City Curiosities.
Sheffield is full of Unusual Buildings, Strange Sights and Rare Survivals of the City's bygone days. The ' curiosities ' range from street lamps to monuments and listed buildings. What connects them all, is that each has a story to relate that plays a part in the historical development of this great City.
(c)copyright Hedgerow Publishing Ltd
' Steelworker ' - Brick Mural. - Angel Street.
The four-storey mural,commissioned by the City Council in 1986 to cover a
gable end, is one of the first public art works in the city. It is based on an image by
artist Paul Waplington and uses 30,000 bricks of 18 different types. The mural pays
homage to the achievements of Sheffield's great steel industries.
Steam Hammer.
The Now Silent Hammer. - Saville Street. During the Steel Industry boom years, Sheffield people lived with the repeated thump of steam hammers echoing day and night across the valley. This hammer was used by Firth Brown Ltd. for forging steel rings such as railway tyres, and massive bearings. It was bought by Brightside Engineering Co. in 1947 for Brown Bailey Ltd. of Attercliffe. Steam Hammers were invented by James Nasmyth of Manchester in 1839. They superseded the water powered Tilt Hammer as seen in the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet. ( see Buildings ) A team of five men worked the steam hammer, the ' Team Cod or Chargehand ' and three ' Tongsmen ' manipulated a red hot steel ingot on the anvil in the arch between the hammer legs. The ' Top or Hammer Head ' was driven down by the driving rod under steam pressure from the cylinder and piston above. The ' Leverman and Hammer Driver ' controlled each blow with precision using their years of experience to deliver as much force, or delicacy, for the shaping of the metal as required. Kelham Island Industrial Museum in the city tells the story of Sheffield Steel and bought this hammer in 1984. Sheffield Development Corporation restored the hammer and brought it to this site in 1994 by courtesy of Sheffield City Council.
The Vickers Building.
The Old Steel Headquarters. - Brightside Lane. The Vickers Building was built in 1907 as the Head Office of Vickers, the Steel,Engineering and Munitions giant. Later English Steel, British Steel and Sheffield Forgemasters, have all occupied in turn this imposing building in the heart of the east-end of the city.
Made for Measure. - St. Paul's Parade. Along one side of St. Paul's Parade there is a 100 foot stone parapet studded with brass knobs and inscribed at various intervals. A plaque informs that it is the City of Sheffield Standard Measures of length, presented to the City by the Lord Mayor of 1910.This unusual example of public education shows pre-metric measurements such as, chains,links and poles, which are archaic in today's modern age.
A " Beast " of a Building. - Fargate. High on the wall above the W.H.Smith store in Fargate can be found four carved heads of pigs and cows. They have no connection with the present store, but relate to a former occupier of the building, one Arthur Davy and Sons Ltd. who were pork butchers and general grocers. The upper floor to this property was Davy's restaurant, which was very popular with city shoppers. Further along Fargate, a store now occupied by a telephone company, has books and quills carved into the wall. This was once the site of a local book shop.
Nearby at number 10 Norfolk Row, a plaque shows the spot where on the 22nd March 1889, the Committee of the Sheffield United Cricket Club met with officials of the Sheffield Football Association. The two sets of officials decided to form a new football club for the 1889-1890 season. Next day an advertisement was placed in the Sheffield Morning Newspapers for professional players to forward testimonials to the Club Secretary, John Wostinholm, and Sheffield United Football Club was born. ( See the Sports page. )
(c) copyright E.T.W. Dennis & Sons Ltd.
The Clock -Jack.
The Orchard Square shopping precinct, (See Shopping), is situated opposite the Town Hall in a conservation area. Built in 1987, the buildings are in keeping with the architecture of Sheffield's older buildings. In the square there is a clock tower where on the hour, figures of a buffer girl and a grinder appear to the delight of the shoppers. Below this ' clock-jack ', as this apparatus is called, there is a plaque to the memory of John Brown ( 1816 - 1896 ), who was the inventor of the conical spring railway buffer and one of the first manufacturers of railway lines and armour plate. He was born here in what was then Favell's Yard, and spent his apprenticeship in nearby Orchard Place, setting up his first steelmaking workshop in 1844 at 24 Orchard Street. Others to have occupied what is now the square, include the Sheffield Creamery Co., the Atlas Printing Works, and the Fleur de lye's Pub. It was in this last establishment that servicemen in the Second World War could purchase a meal for 6d. ( six old pennies. )
The Old Tram Tracks. - The Moor. The 6th. October 1873 saw the first horse-drawn tram make it's way from Lady's Bridge to the Golden Ball, Attercliffe, heralding the start of a tram system which eventually covered most of the city until it closed on October 8th. 1960. In 1896 the Corporation took control of the Sheffield Tramways Co. and by 1899 had opened the first electric route from Nether Edge to Tinsley. Over the following years the system covered most of the suburbs and stretched some 50 route miles. Most of the trams were build either by Cravens of Darnall or the Corporations own works at Queens Road. The city trams had a cream livery, said to make them stand out, and also to encourage cleaning ! Little remain of these trams today, except the empty depots and a few preserved trams in the Crich Tramway Museum in Derbyshire. Occasionally, road works within the city reveal the old steel tram lines, as happened when the Moor was being redeveloped. A section was preserved and two brick-built tram facades are a permanent reminder of one of the first, and last tram systems in Britain. More recently Sheffield has re-introduced a modern tram back on the city streets, providing an ultra smooth ride with an efficient service. Somehow however, this modern day transport lacks the charm of the old Sheffield Trams.
Sheffield's last Police Box.
The ' Tardis ' by the Town Hall. - Surrey Street. Outside the Town Hall, stands one of the last of 120 old-fashioned Police Boxes. Better known in recent times as the transport of the television fictional character, ' Doctor Who ', this piece of police history no longer has it's original blue livery and lacks its blue light that flashed when an urgent telephone call came through. Introduced in Sheffield in 1928 by the then Chief Constable, Percy J Sillitoe, of gang-busting fame, they were eventually phased out in the 1960's. The boxes were used by patrolmen for meal breaks and writing reports.
In Norfolk Street at the Halifax Building Society, is a doorway inscribed, " The Jeffie Bainbridge Children's Shelter ", where food and shelter was available for waifs and strays. It was erected by Emerson Bainbridge, a well known philanthropist and Justice of the Peace, in memory of his wife. It was opened by the Duchess of Portland in 1894.
It has to be 'Hendersons'. - Leavygreave Road. In a small rundown building on Leavygreave Road is made one of Sheffield's rare delicacies, Hendersons Relish. The simple bottle with the plain orange label, conceal a sauce which include ingredients such as cloves, tamarinds, garlic oil and cayenne pepper,the makers recommending it," for chops, steak, soups, fish and game", Sold only in the local area, this is a firm favourite with Yorkshire folk, and many families who have moved away from the area still send home for this preferred accompaniment to their meal. Hendersons have resisted expansion or selling out to larger companies, and concentrate on this very special product.
Across the road from Hendersons is the original doorway of the Jessops Hospital for Women, founded by Thomas Jessop in 1878 to replace the Sheffield Woman's Hospital in Figtree Lane, founded in 1864. Further along in the corner of St.George's churchyard, is the tomb of Benjamin Coldwell of Upperthorpe. The owner of the Nursery Lime & Plaster Works, he died in 1868. It is fitting that a man whose personal library was open to the public, should have inscribed on his grave the music and words of his favourite hymn. On Regent Street there is a plaque marking the home of Samuel Plimsoll, (1824 -1898), who in 1876 devised the uniform loading line for ships ( the Plimsoll line). A new type of canvas shoe was also developed in the same year and named the ' plimsoll ' in his honour.
Paradise Square.
A Little bit of Paradise in the City - Paradise Square. The name of this square is fitting for a collection of buildings of the Georgian style. Most of the square was built in 1771 by banker Thomas Broadbent. His own home, the impressive Old Bankers House, is at nearby Hartshead. His father build the north side of the square in 1739. Today these buildings are mostly occupied by the legal and property professions, but the square still retains the old street lamps, cobbles and boot scrapes of it's former days. The square was once an open space for markets, and meetings were held there, popular with preachers the most famous being John Wesley the founder of Methodism. " I preached to the largest congregation I ever saw on a week day " he recorded in his journal of 15th. July 1779. In 1951 the film magnate, J. Arthur Rank unveiled a plaque to John Wesley.
Also in the square is a plaque to the sculptor Sir Francis Chantry, who had a studio at number 24. At number 12 lived physician David Daniel Davis, who translated Pinel's ' Treatise on Insanity ', and also assisted in the birth of Queen Victoria.
The Old Queen's Head public house.
The Oldest Pub in Sheffield. - Pond Hill. Although now surrounded by modern buildings and close to the Sheffield Transport Interchange, The Old Queen's Head public house is the oldest house in the city centre. Built in 1475 this building is the last remnant of the old timber framed medieval town of Sheffield before the city was rebuilt in brick and stone. Known once as, "The Hawle in the Pondes", this pub would have stood close to the river and on the road leading to Lady's Bridge and Sheffield Castle. It was also referred to as the former wash-house to the Sheffield manor. 1949 saw extensive restoration on the building, and in the last few years more refurbishment has been carried out. The pub still keeps its timbered walls, the upper storey being built outwards on wooden corbels to give more space. One of the beam-ends actually has a queens head carved on to it.
The gateway to the old steelworks. - Pond Hill.
From a Pond grew a Swimming Pool ! - Sheaf Street. The modern Ponds Forge Leisure Centre with its Olympic size swimming pool, stands on the site of what was once a vast iron foundry belonging to George Senior & Sons. A water powered forge driven by the River Sheaf existed here in 1736, expanded in 1770 and became steam-powered in 1805. Mark Brothers took control of the forge in 1852, until the building of the Midland Railway Station in 1870 caused the river to be diverted, George Senior purchased the works in 1872. The gateway to the works that were erected in 1900 have been re-built on Pond Hill, and the only other reminder of the original Ponds Forge, named because of a spring close by, is an 80 ton steam-hammer anvil block that now stands outside the baths on Sheaf Street.
The new development - Victoria Quays.
Locks and Quays down by the Canal. - Park Square. One of the more recent achievements in the city is the refurbishment of the Canal Basin in the city centre, now re-named Victoria Quays. Suggestions for a Sheffield Canal were first made in 1697 but it was not until 1815 and the Napoleonic Wars that demand for Sheffield made swords and cannon balls forced the construction of the canal. The canal basin holding, some 20 million gallons of water, saw its first boats on the 22nd February 1819. Coal, iron, timber, grain and turnips were transported on " Sheffield-size" keels, specially built to accommodate the locks. The advancement of the railway system saw the use of the canal decline, a cargo of maize being the last delivery in December 1970. Among the many buildings are the Merchants' Crescent which housed coal offices, Sheaf Works, now a pub, which was the first entirely steam driven works, the Grain Warehouse from where grain was dispatched to mills and breweries, and the ' Straddle ', a grain warehouse ingeniously built over the canal when building space became limited. Today the canal is used by leisure craft.
The Old Gas Lamps. - Eldon Street. In Eldon Street there stands a, " J.E. Webb Patent Gas Destructor " lamp standard. Made by this Birmingham company in 1895, they burned town gas at the same time destroying foul and potentially explosive methane gas coming from the sewers below. Eighty four of these street lamps were erected in Sheffield between 1914 and 1935, the largest number in any British town, due mainly to the many hills in the area where gas could be trapped. Other examples of these street lamps can be found in London Road, Westbourne Road, Cemetery Road and Brincliffe Edge Road.
The large Washington cutlery works, owned by George Wostenholme, also stood in Eldon Street until they were demolished in 1978. All that remains of the company is the name tablet that is now built into the back wall of the Washington pub on Wellington Street.
The Gibbet - Broughton Lane.
Sheffield's very own Highwayman. - Broughton Lane. Opposite the new Sheffield Arena, the sports and concert venue in Broughton Lane, there stands a public house with the name, ' The Noose and Gibbet ' Outside the pub there is a replica gibbet containing an effigy of the highwayman Spence Broughton,after whom the road was named. Broughton was a gentleman farmer from Lincoln who married well and was in receipt of a large dowry which he squandered through gambling at cock fights. To recoup his loss he turned to crime becoming a member of the Hatters Club, a local band of Attercliffe villains. His life of crime was not to last for long, he was hung in 1790 for the robbery of the Sheffield Mail on Attercliffe Common. He was hung and gibbeted in chains close to the site of the present day pub, his remains were left for 27 years as a deterrent to other would-be thieves. He was the last man to be treated this way in England. Today the pub contains several depictions of Spence Broughton and the Hatters Club, and allegedly the highwayman's hand !
Inventors Old Home to the most Haunted House.
The Britannia Inn - Worksop Road, is believed to be the former home of the inventor of crucible steel,and founder of Sheffield's reputation for quality steel, Benjamin Huntsman. (1704 - 1776). On the gable end of the building is the date 1772, and records the date of the start of the nearby Attercliffe Steel Works. Huntsman is buried at the Hilltop Chapel on Attercliffe Common. The King's Head, a public house on Attercliffe Common, was formally the village chemist where Samuel Jackson, co-founder of Spear & Jackson, was born in 1839. After the building became a pub, it was home to George Littlewood (1859-1912), world champion endurance racer.
The Carbrook Hall Hotel.
The Carbrook Hall Hotel, yet another pub on Attercliffe Common, is reputed to be the City's most haunted public house. Built in 1623 by the Bright family, it was Colonel John Bright of Cromwell's army who rode to York for help when Sheffield Castle was threatened by Royalists troops.
Hill Top Chapel.
The Hill Top Chapel - Attercliffe Common.
Hidden behind trees is a small graveyard that contains the Hill Top Chapel. Built in 1629, the Chapel opened for worship on October 10th. 1630. The cost of the building was borne by the Bright family of nearby Carbrook Hall. The Chapel is the oldest place of worship in the area and was the sole Anglican church for Attercliffe until 1826.
On Leeds Road, near to the recently built Don Valley Sports Stadium, are a number of buildings that served the leisure needs of the inhabitants of Victorian Sheffield. A fine red brick building was the Attercliffe Library, opened in 1894 it remained a public lending library until it's closure in 1986. As well as lending books, it was one of the first places in Sheffield to display a list of job vacancies. Also on Leeds Road was the Attercliffe Baths. Built in 1879 to provide swimming and washing facilities when bathrooms in homes were almost unknown. This was also Attercliffe's 'speakers corner', especially popular between 1900 and 1939.
Vicarage Road opposite held the Adelphi Picture Theatre, it's colourful facade now restored for use as a night-club. The picture house opened in 1920 and showed films until it closed in 1967.
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Revised: 19 Aug 2000 21:38:05 +0100