions. Love Feasts have been held here for centuries. This was a tradition started by the early Christians who met together to share a meal. A special Love Feast service is held annually on the first Sunday in July when people give their testimonies and sing their favourite hymns.

Baskets of fruit, cake and jugs of spring water are brought round for the “feast” part of the service.

LOST LAD A cairn marks the spot where legend says a boy called Abraham died after losing his way in a snowstorm. His father died while he was young, leaving his mother to run the farm.

Abraham set out from the now submerged village of Derwent on his mother’s instructions to bring the family’s sheep back to the farm because bad weather threatened. It started to snow and in the blizzard he lost his way and sheltered beneath a rock. At first light next morning his mother alerted the neighbours who searched long and hard but to no avail. The snow had obliterated his footsteps and it was not till springtime, three months later that his body was found. Before he died he scratched “Lost Lad” on the rock and a shepherd, noticing the inscription found the boy’s body. For many years after this, shepherds placed a stone here each time they passed and these make up the cairn we see today.

TIP’S MEMORIAL

ALPORT CASTLES & FARM Alport Castles is Britain’s biggest landslide. It is quite spectular. Nearby is ALPORT CASTLES FARM. It was used as a secret place of worship when Charles II made Nonconformists services illegal. In 1662 forty-six clergymen had been forced out of office and the barn in this remote

At the roadside in the Derwent Valley stands a stone tablet in memory of a faithful sheepdog called Tip, who in the winter of 1953/4 kept watch beside her dead master who died in a blizzard in December 1953. Although many 26

people searched for them the snow was deep and they were not found until fifteen weeks later on the 27 March, by two shepherds on Howden Moor. Tip was still alive though too weak to move but still guarding the body. There were indications that she had never strayed more than twenty-five yards, probably to look for food. Her emaciated body was nursed back to health, and she featured in a well-dressing scene and was also presented with a Bronze Medal from the Canine Defence League who described her as “the most devoted dog in sheepdog history.” But her ordeal had been too

great, and she died a year later on 16 February 1955. She was buried on the moors where she had kept the faithful vigil and a small wooden cross on the moors marks the spot where “Tip” and her master were found. This memorial was erected by subscription from all over the world.

SHEPHERDS MEETING STONES At this spot, halfway between Longdendale and the Upper Derwent Valley, farmers met each July and November to exchange strayed sheep.

There used to be two upright pillars here, which perhaps marked a boundary or a burial site.

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POLITICS At the time of the Conquest Sheffield hardly existed but Bradfield was a stable, well established and well organized community, referred to in Papal bulls as Bradefeld.

Medieval documents referred to High Bradfield as the Kirkton of Bradfield, although the name was modernised into Churchtown as late as 1687. Kirkton means the cemetery, which may be a reference to Bailey Hill. Before the conquest Bradfield already had its defensive infrastructure and the administrative machinery of a settled community. It had its lord who was represented by his steward or bailiff, its manorial court, and its by-laws.

of Albanus had served in the Roman Cohorts for twenty-five campaigns or more and had earned an honourable discharge. He had the right to a grant of land or a lump sum of money, and from being originally a foreigner and a slave, was now granted Roman citizenship, a privilege passing to his children by the order of the Emperor Hadrian. The plates are in the British Museum and are dated A. D. 124.

Rivelin, where these certificates were found, was in the manor of Hallam, which was the administrative centre of Hallamshire.

The boundary of Hallamshire was the River Derwent on the West and the River Rother on the East. It included Wincobank, Rotherham, Mexborough, Conisborough, Bradfield, Ecclesfield, Langsett and Penistone. The northern boundary may have been the Northumbrian Boundary, and it’s southern boundary the Cordwell Valley, i.e. Whittington to Rother Valley, although the boundary was never well defined.

The area around Bradfield was rich in wildlife and when the Vikings invaded England, this large wooded, hilly area, reminded them of their native Scandinavian forests, making it an ideal place in which to settle. The place names around Loxley bear evidence of its Scandinavian settlers: NORMANDALE. The dale of the Normans.

MALIN BRIDGE. Pebbles or worn stones in the bed of a river.

THE ENCLOSURE ACT They say money comes to money, and in the Bradfield area there were approximately fourteen thousand acres of unenclosed land, but the enclosure act of 1811 meant that small farmers and labours, who had always been able to use the common land were prevented from doing so, and only small strips were given to small freeholders.

REDMIRES. Red Moor, a local name in Iceland.

WORRALL. Hilltop.

STEPHEN HILL Meeting hill, possibly refers to an open-air court.

Because of this act, the Duke of Norfolk scooped nearly five thousand acres for himself, in one patch and Earl Fitzwilliam gained seventy-four acres on Thornset Moor, plus twenty-three acres in Hallfield, and after buying two allotments cheaply he increased his holding to seven hundred and thirty-six acres on the east side of Foulstone Delf.

BELL HAGG. An open space or pasture.

REAPS WOOD

Reaps means Crag.

The Romans had settled here earlier, and in 1761 when a field named Kings Piece on the Lawns (junction of Rails Road and Rivelin Valley Road) was being ploughed, two thin copper plates, bearing Roman inscriptions were unearthed. The diploma sets out that one; Son 28

The Curate of Bradfield, Thomas Newton was entitled to tithes arising out of the old and new enclosures, as was the vicar of Ecclesfield, John Spencer of Walkley, James Dixon, and Sir W. Sitwell

surrender any land acquired for division under the act.

The Duke of Norfolk’s encroachments, which were admitted to have been made, were expressly exempted from this provision. In addition, he received an extra seven thousand acres. He was also favoured by an act to set out at least two good roads; the cost of maintenance, to fall on the inhabitants of such districts the road ran through.

There was no legal foundation for freeholders to claim ownership of unenclosed common land and the rights of the land-less men were ignored altogether and the commons were divided as follows; Seven thousand acres to the Duke of Norfolk.

A quarter of the remaining to the above four mentioned.

The excuse to Parliament was that the enclosure act would increase productivity and add to the nation’s wealth. Bradfield has not gained from this, neither has the nation, and the poor are denied access under pain of prosecution for trespass.

There was the usual clause added, saying that any person who had encroached on common lands in the previous thirty years, should

The legislation which allowed this approbation of the common land was passed by, “The Parliament of the rich, for the rich.”

Three hundred acres to Newton, Spencer, Dixon and Sitwell.

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LOXLEY AND WADSLEY COMMONS THOMAS HALLIDAY AND MR PAYNE

Loxley. The house is a grade two Listed building.

Thomas Halliday is also thought to have been responsible for the building of the house, which is now called Loxley House. This is a fairly imposing building at the top of a drive, which sweeps up from Wadsley’s Ben Lane. Above the window of the lounge is a sizeable stone, which originally bore the inscription “Thomas Haliday 1806.”

In 1808 “The House” was sold to Thomas Payne who rebuilt it as Loxley House in 1826. It was much grander than the original with three storeys and three wide set bays. Also a Mr John Parkin Payne purchased the land from Thomas Haliday where the gibbet of Frank Fearn had stood, and in 1913 the descendants of Parkin Payne gave that stretch of moorland to the citizens of Sheffield. “Seventy-five acres of Land at Loxley Common and Wadsley Common to be used by the public for the purpose of exercise and recreation, and to be known as ‘Loxley Chase.”

Thomas Halliday entered the priesthood and became a Unitarian minister. In 1776 he became the last resident Chaplain at Norton Hall, Sheffield. While at Norton he married Martha Patrick, a lady of considerable wealth.

He was impressed with the landscape in the Loxley Valley for it reminded him of Matlock, so he called the area “Little Matlock” and constructed walkways, and, it is thought he also built the “Robin Hood” public house using his wife’s money for his project, which was to build up a lucrative tourist business, and to that end he also bought, in 1808 the land on which Frank Fearns gibbet stood. His “House of Refreshment” for the day-trippers of Sheffield became very fashionable with the genteel society.

By 1865 an eccentric doctor called Henry Payne was living in Loxley House. His cure for all ailments was a hot blanket over the affected part. He quarrelled with the local parson and vowed never to go to the church again, but the parson reminded him he would be carried in at the end of his days, head first, in a coffin. But the determined doctor left instructions that he was to be buried on his own estate, which included Wadsley and Loxley Commons, without a church ceremony, his wishes being duly carried out in 1895. He even marked the spot where he was to be buried with a stone, stating he wanted to be placed within a Brick Vault in the plantation adjoining Loxley House.

It should be covered with earth to avoid recognition. He even stipulated who should make his coffin and of what wood. Also he

He had been greatly affected by the death of a relative in a house fire and he determined that all his properties should contain as little wood as possible. Therefore, when he built a house in 1795 at 239 Rural Lane, he made it as fireproof as he could, using mainly stone. The living room and kitchen were stone flagged and there was a stone spiral staircase leading to the first and second floors, which were also said to be made of stone. He also owned a quarry at 30

named the gravediggers and the fee they were to receive.

the house. Vegetables may have been grown on a small piece of land just up the hill from the house and they may have kept a few hens.

There was said to be a living room and a small kitchen. From the front it looked like any other regular house. It is said to have been built around 1740 and was continually occupied till the late 1920’s when it was decided to demolish it, but it was so solid it had to be blown up with dynamite. There is little to be seen today.

Living in Loxley House at the time of Dr Payne’s death was his nephew Thomas Philips, to whom Dr Payne bequeathed his entire estate.

In the year of Dr Payne’s death (1895) Alderman William Clegg moved in, and in the next twenty years there was W. E. Clegg and William Bush. During the 1914-18 war two of Dr. Payne’s spinster nieces moved in. In 1919 the Cripples Aid Association bought the building for a convalescent home. Later it became the headquarters of the Sheffield Sea Cadets. It was put up for sale in 1996 and is a Listed Grade II building.

A LEGEND OF LOXLEY COMMON Cave House possibly plays a part in the next story. It was a bitterly cold day in 1812, the sun had set early, and low storm clouds hung over Loxley Common. In a lonely cottage on the bleak moorland, a mother sang over her sleeping baby. Lomas Revill, gamekeeper to the lord of the Manor, was late, and for his wife it was a weary vigil, relieved only by the visit of a woman friend from one of the cottages on the hillside. When she had gone Mary Revill watched the flickering uncanny shadows cast by the log fire, until eventually, weariness overtaking her, she nodded off to sleep.

CAVE HOUSE

Struggling fitfully the moon sought to pierce the heavy snow clouds, but with little success and the wind howled across the common. As the hours passed the storm mounted in intensity and blinding snow swept across the landscape until it was shrouded in a thick mantle of white.

The following day was New Years Eve, and as morning broke, cold but fine, an acquaintance from the adjacent hamlet of Wadsley called to exchange the compliments of the day with the dwellers in the lonely cottage. The visitor knocked and knocked again, but getting no response she tried the latch and finding the door would open, she entered the room. A horrible sight met her eyes! Poor Mary Revill lay on the floor in a pool of blood-murdered!

Whilst in the cradle near the body the baby lay fast asleep.

Mr Halliday, the man who built the fire resistant houses on Rural Lane and Ben Lane also built the fire resistant “Cave House” on Loxley Common. The house was built over the entrance to a cave, which became part of the living quarters. As he owned a quarry at Loxley he had plenty of stone to build the front and sides of the house. The roof was made of stone slate and a large table was chipped out from the rock face, as was the living room mantelpiece.

The house was built for the local gamekeeper who was employed by Mr Haliday. The ownership then passed to Dr Payne who employed a Mr Hannah as Game Keeper, Cave House becoming his home. Water was obtained from a well and there was a stone trough near

Outside the cottage the world was clad in white.

During the night the snow had drifted all along 31

the heath and piled itself upon the crags, which formed a rough boundary between Loxley Common and Wadsley Common. Leading from the cottage and right across the ridge and over the open common were large footprints, some partly obliterated by the drifting snow, but all leading in one direction, to a cave like well, on the crown of the hill overlooking the valley. The footprints went distinctly to the cave, into it and disappeared. Strangest of all, as far as can be discerned, there were no footprints leading out of the cave. When the news of this terrible crime spread around the neighbouring hamlets there was much weird speculation. Who was the murderer? What was the mystery of the footprints to the cave?

New Year’s Eve came round and that he had often been heard to mutter that he couldn’t stand life any longer.

Meanwhile, Lomas Revill had been found in the gamekeeper’s cabin far out into the woods.

When told of the tragic death of his wife he accepted the news with little show of surprise or emotion. Though he had been seen in the village inn, much the worse for drink, on the night of the tragedy, no one could swear that the gamekeeper hadn’t spent the night in his cabin. The moorland murder remained a mystery indeed and for years the good folk of the area gave the cave a wide berth after night had fallen. As time went by, Lomas Revill became a strange man, prematurely aged with white hair, even though he was only forty-two years old.

The ghost of Mary Revill is said to roam the common, and is known as the White Lady. In THE SHEFFIELD INDEPENDENT of February 5th 1920 several people reported they had seen a woman in white, moaning, with her hands in the air gliding silently over the heath near the Worrall to Loxley Road near to the old pit workings, and again during the mid 1980’s

Wanderers over the common and the lanes about, thought of Frank Fearn’s gibbet, creaking in the wind on the Edge only a stones throw away and all but the stout hearted feared to pass at night lest they should hear the clanking of Frank Fearn’s chains or encounter the ghost of that poor unfortunate mother. For many years afterward a number of cottages stood empty, falling into ruin, because of the common’s association with the murder of Mary Revill, and were demolished in the clearances in the early 1900’s.

WATCHMAKER MURDERED The Old Horns Inn at Bradfield was involuntary associated with the murder of the watchmaker Nathan Andrews. In the 18th century it was common practice for publicans to organise a Pocket Watch Club, where customers pledged to pay a certain amount of money, which the landlord saved for them till they had enough to buy a watch.

Another New Year’s Eve came and once more the common was deep in snow. At the local inn someone remarked that he hadn’t seen the gamekeeper for a number of day’s so deciding to investigate, a number of men made up a party and went along to the cabin in the woods.

No trace being found of Lomas, they then tramped over the common to the old cottage, and there in an outbuilding, they found his body hanging from a rafter. Later a search of the cabin in the woods revealed a hunter’s knife, rusted in gore, and a pair of blood stained gaiters. Folk who had known Lomas Revill well said that he had always acted strangely when

The Fearn family, headed by Henry, had just moved into the area and had taken over the tenancy of Onesacre Farm. Life was hard and money tight on those windswept moors. Their two boys were William the eldest who settled in Dungworth and Frank born 25, May 1760.

Sadly Henry died 29, December 1779, and Lydia his wife was in dire straights. She could continue with the farm, and if her sons helped she could pull through, but farming was not for Frank and he moved on. He was apprenticed 32

into the file trade, but he wasn’t a good worker, he had never had any schooling, he was only interested in himself, his work wasn’t up to scratch, he drank heavily and he stole from his work-mates and employers to finance his heavy drinking. He was sacked, and was desperate for money when he took up lodging in Hawley Croft, Campo Lane in Sheffield town. Just round the corner from where Frank was lodging was a watchmakers shop, run by Nathan Andrews, and Frank devised a plan. If all went well he could get a watch and perhaps some money as well. He reckoned the Old Horns Inn at Bradfield was just the kind of place to run a watch club, so concocting a story he went into the shop on Saturday morning and posed as the treasurer of the club. He said he had sixteen members and could get another four by Monday evening, and he persuaded the watchmaker to bring a sample with him to the Inn. We know now that there was no such club at the Old Horns Inn, nor ever likely to be, but the watchmaker wasn’t to know that. Nathan Andrews the watchmaker was desperate for money as well, he had been declared officially bankrupt on 12, November 1781, and any business was better than non. Added to which, the jewellers and watchmakers of the area were aware of these watch clubs, and they provided a selection of watches to the landlord so that the regulars could chose the one they wanted.

Nathan agreed to go to High Bradfield providing there was a minimum of twenty people in the club and that they paid their subs on time.

same evening. On their way they met a young man named Wood who knew Frank, and they saw Sara Woodhead and later Hannah Boulden, both women remembered seeing them because of Andrews style of dress.

Hannah Boulden bumped into them again on Kirk Edge Road and just after that she heard a gunshot, but thought nothing of it, because it might have been someone shooting a rabbit.

What actually happened, was that as they got near the convent on Kirk Edge Road, Francis brutally killed Nathan Andrews in what was obviously a premeditated murder. He hit Andrews over the head with the barrel of his gun causing it to go off, but the bullet did not hit anyone, and the blow to the head didn’t knock him out, so Fearn in his frenzy stabbed Andrews many times with a large clasp knife, and then beat him to death with his stick. Fearn then robed his victim, and dragged the body to a depression in the Coppice, covering it with leaves. He thought the body would lie there for months before it was found. Mrs Andrews waited up all night for her husband, and when he didn’t return she assumed he had spent the night at the Old Horns Inn. When he had not come back next morning to open the shop she informed the local constabulary. The next evening on Tuesday, when John Hudson was going home to High Bradfield he saw the body of a man about ten yards away from the road at Kirkedge, so he fetched two of his friends and went to have a look. They carried the body to High Bradfield and realised it had taken a terrible battering, the face was covered in blood and his throat was cut. They didn’t know who he was so they called the police who identified the body as that of Nathan Andrews. Mrs Andrews was able to tell the police her husband had gone to Bradfield with Fearn so after a delay while they found out where Fearn was living they went to his lodging. The landlady told them that Fearn was out, but something in her manner gave her away, the two policemen fought their way in and found Fearn in his third floor room getting out of bed. One sharp-eyed

As the watchmaker didn’t know the way, Frank arranged to take him, so on Monday afternoon (18, March 1782) as arranged Frank went to Andrews shop, though not before having a drink at White Bear Tavern on High Street. He had a pistol with him, there was no law against that in the 18th century, he also had a clasp knife, and a heavy stick. Andrews was dressed in black breeches, coat and leggings as befitted a man of his stature and he borrowed two shillings and sixpence from his wife to cover any expenses, saying he would be back that 33

policeman noticed a gold chain hanging out of Fearn’s pocket and it turned out he had a timepiece, a tortoise shell cased watch and a chain with two seals on it. The barrel of a pistol was found in the other pocket. Mrs Andrews recognised the timepiece, because it was one that had been brought in for repair. After a lot of questioning Fearn finally admitted to the murder of Andrews by cutting his throat and was taken away to the cells of the old Town Hall. At the inquest the cause of death was various wounds to the body, some caused by a sharp stick or a sharp instrument such as a knife. John Hudson who first found the body identified parts of an ash stick covered in blood near the body, which he recognised as belonging to Fearn who often carried it with him. Fearn was accused of wilful murder and because of the seriousness of the crime, after spending four months in Sheffield Gaol was transferred to York to stand trial, his case being number one at the assizes on July 13. 1772.

a big crowd. On that fateful day Fearn was first visited by the Chaplain and then taken to the prison yard by the executioner. After having a rope placed around his neck, he was put into a cart with a horse between the shafts; the other end of the rope was attached to the scaffold.

Fearn’s last act was to take off his shoes and throw them into the crowd, shouting. “There, me mester said I’d dee’ wi’ mi’ boots on, I’ve proved him wrong, that’s made him a liar.” He was presumably referring to one of his old work-masters. Suddenly the driver made the horse bolt, pulling the cart from under Fearn’s feet. It is said he did not die quickly, but died hard!

His fully clothed body was placed in an iron framework, mostly of chains and returned to Sheffield, after which it was taken onto Loxley Common where the gibbet cage was hung.

Thomas Holdsworth who had been commissioned to erect the gibbet post was paid fifteen shillings. It remained there from 1782, as a deterrent to would be criminals, till Christmas Day 1797 when his skeleton fell from its cage, the post remained there for several more years a grim reminder to all who passed that crime does not pay.

Fearns last words in prison were; “Christians pray that true repentance May be given to a wretch like me I acknowledge my last sentence There is no law that can set me free Let me endless bliss inherit Wash me from my guilty stains O receive my precious spirit Though my body hangs in chains.

Although much of the evidence was circumstantial, the Honourable Sir James Eyre, Baron of the Exchequer found Fearn guilty of wilful murder and a sentence of death was placed upon him. Fearn was not allowed to speak in his own defence. The execution was to take place in two day’s time on Tuesday 23 July due to the atrocious murder of a totally innocent victim. The hanging took place at Tyburn where all executions took place, and there was always

When the common became enclosed, Thomas Haliday in 1808 purchased the land on which the gibbet stood. Thomas Haliday was at that time building up a thriving business at Little Matlock, Loxley. He built a House of Refreshment for the day-trippers of Sheffield, 34

which became very fashionable with the genteel society.

somehow managed to escape from Clerkenwell Prison.

John Parkin Payne later purchased the land from Thomas Haliday, and in 1913 the descendants of Parkin Payne gave the stretch of moorland on which the gibbet had stood to the citizens of Sheffield. “Seventy-five acres of Land at Loxley Common and Wadsley Common to be used by the public for the purpose of exercise and recreation, and to be known as ‘Loxley Chase.”

Spence Broughton was tried at York, found guilty and was executed in April 1792. On the following Monday morning his body, which had been brought back to Sheffield was hung in chains on a gibbet on Broughton Lane in Attercliffe. An effigy depicting this event has been erected outside the NOOSE & GIBBET pub, and is there today. For the next few days the Sheffield/Rotherham road was crowded with people going to see the spectacle. The bones of the mail robber hung there for thirty-six years until they crumbled and fell from the chains.

Later, Henry Sorby of Woodbourne Hall bought the land on which the gibbet stood and had the post removed to his coach-house.

The gibbet post was taken down somewhere between 1807 and 1810 and was either built into the sides of a wall at Stubbins Farm, Longley Lane or it was used in the construction of a bridge on the River Loxley which was subsequently swept away in the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864.

When Oxley escaped from prison, he made his way to Loxley/Wadsley Common where he hid.

A police constable walking on the Common saw a person fitting the description of Oxley, however before he could arrest him, Oxley fled and the constable found the body with its throat cut. Oxley had apparently committed suicide to evade the same fate as his mate Broughton.

SPENCE BROUGHTON In February 1791 Spence Broughton and his companion John Oxley held up the Sheffield and Rotherham Mail and stole the postbags.

Both escaped and it was not until the following October they were arrested in London. Oxley

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BRADFIELD PARISH CHURCH

The beautiful old Church of Saint Nicholas, built in 1109 stands in a commanding position 860 feet above sea level. The Ecclesfield Parish Church was the “Mother Church” to both the Sheffield and Bradfield churches, these being “chapels of ease” dependent on the Ecclesfield Priory, which was built thirty-four years earlier.

The monks of Ecclesfield served as chaplains and walked from Ecclesfield to take the services. It is said they sometimes stayed the night, either as guests in a parishioner’s house or perhaps in the church itself, where there is a chamber with a fireplace.

The architecture is “perpendicular gothic” with battlements and pinnacles. The roof was leaded in 1391 and in the 1480’s there was a major rebuilding program, the tower being added also, giving us the church we know today.

On the inside of the church there have been many changes. In the 18th century the fashion was for galleries, box pews and three-Decker pulpits. Then in the 1870’s the church was stripped and the walls cleaned leaving the interior as beautiful as it had been in the 1500’s.

There is some excellent stained glass, also some suitably gruesome gargoyles.

At the Reformation, the appointment of the chaplain to the church of Bradfield became vested in the vicar of Ecclesfield, but no permanent provision seems to have been made for his support. In 1741, the vicar of Ecclesfield allowed the curate of Bradfield twelve pounds a year and the surplice fees, this continued till 1868.

THE ORGAN: Music plays an important role in church worship, and for generations the organ has held pride of place, but this has not always been the case. The mechanical organ was invented in Egypt around 250 BC but it took a thousand years to reach England via Rome and 36

Constantinople. Organs are recorded at Glastonbury and Winchester in the 9th century.

encased to a design by George Pace with a new console sited in the south chancel aisle.

From installation the organ has been in the skilful hands of Roy Chamberlin. Organist at Bradfield since 1968.

The earliest reference to an organ at Bradfield is in 1621 when the churchwardens paid seven shillings which is equivalent to thirty-five pence in today’s currency “to a man who had a commission to make the organes” (“organs” denoting a single item as in “scissors”) Paradoxically the Puritans frowned upon organs and they were banned by law in 1644 which led to their neglect and deterioration. It was not until after the Restoration in 1660 that they gradually began to reappear.

OAK CHEST:

The next big improvement, particularly in villages such as Bradfield, came from the “west gallery orchestra”. Records show that in the 18 th century, Bradfield’s gallery featured as bassoon and violoncello to accompany the singers. In circumstances similar to those at Mellstock in Thomas Hardy’s Under The Greenwood Tree.

Bradfield’s instrumentalists were eventually ousted in 1843 to be replaced by a new organ although the cello was still recorded in the church inventory of 1900. On 26 December 1842, the Feoffees granted £75 towards the cost of installing an organ, which cost £210.

Dates back to 1198. It was made by carving out a solid piece of Oak. Originally it was to store church documents, but then it became the “tithe chest” into which parishioners were expected to place money to pay for the crusades.

FONT: Is Norman, and said to have been given by the Cistercian monks of Roach Abbey.

During the reordering of the church in the 1870s, when the west gallery was taken down, the organ was rebuilt in a chamber where the old oak chest now stands and the singers became a surpliced choir in the chancel.

Visually and musically stifled in this position for over 50 years, the organ was completely rebuilt during 1923 by Albert Keats in the opened-up north chancel aisle.

ALTAR TABLE: Came from Normandy and was donated by Mrs. Rimington Wilson 1887 in memory of her husband.

ALTAR FURNITURE: Was presented by Col. Hool, C. M. G., and his wife in 1888, and the oak panels on three sides are in harmony with the reredos.

The ailing instrument was finally decommissioned in 1972 and replaced by the present organ. Built by Laycock & Bannister, it was acquired from a redundant Methodist church in North Ormesby, Middlesbrough.

Dedicated by the Bishop of Sheffield on 1 April 1973, the large 2-manual organ, consisting of 28 speaking stops and 1449 pipes, was

PULPIT: Was added in 1877. In the centre is a beautiful carving of Christ, by Miss Haybell, the daughter of Arthur Haybell.

LECTERN: Was made in America, and is a grand oak eagle. It was awarded premier honours at the 37

Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876 and was given to Bradfield Church by Mr. Eustace Vesey.

Following the removal of the organ gallery during restoration 1870– 1880, the upper ringing gallery was sacrificed and the bells had to be rung from ground level. The bells were overhauled in 1922 and re-hung on a wooden frame and were again overhauled in 1976, quarter turned and re-hung with new roller bearings on a new metal frame. In 1987 the ringing chamber was moved back up to its pre 1870– 1880 position.

LITANY DESK: Is tastefully carved in harmony with the pulpit, was presented by William and Clara Wing, formerly of Edgefield in memory of their young son, Harold.

SAXON CROSS: Dates back to the ninth century, was found in 1870 at Low Bradfield, near the Cross Inn and was probably an old wayside cross. It was placed in the Church in 1886.

Records show that Bradfield’s bell ringers were not only on duty for “ringing ye chiming bells on Sunday mornings” but also for national occasions. After 1605 the bells were rung annually on November 5th for the gunpowder treason and from 1660 onwards on May 29th “The day of thanksgiving for ye King’s safe return. When they rang in 1746 for “Ye Duke of Cumberland’s victory” the fingers were paid an extra three shillings (fifteen new pence). More recently the bells were rung to celebrate the freedom of British hostages, including Terry Waite in 1991 and the 50th anniversary of the ending of the Second World ‘War

GRAVESTONES: The oldest gravestone is that of Henry Ibbotson, 1660, perhaps because the church floor was repaired using gravestones borrowed from the churchyard, or maybe only the rich could afford a headstone.

THE CHURCH BELLS: Bells, which are usually heard rather than seen have been an important feature of village life over the centuries. Their origins have been lost in the mist of time, but it is known that the Chinese had them at least 6,000 years ago, ornamental bells are mentioned in the Bible (Exodus 28 v33) and hand bells at the funeral of Edward the Confessor are depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. The first use of bells was for communication, but the form of ringing called change-ringing, which developed in England between the 14th and 17th centuries, has become a unique tradition, confined almost to this country.

The Reverend Aurthur Gatty, Vicar of Bradfield 1869-1888 wrote “Once in another moorland Church, owing to a difference between the vicar and his bell-ringers the men refused to work for several weeks. On Christmas Eve the vicar was summoned to the bedside of a sick parishioner, three miles away on the moor. On his way home his lantern went out and he lost his way.

Becoming more confused he sat down on a boulder and tried to see in the misty darkness, any light that might lead him to human habitation. He was almost in despair when suddenly the bells of his church rang out a Christmas peal. Guided by the sounds he found his way home and the differences between him and the bell ringers were resolved.”

Bradfield’s old bells date back to the 16 th century, where 4 bells were rung from a chamber within the tower. In 1847, 6 new bells were cast by John Taylor’s of Loughborough (they also cast the 16 ton “Great Paul” bell for St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1881). A further two bells have been added during 1997.

Those were the days when watches were worn on a chain and placed in the waistcoat pocket, which was only worn on Sundays and for special occasions such as weddings or funerals.

38

Farm workers in the field never wore watches; so on weekdays the church bell was rung at midday, and the villagers knew this as the DINER BELL.

When someone died, the PASSING BELL was rung. For a man the bell was rung slowly, it was rung a little quicker for a woman, and slightly quicker still for a child. If someone in the village was ill, people would know for whom the bell tolled.

Jonathon Gillott was Church Warden in 1587 and down the generations the Gillotts have taken over church duties, passing them down from father to son. A sad story is told of a young girl from the Gillott family who jumped up to catch a bell rope, it caught round her neck and hung her.

During the two world wars the bells were not rung, but if Mr. Gillott heard of any soldier of the parish who was killed he rang the bell and many tears were shed. Mr Gillott being paid a small sum for this.

A peal of 5040 changes was rung in 1899, and again on DEC 30th 1905. Six members of the Yorkshire Association of Change-ringers, ringing 720 each of; College Pleasure, New London Pleasure, Duke of York, Kent, Woodbine, Violet and Oxford in three hours. The stamina of these ringers was shown one Sunday morning when they rang a peal in Bradfield about 8 am, then they walked to Bamford where they tried to ring but the chamber was too small so they walked to Castleton and rang there. After they had rested and dined they walked to Chapel-en-le-Frith where they rang a peal after evening service. The next day they walked to Hayfield where they rang in competition. It was the same ringers who rang a muffled peal at the funeral of Mrs Rimington Wilson on 12 December 1906.

The FUNERAL BELL was rung when the cortège came in sight of the church. It was a pathetic sound, which continued till they met the vicar at the church gates, who would conduct them reverently into the church. The bells seldom ring today apart from welcoming people to the Sunday services, and they are often rung at weddings.

The Bradfield Church was the centre of village life, religious, secular, and social. On Sunday morning’s people walked from Stocksbridge, Oughtibridge, Bolsterstone, Wharncliffe Side, Stannington or Sugworth and were prepared to make the same trip for the evening service as well. It is interesting to note that the number of communicants on Easter Sunday 1617 was one thousand, one hundred and forty-one.

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