Totley History Group
Totley History Group

Welcome to the Totley History Group Website

 

We hope you enjoy your visit to our site which celebrates the history of Yorkshire's most southerly village. Totley is mentioned in the Domesday Book and has a rich and varied past. Its story includes millionaire industrialists, farm labourers, heroes and scoundrels. This website is intended to introduce you to these people and the community's past and hopefully inspire you to look more closely into the history of our village. New material is being added all the time, so to keep up with our research, make your visits frequent! 

Happy Birthday, Totley Hall

 

Over a number of years I have been researching the history of Totley Hall – the Big House in the Village – for my own pleasure and interest.  During Lockdown I began, with the help of my husband, to write up its story on wet days to keep our minds active.  I came to realize that our local Hall, built in 1623, was nearing its 400th birthday, and that maybe the time was right to share my findings with others interested in our local history by putting the story into print.
Totley Hall has played a number of roles during its lifetime as a farmhouse, Manor House, sporting lodge, office, retirement home, village hub and College.  Its owners have included a High Sheriff, a Lead Mine Owner and an eccentric Gentleman, but – who was the founder of Dronfield Market; which owner was a thief and embezzler; and which owner scandalized the village? 

 

Find out in this illustrated booklet, published with the support of Totley History Group, and with profits going to Transport 17.

 

Available from:-
Totley Library
Transport 17
Carl at ‘Shoe Repairs’ on the Rise                                 Cost:  £8.99

THG Wreath at Totley War Memorial

Totley County School, c.1960

We are delighted to have received this letter from Richard Woolhouse with an accompanying class photograph from the County School.

 

Hi

 

Just been sorting out some old photographs from my time at what I knew as Totley County School. Have no real contact with anybody from my old class apart from a friend in Australia who we regained contact with about 12 years ago. We have been swapping emails for the last couple of weeks trying to put names to faces. We are a few short but the memory grows dimmer and it was a big class.

 

This was taken in 1960 I think. The names we have for this photograph are as below - apologies for misspellings, mistakes and not recalling people - brain leaks a bit these days!

Totley County School c 1960 Mr Roberts' class Click to enlarge photograph

Back row: Michael Green, Paul Batty, Martin Shorland, John Hytch, David Prince, John Armytage, Anthony Tew, Richard Woolhouse, Geoffrey Bingley, Paul Lawson, ?

 

Second row: John Middleton, Steven Smith, ? , Vivian Glentworth, Ann Dale, Hazel Ruthven, Elizabeth Betts, Elizabeth Firth, Judith Jones, Roger Kenyon, Bernard Trewick

 

Third row: Lyn Nichol, Catherine Slack, Janice Bentley, Jane Gethling, Sally Jessop, Susan Crabtree, Jennifer Marsden, ? , ?, Judith Bale, Pat Eales

 

Front row: Steven Wagstaff, Andrew Dorling, Neil Kippax, ? ,Timothy Nelson, ? , John Lawton

 

We cannot find Pamela Harris, Margaret Schofield and Gerald Hogg who we think were in the class. The teacher of course is Mr. Roberts.

 

We would like to fill in the gaps as a remembrance of happy times even with Miss Clareborough! We also wonder what happened to everybody wishing all did well.

 

After all these years Martin and I are happy to correspond with anybody who wishes to.

 

All the best
Richard Woolhouse


We would love to hear from any of our readers who might be able to add to the names on the photograph that Richard and Martin have remembered or who wish to be put in touch. Please write to us at our usual email address: contactus@totleyhistorygroup.org.uk. 

 

February 2022

Your Correspondence

 

We would like to thank our many readers for their correspondence in recent times. Our email address for queries, comments and contributions is:

contactus@totleyhistorygroup.org.uk.

Paul Hibberd got in touch with us having seen a letter from Richard Woolhouse  accompanying a photo of 'Pop' Roberts' class at Totley County School taken around 1960. Although not in the same year as Richard, Paul recognised many of the faces in the picture and asked to be put in touch. He also very kindly supplied us with some names missing from two annotated photographs in our photo gallery, one showing Mrs White's class of 1953-54 and the other of the Green Oak Bowling Club Lynch Cup Winners of 1971.

 

Hazel Stubley-Black (née Salt) attended Hurlfield Grammar School for Girls between 1948 and 1955 and now lives in North Lincolnshire. Hazel identified herself in a 1949 photograph, one of a set given to us following the death of Avril Critchley. Hazel wonders how many of her fellow pupils are still living in the Sheffield area. She also tells us that Barbara Judge (née Critchlow) is well and living in Hathersage and that Pamela Siebert (née Preen) returned from South Africa in 2018 and is living in Ripon. Hazel would like to trace Sybil Fyne who was in the same Alpha Group. Hazel also asks if anyone of her era remembers the Religious Education mistress who previously had been a missionery in India. 

 

Ian Robinson read our article on Bradway House which, according to Tony Smith's Historical Notes About Bradway, was previously known as Pointon Lodge. We are grateful to Ian for sending us a link to a 1st Series Ordinance Survey one inch map which indeed shows Pointon Lodge in the place where Bradway House now stands. Ian also sent us an image of a field map of Bradway drawn in 1765 by Fairbanks for Robert Newton.

 

Richard Woolhouse and his friend Martin Shorland, who now lives in Australia, managed to put names to almost all the faces in a photograph of 'Pop' Robson's class at Totley County School taken around 1960. Richard would love to hear from anyone who was at the school at the time that he was there. Please write to us at our usual email address and we will be happy to put you in touch. Richard also wondered what became of the head teacher, Miss Clareborough. We think she was the elder of two sisters, Phyllis and Beryl Clarebrough, who were both teachers and who lived in Sheffield. Phyllis taught at Woodthorpe Council School before being appointed head teacher at Holmesfield Council School in February 1946. She died in 1993 aged 88. Her younger sister Beryl died in 2013 just a few days before what would have been her 100th birthday. Neither sister married.

 

Tracey Beck wrote to us about her grandmother who had just passed away at the grand age of 104. Norah Lucy Doyle was born on 19 January 1918 in Asfordby, Leicestershire, the daughter of Lucy Annie Myland and Ernest George Ashton who married in Peterborough, Northamptonshire in 1914. Norah's father was a railway signalman who came to work at Totley Tunnel East signalbox shortly after Norah's birth. In the 1921 Census the family were recorded as living at Hillfoot, although the actual house is not named. We were able to provide Tracey with some old photographs of the area to enable her to show her children where their great grandmother lived.

 

Nigel Platts wrote to us about his uncle, Percival Douglas Platts, whose WW2 memorabilia we bought at auction. Nigel very kindly corrected a number of errors that we or the vendor had made and added a good deal of extra information about the Platts family. Nigel has very fond memories of his uncle who he says was a charming man and a very competent cricketer. Despite illness in later life, Douglas and his wife Freda loved their friendships, sociability, parties and a game of badminton. We were especially pleased to hear from Nigel as it was our intention to try to trace living members of the family and return the medals and documents to them, free of charge of course. Nigel tells us that he thinks they should be passed on to Charles, Douglas and Freda's only grandson. Unfortunately he does not have his address but knows that Charles lives in Denmark.

 

Rose Servitova, author and essayist, wrote to us having read our article about Francis James Seed (1892-1965). Frank is one of 25 young men whose names are recorded as serving their country during World War One on a memorial inside the United Reformed Church. His father, T. Alexander Seed, was a minister in the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Seed family came to live in our area in the 1900s. In the census of 1911 Frank was recorded as an assistant librarian in the University of Sheffield but he later became a bank clerk working for the Sheffield Banking Corporation. As a young man, Frank was much involved with the social activities of the Dore & Totley Union Church, taking part in amateur dramatics and giving slideshow lectures. Rose tells us that she is interested in Frank because of a shared appreciation of the work of Jane Austen. Our article has been able to fill in some of the blanks about Frank's life and, with Rose's help, we have now been able to obtain a photograph of Frank taken shortly before around the time of his retirement in 1952.

 

Elaine Pickard, who many of you will know as the founder of the really useful Sheffield Indexers website, has written to tell us she has a group of six people who have been working together on the history of the Woodhouse Family of Totley, Dore and Holmesfield between 1550 and 1700 and would love to hear from others with a similar interest. In recent times we have transcribed the Wills of three of the family who lived in Totley: Thomas (died 1594), Grace (died 1680) and Ralph (died 1704). Several members of the family are also amongst those included in our transcriptions of Burials at St. John the Baptist, Dronfield (1678-1870).

 

Jo Fagan told us she is researching her grandmother's uncle, Daniel Harris (1884-1928), both during and after the First World War. Jo had found Daniel in the 1921 Census at the "Totley Camp" of the 4th (Hallamshire) Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment Defence Force. The camp would have been under canvas in the fields adjacent to Totley Rifle Range and it is probable that Daniel would have been a reservist. We were able to provide Jo with some old photographs of the campsite and rifle range, and information on its history taken from Stephen Johnson's book. The area today is much changed from how it would have looked a century ago. The canteen building has been demolished and replaced by houses and the Officers' Mess is once again a private residence, now called Monnybrook House. The rifle range has returned to natural vegetation although some of the original stone and brick structures can still be found higher up the hillside. For recent photographs of the area, please see the excellent JessGhost website.

 

Ian Tongue is another correspondent with an interest in Totley Rifle Range. Ian has begun a project on the Rifle Volunteer Corps which was a sort of Victorian period home guard from 1859 until they became part of the Territorial Force in 1908. Ian is researching the RVC rifle ranges in Derbyshire including those at Dronfield, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Whaley Bridge, Dove Holes, Grindleford/Hathersage ..... and the list keeps growing. He would welcome any information on RVC groups that you may have. Ian is also a keen and ethical metal detectorist, a member of the National Council for Metal Detecting, and has public liability insurance. So far, our history group has not used metal detection, but we are aware that are sites in our area where such skills would be invaluable.

 

Chris Bunting had believed that the family name originated in the Ashover area of Derbyshire where it can be traced back to the fourteenth century and possibly earlier. That is, until a recently discovered old family manuscript suggested it might have been brought there from Totley. However, the earliest references we have found are in the 1730s when Edward and Anne Buntin lived here and several of their children were baptised at St. John the Baptist, Dronfield. Edward died in 1841 and his will mentions more children and it is tempting to believe that the family came to our area in the late 1720s, probably from the Dronfield/Chesterfield area where there were Buntings living whose pedigree has been traced back to John Bunting of Buntingfield, Ashover.
 
Neil Orford was curious to know whether it was his imagination or whether he had read somewhere that there was an underground tunnel or passage between the Cross Scythes and the Fleur-de-Lys. We have searched our files and found nothing about the cellars, not even a ghost story! It seems unlikely as the passage would have to pass under what was the old village green with its well, which was only moved in 1983 when the Stocks Green estate was built. The area is known to be very wet at times. The old Totley police station, facing the Cross Scythes at number 331 Baslow Road, had two underground cells built in 1890. Under the floor of one of the cells was a well supplied by springs situated in what were the farm fields behind the Fleur. After it reverted to a private house in 1934 and the owner kept a small generator to work a pump to drain the water when the well overflowed and flooded the cellars.

 

Katie Taylor has traced her roots back to Thomas Fisher who was born in Old Brampton in 1798 and who came to Totley after his marriage to Jane Brown at Chesterfield on 18 March 1833. Thomas became the farmer and publican at the Cross Scythes before moving to Hallfield Farm a few years later. Thomas and Jane remained at Hallfield for the rest of their lives. They had seven sons and a daughter and we have already traced many of their descendants for other correspondents. Grandson Tom Brown Fisher is one of ten World War 1 soldiers commemorated on Totley War Memorial. Jane died at the age of 80 and Thomas at the age of 86. They were buried at Dore Christ Church, Jane on 11 January 1883 and Thomas on 4 March 1885.

 

Nigel Downend contacted us about his grandfather, Harry Maskrey, who married Dan Reynolds' youngest sister Marjorie and lived at Monnybrook Villas in the late 1930s. Harry was a motor mechanic from Birkin Lea, Dronfield Woodhouse. We think that when he lived in our area he worked at Bookless Brothers' garage on Abbeydale Road South, where Mercia Motors now stands. Nigel knows very little about his grandfather's life and hopes to trace living descendants of the Reynolds family to find out more.

 

Jonathan Temple wrote to us about his 2 x great grandfather Thomas Godber (1792-1873), a farmer who lived at Bradway Mill in the early part of the 19th century. Jonathan is descended through Thomas's third son, George Godber, and his second wife Mary Kirby who were married at Ridgeway, Derbyshire in 1878. Their daughter, Sarah Ellen, lost both her parents whilst young, went to Ukraine as a companion, married David Embleton Harbottle in the Welsh settlement of Hughesovka (now Donetsk), and fled to Shanghai during the Russian Revolution. When we have more time we hope to follow up on Sarah Ellen's story. In the meantime we were able to provide Jonathan with information about Bradway Mill from Margaret Oversby's research and photographs of family gravestones in Dore churchyard. 

The Barlow Hunt at The Crown Inn The Barlow Hunt at The Crown Inn

One of the artifacts that Catherine Clarke dug up in her garden on the Heatherfield Estate was a brass button bearing the image of a hound. She reasonably conjectured that it might have fallen off a jacket during a hunt and asked us is we knew the name of a hunt that might have operated in the Totley area. The Barlow Hunt met at The Crown, Hillfoot and Major William Wilson, the husband of Marjorie Milner of Totley Hall, became Master in 1900 and served for more than fifty years. William was succeeded by his daughter Miss Elsie Wilson who remained as Mistress until her death in 1988 when her sister Anne took over until her own death in 2009. The Wilsons lived at Horsleygate Hall and the Barlow Hounds Kennels are still based close by.

 

Keith Pitchforth, of Fulwood History Group, came across our article about Robert Hugh Martin, one of the ten WW1 soldiers commemorated on Totley War Memorial. In his younger days Bob Martin worked in Sheffield for Cole Brothers. Keith is researching the lives of the men whose names are on the memorial at Fulwood and wondered whether, in researching Bob's life, we had come across a book written just after the war commemorating the employees of the department store. So far we have been unable to find a reference to the book. If anyone has any details, we would be delighted to hear from you. 

 

Kate Robyn wrote to us from Australia about our article on the Tyzack Family. Kate appears to be descended from John Tyzack (1747-1796) through his son Samuel and grandson Henry, a sawsmith, who moved from Sheffield to Shoreditch in east London around 1840. Kate wanted to find out when the Tyzacks first came to live in the Sheffield area. The history of the Tyzack family has been researched back to Lorraine in the 14th century and has been documented by Donald Tyzack in his book "Glass, Tools and Tyzacks". In Chapter 12, he explains how Benjamin Tyzack came to live in Norton around 1718 and change his trade from glassmaking to scythemaking. Whilst the hard copy is being reprinted, Donald is making a PDF version of the book freely available to download through his website at http://www.tyzack.net

 

Guy Hutchinson asked for our help in finding out more about the Bookless Family. Guy's grandmother, Marguerite Chrystal Howard Bookless (1894-1964), was the youngest child of Thomas Bookless and his wife Hannah Mary Payne, who moved to Sheffield from the Scottish Borders in the early 1880s. From a humble background, Thomas built a successful ice, cold storage, fish and game business in Yorkshire and Scotland, even having a fish processing plant in Iceland (which is now a museum) and a fleet of fishing trawlers based at Aberdeen. Moving to our area around 1920, the family lived in Douglas Hall which was at the bottom of Twentywell Lane. This large building was demolished around 2016, making way for a new block of flats named Riverside View. On the opposite bank of the River Sheaf, stood Bookless Brothers car showroom and garage which was run for many years by Thomas and Hannah's youngest son Roy. With Guy's help we have conducted extensive research into the history of the fascinating Bookless Family and their various business enterprises which will take us some considerable time to write up.

 

Chris Hussey is writing a biography of his grandfather Frank Herbert Stacey. Bert, as he was known, was born in Furness Vale, High Peak in 1894. After leaving school he became an assistant cowman at Bowshaw Farm, Dronfield. In 1912 he emigrated to Canada and worked as a farmer before enlisting in the 123rd Battalion of the C.E.F. Royal Grenadiers in Toronto on 9 March 1917. Bert survived the war having served in France. His service record shows that his mother lived at 13 Mountville, Beauchief. Chris sought our help in locating where that was, as Mountville does not appear on any old OS or city map. We found Mountville, recorded by name, in both the 1901 and 1911 censuses and from the enumerator's list and from various entries in newspaper archives, we are confident that Mountville was a row of four stone built houses on the east side of Abbeydale Road South just to the north of its intersection with Abbey Lane. It comprised the detached residence at number 139, which is still known as Sheaf House, and the three semi-detached properties at numbers 141/143, 145/147 and 149/151. Before house numbering became universal along the whole of Abbeydale Road/Abbeydale Road South, the houses would have carried odd number addresses of between 1 and 13 Mountville, making number 151 the house where the Staceys lived. In point of fact, as they stand to the west of River Sheaf, Mountville is not in Beauchief at all but is in the civil parish of Ecclesall and the ecclesiastical parish of St. Oswald, Bannerdale. The properties were built by Joseph Mountain in 1872 and offered for sale on a 300 year lease, judging from advertisements which appeared in the Sheffield newspapers in 1923. To complicate matters, Alderman Mountain later built a similar small development on Baslow Road, Totley, which he also called the Mountville Estate.

 

Sue Lau, who lives in Devon, was planning a visit to Totley whilst researching into her family history. Sue is descended from William Henry (Harry) Green, who was born in Totley in 1882 and who became the landlord of the Fleur-de-Lys in 1932. Sue remembers visiting the Fleur with her Dad in the 1980s and meeting someone there who remembered her grandfather Douglas Henry (Dougie) Green who also ran the pub before becoming a travelling salesman for H J Heinz. Sue wanted to learn more about her family and the other locations she should visit. In 1901 Harry lived in a cottage on Chapel Walk which still exists but unfortunately other family homes in Summer Lane, Brook Terrace and Wood View (between Glover Road and Back Lane) have long since been demolished. Sue's family connection with the Fleur appears to go back many generations. Martha Green, who married Edwin Fearney in 1872, was the licensee from 1883 until 1897 and there were Greens and Fearneys at the pub before Martha.

 

Nick Wheat alerted us to an auction on eBay of World War 2 memorabilia belonging to Percival Douglas Platt whose family home was at Hillside, 98 Queen Victoria Road. Our bid was successful and you can follow the link to read about Percy's life and military service. Nick is currently researching the railway history of the Dronfield area and is fascinated by the failed railway schemes that never came to fruition. One such scheme was Midland Railway's proposed extension from Hassop to Dore which would have enabled the Midland to connect Sheffield directly with Manchester. Nick has kindly provided us with a copy of the plans which show the route in great detail passing over land owned by such well known names as John Roberts, Ebenezer Hall, Tedbar Tinker, Thomas Kilner, Francis D'Ewes Coke and the Trustees of Cherrytree Orphanage before entering a tunnel in Gillfield Wood.

 

Andrew Polkey asked if we could provide him with information about the consecration of All Saints' Church in 1924. The Church was designed by the Derby architect Percy Heylyn Currey and Andrew is working on a photo gazetteer of Percy's works having already written an excellent biography of the architect which you can download from the Old Derbeians website. We were very pleased to supply photographs and information from the Parish Magazines and contemporary newspapers. The need for a church in Totley had been felt for many years and it was mainly through a legacy from the late Ebenezer Hall and a donation of money and land from Mr. and Mrs. William Aldam Milner that the way was opened for Totley residents to raise the remaining funds required. As we approach its centenary, we should remind ourselves of the dates involved. The first sod was cut by Mr. Arthur James Foulstone, lay reader, on  21 May 1923. The foundation stone was laid by Mr. and Mrs Milner on 26 July 1923. The consecration by the Lord Bishop of Southwell took place on 15 November 1924. 

 

So far, at least, we have not made much progress into researching the lives of Totley servicemen and women who lost their lives during World War Two. We are especially grateful, therefore, to Paul Allonby who sent us information that he had gathered about Warrant Officer John Douglas Garnett. Before the war Douglas worked in Sheffield for the Brightside and Carbrook Co-operative as a motor driver and confectionary salesman. Having joined the RAF in late 1939, Douglas married Dorothy Mary Slater the following Spring and went to live with her family at Bank View Farm, Totley Bents. On 28 October 1945, Douglas was one of four airmen on a night training flight. After suffering an engine failure, the aircraft attempted an emergency landing at RAF Welford but struck trees and crashed killing all its occupants. Douglas is buried in Abbey Lane Cemetery and commemorated on Totley War Memorial.

 

Lynda Dobinson was delighted to spot a photograph of her aunt, Peggy Cooper, in the Avril Critchley collection of photographs of Hurlfield Grammar School for Girls. The photograph was taken in 1939 when Peggy would have been 11 and Lynda was going to put together a collection of family memories for Peggy's 93rd birthday. The Sheffield Telegraph had a feature on the school on 19 October 1939. It must have been a tough time to go to school but Peggy might have been quite fortunate as Hurlfield Girls were to remain at their own school during the war. It was often the case that Sheffield schools had to share premises away from danger of enemy bombing and in some cases they had to resort to "home service schooling" simply because the school had no adequate air raid shelter. 

 

Stewart Taylor has written to tell us he has now built a new website to display the Taylor Family history in Dore and Totley. You may remember that Stewart has been researching his family history for some time. His grandfather, Shirley Taylor, was well-known in the area from his days as bandleader of the Dore Brass Band and later as steward of the Dore Club. Many of the family worked as scythe smiths for Tyzacks at Abbeydale Works and Little London or as brickmakers for Pickford Holland. Stewart's great-uncle Farewell Taylor was a stone mason who worked on several of the gravestones in Dore churchyard. The website is still in its infancy and Stewart would welcome any relevant photographs and other material that you may have.

 

David Hallam of the Dronfield Civic Society was curious about the inscription on a memorial stone in St. John's churchyard for William Greaves which refers to an accident at Beauchief Station. We found accounts in the Sheffield newspapers of the accident together with the inquest and funeral which followed. On 6 January 1872 William Greaves was returning home to Dronfield after a football match between Millhouses and Dronfield Town when, in attempting to rejoin friends who had got into another carriage, he opened the door before the train had come to a halt in the station. He fell on to the rails and his legs were crushed under the wheels of the five rear carriages which passed over him. William was removed to Chesterfield Hospital where his legs were amputated but he died from his injuries the following afternoon. A verdict of accidental death was recorded and William was buried on 10 January. All accounts suggest William was well respected and popular and his funeral was attended by a large group of friends and fellow members of the Manchester Unity Lodge of Oddfellows yet no mention was made of his family or trade which might serve to identify him. 

 

Nick Stanley came across our website whilst researching material for his Twitter based website The Minesweepers' Victory (@Sweepers3945). It’s a great resource for those who wish to gain a better understanding of the efforts of the minesweeping trawlers in WW2 (and of those who supported them). Nick very kindly placed a link to our website and bought a copy of Pauline Burnett's book Knit For Victory.

 

Our article about Thomas Youdan was spotted by Guillaume Germain who is a football historian and writer. Guillaume is planning his next book which will be about the history of football cup competitions and he had a number of questions for us about our sources of information. He was particularly keen to know more about the circumstances surrounding the knockout competition and about the two trophies, the one that won Thomas's design competition and the one that was actually presented to the winners, Hallam F.C. Most of our information came from contemporary newspaper reports but, if you wish to know more, Kevin Neill has written a fascinating account of the background to the competition and about the differing rules of the game that were in force before, during and after the competition took place.

 

Andrew Bower wrote to us about Wainman Topham, the joint winner of the prize competition to design the Youdan Cup. Andrew wanted to know more about what happened to Wainman after he emigrated to North America in the 1880s. We had found him in two directories in Canada. The 1890 Toronto City Directory lists him as an artist with Newsome & Brownscombe, a firm of lithographers, printers and publishers at 65 Henry Street. The 1893 Ontario Farmers and Business Directory also has him listed in Toronto but with no details other than his name. However, it appears that Wainman crossed the border into United States in 1892 according to an entry we found in the June 1900 US Census when he was living at 1804 Niagra Street, Buffalo, Erie County, New York and working as a painter/etcher. Armed with this new information, Andrew was able to find entries for Wainman in the Buffalo City directories for 1898, 1899 and 1900 and his death in the same city later in 1900.  

 

Boot Remover with label Boot Remover with label

John Radford found a cast iron boot remover at the Newark Antiques Centre but couldn't find any information about its history from the attached label which he had presumed was a shop. In fact 260 Bradway Road is a large semi-detached house built around 1932-34 and, as far as well know, has always been a private dwelling. From the death of a relative there in 1946, we believe it to have been occupied by the family of Henry Edmund Morley who was born in Northampton in 1875, the son of Sylvanus Morley a shoemaker like his father. At least three of Sylvanus's children followed the same trade but not Henry Edmund who became an upholsterer and carpet planner and fitter. He came to Sheffield around the turn of the century and had five children, the youngest of whom, Henry Edward Morley, was born in Nottingham on 26 June 1915. Young Henry married Margaret Warburton, the daughter of a Sheffield boot and shoe repairer, in 1940. It is tempting to think that the boot remover was passed down from an old shoemaking family and that the label was affixed whilst the family were living in Bradway. The label is printed in Monotype's Times New Roman which became available generally after the Second World War and was popularized by IBM in the 1960s. Henry Edward died in 1985 and was buried with his parents at Abbey Lane Cemetery.

 

Gwynneth McManus thanked us for all the information she had found on our website whilst researching her family tree which she can trace back to her 3x great grandparents Abraham Elliott and Mary Ogden through their daughter Phoebe who married John Frankish at Sheffield Parish Church in 1834. Abraham was a stonemason who was born in Dore about 1780 and who later lived in Totley at Monybrooks. Abraham and Mary were buried in Dore Churchyard and a photograph of their gravestone is on our website. It seems very likely that Abraham is the grandson of Henry Elliott of Dore, also a stonemason, whose Last Will and Testament is one of many that we have just transcribed. 

 

Tim Treffry read Ian Macgill's article in Grapevine (August 2021) about the sorry treatment of German born steel magnate, Sir Joseph Jonas who was charged with spying for Germany in 1918. His associate Charles Alfred Vernon, the son of Jonas's ex-partner Carl August Hahn was similarly charged. Living on Vernon Road, Tim wondered whether there could be a connection. Charles Alfred Vernon was born Carl Alfred Hahn on 24 January 1880 in Sheffield and changed his name by deed-poll twice, both times coinciding with the registration of his children's births suggesting he wanted to save them from any animosity against Germans. Vernon was not a name connected with either Alfred or his wife's family; it seems to be one of choice. Nor is there is any connection between the family and Totley Rise, Carl August living the rest of his life in Sharrow and Alfred in London. The houses on Vernon Road were built in the mid 1920s, mainly by Len Marcroft. The name may have been chosen because of its proximity to the house on the corner with Chatsworth Road, Vernon Lodge, which carries a datestone of 1910. In the 1911 Census Vernon Lodge was the home of Richard Slater Midgely (1878-1975) a master printer with a business at 147 Norfolk Street, Sheffield and his wife Emmeline Dungworth (1878-1965) who married in 1906 in Sheffield. Again, there does not appear to be a close family connection between the Midgelys and the name Vernon. Many of the street names in our area are derived from the family names of the major landowners, notably the Dukes of Devonshire and Rutland and Earls of Shrewsbury. Vernon is an old Derbyshire family name and one which is connected with the Rutlands and Shrewsburys. 

 

Jane Alexander, nee Walker, enjoyed seeing our page about Norwood School. Jane was in the same class as Roger Hart and has been able to identify a number of additional people in the 1952 photograph that Roger gave us. Jane and her sister Patricia attended the school until the family moved to Oxford at the end of the spring term in 1954.

 

Martin Hancock asked us whether we had any old photographs of that part of Prospect Road that he used to visit as a child in the 1940s and 1950s. His father was a colleague of Leonard Ernest Sidney Eastham (1893-1977), who was Professor of Zoology at Sheffield University from 1931 until his retirement in 1958. Prof. Eastham moved to our area in 1939 and lived in a bungalow known as The Croft, 138 Prospect Road. When Martin stayed in it, there were very few buildings on that part of the road and the bungalow was in a field set back some way from the road up a private drive. The drive was widened when Rosamond Court was built around 1966 and eventually it became a road leading to the Rosamond Estate which was still being built in the late 1970s. The bungalow then became known as 5 Rosamond Drive. It was recently demolished to make way for a development of five luxury homes called Poynton Wood View. If you have any old photos of the property or the area between Everard Avenue and Prospect Place, we would love to hear from you.

 

Lynne Harrison is researching her links to the Bartin Family who during the 19th century lived in Shaw House, now a listed building known as Shaw Farm, 25 Haugh Lane, Ecclesall. We have been able to trace the family's ancestry back to the Sheffield cutler, John Bartin, born in 1713 and possibly even earlier to Andrew Bartin from Dumfries-shire. The Bartins lived in Broad Oak Green at least from 1828 whilst the farmhouse itself dates from around a hundred years before. After the death of the third William Bartin (1802-1868), his widow Sarah (nee Hill) continued to live in Shaw House until her own death on 13 October 1877. By 1881 the house had been taken by Joseph Orbell, a huntsman and foxhound expert, who had recently retired from the employment of Earl Fitzwilliams at the Wentworth Estate, Rotherham. 

 

The words Millhouses Cricket Club can be seen in the background of photographs that were lent to us by Garth Inman who can identify his great uncle, Cecil Inman, in many of them. Garth would like to know when they were taken and who else is present. Cecil Inman was born in Sheffield in 1881, the youngest son of Tom Inman and his wife Alice (nee Hawksworth). Tom was the proprietor of Inman's Steelworks at Britannia Works on Furnival Road, Sheffield. Cecil spent much of his life after 1907 in Canada where he worked for the Canadian National Railways until his retirement in May 1946. From the style of clothing and appearance of the people in the photographs, we think it likely that they were taken before World War I. Please follow the link above to see whether you can put names to any of the faces.

Bob Bunyar was in the process of writing a book about Wartime Purbeck when he came across our article on the Shepley Family. Bob wanted to use material from our website in a chapter about RAF Warmwell, where Pilot Officer Douglas Shepley of RAF 152 Squadron was based when he sadly lost his life on 12 August 1940, aged 22.

 

We were happy to oblige and were able to put Bob in touch with Dick Shepley who was also very pleased to assist. Bob tells us that the two had a very interesting conversation. We thank Bob for sending us a complimentary copy of his splendidly illustrated 83 page book which is now on sale locally in Dorset.

 

Jeannette Clark is researching her family history. Her grandfather's birth certificate records that he was born at No. 4 Shaft, Totley Moor, on 26 June 1893. John Smith was the son of William Smith, a railway tunnel miner, and his wife Amelia Jewell. No doubt he will have been born in one of the temporary workmen's cottages erected on Joseph Rollinson's land, a short distance from the airshaft on the other side of Moss Lane. We know that the cottages measured 34ft x 16ft and were built of brick with corrugated iron roofs. A separate block of water closets was built some distance to the east. The cottages would have been sparse and shared by more than one family or with lodgers. We know they did their best to make the cottages more homely and many of the families had gardens and kept chickens and sometimes pigs. John's birth was reported to the registrar by Emily Hart who was present at the birth. There would have been no qualified midwife as such and we imagine Emily helped to deliver the baby. In the 1891 Census, she was living in a cottage at No. 4 shaft with her husband John, four children and five lodgers. Three of Emily's children attended Totley Church School. It looks likely that the Smith family left our area soon after the tunnel was completed. We have traced the births of five of their seven children, all born in different counties, suggesting the family led a migratory life following William's work. 

Christopher Stokoe wanted to know what his grandfather Frank Smith did for a living. We were able to trace Frank through the marriage of his only daughter Edith to Dr. James Miller Swanson Wood at St. John's Church, Ranmoor on 18 March 1903. Frank Smith led an interesting life. He was born in Harley, near Wentworth, West Yorkshire in 1847, the ninth of eleven children of William Smith and Esther Trippet who married at Wath upon Dearne on 10 October 1829. Like his father, Frank was an ironstone miner but after his marriage to Mary Hoyland at Sheffield Parish Church on 19 July 1869 he became a grocer. In 1872 he moved to Hoyland Nether near Barnsley where his business flourished despite a failed investment in a soap manufacturing business. By 1901 he was able to hand over the business to his son Albert Edward and build South Grove, a substantial six bedroom property with extensive grounds. After Mary's death in 1905, Frank remarried to Mary Ann Shepard and retired to Harrogate where he died on 3 February 1936, aged 87.

 

Rosalind Waler was moving into a new property in Lincolnshire and was thinking about calling it Monybrook. Her father, Hubert Moorhouse, had called all his houses by that name and Rosalind knew relatively little about her father's family history. Her grandfather, Arthur Moorhouse, was a railway clerk who was born in Sheffield in 1883 and who married Ruth Holding at Dore Christ Church on 24 September 1906. Arthur and Ruth lived at Monybrook Cottages, across the road from Monybrook Farm where Ruth's parents John and Ruth Holding farmed for many years. Arthur Moorhouse played a significant role in the building of All Saints' Church as Vice Chairman of the New Church Building Committee, deputizing for Mr. Milne on several occasions. Arthur was also the chairman of Totley Cricket Club before work commitments caused him to leave Totley in January 1924. We have traced both the Moorhouse and Holding families back to Rosalind's great great grandparents.   

 

Susan Borley contacted us after listening to a repeat of BBC Radio 4's programme about Frank Mottershaw and the making of the first action movie. Susan had traced her father's family back to Richard Mottershaw, a coal miner who was born around 1836 in Lofthouse, Yorkshire and she wondered whether there was a family connection. Frank Mottershaw's ancestry can be traced with a high degree of certainty to his great great grandparents John Mottershaw and Sarah White who married at North Wingfield, Derbyshire on 31 July 1759. Frank is descended through their second son, John, who was baptised at North Wingfield on 7 March 1762. Richard Mottershaw would appear to be the fourth child of George Southern Mottershaw and Sarah Frost who married at St. John the Baptist, Wakefield on 24 October 1825. George was baptised on 7 March 1800 at North Wingfield, the son of William Mottershaw and Deborah Southern who married at Alfreton, Derbyshire on 11 June 1788. We cannot prove that this William Mottershaw was the same as the one who was baptised on 8 July 1760 at North Wingfield, the eldest son of John Mottershaw and Sarah White. However, the ages agree and North Wingfield was then a very small village. If he were, this would make Frank Mottershaw Susan's third cousin, twice removed and Frank Storm Mottershaw her fourth cousin, once removed. 

 

Peter Griffin got in touch with us from All Cannings, near Devizes in Wiltshire. In the graveyard of All Saints Church is a headstone which bears an inscription telling how Josiah Hibberd was seriously injured whilst working on the construction of the Totley Tunnel in 1892. The inscription provides no information about Josiah's birth or his family and Peter was curious to know if we could throw some light on Josiah's life and how he came to be injured. We were unable to find any reference to Josiah's accident but we were more successful in tracing his family history. He was born in 1858 in All Cannings, the sixth of seven children of George Hibberd, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Eliza Ellis who married at All Cannings on 28 November 1846. Josiah was a bricklayer's labourer by 1881 census and in the 1891 census he was in lodgings in Eccles, Lancashire. He was still single and he may have been working on the construction of the nearby Manchester Ship Canal which at that time also included dam building and diversion of rivers and railway lines. Josiah could have been in our area for a no more than a year before his injury. He died on 9 May 1897 at the age of 38 having apparently spent most of previous five years in hospital.  

 

When Jack Burrows died in Perth, Western Australia in November 2020 at the fine old age of 100 years, a scrap of paper found in his belongings led to his long time neighbour, friend and administrator, Trevor Lawton contacting us to try to obtain some information about Jack's family history. That note in Jack's own handwriting gave his mother's maiden name as Maud Griffiths and said that her father had been "killed in a tunnel accident in Dore and Totley tunnel". Jack's grandfather was George Griffiths who died on 13 December 1888 following an explosion during the sinking of number 3 airshaft at Totley Bents. George's widow Florence died soon afterwards and daughters Annie and Maud were adopted separately. Whilst Annie lived the rest of her life in Yorkshire, Maud emigrated to Australia with her husband, John Burrows, daughter Margaret and son Jack, aged just two.

Trish Proctor was disappointed that our photographs of memorial stones in St. Swithin's Churchyard, Holmesfield did not include two family headstones. One marks the grave of Trish's great great grandparents John James Chetwynd, a brickyard timekeeper, and his wife Elizabeth Ann Billam Hague who married at St. Giles, Matlock on 23 February 1890. Two of their seven children are buried with them. The second gravestone is for Emily Sherwin who married John James's younger brother George Edwin Chetwynd at St. Swithin's on 28 January 1889. Trish has provided us with photographs of the gravestones which we have now added to our portfolio. Update In response to Trish's email we have now extended our coverage of St. Swithin's Church gravestones with the great majority now photographed and uploaded. 

 

Michelle Bates wrote to us about her great grandfather, Gilbert Lambert who was born in Shepton Mallet, Somerset in 1872 and who the family believe came to Totley to help build the Totley Tunnel. However, no trace of Gilbert can be found in the 1891 Census when the work on the tunnel was in full swing. As Ted Hancock notes in his new book, it is not uncommon to find migrant navvies being missed off the census, particularly if they were living in makeshift, temporary accommodation like barns and other farm outbuildings. Gilbert married in 1905 to Amy Sturdy who was born in Totley in 1879, the seventh of eleven children of Paul Sturdy, a joiner, and his wife Amelia Matilda Goodison. Gilbert became a ganister and coal miner and he and Amy lived for most of their married life in Sheffield but for a while just before the First World War they lived on Summer Lane, Totley. Amy died on 23 May 1936, aged 56, and Gilbert on 29 February 1940, aged 67. They are buried in Dore churchyard.

 

Andy Barker told us how much he enjoyed our website having found references to his ancestor Harvey Barber who was born in Millhouses in 1867, the fifth of twelve children of Thomas Barber, a farmer, and his wife Matilda Furness who married on 7 November 1859 at St. Philip, Shalesmoor. Harvey married Ada Randall also at St. Philip on 1 August 1892 and for many years the couple lived at The Grouse, Totley Bents where Harvey was a farmer and innkeeper. Andy has traced the Barber family back to Harvey's great grandfather Georgius Barber, a cutler who married Sarah Oldale whose family unsuccessfully claimed ownership of land that would later become Millhouses Park.

 

Lauren Sutton is new to our area and wanted to find out whether what she had been told about her property's history was indeed true. The house is known as Bradway House, 60 Prospect Road. Folklore says it may have been a beerhouse called Babes in the Wood that operated when Bradway Tunnel was being built. Bradway House was built around 1832 by Henry Greaves, a farmer, together with two adjacent cottages. We have traced most of the occupants of the property from these early days up to the start of World War Two. In 1861 the house was occupied by the family of William Blake, whose occupation was recorded as basketmaker and beerhouse keeper. However, Blake had left by 1862 and we have not been able to find proof of its use during the period up to 1869 when work on the tunnel was completed.

 

Dr. Jan Woudstra, of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Sheffield University, asked us whether we knew the age of the cherry trees at the lower end of Abbeydale Park Rise. In the spring, the trees provide a glorious display of blossom whilst at Christmas the trees are illuminated with fairy lights and attract many visitors to see them. Reports produced by STAG (Sheffield Tree Action Groups) suggest the trees were planted in the late 1970s and reference two local residents who can remember contributing £2 into a Council scheme to have a tree planted outside their homes. However, just as Abbeydale Park Rise was built in two phases, it would appear that the cherry trees were planted in two phases also. We have in our collection a picture postcard of the area that we can date to around 1931 which clearly shows a line of small but established trees on the north side of the road.

 

Jen Ashton asked us about Queen Victoria's Visit to Sheffield on 21 May 1897. Jen had seen in our Virtual Museum a souvenir programme and had one very similar that she had found when sorting through some of her Granddad's belongings. Whilst the size, style and text of the two programmes were the same the border designs were different. It would appear from newspaper reports that perhaps as many as fifty thousand of these souvenirs were printed and given to the children of the district to wave at the royal procession as it passed. Whilst it is just a guess on our part, we wonder whether the version that Jen has with a pattern of rowing boats and oarsmen was given to the boys whilst the version with a flower pattern was given to the girls. Jen hopes to have the programme framed as a most attractive family keepsake. 

 

Nick Kuhn asked us about an original 1920s poster that he bought some time ago promoting the autumn fashions for John Walsh Ltd., the Sheffield department store. In a corner is a blind stamp bearing the name of the owner: Wigmore, Heatherfield, Totley, Nr. Sheffield. The stamp almost certainly refers to a house named Wigmore on the Heatherfield Estate that was built in the late 1920s or early 1930s. The first occupiers that we can trace are John Howarth Caine, a district mineral agent for the LNER, and his wife Florence Jane Prince who married at St. Mark's Church, Lincoln on 24 November 1897. Their only daughter Doris Mary was born on 11 March 1900 in Normanton on the Wolds. The Caine family lived at Wigmore until 1936 when they returned to Nottinghamshire. After Totley was absorbed into Sheffield in 1934 the house would have been known simply as 12 The Quandrant so we can be fairly confident that the blind stamp would have been made for the Caine family.

 

Bob Brown asked for our help in locating a house named Morrena on Victoria Road (renamed Queen Victoria Road in 1935). Bob's grandparents William and Alice Temporal were living there when his mother, Betty, was born in 1927. The family lived there only a short while before moving to Millthorpe where Betty's brother was born in March 1931. Morrena is not a name that we recognised but we have found a reference to it in 1923 when Frederick George Phipps was living there. He was the company secretary of the newly formed Victoria (Totley) Lawn Tennis Club Limited and Morrena was the company's registered address. The tennis courts themselves were near the southern end of the road, opposite the top of Back Lane. We know Morrena was a single storey property because a newspaper announcement in December 1931 referred to a Frederick William James of Morrena Bungalow. Using an aide memoire that belonged to Ernest Jackson of Totley Rise Post Office, we have been able to trace the route that the postman took to deliver to this area. It would seem that Morrena was at the Prospect Place end of the Victoria Road, probably very close to number 131. If anyone has any further information we would love to hear from you. 

 

When Jack Burrows died in Perth, Western Australia at the age of 100 years, a scrap of paper found in his belongings led to his long time neighbour Trevor Lawton contacting us to try to obtain some information about Jack's family history. The note mentioned that Jack's grandfather was killed in an accident in Totley Tunnel. George Griffiths died following an explosion during the sinking of number 3 airshaft on 13 December 1888 leaving a wife, Florence Woodward, and two young daughters, Maud and Annie. After Florence's death in 1892, both daughters were adopted. Maud Griffiths went on to marry John Burrows, an iron moulder, in Derby in 1906 and had a daughter Margaret the following year and a son John Junior, known as Jack, on 3 February 1920. The Burrows Family emigrated to Perth, Western Australia, in 1922-23. Jack Burrows became an engineer and married Mary Henderson Boyack Ritchie from Fife in 1944. They had no children but enjoyed 71 years of marriage before Mary died on 28 July 2015 aged 97. Jack Burrows, grandson of Totley tunneller George Griffiths, died on 20 November 2020.

 

Robin Weare wrote to us about George Wainwright, the Totley weaver who, around 1760, offered John Wesley's Methodists the safety of his own home and let them preach there. Robin believes he may be a descendant through George's daughter Elizabeth if she is the same Elizabeth Wainwright who married William Mounsey in Sheffield Cathedral on 31 January 1779. Robin was also interested to discover more about George's parents and siblings. We have found out a limited amount of information which does suggest a connection is possible but that would be confirmed if George had left a will mentioning his daughter in her married name.

Mike Stirgess enjoyed reading about Norwood School and the two elderly Misses Crossland who were still teaching at the school they had started around 1893. Annie Elizabeth Crossland was born on 28 November 1866 and Ethel Maud on 10 July 1879, both in Sheffield. When Mike left Norwood School, "Miss Crossland" would have been aged 77 and "Miss Ethel" would have been aged 63. There was a third sister, Lucy, who doesn't seem to have been involved in teaching but who may have helped with the school administration prior to her marriage. Readers may remember Mike who lived on Meadow Grove Road for about twenty years until his marriage to the daughter of Doris and Percy Wilkinson who had the hardware business in the middle shop of the three facing the top of Mickley Lane. 

   

Michael Lightowler has been in touch with us about Oakwood Collegiate School, Pitsmoor, which he attended between 1960 and 1963. He wondered if anyone had any recollections of the school or the people who were there at that time. The headmistress was Mrs Phoebe Holroyd who started the school in 1925 initially as the Firth Park Kindergarten and, by 1927, as the Firth Park Preparatory School. Phoebe was in her seventies when Michael was there and after she died in 1973 at the age of 85 there was no one in her family with an interest to carry on the school and it appears to have closed soon afterwards. We would like to hear from anyone with memories of the school and, of course, we are always keen to see class photographs which we know were professionally taken. 

 

Amanda Burridge, nee Dawson, contacted us about Charles Cartwright, who was killed in WW1 and whose life story is one of many that we have recently researched. Charles was born on 25 November 1882, one of twin boys born to Rev. George Dawson Cartwright and his wife Maria, nee Root who had fourteen children in all. We have looked further into Rev. Cartwright's ancestry, family and career which took him as far north as York and far south as St. Enoder in Cornwall. Charles's twin brother Edward, who had emigrated to British Columbia in 1906, joined the 7th Battalion Canadian Infantry and died from wounds at 2nd Northern General Hospital, Leeds on 10 October 1916 and was buried at St. Andrew's Church, Wimpole where his father was the Rector.   

 

Robert Lancaster asked us if we had any photographs of All Saints' Church which might show the original iron railings that were fitted at the east end of the Church to protect the public from the drop down to the access passage to the crypt. There is a wooden railing and wire fence there now which is not is not in the best of repair. Sadly we have precious few photographs of the church and none of the east end old enough to show the original railings which could have been removed for reuse during WW2.    

Inspection cover, Furniss Avenue Inspection cover, Furniss Avenue

Ada Eckersley wrote to us from Australia to ask a number of questions about her great grandfather James Elliott and his younger brother Ernest who for many years was the superintendent and main lay preacher at Totley Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on Chapel Lane. The Chapel closed in 1967 and after being empty for several years it was bought by Brian Edwards and converted into a domestic property. From Brian's files we were able to supply photographs of the Chapel before its conversion and a copy of John Dunstan's  The Story of Methodism in Totley which mentions Ernest and his wife Lily (nee Tyson). Ernest Elliott was a master builder who built five bungalows on Baslow Road and lived in one of them, number 182. He also built semi-detached houses on Chatsworth Road and Furniss Avenue, at least two of which still have in their drives their original inspection covers bearing his name.  

 

The Charge of the Light Brigade on 25 October 1854 at Balaklava has long since passed from history into folklore, stimulated in no small measure by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's stirring poem which was itself inspired by William Russell's report in The Times, written on the very day of the Charge. Every schoolchild was taught the poem by rote and their parents probably already knew it. Few people who were literate and who could afford a newspaper bothered to read the subsequent official reports. Consequently, the numbers of combatants and casualties have been widely misrepresented ever since, including those which we re-quoted in our article about David Stanley of the 17th Hussars. We would like to thank Stephen Acaster for pointing this error out to us. We have now completely revised and expanded the article and added, in full, David's own account of the Charge which he gave to a reporter from the Buxton Herald in 1875.   

 

Mrs Annie Charlesworth sent us six glass transparencies of the rock gardens at Totley Hall taken, we believe, in the early years following the Great War. They belonged to Miss Mary Milner who was the granddaughter of William Aldam Milner.  The transparencies were rediscovered recently when Mrs. Charlesworth was turning out drawers during the lockdown. Towards the end of the 19th century Totley Hall gardens became a well known beauty spot that attracted many hundreds of visitors from Sheffield on open days and the rock gardens became one of its most popular features. William Milner was a keen gardener and horticulturalist with a particular love of daffodils, over 250 varieties of which were grown at Totley Hall. By 1896 he had raised a dwarf form suitable for his rock garden which he named W.P. Milner after his father.  

 

A Canadian correspondent sent us photographs of a set of silver spoons that were bought in a small town in British Columbia. The Morrocco case contained an envelope addressed to Maurice Housley and a note dated 2 July 1889 and signed by Ebenezer Hall indicating that they were a gift to Maurice and his bride upon their forthcoming marriage. The spoons are hallmarked Sheffield 1888 by Martin Hall & Co. Ltd., Ebenezer's own silverware company. Maurice married Fanny Ada Pennington on 3 September 1889 at St. George's Church, Brook Hill, Sheffield. We think they were taken to Canada by their younger son Eric who emigrated to British Columbia in 1924 and that they have remained in the family for the majority of the time since.  

 

Whilst on the subject of Ebenezer HallAnton Rodgers, who went to Abbeydale Grammar School for Boys and still has family in our area, send us photographs of three water-colours that had been bought by his grandfather at a sale of the contents of Abbeydale Hall in 1919. One was of a scene said to be in York by A. Wilson, whom we have been unable to trace. The second picture was of Lake Como, by Ainslie Hodson Bean (1851-1918) who lived for much of his life on the Riviera and in North Italy. His paintings of landscapes and lake scenes were exhibited at several London galleries and for a time he became quite well known. The third picture of a seated child with a dog was called Cherries and is believed to be by Juliana Russell (1841-1898). From a very early age Juliana showed a talent for art, drawing religious subjects. Later her compositions were largely scenes from prose, poems and songs. She exhibited regularly at the Dudley Gallery in London and at the Royal Academy.

"Artists Corner", Penny Lane "Artists Corner", Penny Lane

Rev. Stewart Rayner, who many of you will remember, has passed on a number of items from his days as vicar of All Saints Church and chairman of the governors of All Saints School. Included is the original of this pen and ink sketch by Bill Carter-Wigg whose articles and drawings frequently appeared in Totley Independent from around 1979 until his death on 14 May 1990. It is of "Artists Corner", Penny Lane and shows a building at the bottom of Chapel Fields about a hundred yards up the lane from The Crown. The sketch originally appeared on page 4 of Issue 51 of the Independent for November 1981 and is unusual in that there was no accompanying text. The building is now almost completely hidden behind trees, ivy, and undergrowth, but the sketch appears to show that it is windowless on at least two sides and was presumably used as a stable or barn. 

 

Chris Tombs saw our short piece about Charles Edward Liddell Norris, one of the WW1 soldiers whose name appears on the Roll of Honour at Dore and Totley United Reformed Church. Chris was interested in the partnership between Charles's father, Charles Guest Norris and Joseph Elton Bott to invent, design and build machinery at the Cornwall Steel Works, in Openshaw, Manchester. It seems an unlikely partnership because hitherto Norris had been an agent for "domestic specialities" whereas Bott was a mechanical engineer whose inventions included a circular saw and a pneumatic shell firing gun. Perhaps the arrangement was necessitated by Bott's frequent absence from the country and financial ups and downs. Chris is working on a biography of J. E. Bott and has shared some of his research notes with us.

 

Stephanie Preston-Hall contacted us about Douglas Henry Loukes, another WW1 soldier named on the Dore and Totley United Reformed Church Roll of Honour. Douglas lived at 40 Main Avenue and was one of three brothers whose families came to live in Totley. Sidney lived at 48 Laverdene Avenue and Charles at 11 Green Oak Road. Charles's son, another Charles, later lived at 22 Milldale Road. Purely by co-incidence, Ian Winter also contacted us about the same family. Ian is related through his wife Marilyn, nee Nelson, who is descended from a fourth Loukes brother, Frederick. Ian was kind enough to let us have some family photographs one of which now accompanies our article on Douglas.

 

Morag Barker is married to a second generation Australian, whose great grandfather George Albert Barker lived at 16 Richards Road, Heeley before emigrating to Victoria, Australia. We were able to trace the family back to George Barker, a weaver born in Baslow about 1782. A number of George's sons emigrated to Australia in the 1880s. Perhaps the most interesting relation we came across was John "Jack" Hunter (1852-1903), the brother of George Albert's wife Ellen Hunter. Jack Hunter was a footballer who played for Heeley before being poached by Blackburn Olympic with whom he won the F.A. Cup in 1883. Jack played for England seven times and went on to became a professional football coach, whose innovative tactics and revolutionary pre-match preparation have resulted in him being described as "the Pep Guardiola of his day".

 

Noel Lees came across our website when searching for Frederick Kenneth Arthur Seals, one of the thirteen Second World War servicemen and women who are commemorated on Totley War Memorial. Noel had a relative, John Henry Stirk, who was a crew member of a Lancaster bomber in 1942 that was shot down and all the crew killed. Ken Seals was also a member of that crew and Noel is trying to trace any living descendants of all the crew members. Ken was unmarried when he died but he did have a sister, Elsa Doreen, who was born in Sheffield in 1931 and who married Zygmunt Mazur in Totley All Saints Church on 29 March 1952. Zygmunt was born in Poland in 1925 and became a naturalised British citizen in Sheffield in 1959. What became of Elsa afterwards we do not know. We have not found a death for her but we have found a death for Zygmunt Mazur in Sheffield in 1997. Ken Seals also had a cousin, Alice E. Pulford, who married Robin George Winstone in 1940. Alice and Robin lived in Surrey where they had a daughter, Elise, born in 1953. Elise Pulford married Rodney S. Brown in Kingston Upon Thames district in 1971. Robin Winstone died in 2006. From online electoral rolls we have found Alice Winstone, Rodney and Elise Brown living together at 361 Malden Road, Worcester Park, Surrey in 2008 and it looks as though Alice was still there in 2012. If anyone can tell us any more about Elsa Doreen Mazur or Alice E. Winstone we would be very pleased to hear from you.

The Rutland Arms Hotel, Rutland Square, Bakewell The Rutland Arms Hotel, Rutland Square, Bakewell

Will Swales is researching the history of the Rutland Arms, Bakewell, on behalf of its new owners. One of his tasks is to work out the sequence of Derbyshire land agents for the Duke of Rutland and in that regard he came across Josie Dunsmore's article on the Coke Family of Totley HallD’Ewes Coke (1774-1856) became agent for the Derbyshire estates in 1811 and, after his retirement, may have been succeeded temporarily by John Fletcher who signed himself the Duke's agent at Belvoir Castle in 1840 before Captain William Underwood became the Duke's permanent agent in Castle Hill, Bakewell in 1841.

 

Maya, aged 10, asked us what the old buildings next to the bowling green in Green Oak Park were used for. Green Oak Park was opened on 23 March 1929 by Mrs Sarah Milner, of Totley Hall. The park was on land that had been bought by Norton District Council from John Thomas Carr, a farmer and smallholder who lived at Mona Villas, 37 Lemont Road. As well as 8 acres of land made up of two large fields, the Council also bought a 285 square yard plot of land which provided access to the park for vehicles and equipment. In later years, the buildings would have been used by the Bowling Club (the green having been built in 1956) and by the park keeper. However, the buildings appear to have been constructed in several phases, the oldest of which predates the park to the time when the land was used for pasture. It would probably have been used to stable animals, or garage farm carts, with a hay loft above. 

 

Colin Beal came across a picture postcard of the Rockingham Mausoleum in Wentworth Park, Rotherham that he thought might be of interest to us. It was addressed to Miss Abell, Holly Dene, Totley Brook Road and postmarked Rotherham, 9.45pm, 10 December 1907. Edith Annie Abell was born on 4 February 1887 in Sheffield to parents William Penty Abell, a butcher, and his wife Mary Ann Pridmore. Together with their son William, the Abells relocated to our area in the 1900s living initially at Grange Farm, Dore before moving to Holly Dene and then Melrose on Totley Brook Road. Edith's parents stayed there until at least 1917 but then moved to 17 Chatsworth Road where they stayed for the rest of their lives. 

 

Kenneth Covell wondered if there was a connection between William Henry Theaker of Leadenham, Lincolnshire who married his ancestor Jane Covel in 1860 and Ethelbert Theaker, the newsagent of Totley Rise. We have traced Ethelbert's ancestry back four generations. He was born in Sheffield like his father, Henry Theaker, a general dealer, who married Ruth Jones at St Paul, Sheffield on 6 August 1867. Ethelbert's grandfather was Benjamin Theaker, a joiner, who was born in Retford, Nottinghamshire in 1812, the son of Thomas Theaker, also a joiner, who lived in Clarborough, near Retford. There appears to be no connection with Lincolnshire in Ethelbert's family tree but we know from other studies that many Sheffield families have their roots there. It would not be at all surprising if both families were connected if only they could be traced back far enough.

 

Rina Pacitti is moving home and wrote to ask about the history of both her old house at number 331 Baslow Road and her new one at number 85b. The former property is the old Totley Police Station which we believe was built around the same time as the corner Post Office which carries a datestone of 1882. It is unlikely to have been purpose-built as it would appear that two lock-up cells were excavated just below floor level in the summer of 1890. We have traced the Derbyshire Constabulary police officers who lived there from John Burford in 1886 to George Thomas Wood who was there when Totley was absorbed into Sheffield in 1934. Rina's new property is a converted outbuilding at the rear of 85-87 Baslow Road, the former Abbeydale Club and later Queen's Social Club. It may have been built around the same time as the main building, circa 1879, and used orginally as a coach-house. The chamfered corner of the building would have been to protect horses from injury as they rounded the tight driveway. 

 

Grace Darney got in touch with us from Canada having read the correspondence from Stephen Acaster regarding photos of unnamed soldiers of WW1. Stephen thought one of the soldiers was wearing the uniform of the Durham Light Infantry and he wondered if men from Totley would join that unit. Grace assured us that they did as her great uncle Alfred Riley had served in that regiment, attesting in Sheffield on 11 October 1905. The family lived for a while in Green Oak and Alfred and his half-brother Robert Riley Lenthall both attended Totley Church School. Whilst Robert survived the war, Alfred was killed in action on 7 December 1917 during the Battle of Cambrai. He is not commemorated on any local war memorial.

 

James N. Gill contacted us seeking to be put in touch with others who might share an interest in the family history of the Hukin family who feature in a  number of articles on our website. George Edward Hukin was a friend of the poet and gay rights activist Edward Carpenter. Many of the Hukins were razor grinders and Jonathan Nicholas sent us some wonderful photographs of his early ancestors and their dangerous occupation. We have now extended our research into this family and it would appear that Jonathan and George Edward are third cousins, twice removed, both being descended from Joshua Hukin (1743-1816), basketmaker of Sheffield and his wife Hannah Glossop (1742-1813). A summary of our research is now published in PDF format at the foot of Jonathan's article.

 

Peter Wilson had seen our article about Guy Mitchell's Brook House model railway and the accompanying extract from Model Railways and Locomotives magazine for November 1910. Peter asked us a number of technical questions about the railway's construction which we were unable to answer. We are very grateful to Mick Savage, of Sheffield Model Engineers, who supplied us with many photographs of the railway for offering to answer Peter's queries.

 

Margaret Pepall lives on Queen Victoria Road in a property that stands on the site of an older house that had been demolished. She was keen to learn about the old house and its occupants. In the course of our research we uncovered that living there in 1939 were Jack Vickers-Edwards and his wife Ida. Yet neither were who they said they were. Jack was born Edward Alfred Edwards in Wakefield, the son of Edward Joseph Vickers Edwards, an architect, and his first wife Sara Turner. Jack was a WW1 veteran and his war service record survives naming Ida as his wife. In fact her name was Adelina Clara Greenwood and she was born in Bermondsey, London, the daughter of Thomas Greenwood, a police detective. Jack and Ida finally married in Derbyshire in 1962. He appears to have died the following year in Pontefract. Ida died in Spen Valley in 1973. 

 

Beth Guiver was helping to write a school workshop on WW2 at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet and wondered if we might be willing to share the memories of  local people who were children in the war years. We were very happy to send her some links to items on our website about the air raid shelters, air raid wardens, home service schooling, the temporary fire station, German PoWs, shopping and rationing, and more besides. Beth really enjoyed reading and listening to the stories and, as she says, personal accounts really help us to understand the impact on people's daily lives as seen through the eyes of children.

 

Lisa Green saw the correspondence on our website about John Thomas Osborne. Lisa is the great granddaughter of Albert Green who married John Thomas's daughter Ada Beatrice. The Green and Osborne families were close neighbours in Summer Lane in the 1901 and 1911 Censuses. Lisa is hoping to visit our area and was keen to know more about the place they lived, the school they attended and the church where they worshipped.  

 

Alison Boneham (nee Douglas) had been sorting out her late mother's papers and came across reference to Norwood High School. She was delighted to find our website which brought back many memories. Everyone remembers different things. It was good to get the memories of a girl about the school - the uniform, the illnesses and the lunches. All the earlier contributions we have had were from boys and yet the school photographs show an almost equal number of boys and girls arranged alternately.

Chris Emsley collects the war medals of men from Sheffield and north Derbyshire. One of these soldiers was Charles Herbert Nunn of Green Oak who enlisted in the British Army on 23 August 1915 and was sent to France on 18 December 1915 to served with the British Expeditionary Force. In March 1916 it was discovered that he was underage and he was returned home. Shortly after his 18th birthday he re-enlisted and was again posted abroad and saw action which earned him the Military Medal.

 

Pauline Memmott found a certificate awarded jointly by the Red Cross and St. John's Ambulance to Isaac Henry Williams, of Totley, for his services during WW1 as a stretcher bearer. As there was no connection with her own family, Pauline sought our help having found several mentions of Isaac on our website. We discovered that Isaac was a signalman at Dore & Totley Station and he and his wife Ellen lived for many years at 13 Lemont Road. As they had no children, we researched the lives of Isaac's seven brothers and sisters but so far we have been unable to trace a living relative.

 

Sarah Dean has written to us from Australia about her 4x great grandfather Samuel Dean having seen a small report in our Newspaper Archive. In 1832 Samuel pleaded guilty to stealing a quantity of lead from George Bustard Greaves's Totley Rolling Mill and was sentenced to seven years transportation. Upon arrival in New South Wales he was sent to work for William Cox, the famous English soldier, explorer, road builder and pioneer. Samuel married Catherine Hanlon Mary Kinsella in 1838 and, after receiving his Certificate of Freedom in 1840, he and Catherine went on to have at least fourteen children together. Samuel Dean died in 1899 and his death certificate reveals he was born in Whitechapel in 1811 to parents Samuel Dean, a butcher, and Susanna Duck but so far we have been unable to find any records of his parents or any explanation of how he came to be in Totley.

Graham Wood wrote to us to see whether we could help him locate a copy of a photograph which he remembered seeing, possibly in the Old Nag's Head in Edale, dating from the time of the building of Cowburn Tunnel, the second longest tunnel on the Dore & Chinley Railway. The photo was of a locomotive being hauled down the windy road from Stanage Edge towards Barber Booth. We found from newspaper archives that a trackway had been laid across the moors and that by June 1889 a locomotive was working in Edale, taking spoil away from the eastern portal of Cowburn Tunnel to a tip at Barber Booth and probably bringing bricks and other materials towards the tunnel. As the Cowburn tunnel was not pierced until July 1891, improbable though it seems, there is every chance the locomotive was brought there by this route but so far we haven't been able to obtain a copy of the photograph.  

 

Ellie Phillips got in touch with us about former occupants of her house on Lemont Road. Ellie allowed us access to her deeds including an 1879 indenture which contained a number of familiar names including Thomas Bown (publican at The Cross Scythes), William Robert Poole (farmer and contractor of Brook Hall), Tedbar Tinker and Thomas Kilner (respectively owner and manager of Totley Chemical Works) and Robert Ramsey Poole (headmaster and son-in-law of John Cockerton, Headmaster of Dronfield Grammar School and incumbent of the Abbey Church at Beauchief). In more recent times the house was occupied by a dairyman who use the outbuildings used to make butter.

 

Barbara Green contacted us having read on our website about the railway contractor, Thomas Oliver, who built the Totley Tunnel. Although Thomas was raised in Chesterfield, for much of his later life he lived in Horsham, Sussex. Barbara wondered whether he was the same Thomas Oliver who was a member of the Mid Sussex Lodge as she has a lodge brooch dated June 16, 1873 that was given to Bro. Tho. Oliver PM in acknowledgement of his service as Worshipful Master, WM 1872 3. Barbara had no idea how it came into her family's possession in Australia and wanted to forward the brooch onto an organization that collects such memorabilia. With help from members of The Horsham Society we were able to tell Barbara that we were 99 per cent sure the two men were one and the same.

 

Professor Mick Wallis asked us if we knew anything about the present whereabouts of Dr. Frederick Charles Tring, who used to live on Queen Victoria Road. In 1972 Dr. Tring wrote an article about Theodore W. Grubb, a pioneer of adult education. Prof. Wallis was writing about Grubb in a study about the promotion of amateur drama in English villages in interwar England and was trying to locate Grubb's posthumous papers which Dr. Tring had access to in writing his article. Unfortunately we have been unable to help.  

 

James Farrimond has been researching convoy HG.3 which sailed between Gibraltar and Liverpool in October 1939. Unfortunately during the voyage a number of vessels including the SS Yorkshire were torpedoed and sunk. One of the civilian passengers on this vessel was Jeanne Shepley, the only daughter of Jack and Emily Shepley who came to Woodthorpe Hall in 1926. James had seen in our article on the Shepley Family that a book of Jeanne's letters home had been been privately published. He wondered whether he could be given access to the letters to assist him in writing a book on the loss of the convoy. We are pleased that Dick Shepley has kindly offered to contact James. 

You may remember that David Hebblethwaite contacted us in seeking anyone who could help him in his quest to investigate the history of his maternal ancestors, the Coates Family of Totley and Dore. David's grandfather Frederick Stanley Coates (1886-1938) was a third generation Totley scythe grinder who, like his father and grandfather, died at a young age as a consequence of his hazardous occupation. We would like to thank David for sending us a complimentary copy of his recently published family history titled Working People and their Northern Roots. It contains an account of David's research into his family since the early 19th century and is set in the wider context of the changing social, cultural and political landscape of the time. Privately published by the author, the book has 105 pages and many family photographs and is available for members of Totley History Group to borrow on request.

Sue Hedges got in touch to see whether we could help her trace Furnace Farm, mentioned in he history of Barberfields Mine and Copperas Works where a light railway was said to operate. We have traced mentions of both the farm and railway in a 1987 Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society and on Wikipedia. The farm may have been known locally as Furness Farm, after an occupant with that name, but its location remains unproven. The railway, however, was thought to run from the Barberfields mine, through Copperas to Smeltings Farm on Ringinglow Road.

 

Ian Clark asked us if we knew anything about a robbery of the 'newspaper train' of luggage vans which took place as it stood at a signal having exited Totley Tunnel. The train would be stopped before the Dore triangle each evening, waiting clearance to take the Dore South Curve en route to Chesterfield. The robbery was evidently reported on television. So far we have been unable to trace any reference to the robbery which may have been in the mid 1980s. Perhaps one of our many readers might know more? 

 

Paul Burniston sent us this photograph of a framed sketch that had belonged to his late aunt who collected art especially scenes from her home town of Sheffield. Paul asked whether we recognised it and could tell him anything about the scene and the artist. The sketch was of course of The Cricket Inn at Totley by Brian Edwards, dated 1978. It was first published on the front page of issue 14 of Totley Independent, which Brian co-founded and helped to write. It later appeared in Brian's first collection of his sketches Brian Edwards Drawings of Historic Totley, published in 1979. In both cases, the sketch was cut down in width to suit the format of the media but it later appeared in full, just as in Paul's original, on page 40 of Totley and The Tunnel, 1985 where Brian's own house, a former Methodist Chapel, could be see in the background.

Peter Cameron who is an antiques dealer and author contacted us having read the short article by Jon Nicholas on the Hukin family. Jon mentions a Jonathan Hukin born in 1811 and Peter was  trying to establish whether he was the same man as Jonathan Wilson Hukin who was a partner in the firm of Hukin and Heath, silversmiths and silver platers of Birmingham and London. We have now put Peter in contact with Jon but from our own research it seems clear that the two men are one and the same as we have traced a marriage of William Hukin, a silver plater, to Hannah Wilson at Sheffield Parish Church in 1805 and the baptisms of nine of their children at the same church with dates corresponding to those in Jon's article. Jonathan Wilson Hukin was born on 30 May 1811 in Sheffield. He too became a silver plater and silversmith, marrying Juliana Chivers at St. Martin, Birmingham on 16 May 1837. The couple had one daughter, Maria, who was born in Sheffield in 1840. There are references in the newspapers to Jonathan Wilson Hukin's partnership with George Hawksley and Charles Haslam ending in 1852 after which it would appear that the Hukins left Sheffield for Birmingham. In later life Jonathan Wilson Hukin retired to Olton, Warwickshire and he died there on 14 August 1891, aged 80.

 

Sally Knights, from Bristol, got in touch with us having found a record on our website of her grandmother's time in Cherrytree Orphanage. Her name was Mabel Grace Gertrude Wilkes and she was resident in Cherrytree between 22 July 1897 and 30 November 1905. Sally sent us two images of the front cover and the inside plate of a book presented to Mabel in May 1900 as a prize for her writing. Sally also sent us some personal memories of her grandmother and a photograph of a locket which contains photographs of Mabel and her husband Septimus Gale, thought to have been taken shortly after their marriage in 1910.

 

Jill Wild remembers that her father Arthur Tickner was involved with a local history group in Totley and typed up a newsletter which she thought was called The Totley Pump. Does anyone remember it? Arthur Cecil Tickner lived at 42 The Grove in the the early 1980s and was the Treasurer of TADES, Totley and District Environment Society. We suspect that The Totley Pump was a magazine that he produced for that group, probably before the Totley Independent was started up on 4th July 1977. TADES was certainly around in 1975 when it initiated a project to reclaim the old Pinfold at the top of Chapel Walk. There is a reference in Totley Independent that says that TADES later merged with the Totley Residents Association. Arthur died in 1984.

 

We are grateful to Sandra Ford for spotting a mistake in the article about Totley Hall Training College written by Anna E. Baldry. Anna had stated that the Principal, Miss Metcalf, had retired in 1972 and the college had then merged with Thornbridge College under Dr. Banfield. Sandra was herself a student at the college from September 1971 until 1974 and she remembers that Dr. Banfield was definitely in post when she went for interview some months before. We have amended the date to 1971 but hope to find Dr. Banfield's precise date of appointment when we visit Sheffield Archives which holds many of the college's records, including full admissions registers from 1948 onwards. 

 

Scott Hump(hries?) asked is if we knew the whereabouts of the former Moss Colliery. Thanks to The A-W of Dore: The Story of the Village's Road Names by John Dunstan and Roger Millican (2002), we were able to tell Scott that the colliery closed in 1941 and the site now forms the Limb Lane picnic area. The mine appears on the OS 6 inch map surveyed in 1935-36 but on earlier maps the same area is marked as a quarry.

 

Drew Easton, who lives near Edinburgh, was trying to trace the house where his grandparents lived and where his mother, Valerie Joyce Crowther, was born in 1927. Her birth certificate records the address only Abbeydale Park, Dore R.D. although Drew's grandfather Stuart E. Crowther, a representative for Post Toasties (a rival of Kelloggs' Corn Flakes) always referred to the property as being in Totley Rise. The Crowthers were in our area for only a few years having moved here from Bolton around 1926 before moving to Southport by 1930. So far we have been unable to identify their house but have been able to help Drew with information about the accidental death of his grandmother.

 

Wendy Mustill contacted us having found some hard-to-read handwriting on the plaster that was exposed when she redecorated her home in Woodseats. We were able to identify that it said "C. Keatley, Totley Rise". Cecil Ezekiel Keatley (1871-1935) was a house painter and decorator from Littlehay, Warwickshire, who was shown as living at Brookvale Cottage on Back Lane in the 1911 census and in trade directories until 1925. He later lived at 8 Main Avenue with his wife Sarah Ann (nee Bishop) and two children, Jessie and Cecil Frederick who became an orchestral violinist and music teacher.

Bob Morgan, who lives in Victoria, Australia was doing some family history when he came across our article about Maurice Johnson who, during his time with the Yorkshire Dragoons, served as batman to Capt. Matt Sheppard. Capt. Sheppard was the subject of J.P. Craddock's book Sheffield Hero. Capt. Sheppard's father had been the proprietor of the Cross Scythes around 1895. Bob is related through his maternal great grandmother, Alice Sheppard, who was Capt. Sheppard's sister. Alice spent some of her childhood years in Tsarist St. Petersburg where her father was on loan to Russia Government as a consultant on the development of the Russian railway system. She married a Mr Ellison who was a railway agent and they had four children: Alec, Corby, Patricia and Margaret, Bob's grandmother, who married an Australian WW1 RFC Airman, Herbert Freeman, and emigrated to Australia in 1919.

John Sharp got in touch with us about Glossop Gill, one of the 31 soldiers commemorated on Dore village War Memorial. John wondered whether there was a family connection with his great grandmother Christiana Gill. Glossop Gill was born in Dore and baptized at Christ Church on 14 July 1878. He appears to have been named after his paternal grandmother Ann Glossop (1822-1906), who married John Gill Snr. (1822-1892) in 1846. John and Ann had at least eight children and Glossop was the son of John Gill Jnr. (1853-1915) and his wife Susan(nah), nee Taylor (1858-1928). Christiana Gill was the daughter of Cassandra Fearnehough (1845-1921) who married another of John and Ann's sons, Thomas Gill (1849-1915), in 1870. Glossop and Christiana were therefore first cousins. Like many of his family Glossop Gill became a stone mason. He married Elizabeth Ann Hasman, of Brampton, on 22 May 1905 and the couple had two daughters, Ida and Gladys. In the 1911 Census the family were living at Rose Cottage, Dore. Glossop's army service record has not survived but it is recorded that he was a Private in the Royal Army Service Corps. Glossop died on 15 March 1917 at the Camp Hospital in Romsey, Hampshire and is buried in Dore churchyard. Thomas and Cassandra Gill lived at Oldhay Forge, Totley from around 1901 and the family were still living there there after WW2.

 

Gaynor Wilkinson wrote to us about the age of her house at the city end of Green Oak Road. We were able to confirm that it was built in the early 1930s, shortly after the completion of the first phase of the Laverdene Estate. Planning permission was given in 1931-32 and building commenced shortly after. We think that by the end of 1933 numbers 1-41 and 2-38 Green Oak Road had been completed together with numbers 1-49 and 2-52 Aldam Road. Picture Sheffield has some aerial photographs of the area during the period of construction. 

 

Katherine Myers couldn't resist buying a few letters at a Flea Market in Tulsa, Oklahoma once she saw the English postage stamps and realized they were pen-pal correspondence. Katherine had no connection with the writer, Margaret Howe, but simply recalled how much she had enjoyed an English pen-pal friendship of her own for more than fifty years. Katherine got in touch with us to see whether we could help her return the letters to Margaret's family who came from Sheffield. We were able to trace Margaret's son Russell who was very surprised and delighted to hear about the discovery of his mother's letters which have now been returned safely to Sheffield. 

Adele Earnshaw wrote to us from the Bay of Islands, New Zealand to tell us that she was happy to find records for her ancestors on our website. Adele's great great grandparents Thomas Earnshaw and his wife Elizabeth (nee Thorpe) and five of their children left Dore for New Zealand in 1863, sailing aboard the clipper Mermaid from East India Docks, London on November 12th and arriving in Lyttelton, New Zealand on 16 February 1864. A young man, Henry Schofield of Long Line, Dore, who was a friend of young Thomas Earnshaw, son of Thomas and Elizabeth, travelled to New Zealand with the Earnshaw family. During the voyage Henry kept a diary which is now in the collection of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand. Adele, who is a professional artist, has had a painting project in mind for the past few years connecting the Schofield diary, her family history and New Zealand's history which could take her 18 months to complete. We have been helping Adele and also descendants of Henry Schofield with the British element of their family histories and hope to bring you more of their stories later.

 

Glynis Haynes wrote to tell us that she had enjoyed reading our article on the Totley Tunnel Memorial: The Irish Question as her great grandfather James Toon had worked on Totley Tunnel, possibly as a bricklayer or navvy and that his son Albert was born on Totley Moor in 1895 according to the 1911 Census. We have found James, wife Agnes and their six children William (born circa 1874), Elizabeth (1877), Lydia (1880), James (1883), Agnes (1886) and Charles (1889) living in Staffordshire in the 1891 Census. They appear to have moved to Totley by the following year, when there is a record of James and young Agnes being admitted to Totley Church School on 22 August. Their address was given as No 4. Shaft, the navvy accommodation on Totley Moor. Another daughter, Nellie, was born in 1892. We have also found a marriage at Dore Christ Church on 23 January 1893 between their eldest son William Toon and Ellen Thornton. Interestingly both William and his father are shown to be brickyard labourers. The main brickworks that supplied bricks for Totley Tunnel was at Moor Edge and there was a light tramway that connected the works with No. 4 shaft, which was used to lower materials and men down to the tunnel below.

 

Neill James asked us if we could help him find where his great grandparents William and Jenny Cockshott were buried. The family had moved to Brook Lynn, Grove Road, Totley Rise shortly before 1900. Sadly William and Jennie died within a few weeks of each other both aged just 44, Jennie on Christmas Eve 1904 and William on 9 February 1905. The parish registers for Dore Christ Church show that they were both buried there although no headstone can be found. Their four children were aged between 5 and 17 at the time they became orphaned. Younger son James Percy Cockshott went to live with his uncle Samuel in Eaglescliffe, Durham. He enlisted in the King's Own Hussars in London before being transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. James was killed on 11 September 1918, during the 'Advance to Victory', a series of battles fought in Picardy and Artois during the last few months of the war. James's body was never recovered. He is incorrectly remembered as 'David Cockshott' on the Roll of Honour inside Totley Rise Methodist Church. James is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial along with 9,846 other officers and men who were killed in the period from 8th August 1918 to 11th November 1918 and also on the parish war memorial at Eaglescliffe & Preston on Tees and at the Friends School at Great Ayton, where he was educated.

 

Carol Beadle has sent us some details of her family tree and would like to know more about her ancestor Mark Green who was was born in Totley in about 1775. He married Helen Linney at St. Peter's Church, Old Brampton on 16 February 1802 and went to live in the Brampton area for the rest of his life. Carol is descended from Mark Green through his eldest daughter Charlotte (1806-1880) who married Thomas White at Old Brampton on 1 January 1829. From fragmentary accounts of the Totley Overseers of the Poor, it appears that Mark Green received an allowance of 2 shillings per week from 1832, a sum that was increased by 6d. following a visit to him by the Overseers in February 1836. The accounts for 1842 mention that this was because he was disabled and no longer able to work as an ironstone miner. Mark Green died at Red Row, Brampton of "gradual decay" on 22 February 1853, aged 77, and was buried on 24 February. Carol would love to hear from anyone who may be researching the same family. If you write to us at our usual email address, we would be delighted to put you in touch.

Amanda Hodgkinson is researching her husband's family tree and asked if we held any information about Sampson Hodgkinson who appears in five censuses for Totley from 1841 to 1881. In particular Amanda was keen to know where exactly in Totley Bents it was that Sampson lived and worked. Sampson was the eldest son of Joshua Hodgkinson from Great Longstone and his Totley born wife Maria (nee Green). He was baptized at St Mary's Parish Church, Stockport in 1802 and came to live in Sheffield, marrying Mary Gregory at the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in 1830. The couple had five sons and four daughters between 1831 and 1845 and appear to have moved to Totley Bents around 1838. The Tithe Map for the following year shows that Sampson was occupying a small cottage next to his father who lived at Turner Croft, a property which included just over an acre of arable land. Both properties were rented from the Rt. Hon. Digby, Lord Middleton. Sampson and his father were millwrights, and in addition to their properties at Totley Bents, Joshua also rented more than 18 acres of land from the Waterfall Brothers, John Gray and Henry, at what is now Totley Grove including Totley Scythe Mill, together with its associated dam, mill pond and fields. Joshua died in 1853 but Sampson continued in his trade at Totley Bents for the rest of his life. He died on 17 February 1884 at the age of 80 and was buried at Dore Christ Church in the same grave as his wife Mary who had died before him on 21 August 1882.

 

Nigel Cheetham asked us for information about the wartime anti-aircraft/searchlight position on Wing Hill, just off White Lane. Nigel has permission to use a metal detector in the area and says he has already discovered a number of small finds. Over the years, several correspondents have made reference to the site in the pages of Totley Independent including Jean Smithson, Jack Abson, Bob Carr, Jack Hedley and Mike Roberts but so far we have been unable to find any further information. Can anyone help? 

 

Whilst sorting through some of his late father's possessions, Craig Newbould came across an old grocery account book which must have belonged to a previous owner of the house at Summerville, 21 The Quadrant, Totley. The account book was issued to a Mrs. Dye by Walter Evans, the grocer who had a shop on Hillfoot Lane and later at the top of Main Avenue. Craig very kindly scanned images of the pages which make fascinating reading, showing the day to day purchases of an ordinary family and the costs of those goods in 1929 and 1930. We have been able to find out a small amount of information about Fred and Elsie Dye who lived in the house from around 1926 until their deaths in 1952 and 1979 respectively.

 

Basil Abbott sent us his memories of working in C.L. Marcoft's garage in the Chemical Yard during the 1950s. Jack Clarke was in charge and the garage got to deal with some really top class cars like Jaguar, Lagonda, Aston Martin, Armstrong Siddeley and Alvis. Between them Jack and Basil built a two-seater sports car which was raced at Snetterton track in Norfolk.

Oliver Miller asked us whether we had any information about the history of the stone-built house on Main Avenue that he and his family will be moving into as the estate agents were unsure of the its date and thought that it might have originally been an old Totley farmhouse. This seems unlikely to us as the house does not appear on OS 1:1,250 maps before the mid 1930s when it is shown at the east end of a large field lying between the long back gardens of houses on the north side of Green Oak Road and the public footpath between Main Avenue and Totley Hall Lane. The house seems to have been variously numbered 52 or 54. Adjacent to the house was a curved drive or track leading from Main Avenue to a large structure in the centre of the field, which might possibly have been a barn or workshop and which seems to have existed until being demolished in the 1960s to make way for a southerly extension to Sunnyvale Road. In 1936 the house was occupied by Edith and Frank Parker, a master dairyman, and may have been known as Meadow ViewPeter Battle remembers that the Parkers kept chickens and sold eggs but this ended with the road extension. Does anyone have any further information about the house or about what the structure in the field might have been? 

 

Margaret Page found her ancestors Mary and Sarah Cockcroft in our transcription of the Cherrytree Orphanage admissions book and wrote to express her thanks. The sisters had been admitted in 1868 following the deaths of their parents from typhoid. We were able to supply Margaret with a small amount of additional information that we held on the sisters and were interested to learn that Sarah went to live in Halifax where she married Walter Wade and had seven children. Mary went to live with an uncle in Lancashire before marrying William Rose and having a daughter Annie. After the death of her husband, Mary emigrated to Canada with her daughter and son-in-law, Jack Sharples. We are keen to follow up the story of the sisters in more detail for an article for our website.

 

Sue Kruk (nee Lamb) wrote to thank us for our website having found a couple of school photos of her late cousin's wife, and her sister. After Sue's father Dennis Lamb died in 1978 she contacted her uncle John "Jack" Cantrell Lamb, who lived in Dore Road, and found a shared enthusiasm for family history which was continued with her cousin Richard and his wife. When time permits Sue hopes to fill in gaps in the history of the Lamb/Cantrell families which were well established in Sheffield and before that at West Markham, Nottinghamshire for centuries. Sue now lives in Hampshire and we are always particularly happy to help anyone living at a distance who has "S17" family history connections. 

 

We have been contacted by Sue Adam who is a volunteer at the Minster Church of St George in Doncaster. Inside the church is a memorial dedicated to the men of the Queen's Own Yorkshire Dragoons who died during the First World War. The memorial has recently been restored and research is being carried out on the men named on the memorial and also the men who attended a service in 1921 when it was dedicated. The team of volunteers intend to have a service of re-dedication in the autumn of 2018 and they would like to contact relatives of the men in order to invite them to the service. Sue had read our article on Maurice Johnson, who had fought with the Yorkshire Dragoons on the Somme (1916), Ancre (1916), the Somme again (1917) and Ypres (1917). We were delighted to put Sue in touch with John Johnson, Maurice's son, who has expressed his interest in supporting the event. As a tribute to his father, John has sent us a lovely family photograph taken at his brother Maurice Junior's wedding in 1951.

 

Gordon Wainwright has been in touch with us about a newspaper cutting he found about his great grandfather Thomas Glossop, a cutler and razor manufacturer who was well known amongst cricketing and gardening circles. We have pieced together a biography of Thomas from newspaper articles and have received further help from Thomas's great granddaughter Anne Rafferty who has been researching the family history for many years. Gordon also supplied us with two class photographs from the 1960s which we have added to our photo album for Totley County School and also two photographs of the Totley Union Cycling Society fete held on 18 July 1914. We would love to hear from anyone who can name any of the people in the photographs.

 

Our article on John Edward Greenwood Pinder's early life of misfortune and petty crime reached the attention of Eric Black who is a direct descendant of John's grandfather Robert Pinder (1789-1866), a farmer at Totley Bents. Eric has provided us with a wealth of information about what happened to the family after John's release from prison in 1911. John Pinder appears to have decided that the future for his family lay in America, eldest son Robert having already emigrated there in 1909. Unfortunately John was refused entry and sent back to England and he and his wife Jane eventually settled in Manchester. However, all of John and Jane's nine children were to emigrate to the United States by 1923 with the sole exception of their eldest daughter Louisa who died in England in 1913 at the age of 21.

Paul Whitaker has written to us about Samuel Hill, the clockmaker who worked in Totley in the 1770s before moving to Sheffield. Paul recently inherited one of Samuel Hill's long case clocks from his cousin Rhys D. Whatmore. The clock has a brief history of its maker pasted inside which was written by Henry Meades, watch and clockmaker of London Road Sheffield. Paul wondered if we had any more information. Not much is known about Samuel Hill's life but have now traced some further newspaper accounts referring to his business in Broad Lane, Sheffield which you can read by following the link above.

 

David Norris, a lecturer in Serbian Studies at Nottingham University, has written to us in connection with an article on our website about Frank Storm Mottershaw who visited Serbia in 1904 to film the crowning of King Peter. David wanted to know if we had any further information about the visit or about the film-maker after his return to England. We are delighted to have been able to put David in touch with John Mottershaw who provided us with the original material and who has very kindly agreed to help David with his research.

 

Sue Orme asked us who built the houses on Meadow Grove, one of the smaller roads on the New Totley estate which was originally conceived around 1908 by the Sheffield restaurateur, John Richard Hudson (known as "J.R."). The first property on Meadow Grove (or Princess Street as it was originally called) appears to have been "The Bungalow" which was advertised for sale in 1913. Building of the estate was curtailed by the war but by 1925 Meadow Grove had at least five properties: The Bungalow, Glenaire, Fairhaven, Silsoe, and The Newlands. Unfortunately we have not yet been able to match up these names with current house numbers. Most of the remainder of the New Totley estate was built in the 1930s by local builder Charles Linley Marcroft. However, at least some of the older houses on Meadow Grove were built by Rowland Edward Sheard (1900-1991) who was J. R. Hudson's grandson, his father Rowland Adamson Sheard having married J. R.'s daughter Nellie in 1899. In the mid-1930s when the Meadow Grove houses were being constructed, Rowland Edward and Nellie Sheard were living with J.R.'s widow, Eliza Ann Hudson (nee Barker) at 9 Main Avenue. The distinction between Meadow Grove and Meadow Grove Road appears to have been made in modern times, the house numbers being continuous. 

 

We have had a very interesting enquiry from Ron Wijk of Nieuw-Vennep in the Netherlands. Ron sent us images of two drawings made by the celebrated Dutch painter, Anton Pieck, simply annotated "Totley", and wondered whether we could identify their locations. Ron is an admirer and collector of the artist's work and he has followed his journeys and photographed the places he pictured. One of the drawings is of "The Cottage" which is now part of a larger house know as Old Orchard, Hillfoot Road. The second drawing is of Green's Draper's Shop and attached house, which used to stand next to the Old Post Office at the top of Hillfoot Road, opposite Cross Grove House. We think we have found out why Anton Pieck visited our village. His eldest daughter, Elsa, married an Englishman named Charles Bambery and from Sheffield telephone directories we can see that the Bambery family were living at 20 Main Avenue in the early 1960s.

 

John Timperley is the latest person to write to us with memories of Norwood School, which was located in the rooms attached to the Dore & Totley United Reformed Church on Totley Brook Road. John attended the school from 1945 until 1949 when he went up into King Edward's'. As an unaccompanied seven year old, John had a ¾ mile walk from home to the bottom of Bocking Lane to catch a tram to Beauchief corner and then a bus to school. John remembers among his teachers. Miss Ford, Mrs. Atkinson and Miss Duckworth, and a number of the pupils from his final year: David Crawley, Peter Morton, Dorothy Sawyer, Toni Pollard, Rachel Leah, and Brenda Bennett. If there is anyone amongst our readers who was at Norwood School at the same time as John, he would very much like to hear from you. We can put you in touch if you write to: contactus@totleyhistorygroup.org.uk. 

 

The Marstone Grange Estate from Bradway Bank , early 1940s The Marstone Grange Estate from Bradway Bank , early 1940s

Stretton Smith, who moved to Totley a few years ago, asked us about the history of Marstone Crescent as there was nothing about it on our website. The estate was originally called Marstone Grange Estate and was built by Charles Lindley "Len" Marcroft between 1936 and 1945. Len Marcroft was a well known local builder who had earlier built The Quadrant and who had a builder's yard in the old Chemical Yard. After The Quadrant was built he moved into number 14. The land that the Marstone Grange Estate is built on belonged to butcher and farmer Colin Thompson. Local legend has it that Len Marcroft went into partnership with a certain Mr. Stone to build the new estate, hence the portmanteau names given to the two new roads: Marstone Crescent and Stonecroft Avenue. This may well be true but we have no knowledge of Mr. Stone and only in 1936 Len had set up a Private Limited Company with his son Donald. Aerial photographs from the early 1930s show fields where the Marstone Grange was later to be built but the OS map, surveyed in 1935-36, shows that building had commenced at the out-of-town end of Marstone Crescent. By May of 1937, Len Marcroft was beginning to advertise his houses in the Sheffield press, eliciting the help of bandleader Roy Fox to publicize them. The Electoral Register for 1936-37 appears to show four families living on Marstone Crescent but none yet on Stonecroft Avenue. The photograph above is the only one we have seen showing the estate during its construction and was taken from high up on Bradway Bank. Most of Marstone Crescent has been built and a start has been made to building the high levels shops on Totley Rise but there is no sign yet of building on Stonecroft Avenue which we think was only completed around 1945. The photograph, therefore, probably dates from the early 1940s.

Vivienne Graham has written to us from Devon about her three great-great-great-great-great uncles, William, John and Charles Jones, master-cutlers of Bradway, who were leasing a converted lead smelting mill at "Hay House" on the Sheaf in 1751. Vivienne would like to visit Totley and see where her ancestors were working. With the help of Brian Edwards's Totley Transcripts and Margaret Oversby's paper "The Water Mills of Dore & Totley", published in 1977, we have been able to confirm that the Jones brothers were renting part of the smelting mill at what later became Totley Rolling Mill, located at the confluence of the Oldhay and the Totley Brooks. The Rolling Mill mill manager's and labourers' cottages still stand, of course, even though the dam, mill pond and high weir on Oldhay Brook have long since disappeared.

 

John Andrews is researching the history of tennis in Sheffield and is interested in knowing more about the tennis courts that used to exist at The Grove end of The Green. From old estate plans it would appear that these courts were on land purchased by Herbert Melling in 1924 and built three or four years later. How long they survived is not known. We would like to hear from anyone who has more information about these courts and also the tennis courts that used to exist at the Mickley Lane end of Queen Victoria Road around 1920. 

 

Kim Lindsay wrote to us from Germany having found a brief reference on our website to Norman Arthur Denson. Norman Denson was born in London in 1894 and baptized later that year in Crich, Derbyshire. He came to live with his uncle, Arthur Leonard, at Brinkley, 4 Dore Road, sometime before the 1911 census and attended King Edward VII School in Sheffield. He served in the Great War (A/Capt) and afterwards became a partner in the accountancy firm of Poppleton & Appleby, moving to Harbourne near Birmingham in the early 1920s. He was a keen cricketer and Territorial (Lt-Col) but died young at age 41 on Las Palmas where he had gone shortly before his death. We have been able to provide Kim with a few snippets of extra information about Norman Denson but what he wants most, and what we don't have, is a photograph. Can you help, please?

 

Howard Adams has been in touch with us having read Roger Hart's account of Norwood School in the early 1950s. Howard has remembered many of the people and found a couple of photographs from those days, one a class photograph taken around 1959 and the other a photograph of himself with two other boys dressed in football kit which included boots with nailed-on studs that proved to be very painful on the long walk to and from the playing field at Greenoak Park. Christopher Rodgers has sent us two more photographs from his days at Totley County School but is unable to give precise dates or name all but a few of the people pictured. One is a photograph of Mr Courage's class and the other a photograph of a music lesson where the children are playing instruments including triangles, cymbals, tambourines, drums, and rhythm sticks. 

Smith and Rose Jackson, in the early years of their marriage and in later life. Smith and Rose Jackson, in the early years of their marriage and in later life.

Jo Baker has written to us from the Midlands to see whether we knew of two properties on Main Avenue that were lived in by her grandparents in the 1910s. Jo's grandfather, Smith Jackson, was a wholesale draper who had a business at 61 Norfolk Street, Sheffield. The family had moved to our area from Oldham, Lancashire. We can see that by the time of the 1911 Census, Smith Jackson, his wife Rose (nee Chadwick), and three children were living at "Rosedene". They must have been one of the earliest families to live in the New Totley estate that had been conceived in 1908 on garden city lines by John Richard Hudson, a well known Sheffield restauranteur. From Kelly's directories we can see that the Jackson family were still living at Rosedene in 1912 but by 1917 they had moved into the larger, detached "Osborne House" and remained there at least until 1922. The two properties were designed and built by Sydney Lawson Chipling, the architect, surveyor and contractor for the estate who lived at Moorhayes, Bushey Wood Road. The houses still stand and appear to have altered little since the days when the Jackson family lived there.

 

Our open meeting on School Days has led to a number of interesting contributions. David Hope and Nicholas Botterill remember their time at Totley County School. David attended the school between 1952 and 1958 and then moved on to King Edward VII School. As well as his memories, he has provided us with a number of photographs and done really well to remember most of the names of his classmates but there are some faces that we would like your help with to identify. Nicholas was at the County School between 1967 and 1974 and the two articles when taken together make interesting reading about what had, and what hadn't changed over the years. Roger Hart's school days were at the time when the County School was being built and All Saints School was almost full and so he went to Norwood School which was located in the church hall and rooms at Dore & Totley United Reformed Church on Totley Brook Road. Again there is a photograph with faces you may well remember. Finally, we are very grateful to Karole Sargent, the headteacher at Totley All Saints School, for allowing us access to an archive of school material including the 1909 School Pageant.

We are grateful to Angela Waite and All Saints' Parish Church for giving us access to Baptismal and Kindergarten Birthday Rolls dating from 1926 to 1941. We have transcribed the names, addresses, birthdates and baptismal dates and created an alphabetical index of entries for you to search. We have also been given a large number of parish magazines dating from the 1980s which we will be scanning in due course.

 

Gillian Walker brought us a document folder full of material about the 1st Totley Scout Group which we have now digitized. Most of the material was collected by Arthur Percival Birley in the period 1949-51 and the archive has many interesting documents pertaining to the building of the scout hut on Totley Hall Lane. They came into the hands of Derek Maltby, Gillian's father, following Arthur's death in 1991. The 1st Totley Scout Group was formed in 1944 and was located in Totley Hall which at the time was in private ownership. When the hall was sold to Sheffield Corporation the Scout Group had to urgently find alternative headquarters. The archive details how this was achieved. In addition four Newsletters survive, two from the 1940s and two from 1971.

 

Helen Matthews is researching the history of her house on Abbeydale Park Crescent and the people who lived in it after receiving the deeds and being fascinated by the information included in the beautifully written old legal documents. We have been able to help Helen with the early history of the Abbeydale Park Estate but seek the help of our readers for information about one of the former owners of her property. Oswald Tyler lived there between 1969 and 1977. Ozzie Tyler was, of course, the well known landlord of the Fleur de Lys during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Alan Dale wrote an appreciation of Ozzie in Totley Independent, issue 275, shortly after his death in 2004. If you have any photographs or stories about Ozzie, we would love to hear from you.

Totley County School, June 1956 Totley County School, June 1956

Eric Renshaw has been able to identify the teacher in this photograph of Totley County School in June 1956, sent to us by Clive and Sue Bellamy (nee Beatson). Her maiden name at the time the photo was taken was Miss Sheila Brown. She was at the County school for about four years before going to Hong Kong around 1959 to take up a position teaching the children of members of HM forces stationed there. After her tour of duty, Sheila came back to the UK and then went abroad again taking up a similar position as before in Malaya, as it was then called. 

 

We have been surprised and delighted to receive correspondence from members of the family of Dr. Rice K. Evans, the American Vice and Deputy Consul in Sheffield, who lived in Totley from 1909 to 1928. Our article on the Evans Family was one of the earliest to appear on our website in the spring of 2013. Brian Duckworth, from West Roxbury, Massachusetts, wrote to say how much he enjoyed reading the article. Brian married Rice's great granddaughter Katherine Evans Eskin. Katherine's sister, Cornelia (Neal), who lives in Munich, had come across the article and mentioned it to other members of the family. Brian's email was followed shortly afterwards by one from the sisters' father, Otho Evans Eskin. Otho has sent us extracts from his memoirs and given us permission to publish them together with several family photographs.

 

Mark Day wrote to us to see whether it was still possible to purchase a copy of Edward Mayor's fine historical map of Totley. We have none left ourselves but we were able to put Mark in touch with Edward who was able to send him a copy. Subsequently arrangements have been made with Edward to undertake a small reprint and offer the maps for sale through the Totley History Group website price £5.

 

Over the years there has been a good deal of debate in the pages of Totley Independent about the origins and history of Scouting in our area. Andrew Jones has pointed out an error in the article A Little Scouting History which we have now amended. Andrew also told us about the excellent website at www.sheffieldscoutarchives.org.uk which tells the history of Scouting in the City of Sheffield from 1909 until the mid-1990s when the City Association was discontinued and Sheffield Districts were absorbed into the County. 

 

Wylma Stevenson has read the first instalment of Anne White's article in issue 379 of Totley Independent and asks where the Chemical Yard was located. We have been able to send her a map of the Totley Rise area in 1898 with Totley Chemical Works clearly marked between the Totley Brook and Queen Victoria Road. The yard was where Tinker & Siddall first manufactured chemicals in the 1840s. By 1857 Tinker & Co. had extensive chemical works there and, by 1889, Thomas Kilner was manufacturing pyroliginous acid, naptha and charcoal. The area was later used for various purposes including a blacksmiths, the Brookvale Laundry and C. J. Marcroft's builders yard. The structures that remain from those early days are Back Lane, Brookvale Cottage, Ford Cottage and the cobbles from the old ford across the brook that was later replaced by a footbridge. We have also provided Wylma with links to Anne's earlier articles and the Oral History she kindly recorded for us.

The Chemical Yard in 1972 The Chemical Yard in 1972

 

We had two enquires from New Zealand within 24 hours of each other. Jenny Roberts is putting together a family history and is interested in finding out more about her husband's second great uncle, John Roberts, the silversmith and benefactor who lived at Abbeydale Hall from 1851 until his death in 1888 and who paid for the building of St. John's Church. In particular, Jenny would love to find a portrait or photograph of her ancestor. So far we have been unable to help so if you know of one we would be delighted to hear from you. Murray Bardsley, who lives in Hamilton, will be visiting our area and hopes to find the grave of Robert Bardsley, his grandfather's brother, who died in infancy and was buried at Christ Church, Dore in 1902. It seems probable that there is no gravestone. We have contacted the Parish Office who inform us that there is a plan to the location of burials but, as the graveyard is full, responsibility now rests with Sheffield City Council and they have kindly agreed to pursue the enquiry on our behalf.

 

John Johnson has sent us two more photographs of his father Maurice Johnson. One photograph shows Maurice in his WW1 uniform and we have added it to the short biography that we compiled after our exhibition at the United Reformed Church. The other photograph shows Maurice together with other members of the Cross Scythes Bowling Club, and is the second of such photographs that John has sent us. We would like to know when these two photographs were taken and the names of other people in them.

Jerry Wilkes wrote in appreciation of Ted Hancock's latest talk and of our website as an information source for the family history that he and his cousin Brian Ward are undertaking. Jerry was born in Totley, the son of Bertha and Ted Wilkes who had a painter and decorator's business at 329 Baslow Road. For a few years after leaving school, Jerry worked on Totley Hall and Moneybrook Farms before a career change in 1959 took him into Sheffield City Police. For a time he worked on the Dore and Totley motorcycle beats where his local knowledge was put to good use. In 1965 he transferred to the police force in Somerset, where he now lives.

 

Paul Hibberd was a schoolmate of Clive Bellamy between 1953 and 1959 and was delighted to see the Totley County School class photographs that Clive and wife Sue have sent in. Paul reckons that between them they could probably name around 90 per cent of the children.

 

Jonathan Nicholas has read Christine Weaving's article on our website about George Edward Hukin, a Totley razor grinder and friend of Edward Carpenter, the academic, poet, writer and free-thinker. Jonathan has traced The Hukin Family history back to the early 1800s when the family first arrived in England.

 

Clive and Sue Bellamy sent us two wonderful pictures of a May Queen ceremony and a puzzle. The event took place around 1953 and Sue knew the identity of three of the five girls in the pictures but couldn't name the other two. With the help of Peter Swift we now think we have found the answer to this particular puzzle. Clive went on to tell us that his father was Harry Bellamy who was park keeper in Greenoak Park for several years until he died in 1970 at the early age of 51. Clive would love to have a picture of his dad in his uniform, but unfortunately he hasn't been able to find one. Can anyone help please?

 

Annie Bradford has been looking for images of Totley Grange, the big house that she lived in as child from around 1954 to 1960. Annie remembers an elderly lady called Mrs Flowerday who was a trustee of the Earnshaw Trust which owned the property. The house had been divided into flats and Annie remembers the grounds included a sunken garden, a semi-circular paddock, woods which were home to a large rookery, and a huge monkey puzzle tree. She also remembers the long sweeping drive with a lodge house at the entrance on Baslow Road. Picture Sheffield has a photo of this lodge house (ref S05413) but we have never seen a photo of the Grange itself other than in the background of a photograph that appeared in Totley Independent Issue 352, when it was being used by J G Graves Ltd. as a wireless depot. We would be delighted to hear from anyone who has, or who knows of, any photos of Totley Grange which was demolished in 1964-65 to make way for the Wimpey estate.

 

Phil Kelly has seen our article on the Evans Family of Ohio. Dr. Rice Kemper Evans, the American Vice and Deputy Consul in Sheffield, who lived in Totley from 1909 until 1928 when he returned to the United States. He was an acclaimed rock climber and Phil has located several photographs of Evans, three of which are included in the book Peak Rock which Phil co-authored.

 

Robert Lunn, from Melton Mowbray, was one of many railway enthusiasts who came to listen to Ted Hancock's excellent talk about the Dore and Chinley Railway. Both of Robert's maternal great grandfathers worked on this railway line; one was a stone mason who lived in Hathersage and the other, Duncan Macfarlane, who lived on Totley Rise, was the cashier for Thomas Oliver & Sons, the contractors who built the section of line between Dore & Totley and Hope stations. 

 

Brinkburn Grange Brinkburn Grange

Kevin Randell has recently moved into a house on Abbeydale Road South and is interested in learning more about the history of the area, being fascinated by the old carved gateposts that stand close to his house. These belonged to Brinkburn Grange which was demolished around 1938. The history of the Grange has appeared in several of the books written by Brian Edwards and in articles he wrote for Totley Independent and Dore to Door. At first Brian believed that the Grange had been built in the late 1880s but he later revised this date to 1882-83, saying that it had been built by Thomas B. Matthews, head of Turton Brothers and Matthews, the Sheffield steel, file and spring manufacturers, who lived there until 1892. On looking at newspaper articles and advertisements, however, we now believe that Brinkburn Grange was built in 1873, around the same time as St. John's Church, Abbeydale, and probably by the same person, John Roberts of Abbeydale Hall. The crenellated styles of the two buildings are similar and it was John Roberts who in March 1872 sold off the fixtures and fittings of the old Bradway Mill which stood nearby. When Roberts sold the Abbeydale Park estate to Ebenezer Hall in 1880 it would have included Brinkburn Grange and West View Cottage. Certainly by March 1884, Hall owned the whole of this estate as witnessed by his protracted dispute with the promoters of the Dore and Chinley Railway. Brinkburn Grange was offered to let in September 1873. The first occupant appears to have been John Unwin Wing, a chartered accountant, who lived there from 1874 until he moved to Totley Hall in 1881. After Thomas Matthews, Brinkburn Grange was occupied by Douglas Vickers, director of Vickers, Sons & Co., engineers, until 1897, then James William Elliot, a cutlery manufacturer, until 1904. By the  time of the 1911 Census, Dr. John Henry Wales Laverick, the managing directory of Tinsley Park Colliery Co. Ltd, was living at Brinkburn Grange, and the Lavericks were still living there after the war. Our research continues.

 

Fred Row has written to us to see whether we know anything about the old stone ruins by the side of the railway line at the foot of Poynton Wood, where Fred played as a youth in the 1950s. We strongly suspect that Fred is referring to the remains of the grotto (or folly) belonging to Ebenezer Hall of Abbeydale Hall whose grounds were cut in two by the building of the railway line in the latter part of the 19th century. The grotto was built against a spring at the foot of the wooded Bradway Bank and Ebenezer would take his guests across a now lost footbridge over the River Sheaf to have afternoon tea in this shady spot. The remains including two large stone pillars can still be found amongst the undergrowth.

Paul Gardner has alerted us to the death in Totley of his great grandmother's brother, Frederick Charles Bell, a 24 year old engine tenter who died on 17 July 1891. The death certificate shows the place of death as "Totley Bents" and the cause of death as "accidentally crushed between the cogwheels of a winding engine". Paul had assumed that Frederick was working on the construction of Totley Tunnel and he wanted to know more about the accident. We have been able to trace a newspaper account (now added to our Newspaper Archive) which says that Frederick was employed by the Totley Moor Fire Brick Company to operate a stationary engine used to haul heavy waggons up a steep slope out of the brickyard. We know that in response to numerous fines for conveying heavily laded waggons along the public highway, a light tramway had been built from the brickyard running about half a mile over Totley Moor to number 4 airshaft where the bricks could be lowered down the shaft. It would appear that Frederick died when he was attempting to lift the engine and his clothes became trapped in the machinery. His body was taken to the Cricket Inn which in those days was used both as a temporary mortuary and as a place for holding inquests.

 

Vicky Marsh has written to us about her grandmother, Mary Shaw, who was brought up in Cherrytree Orphanage between 1919 and 1930 and who went on to marry a bank manager, settle in the south-east and retire to a lovely thatched farmhouse cottage in Cornwall. With three children and five grandchildren of her own, Mary gave the appearance of having a completely conventional background, only revealing her upbringing in an orphanage later in her life. We were delighted to be able to give Vicky copies of the Cherrytree records that we hold and identify her grandmother in a 1927 All Saints' School photograph. It was the first time the family had seen a photo of Mary as a child.

 

Richard Verrill has told us the story of how, in 1940, his father came to buy and rebuild a wrecked MG P-type car, registration MG 3880, that previously belonged to Pilot Officer Douglas Shepley of Woodthorpe Hall. The car had been borrowed by another RAF pilot who had unfortunately driven it into the back of a tramcar during the blackout. Richard hopes to trace any early photographs or recollections of the vehicle, and also to find out what became of the car after it was sold by his father. We have been able to put him in touch with Dick Shepley, himself an MG enthusiast, who has old photographs of the car and the log book dating from when it belonged to his uncle.

 

David Bindley tells us that his father Lawrence Ernald Bindley was born in 1899 and lived at Rose Villa, Totley Brook Road. He was called up to serve in WW1 and was listed as a schoolboy; subsquently he was called up again in 1939 for WW2 and was sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force, lucky to return to Britain through Dunkirk. David has more family history information which he has kindly offered to send us.

 

Madame Ruth Theaker, Ethelbert's Mother, in 1904 Madame Ruth Theaker, Ethelbert's Mother, in 1904

Ted Jones has been in touch with us regarding the family of Ethelbert Theaker who, with his wife Helena, ran a newsagent and tobacconist shop at the bottom of Totley Rise in the early part of the 20th century. Ted is the great grandson of Ethelbert's sister, Harriet Maud TheakerWe are very grateful to Ted for the information he has supplied including a family tree and this delightful photo card of Ethelbert's mother, Ruth, which dates from 1904 when she ran the Britannia Acadamy at Old Havelock House, 2 Myrtle Street, Heeley. She styled herself Mme. Theaker M.B.A.T.D., (Member of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing) and later U.K.A (United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dance). She advertised her Adult Learners' and Improvers Classes regularly in the Sheffield newspapers teaching "Waltz, Schottische, Lancers and Veleta" in one term.

Chris Hobbs has sent us a cutting from the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of Monday, 23rd February 1920 which we have transcribed and added to our Newspaper Archive. The cutting relates to the death and funeral of Jack Slack, a well-known and much loved local man who received a very favourable mention in part five of the memoirs of Dan Reynolds. Dore Christ Church parish records show the burial of John Hollely Slack, aged 58, of Croft House Farm on 21st February 1920.

 

Eric Renshaw has been in touch with us from South Staffordshire. Eric grew up and lived in Totley from 1932 to 1960 and he remembers many of the people and places mentioned in articles that feature on our website. Eric has very kindly written down his memories, many of which are of a sporting nature, and supplied us with a lot of photographs.

 

The photograph below is of Dore and Totley High School in May 1933. It was given to us by Gordon Grayson of Brook Hall. Gordon, who is in his nineties, cannot now remember any of the names of the students other than his own. Perhaps there is someone on the photograph that you can recognize?

Dore and Totley High School, May 1933 Dore and Totley High School, May 1933

When our website was created in September 2012, one of the first items it carried was a request for information about Eileen Keatley from her daughter Vita (or Vida?) Anderson. Whilst our own research uncovered a few facts about Eileen's family links in Totley, that's as far as it went. Recently, however, Chris Foster and Gladys Smith have separately been in touch with us to say they think they may be able to help. Unfortunately with the passing of time and changes in our administration, we have lost the enquirer's address. If you are out there Mrs Anderson, can you please get it touch with us? 

 

Linda Roberts contacted us asking for help in tracing her great grandfather, James Hunter Smith. who had married Maria Sutherland at Dore, Christ Church in 1886. We were able to tell Linda that James came to Totley as head gardener to William Aldam Milner of Totley Hall, probably in 1884. James and Maria Smith had two sons. William James was baptized in March 1889 and Albert in July 1890, both at Dore, Christ Church but by 1891 the family had moved to Attercliffe, where James and Maria remained for the rest of their lives.

 

Mark Richards spotted on Facebook a Memorial in Crookes Cemetery "to commemorate the unknown Irish navvies who died building the Totley Tunnel circa 1880 R.I.P." and wanted to know who placed it there and why. The question of whether significant numbers of Irish navvies were involved in building the Totley Tunnel has long been debated. Official records say not but stories passed down through generations say that scores of Irish navvies may have died from accidents and disease but, being immigrants, their deaths were never recorded.

Margaret Bailey has written to us from New Zealand enquiring about her mother's cousin, Samuel Wright. Cpl. Samuel Wright, 26/950, served with 4th Battalion New Zealand Rifle Brigade during WW1 and died on the Somme on 15 September 1916. He is buried at Bulls Road Cemetery, Flers in France and is commemorated on the Auckland Museum Memorial. Margaret would like to know more about Samuel, especially when and why he went to live in New Zealand and whether he is  commemorated on any war memorial in our area (no, he isn't).  Samuel was born in Dore in 1883, the son of Levi Wright and Ann Elizabeth Pickering, who lived at Oldhay Forge for most of their married lives. Samuel is shown as living there in the 1891 and 1901 censuses but we are unable to trace him in the 1911 census which suggests he may well have emigrated by then. Are there any descendants of the large Wright family who can add to what we have discovered? 
 
Martin Dykes, the Vice Captain of Abbeydale Golf Club has written to us recently. Martin is trying to locate photographs of several past Captains for inclusion in club archives and wonders whether anyone has a photograph of Maurice Henry Grayson who was Club Captain in 1917. The Grayson family were solicitors and it is thought that there was a connection with All Saints' Church. If you can help, please contact us through our usual email address at the top of this page.

 

John Skelton wonders whether anyone can shed any light on the origin of Sarah Booker, who was born in Totley around 1783. Sarah married John's great great grandfather, James Skelton, at Handsworth in September 1811 and was a farmer and widow by the time of the 1851 census when she was living at Hollins End, Handsworth with her four children, John (bc. 1815), Elizabeth (bc. 1823) James (bc 1828) and Sophia (bc. 1831). She died in 1867 aged 84 and is buried at Christ Church, Gleadless. At the time of Sarah's birth, Totley was part of Dronfield Parish, of course, and many baptisms would have taken place there or at Holmesfield. The Derbyshire Baptism Index 1538-1910 Transcription indeed shows a baptism at Holmesfield on 19 July 1782 of a Sarah Booker, daughter of Rebeckah Booker; the father's name is not recorded. Could this be John's great great grandmother?  

 

Although no longer living in our area, Marlene Marshall continues to follow the progress of the history group and to send us items from time to time, the latest being a photograph of the grave of David Stanley, who fought with the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava and who later lived at the top of Queen Victoria Road where the block of flats named Balaclava House now stands.

 

David Baldwin is helping to set up an archive of items of historical interest relating to the former Sheffield Hospitals including a collection of brass and stainless steel plaques which were once affixed to the walls of wards at the former Royal Hospital and Royal Infirmary to commemorate the generosity of donors in giving funds for the endowment of beds. David recently came across a plaque saying "This Cot was Endowed by the "Dots and Tots" Concert Party from the Proceeds of Concerts Given Between the Years 1922-1929" and believes this could refer to the Totley Rise Dots and Tots group of Pierrots which, according to a brief report in the Sheffield Telegraph, comprised Miss Muriel Gummer, Miss Lorna Skill, Miss Muriel Dyson together with Messrs Gilbert Smith, F. Chambers and J. Kay plus accompanist. David would like to know more about the troupe. Lorna Skill is mentioned as a soprano in the All Saints' Parish Magazine in 1923 and again in 1924. She also performed with the Croft House Settlement Operatic Society. She was "Susan" in their 1927 production of The Toreador. The Sheffield Star of 21 February 1928 reports their production of The Arcadians at the Lyseum and mentions "Lorna Skill has some difficulty with the Irish brogue, but otherwise on the whole is satisfactory as Eileen Cavanagh." 

 

Heather Rotherham has written to us concerning her great grandfather, John Thomas Osborne, who was a general labourer and who came to live in Totley around the time of the building of the Totley tunnel and remained until his death in 1936. He married twice, firstly to Ada Eliza Dalton in 1893, and then to Mary Jackson in 1903, both times at Christ Church, Dore. Follow the link to an inside page for more information on the children of the two marriages and a connection with the family of Albert Green. Heather believes that she has traced John's birth in Downham Market, on 29 March 1871 but she would love to know more about his earlier life and would also like to contact any of his descendants. 

 

Anthony Cosgrove has written to us asking about a property in our area known as The Dingle, Totley Bank, designed by the arts and crafts movement architect Edgar Wood. Anthony had spotted a newspaper advertisement for the auction of the property in the 1920s. The first appearance in our records of The Dingle, 172 Prospect Road, is in White's Trade Directory for 1904 when the property was inhabited by Rev. William Blackshaw, a Congregational Minister for the Croft House Settlement. In 1922 it was bought at auction by Bill Carter's father, Walter Carter, a steel worker with Armstrong Whitworth.

Sheffield Harriers outside The Stanhope Arms at Dunford, c.1900–1910 Sheffield Harriers outside The Stanhope Arms at Dunford, c.1900–1910
Michael Hardy of Dronfield has sent us a number of stories about hunting in in our area. One of them refers to the discovery of a naked Totley man, Edward Vaughan on the Moors; the others you can read by following this link to the Sheffield Harriers Hunt page. Michael has also sent us the background to a newpaper report on the death of Thomas Chapman who was killed by an express train in Totley Tunnel in 1906. 
 

Val Brodie has sent us memories of Cherry Tree where her mother Barbara Spring worked from about 1935 until she left to marry in June 1940, when she was termed assistant matron. Val's letter and a lovely photograph of her mum are reproduced in full in this inside page about Cherry Tree Orphanage in the 1930s.

 

Stephen Acaster, a local military historian, has responded to our request for help in identifying two unknown WW1 soldiers from our area. From elements of their uniforms, Stephen has been able to positively identify their regiments. 

 

We are delighted to hear again from Stella McGuire who has sent us a copy of the January 2015 edition of ACID (Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire). The magazine contains a fascinating article which Stella has written with colleague Stuart Nunn of the Eastern Moors Partnership on The Search for the Totley Towers: the missing sighting towers used in connection with the construction of the Totley Tunnel. The article includes a spectacular photograph of a similar surving observation tower at Carlesmoor, North Yorkshire. 

 

The Old School House, Totley Hall Lane The Old School House, Totley Hall Lane, built in 1827

Sandra Woods is helping a friend to research the family of Charles Smith, who lived at the Old School House in Totley Hall Lane. Although there were several similarly named men in Totley in the early part of the 20th century, we have been able to confirm we have the correct one from the 1936-37 Register of Electors. We have then been able to trace his wife, Lucy Isabella Hill, and their children and several of Lucy's ancestors from transcriptions of Dore Christ Church Parish Registers. Before moving to the Old School House, the Smiths were neighbours of Jo Rundle at Lane Head and she mentions them several times in her autobiography and in the articles she wrote for Totley Independent.

 

Jacqueline A. Gibbons has written to us from Toronto, Canada about her father, John Humphrey Gibbons, who went into WW1 as a Royal Naval mechanic, then a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps and later RAF. John had two brothers, Tom and George. The family lived at Inglewood, Totley Brook Road in 1916. She would like more information about her family and the house they lived in. After some investigation, we believe the house to be number 24, one of the pair of Victorian semis next to the new URC church hall. We have been able to trace Jacqueline's father in census and military records, of which more later. Jacqueline's email has stimulated us into making faster progress with a gazetteer of street and house names which we hope will be useful; a first step has been to catalogue all of the 1900 or so current Totley addresses and postcodes.

 

Andrew Russell, who now lives in Hertfordshire, has told us about an article he is writing on the way the railway coming to Totley from Sheffield had an impact on the village and over time changed the area. Part of the article looks at John Ruskin's St. George's Farm. Andrew's article is to be published in The Companion, the journal of the Guild of St. George.

 

We have exchanged several emails with John Johnson, the youngest of Maurice and Annie Johnson's six sons, about his parents who lived at Lane Head, Baslow Road. Maurice was another of Totley's young men who fought in and survived the First World War and later played an active role in the community.

 

Paul Wise has written to us to clarify some of the detail in Bill Glossop's article about Harry Brearley. Paul's mother was Barbara Brearley Wise, the daughter of George Henry (Harry) and Nellie Bull who are mentioned in the article. We have appended Paul's letter in full at the foot of Bill's article for you to read.

 

We have heard from Reg Stones who was an under gardener at Beauchief Hall in the early 1950s, although for the last fifty years has lived in Dorset. Reg has been recounting his memories of the house and work at that time. There are connections with the Milner and Wilson families of course.

 

Chris Fletcher has written to us about a possible family history connection with Samuel Hopkinson, the local farmer and scythe maker who in or around 1818 opened the Cross Scythes Inn.

 

Howard Clay is another correspondent with an interest in family history. Howard noticed an article on our website about Charles and Elsie Coates, who were children of Charles and Elizabeth Coates, living at Oldway (Oldhay) Forge at the time of the 1901 census. Elsie Coates was Howard's grandmother.

 

Professor Martin Jones has written to us to try to obtain information about the history of his new home, Cotsford, Totley Brook Road. The house is built on the plot previously occupied by Rose Bank, which itself was the subject of a recent enquiry by Maggie O'Keefe.

 

The tower on the day before its demolition.

 

We are delighted to hear from Paul Bennett who is a new resident to Totley and who works at the Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University. Paul has sent us a video clip of the demolition of the Totley Hall College tower which took place on Thursday, 12 August 1999. Tap or click on the photograph above to see the video and read about the demolition.

 

Chris Pearson, who lives in Somerset, has written to us to see whether we can help him find out more about a railway accident in Totley Tunnel in which his wife's grandfather was killed. We have been able to trace a report of the accident in the Derbyshire Times for 18 August 1944. A Hathersage man, Oscar Andrews was a platelayer working in the tunnel when he was struck by a passing light engine. 

 

Whilst mentioning the tunnel, Ted Hancock - who gave us a fascinating and well-attended talk on the Railway Navvies - has been in touch about material he has spotted on our website. We are very grateful to Ted for his expertise in putting us right on a couple of matters and look forward to seeing his forthcoming book on the whole of the Dore & Chinley Railway.

 

Ian Denney has written to us about Tom Salt, who farmed at Woodthorpe Hall Farm. Ian had spotted the article written by Tom's daughter Carmen Salt, which was one of about fifty items from back issues of Totley Independent that we have added recently to our Life in Totley pages. Ian wonders whether anyone has footage from David Bellamy's television programme mentioned in the article or knows Carmen's email address. If you can help, please contact us through the email address at the foot of this column.
 
Maurice Ward Senior (1867-1916) taken on Penny Lane

Roy Wardwhose mother Nora Green lived on Chapel Walk, contacted us with the offer of material from the period of the Great War. Roy has now sent us a number of photographs that belonged to his parents. In some cases the subject of the photograph is known, in other cases not. The photograph above is of Roy's grandfather, Maurice Ward Senior who lived at 1 Grange Terrace. Maurice worked for the Derbyshire County Council as a road foreman.

 

Maggie O'Keefe has been in touch with us regarding her great grandfather's sister, Elizabeth Peel, who lived at Rose Bank on Totley Brook Road in the 1900s and who is buried in Dore churchyard.

 

Helen Thorne has written to us about her grandfather Frank Clarke and his sister Lucy Clarke who were at Cherrytree in the 1920s. We have been able to provide Helen with some additional information about what happened to her relatives after they left the orphanage.

Vince Bodsworth, who now lives in Wiltshire, has contacted us with the offer of a comprehensive history of the Ellison Family going back to around 1500. Vince is a grandson of Cymbert Edward Ellison, the younger son of the barrister Thomas Edward Ellison who lived at Totley Grove from the late 1890s until his death in 1920.

 

We have heard from George Howard Waterfall, great great grandson of John Waterfall, the landowner and businessman who is thought to have built Totley Grove. He has given us some further information about descendants of his great grandfather and his namesake and also pointed out an erroneous date in our article on the Waterfall Brothers which has now been corrected.

 

Totley brick by "C B & Co" being used to secure a gate on West View Close.

Frank Lawson has an interest in old South Yorkshire bricks and recently came across one with C B & Co impressed in the frog on one side of the brick and Totley impressed on the reverse side. Totley has a long history of brickmaking at Moor Edge. Around 1877 George Chadwick began brick and terra cotta manufacture there. Chadwick later entered a partnership with a Mr. Barker, and Frank's brick is likely to have been made by Chadwick, Barker & Co. which in 1881 became the Totley Terra Cotta & Fire Brick Company Limited although the old partnership name was still in use for trading purposes in 1883-84.

 

Tim Mole, The Editor of The New Mosquito, The Journal of the Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918, was kind enough to send us a copy of the issue containing an article by Norman Briffa on Early Heart Surgery on Salonika Casualty. The article tells the remarkable story of Robert Hugh Martin and makes use of a photograph and some material from our booklet Totley War Memorial WW1, 1914-1918.

 

Diane Neal has written to us from Leicestershire. Diane is researching the Hopkinson family in our area and believes she may be related to the farmer and scythe maker Samuel Hopkinson, who in about 1818 took the opportunity to open the Cross Scythes pub when the new turnpike road was built past his farm.

 

Peter Oates asked for our help to find the grave of Thomas Biggin of Dore Fields who died in 1861 and is buried in Christ Church graveyard. The gravestone inscription is rather memorable and it was mentioned in Dore to Door Issue 69. Although not among the photographs of gravestones that we had previously uploaded to the website, we have been able to find a copy in our image archive.  

Midland Railway Company directors train, 1893

Richard Isaac of Brisbane, Queensland, is researching the history of his great grandfather Charles Isaac and his son Arthur Isaac who worked on the Totley Tunnel and were recorded in the 1891 Census at No. 4 Shaft. Charles was an experienced tunnelling worker and had previously worked for Thomas Andrew Walker, the contractor on the Severn tunnel (constructed between 1873 and 1886) and who went with Walker to start work on the Manchester Ship Canal in 1887 before moving to Totley.

 

John Mottershaw, grandson of the local film producer Frank Mottershaw, has given us a considerable amount of information on the Mottershaw family history and the development of the Sheffield Photo Company which we shall be writing up for the website shortly. John has also very kindly given us permission to publish a photograph taken during the filming of Robbery of the Mailcoach in 1903.

 

We have also heard from Fiona Lloyd, a great granddaughter of Frank Mottershaw and the granddaughter of Mrs. Spring, who for more than 50 years ran a sweet shop at 51 Baslow Road. Fiona is helping us with her memories of Totley Rise shops and with the Mottershaw family history.

 

Finally, sisters Jane Wright and Lisa Brassey who run the Rendezvous Cafe are tracing the history of the shops at the top of Mickley Lane and Main Avenue. Any old photographs of the shops that you may have would be of particular interest. If you are able to help, please contact us at our usual email address: contactus@totleyhistorygroup.org.uk.

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Future Meetings

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Unless stated otherwise our meetings are held in Totley Library on the 4th Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm.

Pauline Burnett's book The Rise of Totley Rise has been revised and updated. It tells the story of this small piece of land from 1875 when there was only a rolling mill and chemical yard alongside the river a mile from Totley, through Victorian and Edwardian times, two world wars and up to the present day. It has 94 pages including a useful index and many illustrations from private collections. The book is available now from Totley Rise Post Office priced at £5, or through our website when an additional charge will be made to cover packing and postage.

A few copies are still available of Sally Goldsmith's book Thirteen Acres: John Ruskin and the Totley Communists. Totley was the site of a utopian scheme funded by art critic and social reformer John Ruskin. In 1877 he bought 13-acre St. George’s Farm so that nine Sheffield working men and their families could work the land and, to keep themselves busy, make boots and shoes. Sally tells an engaging story from our history with a quirky cast of characters including Ruskin himself, the poet and gay rights activist Edward Carpenter and Henry Swan, a cycling, vegetarian artist and Quaker. The book is available to order online from the The Guild of St. George by following this link.

A recently discovered box of WWII correspondence reveals the story of how a small group of ladies from Dore and Totley recruited knitters from the west of Sheffield and how their efforts made them the country's greatest provider of Comforts for the Minesweeping crews of the Royal Navy. The story is told in Knit For Victory, a new book from Totley History Group. Written by Pauline Burnett, it has 82 pages and many illustrations. It is on sale in local shops and via our website.  Further information about the correspondence is in this inside page of our website: Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund

The story is told in Totley War Memorial WW1 of the ten men from our village who gave their lives in the Great War. Written by Pauline Burnett, Jim Martin and Dorothy Prosser, a chapter is devoted to each of the soldiers with a family tree followed by as much information as could be discovered about the men and their families. There is also information about their military careers and the actions in which they lost their lives. The book has 64 pages and is illustrated throughout with photographs of the men, their families and the houses where they lived.

Totley All Saints' Church Parish Magazines for the years 1985-2006 with notices of baptisms, marriages and funerals and accounts of spiritual, educational, charitable and social matters in the village. Scanned in full, including advertisements from local traders.

In 1893 during the building of the Totley Tunnel there was an outbreak of smallpox amongst the navvies which spread to some of the local population. 17 people were buried in communal graves in Dore Churchyard, 6 from "Green Oak" (Lemont Road). The severity of the outbreak was principally caused by overcrowding and insanitary conditions in lodging houses .

Kathleen Grayson was a 39 year old housewife when WW2 broke out. She volunteered for the ARP and became an ambulance driver. During an air raid on Sheffield in July 1941, and despite her own injuries, she managed to get a seriously injured casualty to hospital. For this she was awarded a commendation from King George VI. Together with her friend Hilda Duffy, Kathleen also assembled a team of knitters to provide essential warm clothing for the men serving on the minesweepers patrolling the North Sea.

We have recently bought at auction the WW2 memorabilia of Douglas Platts whose family home was at Hillside, 98 Queen Victoria Road. After the war Douglas returned to his civilian occupation working in the family scissors manufacturing business. He lived in our area for the rest of his life.

We are very grateful to Mrs Valerie Taylor of Dore for lending us the title deeds to Lower Bents Farmhouse which is reputed to be the oldest surviving building in the area with a proven history back to 1621. We have now scanned and transcribed the deeds which could be particularly interesting to anyone with a connection to the local Fisher, Dalton and Marshall Families. 

Until 1844, when Dore Christ Church parish was created, Totley township was part of Dronfield parish. We have now transcribed the burial records for former Totley residents at St. John the Baptist, Dronfield for the period 1678-1870 and at St. Swithin, Holmesfield for the period 1766-1901.

Whilst researching the history of the Dalton Family we found it useful to transcribe a number of early Wills and Inventories. These and those of many other Totley, Dore and Holmesfield people dating from between 1594 and 1856 have now been added to our website.

St. Swithin's Church, Holmesfield pre-dates Dore Christ Church and was the place where many of the people from Totley worshipped and were baptised, married and buried. Read the inscriptions on more than 750 gravestones in the churchyard including those of Mr. and Mrs. William Aldam Milner of Totley Hall, Jessie Matilda Tyzack (nee Fisher) of Avenue Farm, and Rev. J. A. Kerfoot of St. John's, Abbeydale.

Thomas Youdan was a music hall proprietor and benefactor who was living at Grove House, Totley in 1867 when he sponsored the first football knockout competition in the world for The Youdan Cup.

The words Millhouses Cricket Club can be seen in the background of team photos which are likely to date from between 1905 and the early 1920s, very probably pre-war. They were lent to us by Garth Inman who can identify his great uncle, Cecil Inman, in some of the photos and would like to know when they were taken and, if possible, the names of others present. Please take a look to see whether you can put names to any of the faces. 

Josiah Hibberd was seriously injured whilst working on the construction of the Totley Tunnel in 1892. He died on 9 May 1897 at the age of 38 having apparently spent most of previous five years in hospital.

Bradway House was built around 1832 by Henry Greaves, a farmer, together with two adjacent cottages. We have traced most of the occupants of the property from these early days up to the start of World War Two.

We have transcribed the baptisms records at St. John the Evangelist, Abbeydale from when the church was consecrated in 1876 until just after the start of World War 1. The records are arranged in alphabetical order based upon the child's name and show the date of baptism, the names of the parents, their home location and occupation.

Nick Kuhn bought an original 1920s poster which had this owners' blind stamp in one corner. The stamp almost certainly refers to a house named Wigmore that was built in the late 1920s or early 1930s. The first occupiers that we can trace are John Howarth Caine, a district mineral agent for the LNER, his wife Florence Jane (nee Prince) and daughter Doris Mary. The Caine family lived at Wigmore until 1936 by which time the house would have been known simply as 12 The Quandrant.

George Griffiths died on 13 December 1888 following an explosion during the sinking of number 3 airshaft at Totley Bents. His widow Florence died shortly afterwards and his two daughters Maud and Annie were adopted separately. Whilst Annie lived the rest of her life in Yorkshire, Maud emigrated to Australia in 1923 with her husband, John Burrows, daughter Margaret and son Jack, pictured above.

George Wainwright was said to have been born in Bamford, Derbyshire in 1714. He learned the trade of linen weaving and moved to Totley after his marriage on 1744. He became an ardent follower of John Wesley who paid many visits to Sheffield and who would have passed through or close to Totley. Preaching was at first conducted out of doors and when Wesley's preachers became harassed by a mob of Totley ruffians in 1760, George offered them safety of his own home. He remained a Methodist for all of his long life, dying in Dore in 1821 at the reputed age of 107.

Oakwood School was started by Mrs Phoebe Holroyd in 1925 initially as the Firth Park Kindergarten and, by 1927, as the Firth Park Preparatory School. Phoebe was still working at the school almost fifty years later when she was well into her seventies. We would like to hear from anyone with memories of the school. 

James Curtis was born at sea aboard HMS Chichester in 1790. He enlisted as a Private in the 1st Grenadier Regiment of Foot Guards in Sheffield in 1812 and served in Spain and Portugal during the Peninsular War. He later fought in France and Belgium taking part in the Battle of Waterloo. In later life James lived at the Cricket Inn where his son-in-law William Anthony was the licensed victualler. He died in Heeley in 1882 aged about 91. 

Charles Paul lived in Totley in later life. He was a local historian and archaeologist who was an authority on the history of Sheffield, especially the two areas he knew best: Attercliffe and Ecclesall. His books and letters to local newspapers were published under the Latin form of his name Carolus Paulus.

Towards the end of the 19th century Totley Hall gardens became a well known beauty spot that attracted many hundreds of visitors from Sheffield on open days and the rock gardens became one of its most popular features. Mrs Annie Charlesworth sent us six glass transparencies of the rock gardens taken, we believe, in the early years following the Great War.

Anton Rodgers send us photographs of three water-colours that had been bought by his grandfather at a sale of the contents of Abbeydale Hall in 1919. One was of a scene said to be in York by A. Wilson. A second was of a seated child with a dog believed to be pianted by Juliana Russell (1841-1898). The third was of Lake Como, by Ainslie Hodson Bean (1851-1918) who lived for much of his life on the Riviera and in North Italy.

A Canadian correspondent sent us photographs of a set of silver spoons that were bought in a small town in British Columbia. The case contained a note signed by Ebenezer Hall indicating that they were a wedding gift to Maurice and Fanny Housley. We think we may have traced how they got to Canada and where they might have been since.

Green Oak Park was opened on 23 March 1929 on land that had been bought by Norton District Council from John Thomas Carr, a farmer and smallholder of Mona Villas. In later years, the buildings were used by the Bowling Club (the green having been built in 1956) and by the park keeper. However, the buildings appear to have been constructed in several phases, the oldest of which predates the park to the time when the land was used for pasture.

We believe the old Totley Police Station at 331 Baslow Road was built around 1882. Two lock-up cells were excavated just below floor level in the summer of 1890. We have traced the Derbyshire Constabulary police officers who lived there from John Burford in 1886 to George Thomas Wood who was there when Totley was absorbed into Sheffield in 1934.

David Stanley lived in Totley Rise in the later years of his life. Born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, he joined the 17th Lancers when he was 19 and rode in the Charge of The Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava where he was seriously wounded. For the first reunion of veterans in 1875, he told his story to a reporter from the Buxton Herald.

This picture postcard was addressed to Miss Abell, Holly Dene, Totley Brook Road and posted in Rotherham on 10 December 1907. Edith Annie Abell was born on 4 February 1887 in Sheffield and her family came to live in our area in the 1900s, staying for the rest of their lives.

Charles Herbert Nunn enlisted in the British Army on 23 August 1915 and was sent to France on 18 December 1915 to served with the British Expeditionary Force. In March 1916 it was discovered that he was underage and he was returned home. Shortly after his 18th birthday he re-enlisted and was again posted abroad where, in addition to this trio of medals, he was awarded the Military Medal. 

This certificate was awarded jointly by the Red Cross and St. John's Ambulance to Isaac Henry Williams, of Lemont Road, for his services during WW1 as a stretcher bearer. We are seeking anyone who can help us pass it on to a living relative.

In 1832 Samuel Dean pleaded guilty to stealing a quantity of lead from the Totley Rolling Mill and was sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia. He sailed on the Mangles and upon arrival in New South Wales he was sent to work for William Cox, the famous English explorer and pioneer. After receiving his Certificate of Freedom in 1840, Samuel became a farmer and went on to have a very large family. Samuel was born in Whitechapel around 1811 to parents Samuel Dean Snr. and Susannah Duck. His descendant Sarah Dean would like help in tracing his ancestry.

Ellen Topham was born in 1889 in Nottingham. Her parents had been living together since 1862 but had never married so it was most unusual that, after their deaths, Ellen was accepted into Cherrytree Orphanage. Even more so since her father, Snowden Topham, had been acquitted somewhat unexpectedly in a widely reported manslaughter trial. Ellen remained at Cherrytree until her death from pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 15.

Mabel Wilkes was a resident in Cherrytree Orphanage between 1897 and 1905. Her granddaughter Sally Knights sent us these images of a book presented to Mabel as a prize for her writing. Sally also sent us some personal memories of her grandmother and a photograph of a locket which contains portraits of Mabel and her husband Septimus Gale.

John Henry Manby Keighley was living at Avenue Farm when he enlisted in 1916. He fought in France with the Cheshire Regiment but after home leave in early 1918 he went missing. The Army were unable to determine whether he had deserted or returned to the front and been either killed or captured by the enemy. In August 1919 he was formally presumed killed in action but it appears he did not die but returned home to his family.

Horace Ford was admitted to Cherrytree Orphanage on 26 October 1888 at the age of six. He left at the age of 14 to become an apprentice blacksmith and farrier. Soon after his 18th birthday Horace enlisted in the Imperial Yeomanry to serve his country in the war in South Africa. His letter home to his Orphanage mentor tells of the lucky escape he had in battle.

Pat Skidmore (née Sampy) lived on Totley Brook Road from 1932 to 1948 before her family moved to Main Avenue. In this short article she remembers her time at Totley All Saints School where she was a contemporary of Eric Renshaw and Bob Carr.

As we have nowhere to exhibit memorabilia and artifacts, we have created a Virtual Museum instead. The latest addition to our collection is this double-sided Totley Rise Post Office oval illuminated sign which was on the wall of 67 Baslow Road before the Post Office business transferred to number 71. Please contact us by email if you have things that you own and would like to see added to the virtual museum.

Conway Plumbe was a man of many talents who came to live in Totley Rise around 1912. As a young man he had poems published by Punch magazine and is remembered in modern collections of WW1 poetry. A number of his paintings were accepted by the Royal Academy. An engineering graduate of London University, he joined the Civil Service where he rose to a high level as a factory inspector, publishing two books on the subject and giving a series of talks on workplace health and safety on BBC radio during WW2. In retirement he wrote a philosophical-spiritual work called Release From Time.

Inside Totley Rise Methodist Church there is a Roll of Honour commemorating the soldiers from its congregation who served their king and country during the Great War. For all but one of the 28 names the soldier's regiment is recorded in the next column. The exception is David Cockshott for whom 'killed in action' is written alongside yet he appears on no war memorial in our area and no record of a mortally wounded soldier of that name is to be found. We think we have solved the mystery.

Mrs. Kate Plumbe moved from Mansfield to Totley Rise with a number of her family in 1913 and became closely involved with the Totley Union Church. Her daughter Winifred became a missionary and headmistress in Calcutta for over 38 years following which she returned home to live with her sister Hilda on Furniss Avenue. Hilda had also been a teacher, missionary and, like her mother, a volunteer at St. John's VAD during WW1.

Thomas Glossop was a cutler and razor manufacturer who was well known amongst cricketing and gardening circles. Despite going blind, he was able to continue his hobbies with remarkable success

The Totley Union Cycling Society Prize Giving and Fete was held on the fields near Abbeydale Hall on 18 July 1914. Anne Rafferty and Gordon Wainwright have named some of the people in two wonderful photographs of the event. Can you identify any more for us? 

The Tyzack family are well known in our area for owning iron and steel trades at Walk Mill, Abbeydale Works, Totley Rolling Mill and Totley Forge. This article covers the history of the family from the late 18th century when William Tyzack the founder of the company was born until the early 20th century when Joshua Tyzack farmed at Avenue Farm, Dore.  

Walter Waller Marrison moved to Totley around 1897 with his wife and their two young sons. He was a house builder who constructed properties around Totley Brook and Greenoak before ill health forced him to take up less physically demanding work. In 1904 he took over the tenancy of the grocers and off licence at number 71 Baslow Road. After his death in 1908, his widow Kate and later their eldest son Jack continued to run the business until it was sold in 1934.   

Ron Wijk of Nieuw-Vennep in the Netherlands has sent us two scanned images of drawings of old cottages made by the celebrated Dutch painter, Anton Pieck (1895-1987) simply annotated "Totley", and wondered whether we could identify their locations.

We would like to thank Christopher Rodgers for bringing to our attention this fascinating log of the 85th Sheffield (St. John's and Totley Orphanage) Wolf Cub Pack for 1927-45. The log is published jointly by Sheffield Scout Archives and Totley History Group as a free PDF download. It is illustrated by no fewer than 92 photographs and is supported by a comprehensive index and biographies of some of the main participants.

Following our Open Meeting event on School Days, Roger Hart, Howard Adams and John Timperley have each written to us with their memories of Norwood School, which was located in the rooms attached to the Dore & Totley United Reformed Church on Totley Brook Road. 

On 22nd July 1909 the children of Dore and Totley Schools celebrated by a pageant the union of England under King Ecgbert which took place at Dore in AD 827. The pageant was devised and written by Mrs Sarah Milner and her daughter Marjorie and performed in a field close to Avenue Farm in front of a large audience. Photographs of the event survive together with a fragment of the script.

John Edward Greenwood Pinder had lived all 46 years of his life in Totley but on census night, Sunday 2 April 1911, he was not at home; he was in Derby Gaol serving a sentence of three months hard labour. From the age of 20, John had been in and out of local courts for a series of minor offences including drunkenness, assault, wilful damage and night poaching. Finally he was sent to gaol for cutting down and stealing 86 small trees which he sold in Sheffield market for Christmas.

We have already transcribed the census returns for Totley, Totley Rise and Dore. Now we have transcribed Census Strays. These are people who were born in Totley but are missing from our earlier transcriptions. They may have been living, working or studying elsewhere or just away from home on the night the census was taken. Two people were in prison. Others were in Union Workhouses, hospitals and asylums. Fully indexed strays from the 1851, 1861, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses are available now. 

We wish to thank Gillian Walker for allowing us to digitize an archive of material about the 1st Totley Scout Group. Most of the material was collected by Arthur Percival Birley in the period 1949-51 and there are many interesting documents pertaining to the building of the scout hut on Totley Hall Lane. In addition four Newsletters survive, two from the 1940s and two from 1971.

We are grateful to Angela Waite and All Saints' Parish Church for giving us access to baptismal and kindergarten birthday rolls dating from 1926 to 1941. We have transcribed the names, addresses, birthdates and baptismal dates and created an alphabetical index of entries for you to search. 

Edmund Sanderson, a Sheffield estate agent, aquired the land on either side of the old drive to Totley Grove in 1874 and divided it into plots for development. He called it the Totley Brook Estate. But before many houses were built, the estate road was severed in two by the building of the Dore & Chinley Railway line. The eastern end of the road became the cul-de-sac we now call Grove Road

John Roberts was born in Sheffield in 1798. He became a partner in one of the leading silversmiths firms in the city before moving to Abbeydale Park in 1851 and extending the house in Victorian gothic style. He paid for the building of St. John's Church and was believed to dispense more in charity than any other person in the neighbourhood including his protege Ebenezer Hall.

The Coke Family owned the Totley Hall Estate from 1791 to 1881. With the aid of a family tree to guide us, Josie Dunsmore takes us through the story of their tenure. 

When the Rev. D'Ewes Coke inherited the Totley Hall Estate in 1791 it had two farms. Josie Dunsmore tells the story of how the two farms were combined under the tenancy of Peter Flint with the aid of field maps drawn by Flint himself and later by the Fairbanks family.

Do you think you recognize this face? More than sixty photographs of the girls and teachers at Hurlfield Grammar School for Girls in the 1940s were given to Totley History Group by Avril Critchley, who was herself a student at the school. The collection includes fifteen form photographs from June 1949. There would have been a number of girls from the Totley area attending the school in those days.

Christine Weaving tells the story of her 2 x great uncle George Edward Hukin, a Totley razor-grinder, and his life-long friendship with the academic, poet, writer, and free-thinker Edward Carpenter.

Eric Renshaw (pictured here on the right with Bob Carr) grew up and lived in Totley from 1932 to 1960. Many of his memories are of a sporting nature.

We are very grateful to Gordon Grayson for giving us this splendid sale document for the Norton Hall Estates, following the death in 1850 of Samuel Shore. The estates included a large part of Totley and the document has maps and illustrations, plus schedules of land and property with the names of tenants. We have also added a transcription of the entries for Totley and Dore. 

Watch this Youtube video of the talk given by Dr. Mark Frost and Sally Goldsmith on Ruskin, Totley and St. George's Farm. The talk was hosted by Totley History Group on 20th May 2015 as part of the Ruskin in Sheffield programme. Also enjoy a video of the outdoor performance Boots, Fresh Air & Ginger Beer written by Sally.

When Jacqueline A. Gibbons became interested in what made her father tick, it began a journey through WW1 archive records and led to her flying from Toronto to visit the house and village where he lived and the countryside that he so much enjoyed. Jacqueline reminds us that in the early 20th century Sheffield was a driving force of industry and that Totley was the place where many of its remarkable people lived and where they formulated their ideas.

Edgar Wood was the designer of The Dingle, 172 Prospect Road, built in 1904 for Rev. William Blackshaw, the founder of the Croft House Settlement. The house, together with its western terrace and boundary walls, has now been awarded Grade II listed building status. 

What was probably "the most perfect little garden railway in existence" in 1910 was to be found in the grounds of Brook House, Grove Road, the home of its designer and constructor, Guy Mitchell. Look at some wonderful photographs and read reports in newspapers and a full appreciation in Model Railways magazine. 

We have now completed our transcription of Totley School's Admission Records for the period from 1877 to 1914. There is also a useful index to the names of the scholars and to their parents or guardians. We are very grateful to Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library for allowing us to transcribe and publish these records and for permission to reproduce the photograph of a specimen page of the register.

On 8, 9 and 11 November 2014 Totley History Group held an exhibition at Dore & Totley United Reformed Church to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. Below are additional links to some of the photographs we were lent and stories we researched especially for the exhibition.

 

Oscar Creswick was a local farmer who served with the Army Service Corps in Salonika and who after the war returned to Totley to become the innkeeper of the Cricket Inn and a member of the village's successful tug of war team.

 

Walter Evans was a market gardener who also ran a small grocery shop on Hillfoot Road when war broke out. He fought with the Machine Gun Corps at the fourth battle of Ypres. After the war, Walter ran a grocers shop at the top of Main Avenue.

 

Fred Cartwright was another Totley soldier who survived the Great War. He fought in France and Belgium and although he wasn't wounded he was gassed and was home on sick leave when his daughter was delivered by Nurse Jessop during a snowstorm in January 1917.

 

Maurice Johnson joined the Yorkshire Dragoons, a territorial unit, on 1 Jan 1914 and so was called up at the very start of the war. He fought throughout the war on the Somme, at Ypres and at Cambrai. After demobilization in 1919 Maurice returned to his old occupation in the steel industry.

 

Bill Glossop lent us a letter written by his father, William Walton Glossop to his wife describing life in the army during training in the north east of England and asking her to keep him in mind with the children.

 

The photo above provides a link to an album of photographs taken of WW1 Hospitals at St. John's, Abbeydale and the Longshaw Estate.

 

Nora Green, of Chapel Lane, was only 14 when war broke out. In 1914 she was ill with diphtheria and was sent to the isolation hospital at Holmley Lane, Dronfield. Nora recovered and wrote a letter of thanks to one of the hospital staff and the reply she received survives. 

 

We have collected together on this page the names of local men who appear on various War Memorials and Rolls of Honour in Totley, Dore, Abbeydale, Norton, Holmesfield and Dronfield.

 

Unfortunately we were unable to identify all the photographs we were lent of Totley Soldiers. Please take a look at this album to see if you recognize any of the missing names.

This walk visits locations that have strong associations with Totley during the First World War. It includes the homes of the ten soldiers from the village who lost their lives, the auxiliary hospitals, war memorials, and even the rifle range on which the soldiers trained. Take a look at the first draft of a new walk by the authors of "Totley War Memorial WW1 1914-1918"

We wish to thank the Trustees of Cherrytree for giving us permission to publish transcriptions of the Cherrytree Orphanage Admissions Book entries for the years 1866-1929. There is also an alphabetical index for you to look at.

With more people having access to faster broadband and mobile networks, we have uploaded seven full and unedited oral history recordings and also added more short excerpts for you to listen to.

Our transcriptions of local trade directories have been expanded to cover the 95 years from 1837-1932 and have also been indexed. From the days when there were a handful of farmers, stone masons, saw handle makers & scythe grinders to the wonders of the Totley Bridge Garage Company, Betty's Boudoir and The Heatherfield Shopping Centre.

We continue to add to our Totley Newspaper Archive. Recent entries have included several about The Plumbe Family, Thomas Glossop and accidents during the construction of Totley Tunnel.

Totley Church of England Parish Magazines for the years 1922-1939 and 1948-1967 with notices of births, marriages and deaths and accounts of spiritual, educational, charitable and social matters in the village. 

Around 90 photographs taken by Stuart Greenhoff for his thesis A Geographical Study of Dore and Totley including several of Totley Moor Brickworks. Superb!  

Chronologically ordered snippets of information recorded by Brian Edwards during his many years of research into our local history.

Read the inscriptions on more than 700 gravestones in  the churchyard.

 

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