Monthly Archives: April 2024

Record of Fulwood History Group Meeting 18/4/24

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Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 18th April 2024

Present: D.A., J.B., A.C., M.L., C.M., D.M., J.P. & K. P.

  • Discussion around Fulwood Society documents over period 1970s-90s which are being looked through by group members: newsletters, letters, photos, press cuttings etc. E.g.
    1. Lost Dore – Fulwood Path 1977
    2. Wire Mill Dam boating (1975) & Hallam Ski Club Activities (1972 & 82) – useful for this year’s Heritage Open Days focus
    3. The 12” to a mile maps reproduced by society – AC shared one of these from c.1951; the number of sports grounds noted, even in the rural, farming outskirts of Fulwood; considered the possible reasons for this
    4. Fulwood Old Road coffee house and item relating to Hewlett 1895
    5. Richardson 1931 booklet History of Fullwood: page 5 recounts old route to Fulwood with suggestion that Birks Green was situated at Whiteley Lane; indicates fluidity of places and how they’re identified – a recurring theme
  • Stumperlowe Hall in the 1920s was divided in two; discussion about use of land here and elsewhere in Fulwood and how it was sold off
  • Historic England’s Missing Pieces project: see also link on FHG Facebook page; JP gave great example of a potential contribution to this,(house with listed railings on Taptonville Rd); each member of the group has much to offer to this and it’s a valuable way of recording valuable local information which can be used now and in the future – plug from JB!
  • Fulwood History website – there seem to be two: KP has since clarified this
  • Friends of Ecclesall Woods event on July 13th to be held at café/Discovery Centre area: ‘What have you Found?’ JB asked for volunteers if anyone interested in covering stall for a couple of hours
  • DA reflected on Ranmoor Society talk given by Catherine Warr on 16th April: A Yorkshire Year: Folklore, customs and traditions and how the creation of folklore, myths and legends is a continuous process – the Mi Amigo story is an example of this; see also Hallam University’s Centre for Contemporary Legend
  • DA reminded group about Fulwood Church archive: KP/DA to contact FL to arrange a meeting with group
  • Organising walks instead of/in addition to indoor meetings in coming months e.g. on the trails of the Oak Brook and the Griffin Sick
  • DM passed next batch of Fulwood Society documents on to JB and AC to look at over the coming month
  • Next meeting: 16th May 2024

Extract from papers relating to the Fulwood Society

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Background

The Fulwood Society came into existence in the 1970s with the object of acting as a voice for conservation in the Fulwood area. Fulwood History Group has recently acquired the Society’s archive and members have been working through the material. This is a transcript of one of the items. I have added the notes.

The item

J H Hewlett writing to his parishioners on April 1st1895 after a terrible winter when 10 parishioners died between 1st January and 31st March praises them for how they put aside their differences and prejudices to support each other through the worst of the weather when the temperature rarely rose above freezing for several weeks in February. He goes on to say: –

I often hear news from Pendeen and some have passed away from among our friends there since we left in December. I should like to include the Pendeen Families in sending this message of sympathy and remembrance from all at Fulwood Vicarage and I shall post copies of our Quarterly Messenger not only to Cornwall but also to South Africa to some of the good, brave fellows who have had to go from their loved homes in Pendeen to seek a livelihood in that far country.

Being Chairman of the Committee of the “Fulwood Coffee House and Inn” I have much pleasure in announcing that our seven year effort will now be carried forward by Miss Fanny Bower who, as Mr Dixon’s Tenant has become the Landlady of the Coffee House. I desire to express the hope that great success will attend her on her return to the parish and I trust that every well-wisher will try to do something to help bring about the success.

I desire also to express my gratitude for all the help given in the past years by all the Members of the Committee, more especially to my valued Friend Mr. W. W. Harrison without whose unfailing interest and unfaltering judgment the whole effort could not have prospered as it has done.

Notes:

  1. Fanny (Emma) Bower had been a parlour maid at Stumperlowe Hall, the home of Henry Isaac Dixon. She was keen to develop the Café, announcing in April 1895 that

“Miss BOWER begs to inform the public that she has taken the above old-established house, and will provide TEAS, &c on the shortest notice. Special arrangements for large Parties. First-class Sitting and Bed Rooms. Also large Clubroom. N.B.—Open on Sundays”

Emma had left the Coffee Shop by 1901. No further records of Emma have been found

  1. Arthur and Ann Wostenholm had taken on the Coffee Shop according to the 1901 census. The Wostenholms stayed at the Coffee Shop until about 1936. Anne died at the Coffee House in 1936 and Arthur moved to Frickley Road where he died in 1952.
  2. William Wheatcroft Harrison (born 1830) was a manufacturer of silver and elctro-plate according to the 1891 census. He and his family – his wife Eliza and daughters Ellen and Lucy – lived on Belgrave Road. By 1901 they had moved to Park Avenue. William died in 1904.

Gleanings from the Court Rolls

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Back in the late 1990s, Robert Hallam who lived in British Columbia contacted me. He had been researching the knotty problem of Waltheof’s Aula. Some writers had suggested it was located at Burnt Stones, others that it was on the site of the Castle by the river Don. Hallam thought he had found eveidence that the location was on the site of the present day Hallam School.

Our conversations, including at a restuarant when he visited Sheffield, got me intrigued and I spent a few hours at the Local Studies Library looking through printed transcripts of the Court Rolls. From these I wrote up my findings which were duly filed in the attic where they lay for about a quarter of a century.

A few weeks ago, I came across the paper and research notes which were all paper based. I have scanned the document and corrected any OCR errors I’ve found. I have not carried out further research apart from looking at the registers of Sheffield Cathedral which are online and adding dates of birth, marriage and death for the few people in the trees that I am reasonably confident are the same as those named in the register.

I hope that those who know far more about the period (approximately 1550 – 1650) will post comments adding further details and, of course, highlight errors in the original paper.

The paper does confirm that Stumperlowe has been inhabited and farmed for many centuries and the names of the families living in the Tudor and Jacobean periods are still existent today.

The paper is here: Tudor Stumpelowe