Back Lane

Unpublished letter to Totley Independent, Feb 1980

In the January [1980] issue [of Totley Independent] you invite queries on Totley history and I'm hoping you may be able to help me.

My query is purely personal, although enquiries may uncover some aspect of historical interest. As you will see I live on Back Lane, which runs from Swift's shop to the bridge over the river by Ford Cottage. I'm told the name stems from the old habit of calling what I undertsand was a farm track: the back lane (no capitals!). What I would like to establish is the age of this property and what it was when new. The College students once researched round here, but I never heard the results.

The building is brick built, although a lot of natural stone was used in the foundations and the original chimney stacks are stone. The outside walls are over one foot thick with no cavities.

Division of the property into three dwellings was made in 1902, our deeds dating from then, and kitchens and bathrooms were built on, on the north side. The lane on that side, so I'm told, was once known as Midden Lane (for obvious reasons).

It's said that the property was at one time a farmhouse and as I know a lot of the land round here belongs to Mr. Thompson, the butcher, have wondered whether that family once owned it.

There is a well in the back garden of the middle house and a coach-house used to stand at the bottom of my back garden.

The top house is owned by Mrs. Jackson, of the Post Office, and in one room there are frescos on the walls said to date from when it was used as a chapel, period unknown. Another tought which occurs to me is that the original house may have been called Woodside, this being the name of Mrs. Jackson's house and appearing on a very old stone gatepost, whilst the other two houses are given the prefix Glen.

My late husband saw the building marked on a map dated 1802 and it also appears to be marked on the map shown in the January Independent to the left of the marking for Clay Wood.

If you could find the time to try and shed a little light on this matter, I should be most grateful.

Yours sincerely

Jean M. Hannam

Glen Rose

12th February 1980

P.S.

As a matter of interest, I have never yet found Back Lane on any Ordnance Survey map, nor does it appear in the street guides, although after all these years it must be a public footpath or right of way.