Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 19^th March 2026

Present: D.A., J.B., A.C., G.C., A.H., G.H., C.M., J.P., K.P.

1) INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• • D.A. told the group about his meeting with Shannon Hancock who was visiting the UK from Ontario; Shannon is a descendant of Fulwood builder and stonemason Samuel Hancock (1834-1855, Shannon’s great-great-great-grandfather).
  • K.P. told us about a Norwegian woman who has been in contact about her Fulwood relatives, the Parkers, who lived at Storth House. This is a link to K.P’s article about the Parkers and Storth House.

2) BOOKS

• J.B. shared some research which began with a bookseller’s label and ended in Nether Green; this links to the article on the FHG website
• We were reminded of MG’s book Steel City Readers and the related research of the Reading Sheffield project
• Broomhill Library is now selling books of local interest (titles which used to be on sale at Broomhill P.O.)

3) REDMIRES

• C.M. shared documents relating to the PoW camp at Redmires: newspaper articles, sale of the huts etc.; one of the huts became the pavilion at Fulwood Tennis Club., another is used at the Sportsman
• Pubs in the Redmires area, past and present: A.C.’s Substack article 22/3/26 explores these
• Racecourses: there was horse racing at The Three Merry Lads, (see A.C.’s Substack article above for details), as well as one at Racecourse Farm and the Crookesmoor Racecourse; this linked to a discussion of the enclosures and their impact – for information and commentary on this, see The Manor and Parish of Ecclesall by Carolus Paulus (1927)
• G.C. recounted a story his father told him about patrolling the P. of War camp when on duty for the Home Guard

4) MISCELLANEOUS

• • G.C. asked about the location of a picture of a furnace: this has since been identified as Low Mill furnace at Cawthorne; G.C.’s photo appears with the entry for the monument on the Historic England website
  • J.B. asked about local scout John Flinn, (of 36^th St. John’s Ranmoor), who appeared in the Sheffield at War souvenir magazine produced by the Sheffield Star Newspaper in 1948; Flinn received a Scout’s award for gallantry for his actions during Sheffield’s Blitz
  • A horse’s grave and headstone located on fields near the Rivelin Dam
  • Benchmarks
  • Gardeners – Henry Steele’s gardener was the relative of a local person who has been in touch with K.P.
  • A.H. asked about stones lying across the bed of the Porter towards Carr Bridge – they look as if they’ve been placed there and if so, what was their purpose? Perhaps Friends of the Porter Valley could provide information

Next meeting 16^th April 2026

Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 19^th February 2026

Present: D.A., J.B., A.C., G.C., A.H., M.L., C.M.

Andy kindly offered the use of his house as a venue for this month’s meeting.

The meeting began by remembering David Magill, who sadly and unexpectedly passed away this month.

The meeting included:

• AC sharing information about Brookhouse Quarry which was in operation above Forge Dam from the 1850s to around WWII when the land was used as allotments; it was noticeable from maps how the quarried area shifted around the top field over this period: here’s a link to A.’s Substack article on the subject;   a benchmark was noticed on the maps we looked at; here it is on the corner of Brookhouse Farm:       
• Fulwood Radar Unit on Hallamshire Road: AC had come across the following entry in the English Heritage Gateway search site: “Army mobile ground-controlled interception unit No. G573 (still in operation in 1944). Unit consisted of a number Fulwood Radar Unitof vehicles, radar aerials, generators, and workshops, all requiring firm bases. Personnel could be in either tented accommodation or billeted with local inhabitants. The site is now built over and lies in the loop formed by Hallamshire Drive’s junction with Hallamshire Road [shown on map below]” ; D.A.’s mother recalls “a big brown dish”.
• Lord’s Seat – see AC’s Substack article: Upper Hallam’s Sport of Kings; this generated discussion around:
  • The Ocean View
  • WWI trenches
  • Roman road (ML)
  • Stanage Lodge
  • Turnips as a crop for moorland farms
• Local Roman roads: ML told us about ongoing research into this
• Huts: Sportsman’s hut originated at Redmires CampForge Dam café hut: KP on FHG website: ‘An article in the Independent in 1933 about the Sharrow Wesleyan Church noted that the original ‘Tin Cathedral’ was sold in 1900 and became the tea room at Forge Dam.’
• Possibility of practising oral history interviews amongst group; AC sending questions which could be used as prompts 
• Next meeting 19^th March 2026

Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 18^th December 2025

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

Business Matters:

1. The anniversary payment for the FHG website will be due soon
2. Keith suggested that the Group should hold its next meeting at a restaurant: this was agreed

Items:

1. Matthew reported that he had been digging in the garden of Broomhill Library
2. We welcomed Neil Birchenall to the Group. He gave a short history of Stanage Lodge which he owns and lives in along with his family. The house has needed substantial renovations. It is completely off-grid, the house is surrounded by land belonging to the Duke of Rutland.There was a brief discussion about the location of Fulwood Booth. The conclusion was as is shown on the OS map (Fulwood Booth to SE of eastern-most reservoir):

History:

1854: Lumley Lodge is to the right of the map. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/

1. 1700s known as Lumley Farm, later Lumley Lodge
2. Until 1977 the Lodge was owned by a member of the Wilson family (Snuff mill fame)
3. 1977 sold. Was locaton of Redmires Shoooting Club. Financial problems meant owner’s bank foreclosed the mortgage
4. 1977 – 2023 owned by another family. At end only Jane remained in house
5. Neil and family restoring the house. Caming barn & cottage(s) for rent being developed.
6. Property is completely off grid for power, water, etc.
7. Partnership with Rutland (duke) and Yorkshire Water that has moors for the future spend
8. Neil showed a website: ‘property market intel’ which is a subscrition App showing who owns land. Private Owners’ details are not displayed but corporate owners are detailed.
9. Other locations were mentioned:
   1. Fairthorne Lodge owned by Daniel Doncaster. Was for a time a holiday location for children e.g when mother had newborn
   2. Grouse & Trout was known as Whitehouse Farm

Next meeting to take place at Valencia restaurant 15.1.26

Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 20^th November 2025

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

Discussion included:

1) MG: Scissors, Paper, Stone provisional programme for 2026: interpreting wills, occupations recorded in documents and their significance e.g. gardeners, hierarchy of servants, implications of phrase “country girls preferred” used in newspaper advertisements for servants

2) Ranmoor society catalogue: ongoing progress with this; clarification that archives store original material while local studies library tends to keep printed materials

3) JB shared some extracts from Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society Part I, Oct. 1937 & Part II, Oct. 1938; they give a sense of Fulwood’s remoteness pre-20^th century, and of its connection with Derbyshire towns and villages rather than with the town of Sheffield

4) GC shared John Wilson’s The Songs of Joseph Mather (Sheffield, 1862). Mather (1737-1804), a file-cutter, wrote ballads which provide a social commentary of late 18th-century Sheffield; he also wrote a song called The Nether Green Lad which GC read to us; a more recent collection of Mather’s songs is called Seditious Things (Kay and Windle, 2017)

5) KP told us about developments regarding local planning permission

6) Update on Fulwood Spa investigation (AC, ML): more information and images shared; could the features have included a WWII lookout? Were they associated with ski runs?

Next meeting 18^th December 2025

Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 17^th July 2025

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

This was our second summer meeting on the top field at Forge Dam

1. History & background of G.C.’s house on School Green Lane and how it had been developed
2. Recent arson at Fulwood House which has caused significant damage to the building
3. DM told us about a folder of information collected over the years by owners of former Hammer & Pincers pub on Old Fulwood Road
4. KP led us on a walk around Brookhouse Hill and lower Chorley Road
5. Next meeting tbc

Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 19^th June 2025

Present: D.A., J.B., A.C., G.C., S.C., R.F., A.H., C.M., K.P., J.P.

We met on the top field at Forge Dam

• History & background of land relating to Forge Dam field and lower Brookhouse Hill
  • Whitelely Lane, known as Chapel Lane, had been widened in the length fronting the chapel and graves were removed from this space – when was this?
  • A quarry had occupied space we were seated on – late 19^th and early 20^th centuries – the entrance had been somewhere just below Brook House
  • The Hancock family of builders had a plan for substantial area housing in this space; Hancock went bust in early 30s J.G. Graves Trust bought the land, so it was protected from development
  • See Pitchforth From Village to Suburb photo ‘Looking up Brookhouse Hill about 1920’, p.125, ‘School Green Lane and Whiteley Lane’ p149, ‘Continuous Change’, p.157
  • AC had discovered a Sale notice: MINATURE GOLF COURSE AND TENNIS COURTS at FULWOOD and WHITELEY, SHEFFIELD: which covered an area bordered by Whiteley Lane, Quiet Lane and Brookhouse Hill. It refers to ‘the WHITELEY WOOD MINATURE GOLF COURSE and 2 HARD TENNIS COURTS and small Hut’ and that it ‘forms an excellent site for a public institution, or the erection of Villa Residences’
    • There had been tennis courts in the 1930s on the raised section of the field, but they could have belonged to the houses built there – not public
    • Mini golf may have taken place on the lower area of field next to lower Brookhouse Hill (Lea Lane)
  • Was the field used for allotments during WWII?
  • There had been an orchard in the area where Muriel Hall’s bungalow was  built; MH’s bungalow has been extensively redeveloped

1850s Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

1938/47 Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

• JB shared information from an enquiry sparked by a postcard from July 1908 sent by Florence Wilson nee Dixon of Stumperlowe Hall and then Tapton Hall; Florence addressed the card ‘Fulwood House’ – where her brother James was living at the time; it was sent to a what seems to have been a friend, (Ada Nicholson), who lived in Manchester; see KP’s post about Fulwood Hall on this website
• GC shared childhood memories of Tapton Hall, particularly its water feature, (fed by the Oak Brook) and the substantial trout it contained
• AC’s Substack piece on Brook House is available here: https://alancrutch.substack.com/p/brookhouse-brook-house
• AC then led us on an exploration of the cluster of buildings where Brookhouse Hill meets Whiteley Lane which include Brookhouse Farm, Brook House, Brook Lea, Brook Lodge and the former coffee house (Brook Cottage?). He told us about the people who lived in this area known as ‘Brook House’, (recorded in the late 1700s ‘Brook Hause’) or ‘Brook House Green’. ‘Brook House’ did not refer to one building, as it does now, but to a whole area or hamlet. Crimicar Lane was recorded as Brook House Green in the 1850s.
• KP’s post about 127 Brookhouse Hill explores the upper end of this road
• We walked up to the Ale Club, noting the ‘DANCE’ inscription
• See also: https://alancrutch.substack.com/p/dry-fulwood which includes history of the Fulwood shops area.

• Next meeting tbc

Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 29^th MAY 2025

Present: J.B., A.H., M.L., C.M., D.M.

This month’s meeting took the form of a walk to explore ideas for September’s Heritage Open Days theme of architecture. This is the route we took:

1. Old Fulwood Road: former Hammer and Pincers/smithy c. late 18^th century cottage?
2. Woofindin Road: comparison with modernist building[1] and attitudes towards ‘old’/’modern’ architecture (p. 63 Pitchforth 2024[2]), urban exploration and its contribution to heritage, former NHS building fire 23^rd May
3. Across road to Slayleigh Lane:
   • wooden supports under eaves of houses lining Fulwood Road (modillions?)
   • Newfield Court (date?) on site of former parsonage
4. Stumperlowe Mansions (late 1930s) modernism e.g. clean lines, use of steel & brick (from local brickworks?), symmetry, verandas with S decoration, design of entrance and windows; concierge and vicarage wall/remains of garden (pp 168-9 Pitchforth 2024[3])
5. Continuing along Slayleigh Lane up to Stumperlowe Lane: houses in very similar style to Stumperlowe Mansions scattered around this area – built at same time/same architect?
6. Moving up Stumplerlowe Lane into area of former farmland, farms and cottages
7. Stumperlowe Grange – view of long driveway; Broom Lawn built on its land
8. Onto Stumperlowe Hall Road with an entrance to Stumperlowe Hall – design carved into gateposts based on castle arrow slits; differences in brickwork suggesting changes to entrance; guardstones
9. Side of Stumperlowe Grange with stained glass and date of 1863; its outbuildings e.g. Appleby House
10. Across road and complex of buildings which were part of Stumperlowe Hall estate: Stumper Lea, cottages – one with cruck, gateposts
11. Noted frequency of buildings in area names referencing trees
12. Tall chimney of Deepdene
13. Demolition and rebuild of houses in area
14. Pause at junction of Stumperlowe Crescent Road: view of range of architectural styles – Arts and Crafts; original distinctive style of trellis
15. House set back in trees near crest of hill: similar style to Stumperlowe Mansions; view of Ranmoor spire somewhere here?
16. Following Stumperlowe Hall Road round with Griffin Sick over wall in grounds of Stumperlowe View Farm
17. Range of architectural styles visible from this junction of Stumperlowe Hall Road and Chorley Road, incl. contemporary, 2-year-old house which follows earlier styles – details of brickwork
18. Following Stumperlowe Hall Road a little further up to catch site of Stumperlowe View Farm and gennel which follows old footpath which leads into Upper Ranmoor
19. Back down to dip of road junctions and then follow ascent of Chorley Road with new builds
20. Great Gilling with its stone face; Highlow; Stone Delf referencing former quarry
21. Towards junction with Slayleigh Lane and on Slayleigh Lane itself: houses reminiscent of Metroland style with their arched doorways
22. Down Slayleigh Lane with Fulwood Sports Club and Bowling Club Pavilions c.1911
23. House with raised roof
24. Meeting junction with Stumperlowe Hall Road and view of Stumperlowe Hall main entrance – note avenue of trees leading up to entrance,
25. Down Stumperlowe Hall Road towards Fulwood Road: herringbone brickwork, former Bowling Green House at number 97
26. Windy Corner/Arthwadson House which was showhouse for 1930s Arthwadson estate (pp 166-8 Pitchforth 2024[4])
27. Good view of Guild Hall and Storth Cottage from this finishing point

Architectural info: terrace, cottage, villa, semi-detached, detached, Tudorbethan – beginning in the Edwardian era, continuing through the 1920s and 1930s, ‘debilitated Queen Anne style’[5], Illustrated Glossary of Architectural Terms, Glossary of Architectural terms,

Next month’s meeting 19^th June at Broomhill Library tbc.

[1] For information about Sheffield’s modernist buildings: https://modernmooch.com/

[2] Pitchforth, K. (2024). From Village to Suburb. A History of Fulwood between 1880 and 1940. Arc Publishing

[3] ibid

[4] ibid

[5] Page 21, Edwards, A. 1981. The Design of Suburbia. Pembridge Press

Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 17th April 2025 

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

This month’s meeting took the form of a dry run for JB’s forthcoming ‘walking talk’ –  

‘A pie and a pint with the residents of Ranmoor Market Place 1880-1919′ as part of the Scissors, Paper, Stone community project.  

We explored the length of Fulwood Road from the Bull’s Head to the Ranmoor Inn. This included: 

• The gennel running on the west side of the Bull’s Head 

• The Bull’s Head  

• Marr Terrace 

• The shops either side of Deakin’s Walk 

• Ranmoor Terrace 

• Ranmoor Inn 

Next month’s meeting 15th May at Broomhill Library 

Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 27^th March 2025

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

Discussion included:

1. A walk C.M. had undertaken with G. Hague around the loop of the Clarendon Road in the area formerly known as the Machon House/Fulwood Estate which was developed over the 1920s-30s (see pages 128-132 of KP’s From Village to Suburb: A History of Fulwood between 1880 and 1940); varied designs of houses remarked upon
2. James Hayton Stainton, reporter, writer, local historian and artist whose book Past Chapters in Sheffield History was published in 1918
3. Cabin on Canterbury Crescent: originally a shed for tram drivers after tram extended to Canterbury Crescent in 1921, later a sweetshop/newsagent; is it listed? Should it be?
4. ML’s involvement with archaeology and forthcoming event – Redmires POW Camp: Excavating History
5. Edward Carpenter and his connection to Freeman College and Orwell’s comments
6. Local gardeners theme from last month’s meeting:

• Stocks family of horticulturalists who were gardeners to Henry Dixon of Stumperlowe Hall; buried in Fulwood churchyard
• Link between private/jobbing gardeners and growth of suburban housing with its gardens and acceptability/prestige associated with well-tended lawns and beds (similar to prestige attached to having a domestic servant); previously, gardeners would have been attached to substantial villas and mansions

7. Forthcoming 80^th anniversary of VE Day: DA recording his mother’s memories; could be a wider project after this
8. AC’s communication with J. Hancock via the FHG website in response to his article
9. KP suggestion of FHG book collaboration: Aspects of Sheffield?
10. Role of firms in controlling their workers e.g. through sport, developing reliance on the firm, temperance, church, social events, arts in order to avoid political unrest and comply with middle class values – see Reid, C. (1976). Middle Class Values and Working Class Culture in Nineteenth Century Sheffield – The Pursuit of Respectability.
11. Report shared by ML relating to Roman and Medieval archaeology in the area around School Green Lane; written by R.D.Y. Perrett, the report dates from 1960; the material would be a good candidate for further investigation in the form of a walk in the months ahead; linked to ley-lines and thoughts about these     
12. The wall running along Oakbrook Road
13. Lower Chorley Road – the location of picture on page 65 of KP’s book cited above.
14. CM’s query about Chorley Road entrance to Fulwood churchyard – stonework, bay and large gateposts suggest it was wider and more significant in the past, perhaps for carriages to pull in; led to discussion of the graveyard and how it was extended in the 1880s with its retaining wall and also DA’s childhood recollections of seeing graves being dug and of vaults. 1903
15. Carvings/inscriptions on walls such as DANCE at two sites in Fulwood, (appeared after the 1990s?), and RAIN at Black Swan Walk in city centre       

Next meeting at Ranmoor Market/Ranmoor Inn 17th April