November Snow

After a week of unseasonably very cold weather, snow arrived overnight. It has not melted at all during the day as it did not get above freezing. But that meant my walk this afternoon in Wendover Woods was very pretty.

My Shakespeare Highlights

I have to start with Hamlet. Until 1988 I had never seen the play, nor knew any detail of the plot. So I watched the story unfold in my seat in the Phoenix Theatre instead of reading the play at school. And I have to say it was an amazing experience, being such a wonderful thriller as well as great writing. And we had Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet. The director was Derek Jacobi.

In 1993, Branagh again played Hamlet, this time directed by Adrian Noble for the RSC at The Barbican. It was probably a better performance, but I guess nothing could surpass the first time you see this play.

When I heard that the RSC in Stratford were to perform all the history plays in sequence during 2000, I joined as member so I would get priority booking. It was fortunate that I did as the first in the sequence, Richard II, was staged at their tiny studio The Other Place. Just a hundred or so of us watched in the January an amazing cast as such close quarters, especially if like me you were in the second row so the actors were in touching distance. So onto the summer and Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, a terrific modern staging of Henry V at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

But the highlight was yet to come with Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3 all in a day. That was the 30th December 2000 at the Swan Theatre in Stratford, a day to remember. How the cast managed to perform all three plays in a day is beyond me. But the time just flew by. I was unable to get tickets for the limited run in Stratford for Richard III, but I managed to get a ticket for their run at The Young Vic in London. And it was nice to see yet another different theatre.

In 2003, Michael came with me to see The Tempest with Derek Jacobi as Prospero at The Old Vic. He was wonderful in the part, but the real highlight came at the end.


The final words of the play are when Prospero addresses the audience. This soliloquy must be the finest Shakespeare wrote, and Derek Jacobi said the words with such clarity and emotion. It was the best thing I have heard on the stage, and it is the actor who made it so.

131 Songs - Numbers 66, 67 and 68

These songs are taken from what are probably my three favourite soundtrack albums.

Number 66 - El Matador by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs


I had enjoyed the movie Grosse Pointe Blank so much (it is in my favourite top ten movies of all time) but I was still not prepared for the music over the closing credits. The first blast from El Matador pinned me to my seat. I had not heard the song before, never mind the hardly known Argentine rock band. And I had never experienced before or since such an heart pounding finale to a movie. Fabuloso.

Number 67 - Hotel California by The Gypsy Kings


This song actually makes it's second appearance on my list, The Eagles version is Number 29. Wiki says of the French assemble's version "this is an excellent example of fast flamenco guitar leads and rythmic strumming". I think it is just brilliant. In the movie it introduces us to Jesus Quintana, played by the wonderful John Turturro, at the bowling alley. A stunning sequence.

Number 67 - The Ballad of Lucy Jordan by Marianne Faithful


Another great soundtrack, but the standout song for me is the best recording ever made by Marianne Faithful. Written by Shel Silverstein, it not only fits the fatalistic theme of the movie so well, but it gives me goosebumps whenever I listen to the lyrics. It would have made my list even if it had not been in a movie.

Newfield Hall

Newfield Hall was the last residence of my great great grandfather John Shearwood Roberts. He must have moved there sometime after the 1901 Census where he was living on Glossop Road. John was living at Newfield Hall at the 1911 Census and died there in 1915. The hall was left in his will to his son Charles Augustus Roberts.

The hall no longer exists, but I am indebted to Steve at the sheffieldhistory forum for these images. The one below shows where the hall once stood.

There is little that remains of the old hall, the wall shown below may have been the main entrance.

The following map indicates where the hall was located.

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Gobe Theatre production of The Merry Wives of Windsor is the funniest of any Shakespeare play I have seen. This is in no small way due to the brilliant direction of Christopher Luscombe. This production was first performed at The Gobe in 2008, being revived this year before touring the UK (fortunately for us it visited Milton Keynes) and the USA before becoming a regular part of the Globe repertoire. It is the timing of the actors that brings out the comedy, many of the best lines are delivered straight to the audience.

The programme notes refer to how the play has much in common with modern TV sit-com. Andrew Havill who plays Frank Ford is a double for Basil Fawlty. The lighting is supreme, the costumes look great, the moving scenery perfect and the choreography spot on. I just cannot fault a single aspect. The ensemble acting was top drawer and it is hard to pick out any individual. But I will say that the two wives, Serena Evans as Meg Page and Sarah Woodward as Alice Ford are wonderful. A lot is due to the direction of their comic dual act, but they deliver their lines with clarity and panache.

I have also to mention the musicians, perched on top of the rotating set, they bring a sense of well being to their contribution. The musical number at the end brings the audience's applause to a rhythmic clapping as the company takes a bow to the final tune, whilst the two wives are left to say a last goodbye with a reprise of their gay pat-a-cake. Ingenious and a great end to a memorable evening.

P.S. That only leaves Coriolanus, Alls Well That Ends Well, Henry VIII and Two Gentleman of Verona left on my list of 34 Shakespeare plays to see. There are another six but they are so rarely performed, that I am not optimistic of seeing them.

John Shearwood Roberts

John Shearwood Roberts was born on the 6th March 1833, the eldest son of Sidney and Sarah Roberts. His second Christian name is taken from his mother's maiden name. His father Sidney was a silversmith and silver plater. There is a reference in Frederick Bradbury's A History of Old Sheffield Plate of Sidney going into partnership in 1826 (when Sidney was 22) with Samuel Roberts, Evan Smith and William Sissons in a firm called Roberts, Smith & Co. Sidney, Evan and William had all trained in silver plate at the Eyre Street business of Samuel Roberts who was by this time 63 years old.

Sidney's father Jacob was the the third in three generations of cutlers (my blog posting of 28th August 2008) and was running his Uncle Samuel's Union Street business until he died at the age of 56 in 1820. Jacob had married Mary Ann Morton, the daughter of the prosperous silversmith Richard Morton, in 1793. I have copies of letters from Mary to her husband from 1814 and 1816.

So when John Shearwood Roberts was born in 1833, his father was in the 1826 ten year partnership. John never knew his grandfather Jacob, but his grandmother Mary lived a comfortable life until she died at the age of 79 in 1849. She and her husband Jacob are buried in the family tomb in Ecclesall Churchyard (see posting 22nd June 2009).

The next we know about John and his parents is the 1841 Census when they are living in Hanover Street in Ecclesall. They have one servant living with them, a twenty year old housemaid. John is 8 years old and his father is 36. His occupation is stated as living off independent means. It seems that the partnership had run it's course and Sidney had retired from the proceeds. He is also stated as a retired silver plater in the 1851 Census.

John did well enough at school to be able to go to St Andrew's University in Edinburgh where he graduated as a doctor. He became a Member of The Royal College of Surgeons and a Licentiate of The Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh and London). He married Ellen Littlewood in 1855 (his father Sidney again stated as a "Gentleman"). In the 1851 census, John is living with his wife and already four children and two servants in Owlerton. At this time he is practicing as a surgeon, probably as surgeon accoucher at Sheffield Public Hospital, later Sheffield Royal Hospital.

At some point he set up practice at 356 Glossop Road and the family lived there for some considerable time. John also became interested in property and eventually amassed a considerable amount of property, including numerous houses, pubs and farms in Sheffield and other districts. The indenture to his will that splits the properties between his six children runs to 37 pages. The Fifth Schedule of properties assured to my Great Grandfather Vincent alone numbers 24 Freehold Hereditaments and 2 Leaseholds. Item 1 of these comprises four dwellinghouses in Pond Street and another four at the rear. Items 4 and 5 are large houses where Vincent lived, 30 Psalter Lane in Ecclesall and Chippingham House in Attercliffe Road where Vincent practised as a doctor. Items 9 and 11 are farms near Bradfield. Like any landowner or property magnet, John was not always a popular man.

In later years he owned and moved to Newfield Hall in Ecclesall, which was left to his son Charles Augustus Roberts. It was there that the father of my distant cousin and correspondent Nigel Buchanan ( to whom I am indebted for so much of this information) used to go to copy out and update registers of deeds for JSR. John's wife Ellen left him in later years to live near her son John Shearwood Roberts junior. At the 1911 Census she is living with a housekeeper at Rosebury Gardens, Crouch End. She died aged 79 in 1914 and was buried in Highgate Cemetary. John died a year later aged 82 and is buried in the Roberts tomb in Ecclesall churchyard.

The Social Network, Let Me In and Skyline

I was so looking forward to seeing The Social Network, perhaps a little too much. Yes, it was an engrossing and interesting movie, and very well crafted, given the director was David Fincher and the writer Aaron Sorkin. But in the end, these two heavyweights could not disguise for me what was two hours in the company of some pretty obnoxious people. This made it a rather uncomfortable to watch. And because the final resolution in court was obviously kept confidential, there is no satisfactory ending. What would have been better was if they could have constructed an invention of something like Facebook and gone for a story that was entirely fictional. Now that would be a great movie.

The Swedish movie Let The Right One In was one of my favourites of last year. So it was only Claudia Winkleman, the new presenter of Film 2010 who persuaded me that the American remake, Let Me In, was worth seeing. And she was right. If anything it does surpass the original which is really surprising. Much of the remake is identical to the original, but I found the dialogue to be really good, the young actors outstanding and Richard Jenkins terrific as the father. Matt Reeves did a fantastic job, sympathetic to the original, but with lighter touch combined with some sudden dramatic shocks. One of this year's favourite films.

Humans in peril from alien invasion. Nothing new here and nothing new in the scifi cgi movie Skyline. A film based around the special effects woven by the the brothers Colin and Greg Strause has little in common with Cloverfield and District 9 in that it has a rubbish script, poor acting and only one location. That is if you ignore the extremely silly ending. You have been warned.