Record of FULWOOD HISTORY GROUP MEETING 16^th April 2026

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

• M.L. told us about finds on a recent dig he’d been on in Wiltshire: these included items from Roman, A-S and Medieval periods
• M.L. and A.C. shared their knowledge of trading tokens which were used as a form of currency during the Civil War period, the late 18^th/early 19^th centuries and in the early 20^th century
• D.A. and J.B. reported on their exploration of the old Oak Brook footpath from where it rises near Tapton field to where it flows under Fulwood Road; D.A. remembers using it until the 1980s but has now all but disappeared; G.C. recalled the trout in the Oak Brook in the area which is now Tapton Hall car park; J.B. to see about an Oak Brook Part II visit to the Notre Dame site for the group in June

Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

• J.P. shared her recent findings about Oakholme Road – Carisbrook(e) and Stephenson Hall which she’s researching for forthcoming guided walks
• Discussion of King Edward VII and High Storrs schools; there was an open-air swimming pool at Wesley College from the mid-nineteenth century; it became derelict and was replaced by the current pool in 1936

Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

• In the light of his ongoing research, K.P. shared his insights into Victorian gardeners and their routes of employment around stately homes and large houses
• A.C. asked about there once being a girls’ boarding school on Graham Road
• Update on Fulwood House and former National Health building on Old Fulwood Road: currently there’s no buyer and the situation remains uncertain
• Brookhouse Hill – there was a curate’s house at the top; planning permission update
• Ethel Haythornthwaite and her connection with the area
• Sheffield Environment Weeks: booklet available again this year
• Status of Endcliffe Hall: now standing empty and uncertain future
• Ornithological news: D.A. told us that the drumming of the snipe is to be heard at this time of year at Redmires; G.C. talked about the erection of fencing which may have impacted on the water voles and other creatures; J.B. & A.H. commented on kingfishers and new-born ducklings at Forge Dam.

Next meeting 21st May 2026

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 House 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