REMINISCENCES OF OLD SHEFFIELD

CHAPTER X. THE PONDS-NORFOLK STREET-SHEFFIELD MOOR
BARKER POOL-FARGATE.

Present-Messrs. TWISS~ LEIGHTON, EVERARD, WRAGG, LEONARD
and JOHNSON.

Period-A. D. 1874.

LEIGHTON: Old townsmen, revisiting Sheffield after an absence of some
fifty years, are as much struck by the changes in the Corn Exchange and
New Haymarket as anything else. The old Hospital Chapel was then just
over the Sheaf bridge, with its adjacent rows of tenements for decayed
tradesmen or their widows, which were reached by a descending flight of
steps.

LEONARD: They will be still more struck in a few years more, should the
plans that have been prepared for sweeping away the present Corn
Exchange and throwing its area into the wholesale vegetable market, and
erecting a new Exchange that will occupy the' larger part of the new
Haymarket, be carried out. Though there does not seem much chance of
that.

TWISS: It was in 1827 that the New Hospital was opened. When the old
Hospital Chapel was taken down' in 1829, the foundation stone was found
to contain this inscription :  " This foundation stone to the Hospitals
of Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury, laid this 20th Oct., 1774, by Henry
Howard, Esq." That part was not, therefore, very old; possibly it
represented the re-building after the flood, caused by the rapid rising
of the Sheaf, had destroyed part of the Hospital and drowned four
inmates.

EVERARD : Turning towards Pond street we come upon Shemeld croft, the
site of the 'Old file manufactory of Nicholas Jackson, who has been
mentioned as giving evidence of his vocal powers at the old Cutlers'
Feasts. His ancestors were Norton men, and at his residence young
Chantrey was a frequent and intimate visitor. The practical jokes which
he and the young ladies played upon one another led not unnaturally to
an affair de coeur between him and Susanna Jackson. She seems to have
been one of his first sitters for a crayon portrait, which was still in
the family a few years ago, and may be yet.

TWISS: The poet Mather worked for Nicholas Jackson.

LEONARD: On Bakers' hill a dame's school was kept by Mrs. White, a
Wesleyan, who is still remembered by some old inhabitants. One of her
former scholars wrote a few years ago with much gratitude for her early
instruction, and he added that the house was still standing. "I Went
down," he also wrote, "to Barrel yard dam, because, when a boy, I almost
lost my life there one winter, through the breaking of the ice. I found
it a dirty ditch in comparison with the lake-like dimensions and
appearance which it had in my early imagination. I had not a few
reminiscences of Pond street, and of the localities down Harmer lane,
and along by the Lead mill and Burton bridge fields. But how changed are
they! The hill where the coke fires blazed covered with houses;
BaImforth dam, where in my youth I once suffered inexpressible agony at
the sight of a drowning man, dwindled almost to the insignificance of
its neighbour of the Barrel yard; and a ducal residence planted where,
in my earliest days, I had gathered daisies and acorns."

WRAGG: At the Lead works lived and died the celebrated Dr. Browne; a man
of a kind heart, and a general benefactor to the poor : when he died (in
1810) they felt they had lost their best friend.

TWISS: I am unable to give the exact date of the commencement of the
Sheffield Lead Works, but they were in active operation on the 2nd
February, 1763, when the stock was valued at £5278, and the buildings at
£2600. At that time the partners were Dennis Browne, James De la Pryme,
Samuel Turner, William Cooper, and James Allott, and the works were
situated in Shude hill. During that year Mr. De la Pryme left the firm,
and Mr. James Greatrex took his place. During 1768, Messrs. Allott and
Turner acquired Wm. Cooper's share of the business, and in the
stock-taking of January 14th, 1769, Dennis Browne's executors take the
place of Dennis Browne. During that year James Greatrex also died,
leaving Messrs. Allott and Turner the only surviving partners; but the
representatives of the deceased partners retained their interest in the
business until the end of 1774, when a new arrangement was entered into.
The new firmcarried on business under the style of Allott, Gunning and
Co., and the partners were James Allott, [Doctor] John Browne, Wm.
Harrison, Thos. Gunning, Thos. Rawson, Jas.. Wheat, John Shirecliffe,
and Wm. Bullock. Before the stock-taking of March, 1781, Mr. Bullock had
disposed of his interest in the business to Messrs. Gunning, Rawson,
Wheat and Browne, who, with Messrs. Allott and Shirecliffe, then
comprised the firm. In 1782, a partnership for 21 years was entered
into, which continued by agreement until 25th November, 1811, when Dr.
Browne's executors sold their interest, and on the coming of age of
Carlos Wheat, the Wheat family sold their shares to Thomas Rawson and
John Barker, so that at this date the only partners were Messrs. Rawson
and Barker and Elizabeth Gunning. On the 1st May, 1821, Thos. Rawson and
John Barker purchased of Captain and Mrs. Gunning all their interest in
the works.

LEONARD : Dr. Browne never held the office of physician to the
Infirmary, but he took a very active part in establishing it, and was
the first chairman of its weekly Board. He was a man who played a very
prominent and useful part in the affairs of the town. Like Justice
Wilkinson, he had the honour of a public funeral, and his features too,
were perpetuated in marble by the hand of Chantrey.

EVERARD: At the establishment of the Infirmary a warm discussion arose,
as to whether the benefits of the institution should be limited to the
ordinary inhabitants of the town, or be extended to persons coming from
other places. Doctor Browne, on that occasion, took a very decided part
in advocating the latter; and it was through his influence, in a great
measure, that the institution took the name of " The Sheffield General
Infirmary," affording help to whomsoever might need it, coming from what
quarter of the world they might. Mr. Job Fretson, the grandfather of Mr.
Wm. Fretson, the solicitor, being well aware of the worthy Doctor's
strong feelings on this subject, on presenting a request for an order of
admission for some poor person, took care to head the paper in a
distinct hand, " To the Board of the Sheffield General Infirmary." The
Doctor, on taking the paper and seeing the heading, marched about the
room repeating the words, " The Sheffield General Infirmary; yes, Sir,
perfectly correct, the General Infirmary-I have great pleasure indeed in
giving the person a recommendation."

TWISS: Dr. Browne is spoken of in Hunter's Hallamshire as a gentleman of
no great depth, but he had good address, very plausible manners, and
withal a very generous and bountiful disposition." He is satirized in a
political squib, written at the time of the great Yorkshire election of
1807, in the following lines

For shame, Dr. Browne, 
So soon to disown 
All the friendly but fulsome professions, 
Which to Lascelles you made 
But to break, I'm afraid, 
And to increase your small store of transgressions, 
				John Browne."

The town went into mourning for Dr. Browne for one day; and Miss Seward
has preserved his memory in one of her published letters:-" Dr. Browne,
of Sheffield, who lives to promote the good and the pleasure of others,
brought us for one day the two younger and twin sisters of Miss Rogers."
This was said in 1783. Possibly a few particulars as to the other
partners named may not be uninteresting to you.

EVERARD : Most acceptable.

TWISS : Dennis Browne was a surgeon, a relation of Dr. Browne. He died
in 1767, and was buried in the chancel of the Parish Church. Samuel
Turner was most probably the mercer in Angel street , who was the father
of 22 children, and died in 1791.* James Allott, who became the
principal partner in the firm, was the son of James Allott, of
Chrigleston, near Wakefield, by Margaret Clay, of Bridgehouses. He
resided at Attercliffe, and married Esther, daughter of William Burton,
of Royds Mill, and died without issue, 30th August, 1783, when the bulk
of his property passed to the Greaveses, of Page Hall and Banner Cross.
Thomas Gunning was the son of John Gunning, of Turney's court, Cold
Ashton, Gloucestershire. He married Mary Shirecliffe, by whom he left an
only daughter, Elizabeth, who- married her cousin, Capt. Matthew
Gunning. It was this Captain and Mrs. Gunning who sold their share in
the lead works to Messrs. Rawson and Barker in 1821. John Shirecliffe
lived at Whitley Hall, was father of Mrs. Gunning, and died 13th May,
1789. The pedigree of the family is given in Gatty's edition of Hunter,
p. 446. Thomas Rawson, of Wardsend, married for his first wife a
daughter of John Barker, of Bakewell, and died without issue 24th
March,' 1826. He was also the founder of Pond street Brewery, and was
commemorated in the political squib already referred to in a coarse
verse beginning

Tom Rawson, Tom Rawson, 
Thou mash tub, 
Tom Rawson."

His position in the Rawson pedigree will be seen on reference to Gatty's
Hunter, p. 451. James Wheat was a solicitor, clerk to the Church
Burgesses and Town Trustees, and the first member of the Wheat family
who settled in Sheffield. Mr. John James Wheat, of Norwood, is his
grandson. Carlos Wheat, on whose coming of age the Wheat family sold
their interest in the business, was the youngest son of James Wheat, and
became the Rev. Carlos Coney Wheat, vicar of Timberland, near Sleaford.
He was born in 1792.

WRAGG: In Paternoster row were the Messrs. Creswicks, the silversmiths.
A person in their employment was formerly one of the unfortunate people
who, in a time of very bad trade, were employed by the parish
authorities in levelling the " berrin' ground," now the site of St.
George's Church. Fortunately, better times came, and some of those
persons were prosperous. The one I have mentioned opened the first
pawnbroker's shop in Rotherham. Of several others who afterwards held up
their heads in the town, only one is surviving. Mr. William Holmes, an
old gentleman, then over 70, who, in 1836, said he could remember corn
growing in Paradise square, carried on business as a table-knife
manufacturer at 154, Pond street. He remembered the walk across the
field. The Holines's were previously in Broad street, Park. At 173, Pond
street, was a cutler named Micklethwaite, who left two sons. One opened
a shop in London, and soon lost what his father left him. He then went
to Hamburg, and prepared some razors, which he sold with a few other
things. He made his boxes to hold a pair of razors. Having' previously
cut up the wood into proper lengths, breadths, and thicknesses, they
were glued together, and their corners rubbed down on the sinkstone ;
and then the boxes were lined by his wife. He carried on in this way
until he returned to Sheffield; and at one time he had a good German
trade conducted in several different places in the town. He died in
Glossop road, on the premises which he built, now occupied by Mr.
Alexander Patteson. At one time, George Crookes, the watchman, was his
scale and spring maker, at Crookes. In Pond street. too, is the
celebrated brewery of Thomas Rawson and Co., established in 1780. Thomas
Rawson, of whom Mr. TWISS was just speaking in connection with the lead
works, may be called the father of the radical reformers in Sheffield.
At the corner of Pond hill is the warehouse of Messrs. Stephenson and
Mawwood, late Hounsfield's. One of that family, the Doctor, with whom
Mr. Haxworth was apprenticed, built the first house in Queen street, in
1784, now occupied by Mr. Haxworth, the surgeon.

TWISS: A small portion of the old " Hawle at the Poandes" may still be
seen between Pond street and the road to the new Midland station. The
inventory, found among the Talbot papers, of Lord Shrewsbury's
possessions at Sheffield (1582), mentions painted canvas hangings for
windows and chimneys, boards, stools, flagons and so forth, but the
enumeration does not throw much light on the use to which this building
was applied, or help to prove or disprove the tradition that it was a
laundry.

LEIGHTON: The road to the new Midland railway station has wrought great
changes in the neighbourhood of " The Ponds."

LEONARD: The streets lying between the further end of Pond street and
Norfolk street are striking, after many of the old localities we have
been speaking of, for their symmetry. It is evident, at a glance, that
they must have been carried out on a definite plan.

WRAGG: Yes. They were already projected so early as 1771.

EVERARD: Towards the close of the last century that district, now so
sooty and grimy, was quite suburban. The late Mr. Samuel Roberts cut
down a field of corn to build his silver-plating manufactory in Eyre
street, on the premises now occupied by Messrs. W. Sissons and Sons, his
successors in business.

LEONARD : The Rev. Jehoiada Brewer lived in Eyre street, just below the
Howard street crossing. The Rev. George Bonnet, so well known for his
benevolence and his missionary travels, occupied the house at the corner
of Eyre street and Charles street, and the Rev. James Boden, Mr.
Brewer's suecoosor at Queen street Chapel, lived in the same street, as
did also the Rev. James Knight, for so long a period the incumbent of
St. Paul's Church .

WRAGG: In Eyre street were the silver shops of Messrs. Gainsford, 
Fenton and Nicholson. Mr. Robert Gainsford was the father of the 
late Mr. Robert John Gainsford, solicitor.

LEONARD: Who died at Rome, where he was spending the winter, on the 6th
February, 1870. He was educated at the Roman Catholic College, of
Oscott, near Birmingham, and was articled to the late Mr. Henry Owen,
solicitor, of Worksop. He commenced the practice of his profession in
Sheffield, in 1831, in the midst of the popular agitation to support the
Reform Bill of Earl Grey. Mr. Gainsford ever took a lively interest in
Liberal politics, and a prominent part in our local elections. In 1844,
he became a partner in the firm of Haywood, Bramley and Gainsford, and
he went through enormous labours in the legal and parliamentary business
connected with the railway mania. Mr. Gainsford was a frequent writer on
social and political topics, and the education controversy largely
occupied his time and thoughts. He was a regular contributor to the
Dublin Review and the Tablet, and other organs of his own (the Roman
Catholic) church, and many letters from him also appeared in the
Independent.

WRAGG: Lower down Eyre street was Mr. Sykes, the powder-flask
manufacturer, a somewhat singular man. The Messrs. Fenton have the works
now. In Furnival street, at the corner of Eyre street, was Mr. Samuel
Mitchell, who carried on the edge tool and file trades, besides being a
merchant. He was also, though not very successfully, at Whiteley Wood
works, erected by his relative, Mr. Thos. Bolsover, to whom is usually
credited the invention of silver-plating. At those works was the first
rolling mill erected here, and Mr. Mitchell used to tell of Mr. Bolsover
saying that when he began to build, people said he had a purse with a
long neck, but when he finished it was all neck. As an antiquary and
genealogist Mr. Mitchell had not his equal in this part of the country.
He issued the prospectus of a History of the Hundred of Scarsdale, or
North Derbyshire; but the work was never brought out.

LEONARD : In his later years Mr. Mitchell was carrying on works at
Woodhouse Mill, near Handsworth.

WRAGG: In Furnival street, too, is the warehouse of Messrs.. Parkin and
Marshall, but previously of Messrs. Smith, Moorhouse, and Smith. One of
the Messrs. Smith has attended Carver street Chapel for so long a period
that a singer, who visited it after an absence of forty years, said Mr.
Smith was the only person he recognized. Lower down are the works of
Messrs. Roberts and Belk, the silversmiths. This place was first
occupied by Messrs. Furniss, Poles and Furniss. Mr. Henry Furniss, of
the firm of Sanderson Brothers and Co., who recently died, was one of
the sons. In Charles street was Mr. Broadhurst, table-knife
manufacturer, whose life contains an incident of splendid devotion,
worthy of comparison with the noblest self- sacrifices history
chronicles. Forty years ago, in a passage from Liverpool to the Isle of
Man, the vessel on which he and his daughters were crossing was wrecked,
from the drunken stupidity of the captain. He and two of his daughters
had clung to some vestige.of the vessel, when on observing it would not
hold all three, the daughters voluntarily stepped out to save their
father, that he might be spared to the younger children. Mr. Broadhurst
had been Master Cutler in 1842.

JOHNSON: One of my earliest recollections is standing in Howard street
on a summer's night, and seeing the funerals of cholera victims in the
Cholera Ground at Clay Wood in 1832, and I recollect few things that
seemed more appalling than this, and the sight of the " Cholera Basket,"
as the conveyance used to transport patients to the hospital, was
called.

WRAGG: The premises now occupied by Walker and Hall, were the warehouse
of the late Thomas Asline Ward, who was a candidate for the
representation of Sheffield in Parliament, in 1832. He was Master Cutler
in 1816, and was one of Sheffield's most prominent men for many years.

EVERARD: He was a fast and early friend of Chantrey, and a member of the
circle of refined men of literary and scientific tastes, which Sheffield
then could boast.

WRAGG: Joseph Ward, Master Cutler in 1790, and Samuel Broomhead Ward,
his son, in 1798, were of the same family. Messrs. Cammell and Johnson,
afterwards of Cyclops works, first commenced business in this street.
You know that the congregation of Howard street Chapel removed from
Coalpit lane in 1790. The Chapel was attended by the Tillotson family,
the late W. and 8. Butcher, when young, men, the Mappin families, Samuel
and Joseph Hadfield, also by George Hadfield, when young. Mr. Hadfield's
father is buried here; and the father of Mr. George Wostenholm, one of
its deacons, is also interred in the Chapel yard. One of its most
talented ministers was the late Rev. R. S. Bayley, who established the
People's College, to give not only a sound, but a higher education to
those who toil for their living. There are many who have derived great
benefit from the College.

LEONARD: Mr. Bayley was so noteworthy a man that possibly you may like
to hear an extract or two from a biographical sketch published at the
time of his deathNovember 15th , 1859. He was born at Lichfield, and was
an instance Of what may be accomplished by resolution in the pursuit of
knowledge. He was a man of indomitable self-will, and he carried into
all his objects the same resolution that he showed in selfculture. But
he was not always judicious in the choice of his objects; and while his
talents procured him many friends, his inflexible self-will often broke
his friendships and interfered with his usefulness. Though always
well-meaning he was often imprudent, and not sufficiently careful of his
ministerial standing and character. This brought him into collision with
the members of his church, and resulted in those unhappy differences
which led to their separation, and ultimately to his removal from
Sheffield. And while his friends mourned his failings, even his
opponents were ever ready to---testifyto his preeminent ability. But it
was as the founder of the People's College that he established his claim
to grateful remembrance. While Government and the various sections of
the church were squabbling over the question of education, and doing
nothing for it, he, boldly and single-handed, entered upon the task of "
seeing how far the education of the youth of both sexes of the middle
and working classes could be carried on compatibly with their
engagements in trade." His ability would not have availed him in this
work unless it had been accompanied by that indomitable perseverance
which sustained him through such labours as but few men could undergo. *
* He was thoroughly adapted to the work he had undertaken. Completely
master of his task he gained the confidence of his students; and dull
indeed must they have been not to have taken knowledge in some of the
varied forms in which he PresOnted it to them. He sought to develop the,
minds of his students and teach them to think, that being according to
his idea the ultimate object,-in fact education'. None but those who had
the good fortune to, be his students can fully appreciate his
excellences as principal Of the College. If at times they found in him
the imperiousness Of a despot, they also found, in him the kindness of a
friend and the tenderness of a parent. Ever ready to communicate, it was
his delight to teach) and he loved those who sat at his feet for
instruction. Mr. Bayley never sought to influence the religious views of
his students to his own ideas of the truth. Always reverent of sacred
things, be, held the domain of conscience too sacred for human
interference. Mr. Bayley was a man of many faults, but to us they appear
greatly diminished by the time he. has been removed from Sheffield;
while his excellencies, which were likewise many and best worth
remembrance, are Present with *us. He impressed his spirit on some of
the rising youths of Sheffield, and the benefit of his labours will be
felt through all time. They will be no less effective be. cause not
seen, nor less real though unacknowledged.

JOHNSON : It was in 1836 that Mr. Bayley came to Sheffield. from Louth,
Lincolnshire, and in 1846 that he left for a chapel in Ratcliffe
Highway, London. Thence he went to Hereford, where he had been about two
years at the time of his death. He was the author of " Nature considered
as a' Revelation," " History of Louth," "Lectures on the Early History
of the Christian Church. " and other books. For some years prior to his
death he had been engaged on a life of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of
Strafford, for which he had made most extensive researches among the
State papers, the records of the Wentworth family, and similar sources.

EVERARD: There are some other points in the history of Howard street
Chapel that I should like to mention. You can get a list of its
ministers from the ordinary sources of information. The fourth, the Rev.
J. Reece (1797) was a very amiable and exemplary Christian man,
characterised by a singular simplicity and originality in his preaching.
Montgomery related how he heard him preach a funeral sermon, which
produced a great impression on his mind. After four years' ministry he
died, January 8, 1801, universally respected; and a handsome
subscription was raised to make provision for his widow and children.
The next minister was the Rev. Samuel Barnard, and he was succeeded by
the Rev. James Mather, a very energetic preacher and useful man who
regarded it as one special part of his ministerial duty to endeavour to
neutralise, and, if possible, to extirpate from the minds of his flock,
the 'I hyper-Calvinistic" views which his immediate predecessor had
promulgated and instilled. In this he was to a great extent successful.
Mr. Mather removed from Sheffield to Birmingham in 1827, and died in
London in 1840. He was the father of the Rev. Dr. Robert Cotton Mather,
who was for nearly forty years a Missionary in India, where he acquired
a high reputation as an oriental linguist. He has lately returned to his
native country, and is at present engaged in writing a " Commentary" on
the New Testament , in the Hindustane language. Mr. Mather was, in 1830,
succeeded in the pulpit of Howard street Chapel by the Rev. Thomas
Rawson Taylor, a young man of exemplary piety and distinguished talents.
To the great grief and disappointment of that church, and of others in
the town, he had scarcely entered on his ministerial duties before his
health entirely broke down. He resigned, and afterwards became the
classical tutor, for a short time, of Airedale College. He was a poet of
no mean promise. His 'I Memoirs and Select Remains," including his
Poems, were published, and a second edition being required, Montgomery
wrote for it an introductory preface. He died of consumption, in March,
1835, in the 26th year of his age. Then came the Rev. Joseph Fox, of
Hull, the Rev. Robert Slater Bayley, and so we get to modern times.

WRAGG: Near to the premises of Messrs. John Sellers and Sons, partly
occupied by Mr. Richard Elliott, in Arundel street, were the works of
the Messrs. Laycock, manufacturers of hair seating. Their father was a
journeyman to Mr. Wildsmith, in Bridge street, a carpet weaver, and then
hair weaver. Mr. Laycock left him and began for himself. His family was
noted for its industry, and success was the result. Mr. Laycock gave up
business in favour of his sons, and retired into Gell street, to the
house now occupied by Mr. George Deakin. and died at a great age in
1836. On his right and on his left he could see the residences of two of
his sons, one at the corner of Leavy greave, and the other at the corner
of Glossop road. The mayor of Sheffield in 1865, Mr. W. E. Laycock, of
Stumperlow grange and Portobello works, was one of his grandsons. On the
opposite side to Messrs. Laycock, in Arundel street, and further on,
were the works of Mr. Dewsnap, whose son, Mr. Thomas Dewsnap, of Clarke
House, died in 1864, leaving a remarkable will forget its, provisions ?

TWISS: After various charitable and other bequests, he left all his real
and leasehold estates, and all the residue of his Personal estates, to
his executors, declaring it to be his earnest wish and desire that they
should devote the whole of it to building and, endowing churches,
chapels, and schools, or to  any other charitable purposes. Up to the
present time Mr. Dewsnap's "(,earnest desire" has not been gratified.

WRAGG The Dewsnaps were pressers. A few years ago, for a short time
resided at 91, Thomas Longworth, thebrother of the celebrated Mrs.
Yelverton. Just beyond Mr. Cowlishaw's was Mr. Stones, presser, father
of the late Mr. Frederick Stones, edge-tool manufacturer. On the site of
the School of Art wore the silver shops of Messrs. Smith and Hoult. I
think one of the partners resided in the house now occupied by Dr. J. C.
Hall. At the other side was Mr. Spurr, the cutler, who left Church
street. It is now Messrs. Bradburys, silversmiths. At the end of Arundel
street are the works of the late Thomas Ellin. He came out of the
country as apprentice to a person of the name of Oldale, married his
master's daughter, and was in partnership with his motherin-law in one
of the lanes near Howard street Chapel. Mr. Ellin attended to business,
and as the result business attended to him; but his brother-in-law fell
into poverty and obscurity, and his grandchildren are now table-knife
hafters. In Sycamore street died Mr. Francis Chambers, who previously
kept a public-house in Water lane. Some of his customers were Charles
and Matthew Shirteliffe, William Gray, and John Milner. William Gray
will be remembered in connection with Broad lane, as the great jumper
and a boot and shoe maker. Of John Milner, it was said that he was the
best spring-knife cutler in the town, and as a debater he was considered
unequalled in argument. On some occasion he was examined before a select
committee of the House of Commons. These were accustomed to meet at Mr.
Chambers's to discuss and argue.

LEONARD: Here is the Theatre Royal, with its "spirited" profil , of
Shakspeare and some dramatic symbols in the pediment . That was executed
by "a poor wandering tramp," named Renilowe.

LEIGHTON: In the days of the South Devon Militia, of whom we talked once
before, Messrs. Manley and Robertson were the lessees of the Theatre. "
Oh, rare Jemmy Robertson," what a favourite were you, the darling and
delight of the gods of the gallery; your appearance was at all times
welcome. The orchestra consisted of Charles Clegg and his son, " Old
Foster," " Billy Taylor" and his son, and others whose names I have
forgotten. On the opening night they knew well who was behind them and
what was expected from them. On the first flourish of their fiddles,
previous to the drawing up of the curtain, the cry was for " Poor Jack""
There's a sweet little cherub sits smiling aloft, to keep watch o'er the
life of poor Jack." There was great enthusiasm, the pit rising as one
man to do -homage to the song and to Dibden, its writer. It was the
custom then to have a professional singer, who sang between the play and
the farce, and such songs were sung as tended to elevate the public
taste-not Nigger melodies. The first song I heard on the stage was 'I He
was famed for deeds of daring."

TWISS: The boards of our Theatre, humble as they are, have been trodden
by distinguished feet-Mrs. Siddons, and her brother Kemble (who was the
lessee for several seasons), and Charles Kean, and the elder Macready
and his son.

LEONARD: The present state of Tudor place is very melancholy. Grimy
black walls, whose monotony is increased by tattered shreds of flaming
posting bills, stare at the once considerable residence of old Henry
Tudor, while its ancient adornments of wreathed flowers contemplate with
an aspect of profound melancholy the deep puddles, the chaotic boulders,
the piles of stones, the layers of timber, and general wasteheap look
that have invaded the sacred precincts of its once charming garden. The
parade ground of the Artillery Volunteers, and the other buildings that
intervene between Tudor place and Arundel street, have usurped the place
of the flower beds and fruit trees of Henry Tudor, and the sycamores
that surrounded his domain have their memory perpetuated in the
adjoining street, once Sycamore hill, that breathes a fragrance of
anything but bright flowers and green trees. There lived Henry Tudor,
head of the firm of Tudor Leader and Nicholson, one of the first, if not
the first, that engaged in the manufacture of the then newly-invented
process of silver-plating. The business had begun somewhat before 1758,
in the manufacture of snuff boxes, and it developed into the
silver-plating trade. There is a tradition that it was in one of the
garrets of Tudor house that the accidental discovery of the possibility
of coating copper with silver was discovered, on the site now occupied
by the manufactory of Messrs. Round and Son; and it was only as late as
May, 1865, that the last portion -of the old buildings was Pulled clown.
In doing this a considerable quantity of scrap metal was found, hidden
away in the roof, the unremoved booty of some unknown thief.

EVERARD: I have seen a memorandum left by one who at a later period was
a member of the firm, which speaks of Henry Tudor and Thomas Leader as
two silversmiths who came from London. They had a sleeping partner, a
medical gentleman, named Sherburn, and, says the writer, he resided in
Tudor House, the two working partners living in the house adjoining,
which was taken down when the Free Library was built.

LEONARD : If Mr. Tudor did not live in the house called by his name at
first, he did soon afterwards, and Daniel Leader, who, having been
apprenticed to the firm as " boxmaker," i. e. snuff box, in 1762, and
afterwards became a partner, lived in the now demolished house
adjoining, which too had a fruitful garden.

TWISS: Mr. Tudor was a man of wealth, and he must have had some taste,
for he was one of our earliest local patrons of the fine arts. I fear,
however, he may have been deceived, as plenty of other people have been,
in the genuineness of his purchases, for Chantrey had no very lofty
opinion. of them. His friend, Mr. T. A. Ward, seems to have written to
ask his friendly opinion, and Chantrey replied-" There are only three
pictures in Tudor's collection which I can recommend you to purchase.
The first is one of the pictures which I cleaned-the binding of Christ,
by Old Franks: it is one of the best pictures of that master, worth
twenty guineas. The second is an Italian picture; subjectfigures and
architecture, and has a good effeet. I don't know the artist: it may be
worth about fifteen guineas. The third is a head by Wright, of Derby;
Mr. Tudor gave twelve guineas for it, which I conceive to be its full
value. The Guido, Watteaus, Wouvermans, &c.-as they are pleased to call
them-are, in my opinion, very indifferent imitations of those masters: I
advise you by all means not to purchase."* That was in 1808.

LEONARD: Henry Tudor was a stately gentleman, of the old school, rather
dogmatic, and

LEIGHTON : Very proud. He had the character of being the proudest man in
Sheffield, and he went by the name of  My Lord Harry Tudor." There was a
notion that he believed himself to be descended from the Royal Tudors.

LEONARD : He was certainly proud of his name, for finding that another
Tudor had set up in Sheffield in the person of a journeyman comb-maker,
he was greatly offended. Remonstrance being of no avail, for the
comb-maker held himself to have as good right to the name as the
silver-plater, he was offered a pecuniary inducement to change his
patronymic. This, however, was rejected, and " Lord Harry" had to endure
the presence of a second Richmond in the field. Mr. Tudor was twice
married, first to Elizabeth Dodworth, 6th June, 1758, who died 8th June,
1781 ; and secondly, to Elizabeth Rimington, whom he married 6th
January, 1783, and who died 22nd March, 1800. By his second marriage he
had six children-two sons, Henry and George, and four daughters. Harriet
became the wife of Rowland Hodgson, and Charlotte the wife of Mr. B.
Fernell, solicitor, of Chesterfield.

LEIGHTON: Mr. Fernell lived afterwards in the White House, Bramall lane,
and it is said that for amusement he sometimes went to blow the bellows
at Bramall's file works. George Tudor, who was as proud as his father,
was articled to Mr. B. J. Wake, solicitor. He visited the United States,
and published a book on the subject.

LEONARD: The firm we have been talking about had its romances as well as
its more prosaic trade. Thomas Leader, one of the dashing young men of
the time, no sooner came of age than he improved the occasion by eloping
with the daughter of John Henfrey, scissor smith, who lived in the house
that stands askew at the top of Eyre street. The runaway couple were
married at Gretna Green on the 2nd December, 1791. Mr. Henfrey was
Master Cutler the next year. He built for himself a country mansion at
Highfield, and being asked by his friends if he was not afraid of going
home over Sheffield Moor after dark, he replied that he took good care
always to get home by daylight.

EVERARD: In one of our former conversations we heard what Sheffield Moor
was like in those days.

LEONARD : We catch a glimpse, too, of Daniel Leader in the remembrance
of him, possessed by an old gentleman, Mr. William Ash,* who has
recently completed his ninety-second year, and who sees some resemblance
to him in one of his great-grandsons. Mr. Ash remembers Daniel Leader as
he used to see him in his kneebreeches, long waistcoat, large cuffed
coat, ribbed worsted stockings, and large buckles on his shoes, at the
famous hostelry of the Three Stags, in Carver   street, kept by Mrs.
Wilson. There, with his old chum, Quaker Abraham Wigram, Daniel Leader,
who is described as 'I a little stiff man, built like an oak," was wont
to discuss local matters, and drink his pint of home brewed, in the days
when our venerable friend of today was a youth, eating his bread and
cheese, and adapting his palate to the flavour of the Sheffield ale.
Abraham, Wigram was a bit of a poet, and somewhat of a wit, and when old
Bishop, the factor from Sharrow lane, was buried, he made some verses
descriptive of his screwing habits, and moralising on his end.

LEIGHTON: Entering Norfolk street from Arundel street we have on our
left, back to back with the Theatre Royal, the Assembly Rooms, and on
the right a tinner's shop, once the building to which Mr. Wreak's
removed the Post Office, in 1828. But the inconvenience of this
situation was too great, and a move was made to the Commercial Buildings
in High street, now occupied by Messrs. Levy.

TWISS: And would you actually pass over the Assembly Rooms, the scene of
the most notable feature in the social life of Sheffield a century ago,
with that bare mention ? " From the year 1773," Hunter tells us, " the
assemblies were held in two rooms of the Boys' Charity School, where the
company enjoyed conversation or the mazy dance by light, not of wax,
which beamed from sconces of tin." The rooms of which we are now
speaking were built. in 1762, and the Town Council became tenants of
them in 1846. In that year (November 28) the Independent published some
very interesting documents relating to these gatherings, which I happen
to know were contributed by the most competent pen. These comprised
lists of subscribers, with an attempt at identifying the persons whose
names appeared; a list of a few of the earlier Queens; the terms of
admission and the rules. These contain much curious information, but
they are too long to inflict upon you now.

LEONARD: A different and perhaps older set of rules was published in the
Sheffield Times of December 27th, 1851.

EVERARD: Opposite us is Nether Chapel-the new Nether Chapel we old men
should call it, since it supplanted the old building we remember so
well. Amongst the seceders from the " Upper Chapel," and one who took a
great interest in and was a large subscriber to the building of the Old
Nether Chapel, in 1715, was a Mr. John Smith. On the authority of Mr.
Hunter's 'I Gens Sylvestrinae, " we learn that this Mr. Smith was born
at Bell House, August 28th, 1684, and was baptised at Ecelesfield. He
was apprenticed to John Winter, a considerable manufacturer in
Sheffield, was admitted to the freedom of the Cutlers' Company in 1705,
and became the Master Cutler in 1722. He was deeply engaged in the
eifforts of the Cutlers' Company to obtain powers to make the Don a
navigable river by which Sheffield might be connected with .the Humber.
On that occasion the interests of the* town were committed into his
hands; and he went to London and so far brought over members of both-
Houses of Parliament to approve and vote for the design, that the object
was attained in 1726. Mr. Smith was a person of a remarkably religious
spirit. He died November 15th, 1753, at the age of sixty-nine, and was
buried in the chapel yard. He was the great grandfather of the late Mr.
Ebenezer Smith, who married a daughter of the Rev. John Harmer, the
minister of Nether Chapel, and was the father of Harmer, Joshua, F. E.
and Sydney Smith, now amongst us. Some years ago a curious old relic, in
the form of a scrap of writing, came into my hands, which afforded a
vivid glimpse of the state of feeling entertained by the Nonconformists
of that day with regard to Popery. It is in the form of an announcement
made by the clerk officiating at the Nether Chapel, (Jeremiah Marshall
by name,) on Sunday, the 4th November, 1750, informing the congregation
that a public service would be held on the next day in the chapel on a
special occasion. The Rev. John Pye, the uncle of the late Rev. John Pye
Smith, was at that time the minister. The following is a copy of the
notice in question:-" Please to take notice, that to-morrow will be the
return of the 5th of November. There will be a Sermon preached here in
commemoration of two remarkable deliverances in our favour, both as
Protestants and Englishmen. The one was the Powder Plot, in the reign of
King James the First, 1605, now 145 years ago; a plot that could be
contrived by none but the Devil and his younger brother, the Pope of
Rome, and his accursed crew. The other was the ' Revolution' in the
person of the renowned Prince of Orange, 1688, now 62 years ago. He, as
an instrument under God, delivered us from Popery and Slavery; and the
memory of the great William the III. will be sweet and valuable to every
true Briton while the world endures." From what I happen to know, I have
little doubt that a ......... of mine (one of the seceders from the
Upper chapel) would relish and endorse the good old clerk's
announcement, and duly attend, with his family, the appointed service
Although I should not like to undertake to defend every word of Mr.
Jeremiah Marshall's trenchant phraseology yet l  do. admire the spirit
of sturdy Protestantism and love of civil and religious liberty, that it
expresses.

LEONARD : I was reading, the other day, in the Sheffield Mercury, of May
12, 1827, a long account of the foundation stone laying on the previous
Monday, May 7. It gives in full the " oration" pronounced by the Rev.
Thomas Smith on the occasion, which is interesting as containing a
sketch of the history of the chapel and of his predecessors in the
ministry. The inscription was as follows:

The Lower Chapel 
built 1715;
Re-built by Public Subscription 
1827. 
THOMAS SMITH, A.M., Minister.
WILLIAM PARKER,	Deacon 
JAMES BARTON	Deacon DAVID
HASLEHURST,	Deacon


WATSON, PRITCHARD and WATSON, of York, Architects
.

Below, this inscription, with a few verbal alterations, was repeated in
Latin. On a roll of parchment, enclosed in a bottle and deposited under
the stone, was the following history: "The ether Chapel having stood 112
years had become inconvenient to the congregation; and is therefore
rebuilt by public subscription at an expense of about £4000, including
£700 paid for additional land. A considerable part of this sum has been
raised by weekly contributions since April, 1821, chiefly collected by-"
"Here," says the Mercury, 'I follows a list of twenty-one names, but we
forbear inserting them from motives of delicacy." Reading the report now
we can only regret that the newspaper, in having such a tender respect
for the modesty of the collectors, deprives us of a useful bit of
town-lore.

TWISS: We can get the names of the successive ministers from Hunter and
other sources, but no one ever thinks of recording the deacons' names.
Yet such a list would suggest many memories to old Sheffield dissenters.

EVERARD: A reminiscence I have of the opening of Nether Chapel in 1828,
enables me to give you a glimpse of one who possesses a fair claim to
rank among the Old Sheffield Worthies-the Rev. William Thorpe. He took
part in the opening services, and that was his last appearance in his
native town, since his death followed not very long after. I have often
thought that there could scarcely be a more majestic mid dignified
appearance in the pulpit, or a nobler specimen of popular pulpit
eloquence. William Thorpe was born at Masbro. His father was the subject
of a remarkable conversion.* Assembled with some boon companions one
evening at the public-house, the conversation led to the agreement that
each of them should take a text at random from the Bibb, and try which
could best imitate the preaching of the Rev. Charles Wesley, who had
'been lately visiting the neighbourhood. Three of his companions had
successively ridiculed all things sacred, when it came to John Thorpe's
turn. He mounted the table, opened the Bible, and his eye fell on the
text - "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." He was sobered
in a moment. The impression made upon him was profound, and he proceeded
to deliver a solemn and earnest discourse to the no small chagrin of his
auditors. He was accustomed to say afterwards, " If ever I preached in
my life, by the assistance of God, it was at that time." Having
finished, he left the room without another word, and from that hour was
a changed man. At first he joined the Methodists. and was one of their
preachers, but afterwards he became the minister of the Independent
chapel at Masbro'. He died there, November 8th, 1776, aged 46, whereupon
his widow removed to Sheffield with the children, and she became on
intimate terms with my grandmother and family. My father described her
as a stout, noble-looking woman; with bright dark eyes, a Roman nose,
and hair of raven gloss and blackness. William, was very much like his
mother, inheriting her features and expression; and, as he advanced in
manhood, assumed a similar portly form and dignified mien. At a suitable
age he was apprenticed to the C( silver-plated" business with a firm,
the exact name of which I have forgotten, but of which Mr. Morton, the
late Thomas Dunn's, maternal grandfather, was a principal partner.
William was a very lively youth, full of fun and practical joke ; but,
at the same time, was clever, intelligent, and well-informed; a great
reader, more especially of history, and possessing a memory of an
extraordinary kind. On one occasion he was ordered to make a teapot
according to the size and pattern of an old one that had been sent with
special directions from the owner that the new was not to differ in any
respect from the old.. Young Thorpe carried out the instructions to the 
letter, rubbing off -the plate and bruising exactly as the old one was
bruised. Many -of Thorpe's fellow workmen were imbued with: the. extreme
views of Jacobinism, and at their instance he challenged. Mr. Macready,
the father of the great tragedian, who. was at. that time the lessee and
manager of the Sheffield Theatre, to a public discussion on the causes
and principles of the French Revolution. This Mr. Macready accepted, and
the meeting took--place in the Freemasons' Lodge, in Paradise square
(recently Mr. Hebblethwaite's school-room), which was crowded to excess.
The late Mr. William, Ibbitt's father belonged to the same trade, and
was present on that occasion. According to his account William had quite
the mastery over his opponent, and at the end the meeting, by a large
majority, voted the youthful champion of political freedom the victor.
The Rev. Jehoiada Brewer was at that time the minister of the Queen
street Chapel; and he held similar political views. - William Thorpe was
happily brought under his influence, and became a decidedly religious
character., At length he entered on the regular discharge of the duties
of the Christian ministry, though without passing through the. process
of an academical training. The first place in which William Thorpe was
located was as the pastor* of the Independent Church at Shelley, a
Yorkshire village, whence, after about a year, he went to Chester. In
1796, he became the minister of Netherfield Chapel, Penistone. I n 1800
he removed to London, and thence to Bristol, where he remained to the
end of his life. On the memorable occasion of the opening services of
the new Nether Chapel, in the month of August, 1828, the chapel was
crowded to excess. The preacher was a tall, big man, and very corpulent,
but without anything heavy or vulgar about the form and expression of
the face. On the contrary, his features, rising above a remarkable
double chin, were finely and even delicately formed, more especially the
nose and mouth. His high forehead was bald, and what portion of hair he
had was of a dark colour, with a touch of grey on his short, slight
whiskers, His nose was somewhat of the Roman type; his eyes were black
and piercing; with a small mouth and arched eyebrows. His voice was
remarkable for its compass and power, and was apt to swell into thunder
tones as he denounced, in awful terms, the doom of the impenitent; or
become modulated into accents of the most persuasive tenderness, in
urging sinners to repent and believe in the Saviour. The subject was the
Christian doctrine of the Atonement. This he treated in his own peculiar
style, and with a fulness of illustration, and a clearness and force of
argument that I never heard exceeded ; nor, indeed, so much matter on
that subject compressed within the limits of a single sermon.   It is
true he preached for above an hour and a half, but the attention of the
people was riveted from first to last. The impression produced on the
minds of his hearers by this discourse was very great. Himself the son
of the Rev. John Thorpe, he was the father of another Independent
minister of the same name, who was for some years the minister of Mount
Zion Chapel.

LEIGHTON: Chapel walk, between Nether Chapel and the Wesleyan Chapel
below (built in 1780), formerly came into Norfolk street by a series of
steps. They were removed at the same time as those in Virgins' walk and
East parade, descending into Campo lane, by a person named Marriott, a
filesmith, who had the control of the highways.

WRAGG: Chapel walk is one of our old thoroughfares. It formerly
contained, with their backs to it, some very old frame houses, built of
lath and plaster. In George street, the Mechanics' Institution was
commenced in 1832, and conducted on the premises of the late Messrs.
Pickslay, now the site of the offices of Messrs. Broomhead, Wightman.
This was the first attempt made and Moore, the solicitors. in the town
for the labouring classes to receive instruction in evenings, after
their daily toil.

LEONARD: You spoke once before of Harwood and Thomas, who were on the
site of the Sheffield Banking Company's .premises.

WRAGG : At the lower corner of Change alley were the Messrs. Deakin,
merchants, one of whom founded the charity that bears his name. At the
other corner, until recently, were the Messrs. Woodcock, the
brushmakers, who must have been people of taste, as some very valuable
pictures were sold at their sale. It almost looked as if they had
studied the science of astronomy. Opposite, in Norfolk street, are the
Messrs. Rodgers, the cutlers, who, as formerly noticed ' came from
Hawley croft. I have heard it stated that originally they came from
Stannington. Near, in Milk street, is Mr. Bowling's school, celebrated
as being kept by the late Mr. J. H. Abraham, who, besides having the
best school in the town, was of a mechanical turn of mind, for in 1822
he invented a magnetic apparatus for the protection of persons employed
in dry grinding.

TWISS.. A testimonial was presented to him in that year, "in token of
respect for his talents, and in acknowledgment of, his services, to an
afflicted class of workmen by his ingenious invention ' " and he also
received the gold medal of the Society of Arts for the same invention.

JOHNSON : Like many other things that are theoretically sound, the
magnetic apparatus was practically useless. The great complaint against
it was, I believe, that it was speedily choked with the fragments of
metal attracted, and then the respiration of the workman was
distressingly hindered.

WRAGG: Messrs. Sansom, in Norfolk street (now Harrison Brothers and
Howson), had a table-blade forger, named Muscroft, who was a man of
great ingenuity. He had been a collier. He made and repaired clocks,
some of which I have seen, and I believe he contrived a small gas
apparatus. I think I could almost positively say that General Grainger,
one of the confederate officers in the United States rebellion, was born
in the Park, and was the son of one of Mr. Muscroft's daughters.

LEONARD: The public-house at the bottom of the street, now the Norfolk
Arms, was, John Wilson tells us in a note to Mather's song of "Shout 'em
down's barn," called " The Hullett," or Owl, and about the end of the
last century it was kept by Mr. Michael Waterhouse. Its pseudonym was "
Shout 'em down's," and it was a favourite rendezvous for recruiting
parties.

EVERARD : At No. 14, Norfolk street, Chantrey had apartments during the
recess of the Royal Academy in 1804, when he solicited the patronage of
the ladies and gentlemen of Sheffield in sculpture and portrait
painting. " As models from life are not generally attempted in the
country," his advertisement said, 'I F. C. hopes to meet the liberal
sentiments of an impartial public."

LEONARD : Chantrey, too, was a frequent visitor at another house in this
street, that which is now occupied by Miss Barry, dressmaker, then the
residence of Mr. Sterndale, surgeon, who had married Mary Handley, of
whom we spoke when talking of Angel street. In his Memorials of
Chantrey, Mr. Holland tells that Chantrey and Mrs. Sterndale (who was a
local authoress) once met at a party at Mr. Revell's, in Norfolk street,
and during the evening, a violent thunderstorm came on. Mrs. Sterndale
and Chantrey disappeared in succession from the drawing room and were
found taking refuge in the cellar, whither the lady had fled because of
a constitutional dread of lightning.

JOHNSON: We have previously spoken of Chantrey's early sculptures. I am
told that the figures which stand on either side of the entrance door of
the Infirmary are the work of his chisel.

EVERARD : Histories of the Upper Chapel, or of St. Paul's Church, do not
come within the scope of our conversations, since we long ago agreed
that we would avoid as much as possible details that may be found in "
Hunter."

LEIGHTON: Yet we should not omit any small touches that are beneath the
dignity of his history. In connection with St. Paul's for instance, why
should we not call to mind the name of 'I Dr. Inkbottle," whose large
letters so long adorned or rather marred the alcove of the Pinstone
street entrance? "Dr. Inkbottle" was a medical gentleman, named Frith,
and he obtained his nick-name thus-Having been present at a public
dinner, at the Tontine, he so far forgot himself as to carry away a
bottle, supposing it to contain wine. It proved, however, to be simply a
bottle of ink, and the mistake becoming known he was popularly
christened " Dr. Inkbottle." He was surgeon to the " Blues," and lived
in Norfolk row. He afterwards lived and died in Surrey street. Alderman
Carr was apprenticed to him.

LEONARD : As to Mr. Everard's remark, it is to be observed that Hunter's
notices of the Upper Chapel ministers are so brief, through 11
considerations which to many persons will be obvious," that it is well
to add to them whenever we can. Of the Rev. Joseph Evans, for instance,
his particular friend and whom he enthusiastically admired, Mr. Hunter's
published account is very meagre, although he left a more extended MS.
notice. From this I glean the following facts: Mr. Evans was born in
April, 1728, his father being Mr. Roger Evans, a Manchester tradesman,
and his mother the daughter of an eminent minister, the Rev. Josh.
Dawson, of Morley. His maternal grandfather was one of the divines
ejected by the Act of Uniformity, 1662. Mr. Evans studied under Dr.
David Jennings, who kept a flourishing academy in London for the
bringing up of young persons for the ministry, and elicited the warmest
commendation from his tutor, as expressed in a letter to Dr. Doddridge.
But'Mr. Evans dissented from the orthodox Calvinistic tenets, which
involved the loss of support from Coward's fund and removal from the
academy.  Thereupon he succeeded the Rev. Mr. Barber as pastor of a
small congregation at Burntwood, in Essex, and after a few years became
assistant to Dr. Eaton, High Pavement Meeting, Nottingham. After four
years he was invited, on the death of the Rev. Thomas Haynes, to the
Upper Chapel, Sheffield, and he settled there in 1759. He married, on
the 29th July, 1762, Susanna, eldest of the three daughters of his
predecessor, Mr. Haynes. For nearly forty years he presided over the
Sheffield congregation, and one at Fulwood, in conjunction with the Rev.
John Dickenson for half that period, and the Rev. Benjamin Naylor for
the latter half. In November, 1798, he resigned the pastoral office, and
he died on the last clay of the year 1803. The Iris of the 5th January,
1804, contained a brief obituary notice from the pen of " his worthy
late coadjutor," and another, fuller and more accurate, appeared in the
Monthly Magazine for February of the same year. I have confined myself
in this epitome to the bare facts, omitting the affectionate and
eulogistic language which Mr. Hunter employed.

WRAGG: On the side of the street opposite Upper Chapel, were the
warehouse and town residence of Mr. Bustard Greaves, of Page Hall. The
warehouse is occupied by Mr. Hay, the spirit merchant, and the site of
the house is now the Savings' Bank.

LEIGHTON: Concerning the same premises and the same firm, it has been
related how a young man, named Woodhead, became a partner of Mr.
Greaves's. He was apprenticed to Mr. Greaves, and being sharp and steady
he was offered a partnership, after he came of age, if he could find
£1000. Having no money of his own he went to one of the Rimingtons, an
old friend of his employer, and told his story. Mr. Rimington, with a
generosity so unexplained that I fancy some essential point may have
been omitted from the narrative, advanced £1000, wishing young Woodhead
every success, and telling him that if he failed the repayment of the
loan would never be asked for. Mr. Woodhead became a wealthy man, built
himself a mansion at Highfield, and lived to a good old age. It is said
that manufacturers liked to do business with the Woodheads, who were
factors. So long as the article was good no objection was raised to the
price.

WRAGG: In Norfolk street were the warehouse and works of Blonk, Silcock
and Co.-in the gates next to No. 143.. Their shops extended to Norfolk
lane and are now turned into tenements. At the top of the street, next
to the Turkish Baths, are the Messrs. Barlow, whose family have been in
the scissor trade for more than a century.

EVERARD: In the house now occupied by the Turkish Baths, at the corner
of Charles street, died, unmarried, George Eadon, one of the sons of
John Eadon, the master of the Free Writing school.

TWISS: In Union street was the second Methodist Chapel erected in the
town, put up after the first in Pinstone lane had been destroyed by a
mob. But that was long agoabout the middle of the last century.

WRAGG : At the top of Porter street, or as it used to be called, Ladies'
walk, was Mr. Hutchinson, the coachmaker, who, as I. mentioned once
before, was so tall that he had a gig made expressly for himself, with a
recess for his legs. His family, in Norfolk street, had been many years
in the wheelwright and carriage business. He was the father of the late
Mr. William Hutchinson, of the firm of Naylor, Vickers and Hutchinson.

LEIGHTON: A stroll down Ladies' walk would, at one time, have taken us
into a colony of pleasant gardens. Down there was the famous file
factory of Mr. Daniel Bramall, who, in 1816, built Sheaf House,
afterwards the residence of Mr. George Younge. His name has been given
to the street.

LEONARD : Chantrey adorned that house and took portraits of a large
number of the Bramalls, and as at that other filesmith's in Shemeld
croft-Nicholas Jackson's-so here, at the file-smith's in Bramall lane,
he had an affaire-de-coeur with one of the daughtersMary.

WRAGG: The factory was close to what is now the Cricket ground; 50 or 60
years ago these were the largest file works in the neighbourhood. In
1805, Mr. Daniel Bramall obtained a verdict of £2000 damages against a
Birmingham file maker for violating his mark. Now, I believe, it is
quite valueless.

EVERARD: Since we have wandered away from the town, suppose we get back
to it by another route, taking in Little Sheffield and the Moor ?

JOHNSON: Good. I have no doubt Little Sheffield may produce some
interesting gossip, since the manufactory of George Jeeves and Son,
brush-makers, was situated there. It has been said that there probably
never was any one about whom so many amusing stories were told as Mr.
George Jeeves, and the following have been related:He had, besides his
own workmen, a large number of apprentices, and he would station himself
at his gates at six o'clock in the morning and pull the ears of any lads
who were late. One of these lads was very lazy and troublesome to his
master. Old Jeeves used to keep a six-and-sixpenny whip for the purpose
of correction, and Jack S- got a large share of this kind of attention. 
 While under punishment he would loudly promise to do better, but would
quickly relapse into his old listless ways. He was a great trouble to
his employer, who was really a good master to good servants. The lad
often caused his master to swear, of which he would bitterly repent
afterwards, and he has been heard to say to the tiresome apprentice, "
Thah makes me run into more sin than a little." Mr. Jeeves had a pew at
St. Paul's Church, and expected his lads to attend there, and in time.
One Sunday morning, on his way to church down the Moor, he saw George -,
an apprentice, playing at marbles on some waste ground. He called out in
passing, " Now, thah'll be in time, lad; thah'll be in time." " Yes,
Sir," was the reply: but he stayed too long, and was late at church. Old
Jeeves waited his opportunity, and during the prayers sidled up to the
offender, and gave his ear a tremendous wring. George, partly from pain
and partly to serve his master out, set up a yell that resounded through
the church. Another of these lads, not liking to go to church, tried to
annoy his master by going very shabbily dressed; and Mr. Jeeves quite
audibly remarked, " Go thee to 't bottom, thah shabby d-l." As a proof
of his regard for the decencies of worship, he was heard to say to
another lad, 'I D - you, kneel in a praying posture."

WRAGG : With some of the best stories told of Mr. Jeeves, the Rev. Frank
Parker, incumbent of Dore, is associated. Jeeves very frequently
accompanied the minister to his Sunday labours, and when, one feast
Sunday, the incumbent took for his text, " It is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven," Mr. Jeeves rose, and turning round to the congregation with
his hand lifted, exclaimed, " There, you poor ragged devils, did you
hear that ? There's good news for you.`

LEIGHTON: A good dinner used to be one of the accompariments of the Dore
excursions. It is said that sometimes, if the sermon was rather too long
for his taste, Mr. Jeeves would go to the bottom of the pulpit steps and
call out in a stage whisper, " Frank, Frank, t'goose is ready, cut it
short, man." Messrs. Jeeves had some very respectable boys, and amongst
them Mr. Thomas Marshall, afterwards a butcher in Barkerpool, well known
as " Tommy Marshall," and a very excellent man; and also Mr. Jonathan
Hoyland, brush manufacturer.

LEONARD: One whose father was an apprentice of Messrs. Jeeves's tells
that it was his father's duty to fetch home Mrs. Jeeves when she had
been out to visit her friends. At that time the streets were miserably
paved and lighted. " I remember," he says, " my father in particular
referring to Pinstone street as being very bad. Instead of a channel on
each side of the street as now, our grandfathers had one channel in the
middle. The sides were highest, and sloped down to this channel. The
whole of what is now the west end of Sheffield was in the open country,
and contained nothing more than lanes or garden walks. Mrs. Jeeves used
to visit at one of the few houses then existing, I believe, at Leavy
Greave, and my father would be sent with a lantern to fetch her home,
and a long dreary walk it was. During his apprenticeship flour was five'
six, and seven shillings a stone, and wheaten bread a luxury. He paid
sixteen shillings a week to an aunt for his board, but for a long time
never tasted white bread, but-had instead thick oat-cakes, often sour
before they were eaten. Many a time he would have no better dinner than
milk porridge. The hours of work in these ' good old times' were from
six in the morning till eight at night. At that time, owing to dirt and
bad drainage, it was quite a common thing for the town to be visited
with fevers almost every autumn. During my father's apprenticeship a
fever broke out, which was terribly fatal in Little Sheffield,
particularly in Young street and Jail street. My father, his uncle, and
a young cousin, all took the fever in their house, and the poor girl
died. I remember walking up Mackenzie walk-a pretty country lane in
those days, leading from Sheffield Moor to Sharrow-when my father showed
me a place where he was walking out on beginning to recover, and saw two
little children crying bitterly and calling for their father and mother,
both dead of the fever. There were no weekly returns of mortality in
Sheffield in those days, or it would have shown a higher rate than our
worst times."

LEIGHTON: Another notable inhabitant of Little Sheffield was old Seth
Cadman, the combmaker. What Sheffielder, whose recollection goes back
forty years or so, does not remember him as he used to sit, with his
stall of combs, near the Old Church gates? He was something of a
celebrity in his day, and was born at Sky Edge. He became the tenant of
the old house still standing at the corner of Young street and Hodgson
street, on the 23rd August, 1803. At that time the building must have
been considerably more than fifty years old, but it presented no sign
that it would one day be the dilapidated place it is; or that it would
be closed in by streets teeming with a hard working population. The
premises were divided into. house and workshop, and from the latter
there was really a charming outlook. Old Seth" a lively interest in the
stirring events of his time, and kept a diary, of which the intention
was better than the spelling. Its records begin with 1807, and it is now
in the possession of Seth's granddaughter, Mrs. Gillott, of Egerton
street. 'I Evintful Times to Future Ages" is the heading of each page,
and the entries relate to all manner of events, private, domestic,
local, national and foreign. In December, 1823, 41 a great flood of
water came into Little Sheffield. It was one yard Ighe in our house in
Young street, did great damige. - Largest ever noung." Seth Cadman died
in 1832, aged 77. In the words of a " sampler," worked by a
granddaughter, " He was followed to his grave by upwards of sixty
children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren." His son, Seth Cadman,
died in 1849, at the age of 67, the third Seth having died two months
before, aged 26. One of the sisters of the latter had married Mr.
Gillott, and a second Mr. Crossland, spring-knife cutler, who, twenty
years ago, emigrated to America and settled in Buffalo. There he fell
ill and was in great distress, but his wife, who had had some training
as a dress-maker and was a woman of much energy, sold a watch, and with
the proceeds bought materials which she made up into a baby's dress.
That was the beginning of a prosperous career, for the dress being
displayed and sold, other orders followed, and now she is the head of a
large establishment, and drives her carriage. Two brothers, who
continued the comb-making trade in the old house until about ten years
ago, also went out to Buffalo, and were started in business by their
sister as stationers and news agents.

LEONARD: You should not forget to add that posterity owes a debt of
gratitude to old Seth, as the first to manufacture here the small-tooth
comb.

EVERARD: In those days, from Little Sheffield to the Sugar House, at the
bottom of Coalpit lane, there was scarcely a house. It was then
Sheffield Moor in reality, where tall Mr. Hutchinson used to break in
and train carriage horses.

WRAGG: The old house of Mr. Kirkby, in Button lane, would be one of the
few in the neighbourhood. It is dated 1705, and part of it is now
occupied as the 11 Blacksmith's Cottage" public-house. Miserable shops
have been built in front of part of it.

LEIGHTON: Sheffield Moor originally was not much better than a swamp,
through which a path was made by two embankments being thrown up,
between which was a deep ditch. The present road was made at great cost
by filling up this ditch. But we have mentioned these things before.

LEONARD : The Moor has been described as " a wild common, adorned with
gorse bushes and foxgloves, and possessing a bowling green."

WRAGG: The Woodman public-house on the Moor is one of the oldest
dwellinghouses in the neighbourhood.

LEONARD : I think the " Rose and Crown," at Highfields, is still older.
It is worth any one's while to go and look at it. I am told that there
is a bedstead in one room that has never been taken down for nearly
eighty years, and if it were removed now the ceiling would come down
too, for it is supported by the bedstead.

EVERARD : Rather an uncomfortable place to sleep in. As we pass Bright
street, Fitzwilliam street and Rockingham street, let us notice them as
illustrations of the origin of our street names. They at once indicate
the ownership of the soil by the house of Wentworth. The last Marquis of
Rockingham. married the daughter of the last Ecclesall Bright, and so
came into possession of the property. As he died without issue it
descended to his nephew, Earl Fitzwilliam. It is said that the Marquis,
when taunted with marrying a woman of no blood, replied, that " if she
had no blood she had plenty of suet."

JOHNSON: In my own recollection, about 40 years ago, the whole of the
district comprising Devonshire, Hanover, Fitzwilliam., Broomhall, and
other streets, has been laid out. Division street then extended no
further than Canning street, and the houses on the Sheffield side of
this dingy little street were open to the fields. In going to school at
Western bank there was scarcely a house beyond the Bee Hive. Convent
walk was a pleasant country lane, and on the left-hand side was what we
called the Old Orchard, being an orchard only just broken up. In passing
Mrs. Bayley's house, now the Public Hospital, we were greatly alarmed,
for the house was haunted; at least so we were told. 		LEONARD: We
learn from old Seth Cadman's diary, that on the 1st July, 1825, " Part
of Coalpit lane was brought to rise Sheffield Moor." I confess I don't
quite know what it means, unless formerly the only exit from Coalpit
lane was into Button lane.

TWISS: The late Mr. Samuel Roberts (born 1763, died 1848) speaks of
having heard Mr. Whitefield preach from the top of the cask at the Sugar
house.

WRAGG : It is worthy of note that the houses on the Ecclesall side of
Coalpit lane are older than those on the town side. In that lane was
Miss Patten, whose father was in the cutlery trade. The house is now Mr.
Kent's mattress shop. Up the yard were Mr. Patten's workshops. On the
site of the Primitive Methodist Chapel is a large building divided into
tenements, said to have been a farm house. Below was the old chapel,
built by Mr. Bennet, about 1775, for a congregation of seceders from
Nether Chapel, who removed to Howard street Chapel in 1790. Another
congregation of Independents removed from it in 1803 to Garden street
Chapel. For eight years previous to 1814 it had been occupied by the
Baptists, until they removed to Townhead street Chapel. A few people,
who held baptismal notions among the various Independent churches,
separated from it and formed themselves into a distinct congregation or
church, and chose one from among themselves to be the minister, Mr.
Downes. He was said to be the most knock-kneed man in the town, even
surpassing, in that respect, Tommy Hotbread. The chief man in this
movement was Mr. Bowman, the pawnbroker. There is a tablet to his memory
in Townhead street Chapel, stating that he was mainly instrumental in
the erection of the place. In Coalpit lane, I believe, the Newboulds had
been located before they went on to Sheffield Moor, and there, too, was
Philip Law, edge-tool maker, where his ancestors had been about a
century. Edward Middleton, of whom I spoke once before as an amateur
gardener,  had the Barleycorn tavern here. If all innkeepers had carried
on their business as he did, the present conflict between teetotallers
and publicans would not have existed, for there would have been neither
drunkards nor total abstainers. He was the brother of John Middleton,
the cooper, of Vicar lane.

EVERARD: We ought not to rest satisfied without a fuller notice of Mr.
Edward Bennet. He was a sugar refiner, and carried on his business at
the old Sugar-house, at the bottom of Coalpit lane, or Moorhead. He was
a Christian man and a diligent and energetic tradesman; and by a course
of successful industry he accumulated a considerable fortune. He was a
Nonconformist, and for some years was a member of the Independent
Church, at the Nether Chapel. In 1780, he, together with some of the
congregation, seceded, and the Coalpit lane Chapel was built chiefly, if
not altogether, at his cost. He officiated as the pastor during the
eight years of his life, but without receiving any emolument for his
services ; but instead thereof, the sums contributed by the congregation
were laid up for the erection of a chapel, to which Mr. Bennet added
£250. The chapel at Howard street was built, and the congregation
removed to it, in 1790. Mr. Bennet died on November 29th, 1788, two
years before the opening of the new chapel in Howard street, and he left
his wealth to his nephew, Mr. George Bennet, of Sunday-school and
missionary celebrity. The type of Mr. Edward Bennet's character seems to
have been a somewhat original one. He was possessed of strong common
sense and no ordinary shrewdness. He was of a benevolent disposition,
which especially manifested itself in various acts of private charity.
One of his pecularities was that he had great faith in dreams. This may
be in a great measure accounted for from his personal experience of one
of a very singular and advantageous kind, which proved a reality, and
exerted an influence on his circumstances and position through life.
This is the story:At a certain time in the last century, in consequence
of war, or some other cause, sugar became so very scarce that Mr. Bennet
found it quite difficult to obtain a sufficient supply to carry on his
business. One night he dreamt that a large cargo of that produce had
arrived, or was just about to arrive, at Liverpool, and that he went and
bought the whole lot, which was to so large an amount that he had to set
his wits to work to know how to raise the money to pay for it, but that,
some way or other, he did raise it and secured the bargain. The next
morning his mind was so impressed with this dream, that he set out to
Liverpool on the strength of it. There he found the vessel had just
arrived (but, I think, only still on the river' not in port) with the
sugar on board. He bargained for and purchased the entire cargo,
experiencing the difficulty in raising the cash to pay for it ; but
either by loan on security of the goods, or in some other way, he did
raise it, and thus accomplished his purpose. This eventually proved so
profitable a speculation that he ever looked upon it as a (c special
providence," by means of which the foundation was laid of his subsequent
success, fortune, and position. Mr. Bonnet, in his acts of charity, was
especially kind to poor ministers in the neighbourhood. A late friend of
mine, likely to be well informed in the matter, used to relate an
instance of this kind that occurred as the result of an intimation
received in a dream. But while correct as to the circumstances, he must
have been mistaken as to the person, for he told it of the Rev. Daniel
Dunkerly,* of Loxley, whereas Mr. Dunkerly only became the minister at
that place in 1802, fourteen years after Mr. Bonnet's death. I think it
possible that the recipient of Mr. Bonnet's bounty was the Rev. Josiah
Rhodes, Independent Minister at Stannington from 1779 to 1785. (The Rev.
Daniel Dunkerly was succeeded, in 1821, by the Rev. David Dunkerly, no
relation, who married the eldest daughter of the Rev. James Mather, and
who, after a pastorate of 8 or 9 years, went to Canada, and lately died
there, aged 80 years.) However, to the story. The good man in question,
whoever he may have been, was poor, having but a small stipend, and was
often in straits ; but he was of a modest and withal independent spirit,
that would silently suffer much rather than complain or ask for
assistance. He was at the time referred to in a special pecuniary
difficulty, and did not know which way to look for deliverance, but only
to that great source from whence he had often derived help and
consolation before. He, therefore, prayed earnestly. The same night Mr.
Bonnet dreamt that his friend was in great perplexity and distress of
mind for want of money. Under the impression of this dream, the next
morning he sent him, anonymously, a £10 note (I think the sum was),
which just came at the nick of time, and at once delivered the good man
in his hour of extremity. Suspecting that it must have come from Mr.
Bonnet, he called upon him and ascertained the fact. The minister then
asked how he could possibly know of his distress, as he had not breathed
a word to a single human being I on the matter? Mr. Bonnet answered that
he had not been told by anybody, but that he knew it by a means which
convinced him, whether it might satisfy any one else or not, that God,
even now, is not limited as to the mode in which information may be
acquired when necessary for the relief of His suffering and praying
people. He told him that he had dreamt in the night of the fact of his
distress, though without the particulars, and in the morning had simply
acted on the suggestion.

TWISS : There are other stories of a similar kind about Mr. Bonnet, but
I am sorry to say I do not accurately remember the details.

LEONARD: There is all admilable story told of a Coa1P'it lane about the
file manufacturer, who was in business here about the middle of last
century,  in partnership with his brother William -Master Cutler in
1771-while yet communication between Sheffield and London wall in its
infancy. Enoch Trickett was a genuine broad  " Old Shevvielder.', His
shirt sleeves rolled up a leather apron whose bib was up to his  throat,
without  neckerchief, he was not to be distinguished from his workmen.
When the commercial spirit extended itself in the town Enoh said he
would go to ' Lunnon" , , and	see if he could sell some files and
obtain orders~ thinking he should get better prices there than in
Sheffield.He went into a merchant's warehouse, and asked if they were in
want of any files, producing his patterns, which they examined. hey
asked prices, and what discount was allowed. " Dis count," he says, 11
What's that?  Oi ne'er heard tell on it afore." They explained that by
making them an allowance of so much per cent., he would get their order,
and upon the receipt of the goods they would remit him the money in
pament. Way oi've telled yo t'proice on 'em, an, beloike oi'st expect
t'brass for 'em." Further explanations only resulted in the reply, " Soa
yo wanten me to gi yo so much money to buy t'foiles ? The terms on which
they would give him a good order were explained, but Enoch's patience
was exhausted, and, 'I lapping" up his files, he said, " Nay, lad, nay;
oi can sell 'em for moor nor that at Breetmoor's onny toime, and tak t'
brass hoam. wi' me when ween 'livered." it is currently reported that
Enoch never again tried his hand as a commercial traveller. When
umbrellas first came into vogue in Sheffield, Enoch's brother got one. "
See thee, see thee," said Enoch, " ahr Bill has getten a waukin stick
wi' petticots on."

EVERARD. The father of Mr. George Hadfield, ex-M.P. for Sheffield, was
one of the first to introduce the use of the umbrella into Sheffield. I
have heard the late Mr. Samuel Hadfield say, that as boys he and his
brother were so ashamed of it that they would not walk the same way to
chapel with him on rainy Sundays.

LEIGHTON : That is almost as good as the reception accorded to the first
pair of those new-fangled garments called trousers which found their way
to town. It was reserved
Meggitt, shoemaker; Adam Renwick, basket maker; Ellis Eyre, grocer;
together with the once well-known Benjamin Withers, and others. These
were in the habit of indulging in daily gossip at each other's shops,
and discussing the politics of the day. Retail shops were then much more
gossiping places than now. But the headquarters of this kind of
intelligence was the barber's shop, which almost every one frequented.

EVERARD: A Fargate shopkeeper of high respectability was Mr. Ebenezer
Birks, grocer. Young Chantrey was at first sent to him, but he quickly
resented being put to such uncongenial employment.

LEIGHTON: At the end of Norfolk row, opposite the old Cutlers' Arms, was
the building called the old Lord's House. It formed the corner of
Fargate and Norfolk row, and stood where are the shop so long occupied
by Mr. Holden, watchmaker (now Mr. Rennie's, hosier), and the adjacent
ones, as as far the " Old Red House." There was a double flight of
steps, leading to a balcony on the level of the first floor. Mr. Rimmer,
the Catholic priest, had a small room in the house, used as a chapel.
The entrance was from the Norfolk row side, and there were two or three
steps up to the chapel. About the time I am speaking of (1815), the
building was taken down, and the land was quite open from Fargate to the
Assembly Rooms in Norfolk street, and it continued open for years. Mr.
Rimmer got a chapel built upon the ground, right at the back (in 1816),
and that continued to be the Roman Catholic place of worship until the
present St. Marie's Church was built (1846-50). We used to play on the
ground, and " Old Rimmer," did not like it, and drove us off. He was a
nice old gentleman-" a cheerful old chap." For a long time the ground
was unfenced, but ultimately a palisade was put up to keep people from
the chapel, and to form a bit of a graveground. It was used for burying,
and when the new church was built there was bother about the foundation.

WRAGG: Henry Howard, Esq., the great grandfather of the present Duke of
Norfolk, resided in the Lord's House. He appears  to have acted as
steward to the previous Duke.

LEONARD: The lion over the door of the Assay office, in Fargate, was the
work of a man named Mozley, who was employed by Ramsay, Chantrey's
master.

WRAGG: The Fleur-de-lis opposite, just below the corner of Orchard
street, was, sixty years ago, the residence of Mr. Jennings, who, when
he retired from business, went to live at Hackenthorpe.

LEIGHTON: It has gone through many stages since then. Not many years ago
it was a doctor's house.

WRAGG: On the site of the Exchange Drapery establishment-built as
somewhat ambitious "commercial buildings"were some very old brick shops,
almost as old, I should think, as the " first brick house in Sheffield,"
built at the end of Pepper alley, according to the Rev. Edwin Goodwin,
about the year 1696.

EVERARD: In one of the shops opposite was William Nadin, stay-maker, of
whom mention was made in connection with Bank street. He was the only
stay-maker of any note in the town. In those days stays were made that
would last a life-time almost.

WRAGG: In the shop now occupied by Messrs. Watson, was a grocer named
Greaves, who engaged the bellman to cry down Younge and Deakin's copper
tokens. When he returned for payment Mr. Greaves paid him in the same
token he had just cried down; so the bellman stood on the footpath
before the door, rang his bell, and proclaimed aloud that Younge and
Deakin's money was paid again..

LEONARD: And thus we complete another circuit, and find ourselves once
more at the Parish Church.