Totley History Group
Totley History Group

Norwood Schools

Norwood High School 1952 Norwood High School 1952

Norwood House Private School was located at Norwood House, Glover Road, between 1893 and 1916, as we can see from trade directories and newspaper advertisements. It was run by the sisters Annie Elizabeth and Ethel Maud Crossland.

 

By the early 1920s, the school had moved into the Church Hall at the Dore and Totley United Reformed Church on Totley Brook Road and had become known as the Norwood High School for Girls and the Norwood Preparatory School for Boys. The two sisters were remembered by Christine Wheeler in an article published by the Totley Independent in September 1990.

This photograph was sent to us by Roger Hart who tells us:

 

Totley County was being built when I was of school age and The Church School was nearly full, according to my parents, so hence I went to Norwood. The Head teacher was Mrs. Newman, fairly formidable lady whose son was a footman at the Queen’s coronation. She was certainly to be feared, added to which a certain aroma followed her very closely! Miss Ford was the prickly primary teacher. Mrs. Wingfield was very pleasant and had come from New Zealand. She was the one who I could talk to if I needed, but seldom did.

 

Photo shows, from left to right, Miss Holroyd; Mrs. Wingfield; Mrs. Holroyd in white blouse; Mrs. Newman; Miss Ford and, caretaker/cook, Mrs. Hassall. I recall a football coach called Mr. Ball who I did not like and was suspicious about his name. (we had to walk in football boots from Totley Brook Road to Green Oak rec. to play football about which I knew nothing, and learned nothing!

 

Names which I can remember, with some from Chris. Seaman, the photographer (second from right, top row) who has kindly scanned my photograph. He has also offered to imprint a caption of all the names which we can gather.


Roger Buffin 10R Top
Roger Butcher?
Alistair Humpries?
David Linfoot?
Anthony Grant?

Sally Sidery
Peter Grimsditch (became editor of National newspaper)
Jennifer Jones 7RMid
Lynne?
Stuart Mottershaw (Sheffield Photographic Co) became accountant and went to Jersey or Guernsey, 6L Mid
Jennifer Chalmers 3L Mid
Peter Haughton 12R Mid
Gillian? 1LMid
Roger Hart, 8L Mid
Ann Senior 11L Top
Anthea Senior?

 

The school uniform was brown, and we were supposed to wear brown shorts. Nobody in this City stocked brown shorts for a lad of my size, after I put weight on after having scarlet fever, so Mum bought me grey shorts. I got the telling off! I think Roger Bufton, the large lad in the photo, had his trousers made as his parents could afford it.

 

We had to go to Totley County School to take our 11+ exams, and then we had to transfer to Norwood to finish off the term, travelling on two buses at 11 years of age, through the centre of town. Exam results successful, I went to High Storrs but did not enjoy it at all.

 

Roger Hart

November 2016

 

Please download this enlargement of the photograph and see whether you can put names to any of the faces. We would be delighted to hear from you acontactus@totleyhistorygroup.org.uk.

Norwood High School 1952
Norwood High School 1952.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [963.2 KB]

Letter from Howard Adams

Norwood School circa 1959 Norwood School circa 1959

Howard Adams has been in touch with us regarding Roger Hart's memories of Norwood School in the 1950s. Howard writes: 

 

It was very interesting to see your 1952 photo of Norwood High School. I can confirm David Linfoot was there, he was the local doctor's son, although not sure which one he is. I must have started in 1953 and Elizabeth Linfoot, his sister, was in the same year as myself. I remember all the staff apart from Miss Holroyd. Sally Sidery rings a bell as there was someone I knew there called David Sidery who could well have been her brother.

 

I left in 1959 went to King Edwards and then became an architect (now retired). My parents lived on Furniss Avenue so it was an easy walk to School but interesting to be reminded how we used to have to get a bus to Pond Street and another to Pitsmoor in the last term. I think the school was actually called Oakwood and was an old, possibly Victorian, house. 

 

In those days football studs were nailed to the boot and the walk up to the recreation ground and the following walk home used to cause excessive wear to the studs resulting in the nails being pushed up into the boot. This was quite painful and one of the reasons I never much cared for football. 

I managed to find a couple of photographs which may be of interest. The class photo is, I think, 1959 which would be the year we all went to secondary school. Names I can remember as follows... Back row from left: Colin, ?, myself, Heather, Frankie, ?, ?, Barry Richardson. Front row: Sheila Middleton, Judy Cundall, Newman, Holroyd, Elizabeth Linfoot, Judith, ?. The other photo is myself in the painful boots, with Michael Shipley, and Frank ?.

 

Regards,

Howard Adams 

January 2017

 

Perhaps our readers can add more names to Howard's class photo?

Letter from John Timperley

John Timperley has seen the recent correspondence on our website about Norwood School and written to us with his own memories and wonders if anyone from his era might get in touch.

 

Hello,

 

I attended Norwood High School from about 1945 until I went to King Edward's in 1949. I had to walk 3/4 mile from my home on Old Park Road to the tram stop at the bottom of Bocking Lane and then take the tram to Beauchief corner where I would catch the bus to school. I don't remember it as being a particularly daunting journey but I can't imagine many seven year olds being allowed to do it unsupervised nowadays.

 

Miss Ford looked after the little ones, I can't remember who looked after the middle school but Mrs Atkinson taught the older pupils. I seem to remember that our class was split into three groups according to age and I slowly progressed through them. Mrs Duckworth, the wife of the Methodist, minister came in to teach us music. 

 

The beginning of morning school would have the whole class reciting tables followed by handwriting practice. We stayed at school for our lunches which were served in the assembly hall and cooked by a very pleasant lady who went on to run a pastry shop on London Road. My abiding memory of the lunches was that if you had custard on your pudding it was invariably burnt! Despite have school lunches, in my last year I would often visit the bakers at the bottom of Hutcliffe Wood Road to buy a freshly cooked small loaf which I would eat on the way home - I didn't need to watch my calorie intake in those days. I seem to remember that it cost either a halfpenny or three farthings. The alternative, if you were hungry, was to visit the sweet shop adjacent to the bus stop at the end of Totley Brook Road but you needed coupons for that.

 

I had a happy time there. During my last year I was allowed to go the shops on the main road for a variety of errands mainly for the cook which broke the day up nicely. We took our 11+ at Dore School and I vividly remember having to trudge up the road to the school in thick snow for one of the exams (there were two papers at that time, Maths and English). I remember a number of people from my final year there in 1949: David Crawley, Peter Morton, Dorothy Sawyer, Toni Pollard, Rachel Leah, Brenda Bennett. Unfortunately I can't remember anybody taking a photograph of us all so that's no help.

 

It would be interesting to know if any other people from the same period are in touch with you. 

 

Kind regards 
John Timperley.

February 2017

Letter from Michael Moore

We have received this lovely letter from Michael Moore about his time at Norwood School, Totley Brook Road, in the early 1950s and his fond memories of his school chums.

 

Hello

 

Searching for Norwood School Totley, I found your website. A while back when Friends Reunited was active I'd used their website to find what information there was available on-line about my past places.

 

I attended Norwood School between 1952-1953 after which I transferred to their Oakwood School in Firth Park. My success at 11+ in 1956 meant I was able to transfer to a Sheffield Grammar School, which is what Norwood/Oakwood was all about, and why parents paid the fees. Incidentally I'll soon be 74! It could well have been High Storrs that I attended but I received their offer later after my mother had already bought my school uniform for the first school the 11+ system had selected. It probably worked out for the best, considering where we were living.

 

I have my own copy of the 1952 Norwood School photo. On the photo I am below Roger Butcher, a friend of mine at school. Roger is in the top row, 4th from the right. He appears to be pursing his lips as if whistling. He might well have been. I named this characteristic of him as "the Roger Butcher Whistle", a behaviour at times I later copied. I am on the middle row below Roger, 4th from the right. I notice I'm not wearing a Dan Dare pocket watch which I had at Norwood, I had one, lost it, then I bought or was given a replacement which I still own.

 

I've always been sorry that I wasn't able to contact Roger about my lack of appearance at the start of term in September 1953, my father had me follow his agenda and I was moved to attend Oakwood School in Firth Park. It was a turning point in my life and not entirely for the better. Did Roger Butcher become an actor? 

 

Some other names sound familiar, Anthony Grant, and a Mottershaw who was in my year at Grammar School. I knew subsequently that the Mottershaws were connected to the Sheffield Photographic Company.

 

My mother recounted a meeting she had in Beauchief at the number 45 bus stop bound for Totley with Peter Grimsditch's mother. What impressed my mother was the level of support and backing she gave to her son Peter. I think my mother learnt something. Peter Grimsditch may be on the top row, 4th from the left.

 

I have many positive memories of being at Norwood School on Totley Brook Road. I remember listening to the BBC's "Music and Movement" and acting out being various animals in the hall cum classroom. I remember playing at the front of the school with Dinky toy racing cars, probably at the time of the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. I remember my mother giving me money to buy 1d. Hovis mini loaves from the grocer at the corner of Bushey Wood Road and Abbeydale Road. In celebration of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth the school gave all pupils a presentation tea spoon. Boys attending Council schools received a red pen knife, though there was some criticism about the quality of the Sheffield knife's construction. 

 

In the final year leading up to the 11+, as far as I know all Norwood School children had to transfer to Oakwood School at Firth Park, those who didn't must have transferred to other schools. Conversely some parents thought it advantageous to transfer their child to Oakwood School for the final year leading up to the 11+. 

 

Such was the case with my friend Peter Wheeler who later became owner of the TVR motor company. Peter went to the Council Primary school on Abbey Lane, not Norwood School. It was there at Abbey Lane that he received a Coronation pen-knife with a red plastic handle, as I suspect all boys did who attended Council run schools. I was given a commemorative teaspoon at Norwood. For Peter's final year before the 11 plus he moved to Oakwood School Pitsmoor, his parents probably wanting to maximise his chances of passing.

 

I attended St. Johns Sunday School, was Confirmed and bought tickets to pay for bricks to help build the Church Hall. I eventually appeared on stage with my sister in some production.

 

My friends Peter Wheeler, Stewart McKay and I had several fruitful visits to St. John's Church Jumble Sales held in an adjacent building, also used in the 1950s for Sunday School, then as now used by the Post Office. I bought a valve radio for 2s. 6d. which I used for many years once it had being repaired by my father. It was eventually sold for £10. Carrying it back to Beauchief had to be done in relays. Other times Peter bought an air rifle, Stewart a conjuring set, me a magnifying glass, which I still have, two cut-throat razors and a plate camera, all at pocket money prices. I don't know which primary school Stewart attended but it wasn't Norwood School.

 

In the 1950s Stewart's mother ran the sweet shop at Beauchief. There was on a parade of three shops behind the tram stop, McKay's sweet shop, Peter Wheeler's mother had a milliner's and Mr Herring ran a grocer's shop. Mrs Evans kept the Post Office opposite. It was later demolished to make way for a petrol station, now the site has an apartment block.

 

Kind Regards


Michael Moore
Leeds
June 2019

Letter from Alison Boneham (nee Douglas)

Alison Boneham has been in touch with us about her days at Norwood High School. We all remember different things about our schooldays and it was good to hear from a former girl scholar - all the earlier contributions we have had are from boys and yet the school photographs show an almost equal number of boys and girls arranged alternately. Here is Alison's letter.

 

Hello! 

 

I have recently been sorting out my late mother's papers and came across reference to Norwood high School. I was therefore delighted to find your website which brought back many memories.

 

I had attended the Montessori school on Psalter Lane and from there went "up" to Norwood high School in 1948. I left in 1951 when we moved from Sheffield.

 

We lived on Park Grange Road - just a few houses and a farm in those days - certainly no blocks of flats! My father would drop me off at school and I caught a tram home to the railway station where I was met.

 

I had a particular friend at school called Anne, though I cannot remember her surname. Her younger brother Brian was also a pupil there as was his friend Colin. I do remember the surname Mottershaw though no others on your list.I recall the playground and a large cast iron boiler on the guard of which our gloves would steam in the winter. Also the rather scratchy brown blazer, worn with a brown velour hat with a brown and yellow hatband.

 

Incidentally I also caught scarlet fever just before I left the school, and as to the awful lunches they put me off custard for life!

 

With best wishes

 

Alison Boneham (nee Douglas)

February 2020

 

Letter From Jane Alexander, nee Walker

Since Roger Hart sent us the 1952 school photograph at the top of the page, we have struggled to identify all the faces. We were delighted to hear recently from Jane Alexander who has been able to identify some more names for us.

Norwood High School, 1952 Norwood High School, 1952

Hello

 

My sister Patricia and I attended Norwood School in the 1950s and are both in the long photograph. What lovely memories you have evoked. I do remember being in the same class as Roger Hart. I was Jane Walker and can also identify the following: 54 - Patricia Walker, 57 - Vaughan Eyers, 27 - Gillian Brerton, 36 - Ian Moore, 37 - Brenda Brewster, 39 - Carol Hollier, 41 - Jane Walker, 43 - Susan Downie, 14 - Beryl Gent. Not bad for seventy years ago! 

 

Jennifer Jones and I lived near each other and caught the bus at the top of Main Avenue all on our own at 6 years old. I remember at the back of the church hall were derelict buildings maybe old air raid shelters and the older girls were allowed to play there in break times. I remember we had two gangs but how this played out I can't remember. Mrs Newman's class was all about getting through the 11 plus examination. The memory of her son walking by the carriage at the Coronation is very clear.  

 

Patricia and I left at the end of the spring term in 1954 to move to Oxford. Having passed I was able to go to the Girls Grammar School there. I now live on the south coast and have not been back to Totley for many years but these memories have given me an appetite to return and see if anything is as I remember it.

 

Very best wishes,
Jane Alexander

 

Adding the names that Jane has given us to those we already had gives us the following: 11 Ann Senior, 14 Beryl Gent, 17 Roger Buffin, 23 Roger Butcher, 25 Chris Seaman, 27 Gillian Brerton, 29 Jennifer Chalmers, 32 Stuart Mottershaw, 34 Roger Hart, 36 Ian Moore, 37 Brenda Brewster, 39 Carol Hollier, 40 Peter Hughton, 41 Jane Walker, 43 Susan Downie, 45 Jennifer Jones, 48 Michael Moore, 54 Patricia Walker, 57 Vaughan Eyers, 62 Miss Holroyd, 63 Mrs Wingfield, 64 Mrs Holroyd, 65 Mrs Newman, 66 Miss Ford, 67 Mrs Hassall.

 

Please download this enlargement of the photograph and see whether you can put names to any of the faces we don't yet recognise. And, of course, we would love to hear your memories of your school days. Our usual email address is: contactus@totleyhistorygroup.org.uk.

Norwood High School 1952 annotated
Norwood High School 1952 annotated.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [15.2 MB]

September 2021

Letter from Nicolette Beckett

Hello there,
 
Do you have any records for attendees of Norwood High School in the
late 1960s-1970s? I, Nicolette Beckett and my brother Gregory Beckett,
attended the high school. I remember Mrs Newman's class. I remember
classmates; Jurgen Morton-Hall, twins Jane and Diane Fletcher.

 

There were only 10 pupils in my class and only three classrooms at the
time. We all had to take turns and help the cook wash and dry dishes.
Nobody was allowed to leave the dinner table until everything on your
plate was eaten.

 

Any information provided would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sincerely,

 

Nicolette Beckett

 

March 2022

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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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