Visit to Sheffield

I had been planning to visit Sheffield for some time. There were documents I wanted to see at the Archives and Local Studies, and places that were of interest to my family history research. So on Monday 15th June, I set off early with lots to cram in to two days.

It all started off a bit of a struggle, trying to find my way in from the south through the one way system. So I was a little later than I wanted to be at the Archives, my first port of call. I was able to order three documents the day before and these were there when I arrived. The two letter books of John Shearwood (a solicitor and father of Sarah Shearwood who married Sidney Roberts) were where he copied all the legal letters he sent. The two volumes were from 3rd December 1791 (when he was 23) to 21st October 1808 (462 pages with an average 5 letters per page) and the other from 5th June 1815 to 21st February 1818. Inside was a slip of paper which said "Letter Book .... sent to Mrs Shearwood May 1831". John had died in 1820.

The records of the Sheffield Repertory Company, where Dad was a boy actor, did not reveal anything, being only minutes of meetings. The third document was an Agreement to Let, where Charles Hoyland of West Bar leased a strip of land on Silver Street to a Henry Reginald Vickers at £3 per year.

My next job was to look at some Parish Records on microfiche. I did find the marriage of Jonathon Hoyland and Elizabeth Haywood (Haywood being Gran's second Christian name) but no reference to their ages. However, the names of the witnesses proved crucial. they included a George Hoyland. This must be the father of Jonathon and so confirms Jonathon's birth (which could have been one of two in Bradfield) as 6th August 1797. So he was nearly 21 when he married, not 17 or 18 as would have been if he was the other one).

The other parish registers I wanted to see for Ecclesall and Dore were the original books and not on microfiche and so I had to order these as they were in the strongroom. This meant coming back the next day, which was not part of my itinerary. It was nearly one pm when I left, just time to have some lunch before the tour of Cutlers Hall.


I set off for the city centre, and found Cutlers Hall opposite the Cathedral. I had time to locate WH Smith on Fargate (which used to be Davy and Sons where Dad trained as a grocer) and photograph the sculptures of pigs, as Davy's were also pork butchers. The upper floors were Davy's Restaurant which, apparently, was very popular.

A quick coffee, and I found the party outside Cutlers Hall ready for the tour. I introduced myself to the leader who welcomed me to join them. Inside we were met by our guide who turned out to be Dr Joan Unwin, with whom I had exchanged emails the weeks before. The tour was excellent and very informative. In one of the large dining rooms, the tables were set. This, we were told, was for the Goodwin Lunch, an annual event for the eldest people in Sheffield. Goodwin had left a large endowment which not only provided lunch, but also a bag of money for each attendee. Our guide looked round us all (nearly all mature in age) and said we had no chance of being invited. The minimum age was 85. I asked how many the lunch would be be for, and the answer was 1600! At the end of the tour, I was invited to join what turned out to be the Heeley History Group, for tea and biscuits. It was then that Dr Unwin brought in the Cutlers Company minute book that we had previously discussed and I was invited to take photographs.

When I left, it was raining, so a quick dash across the road into Sheffield Cathedral. Originally St Peter and St Paul, the Parish Church of Sheffield, some of our ancestors were christened, married or buried there. I found a plaque on the wall which confirms the burial place of two children of Isaac Nodder. His daughter Elizabeth married Richard Morton, the father of Mary Ann Morton, wife of the last Jacob Roberts.

Outside, I looked for for where Mary Hoyland (wife of Jacob Roberts 1697-after 1728) is buried (according to the Memorials book) "in the old churchyard, Sheffield, a short distance from the the south west corner of the church, under a stone". But I could not find it. However, the Cathedral is very impressive.

I had plotted a number of locations that I wanted to visit on a map. I started at Paradise Square, Queen Street and West Bar. These are where Jonathon Hoyland (who started the business before 1852), his son Charles and his sons including Charles Haywood Hoyland based their brush manufacturing premises. Paradise Square was built in the 18th century and following bomb damage in the war, has been restored using salvaged materials (numbers 18 and 26). All are Grade 2 listed. 53 Queen Street is no longer there, instead there is brand new development called Queens Buildings. Even the older buildings further down the road date from at least 1933.

Back across the city, I wanted to see Union Street where Jacob Roberts was in business with his Uncle Samuel. Those buildings went a long time ago, but some industry is still there. On to the Town Hall and the spectacular Peace Gardens outside. These are laid out where the church of St Pauls had been demolished. It was where Jacob Roberts 1726-1781 was buried.

There was not a lot to see at the last three locations. Pond Street, where John Shearwwod Roberts owned a number of properties that were left to Vincent in his will (and probably those tenancies that were part of Gran's estate) is now part of the main bus station. Snig Hill, where WJG Boyd met his future wife Ellen Cundy at the Travellers Inn, is now all redeveloped, and Haymarket has few original buildings left. It was time to call it a day, and find my hotel.

TUESDAY

Tuesday started sunny, and I was waiting outside the Archives, waiting for it to open at 9.30. The Parish Registers I had ordered were waiting for me. Great grandfather Vincent Littlewood Roberts' burial was not on the NBI, but here he was, in the records of All Saints, Ecclesall as being buried there on 28th August 1940, aged 78. He had requested in his will to be buried alongside his first wife Ellen, more of that later.

I had always wondered if Gran had been buried in Dore Churchyard. The records of Christ Church, Dore confirm that her ashes were deposited there. There was also the burial record for her husband, Stanley. This was progress, and I now set off to the Central Library.

This was where Local Studies keep records of Sheffield Newspapers. I had a list of individuals that may have had obituaries. I was shown the index, but only one for Charles Hoyland stood out. I was shown how to use the microfilm reader, only ever having used those for microfiches. When I started scrolling through copies of the Sheffield Independent for May/June, I feared this would take up too much time, and finding an obituary would be some task. However, I eventually found the newspaper for Friday 24th June 1905 which was the day he died. On to the edition for the Monday, and there it was. I made a copy, replaced the rolls of film in their boxes, and made my exit.

A quick coffee and a purchase for Alison from Lush, and I was back in the car for a repeat performance of the tortuous one way system to find my way out of Sheffield on the road to Ecclesall. The church of All Saints, Ecclesall was easy to find, standing prominently on the corner of the road to Ringinglow.

It was there that I met Roger Carroll, one of the building managers. He was exceptionally helpful when I asked about locations of burial sites. He had an index of where all the graves are located in the churchyard and the page for Roberts names was quite extensive, although their burial locations were mostly absent. We found that Vincent was recorded as being at the same spot as his second son, born to his second wife Helen, another John Shearwood Roberts, who died age 12 months. Roger took me off into the churchyard which was huge, there are over 10,000 graves there! We found the monument and it only records the burial of the infant John. There is no record of where Vincent's first wife Ellen is buried, so it may be that Vincent was buried next to his son instead. We may never know.

Although the other Roberts families location was a mystery, one was mentioned as being close to the north porch, so I wandered round looking for any sign. I had almost given up when I stumbled on a tomb close to the path out. Here it was. Three generations of Roberts ancestors (John Shearwood Roberts of Newfield Hall, his father Sidney and his father Jacob) and their families, all in the same tomb. I recorded all the inscriptions and took a number of photographs. Absolutely fantastic, worth the trip on it's own.

When I arrived back in the church, Roger had found the record of the ten who are buried there.


Inside the church, I was invited to take photos of what is a most superbly kept interior, with plush seats and a newly constructed balcony with tiered seating. Bright inside, it is a model of how churches should be.

I drove a little around Ecclesall, looking at where Vincent would have lived on Psalter Lane and Clifford Road. This would have been a very nice area when he lived there. I then headed for Abbeydale and Bradway. I found 33 and 35 Bradway Road, the first was the last residence of Vincent and next door was the house with the air raid shelter where he died in 1940. I considered going on to Dore, but I was pretty tired by what was mid afternoon, so I decided to head for home. A fruitful and memorable two days.