Saturday 29 November 2014

A Walk Around Darnall Sheffield - Friday 28th November 2014



Darnall – ‘From Medieval Manor to Industrial Centre’
Friday 28 November – 1.00 pm – 3.00 pm
This circular walk of about 2 miles around the centre of Darnall will look at the growth of the area from a medieval village to becoming a central part of Sheffield’s Industry. It will also include the tale of Charles Peace – a notorious 19th Century Sheffield murderer, who was subsequently mentioned in Sherlock Holmes novels. Meet Chris Hobbs at the junction of Staniforth Road and Prince of Wales Road 

Darnall was initially a small hamlet usually included with Attercliffe
Attercliffe - Worksop 1761 turnpike road up until 1860's called Worksop Road but then the section through Darnall became Darnall Road and Main Road
Older route going back to C12th
Little documentation C17th and C18th Transfers of property by sale and inheritance
1763 Coal mining 1810 Enclosures 1815 Sheffield - Tinsley Canal started
1819 - 158 houses 7 homesteads 2 schools 2 public houses - The Ball and The Old Bradley Well 1 butchers 1 blacksmith 1 wheelwright 1 cutler 8 workshops 2 steel furnaces assortment of farm buildings - just 7 owned rest tennants/rented

1861 243 1871 492 1881 760 1891 870 houses - Dunkirk Square - Main Road
C19th housing expansion - earlier houses on main routes and then side streets - 1855 map

Blurred boundaries with surrounding districts - 340 acres 

A Hall was built by the Staniforth family in the centre of Darnall in 1723; in 1845 this became a private lunatic asylum
 Transport in those days consisted of trams and a few cars. Darnall was a terminus for tram cars with tram lines on Staniforth Road and Darnall Main Road.

Darnall New Ground was laid out for cricket in the 1820s. Although only used for a few years before being replaced by a ground at Hyde Park, it was described as the finest in England.



Holy Trinity church, the first in Darnall, was built in 1840, followed by a hospital in 1855 and a school in 1875. By the mid C19th, it was a centre for farming and coal mining, and was known for its amateur greyhound racing.
There were three cinemas in Darnall called the Balfour Cinema, the Lyric and the Darnall Cinema. They have all been pulled down.                    
                                
12 out of the 20 schools which were thriving in the area during the 1950's have been closed down, though some have been converted into community centres, store places and orkshops.

Name: Former Sanderson's Darnall Steelworks and Don Valley Glassworks, Darnall Road
List entry Number: 1021424 Date first scheduled: 24-Oct-1977 Date of most recent amendment: 17-May-2007 - Reasons for Designation
By the late 19th century, Sheffield was one of the world's most influential industrial cities. Underpinning its manufacturing base was the quality of the steel it produced contributing to the international success of the city's cutlery and edge-tool industries. A particularly significant development in this supremacy was the invention, by Benjamin Huntsman in 1745, of crucible steel: cast steel produced using crucible furnaces. This technique allowed the production of high quality carbon steel of superior quality to blister steel that was produced in cementation furnaces. This major technological innovation secured Sheffield's economic position as a major metal trades centre; the two manufacturing processes (cementation and crucible) together were known as the 'Sheffield Methods'.
By 1843 Sheffield was producing 90% of British steel and almost 50% of European output. Although by later in the 19th century other countries had developed bulk steelmaking industries which outstripped Sheffield in terms of quantity, the city retained its reputation for quality with a wide range of special steels, the preferred means of production remaining the crucible process which continued to be used up until the 1970s. In 1860 there were over 200 cementation furnaces in Sheffield of which only a single example, in Hoyle Street, still survives in complete form.
Over half of their output of blister steel was then converted to crucible steel in large numbers of crucible shops spread across the city. Darnall's large crucible shop and continuous range of four small interconnecting crucible shops with their ancillary rooms are unique survivals in Britain. The large crucible shop is the sole remaining example of a building used to produce the quantity of crucible steel required for large-scale castings, a method which was generally superseded by new methods of bulk steel production in the later C19th . Small crucible shops are also rare survivals with only fifteen other small crucible shops remaining in the Sheffield area. None of these other examples are organised as an integrated unit as are the four at Darnall, and few are of such a complete state of survival. Although long disused, the features that provide the technological and historical interest of these buildings all survive well. The national importance of the monument is further heightened by the in situ survival of archaeological remains. This includes the remains of the Siemens gas fired crucible shop with its gas plant which are of particular national significance because no other surviving remains of a gas fired works are known to survive in the country.
The archaeological remains of the 1830s steel works are also of particular interest as they will allow an understanding of the development of steel production through the mid 19th century, complementing the evidence provided by the later standing buildings. Any surviving remains related to the cementation furnaces will be of particular importance given the very rare survival of such furnaces nationally. The surviving standing structures including the offices, boundary wall and entrance buildings, contribute significantly to the site by allowing an appreciation of the character and appearance of the original works, as well as an understanding of its organisation. Any deposits of waste materials and discarded tools and equipment will retain technological information that will compliment surviving documentary evidence.
The Don Glass Works dates from a period of rapid growth in the glass industry, when technological advances facilitated the mass production of glass for a growing market. Glass has been produced in England since the Roman period, although field evidence is scarce until the late medieval period. From the early 17th century there was a change in the fuel generally used from wood to coal resulting in a shift in glass production centres to the coalfields, Sheffield and Barnsley being important areas for the industry nationally. The manufacturing process involves three stages, fritting, melting and annealing.
Limited archaeological work at the Don Glass Works site in 2005 confirmed that there is good potential for the survival of significant buried remains such as the lower level of the glass cone complete with its below ground flue system and other furnace features, together with ancillary buildings and deposits of glassmaking waste and other material. This archaeological potential combined with the documentary evidence for the site justifies its inclusion within the scheduling.
The association of the glassworks with the establishment of Darnall steelworks provides additional interest with the potential for surviving evidence of the cross fertilisation of technology between glass and steel production in the mid 19th century. Taken as a whole the monument represents a uniquely well preserved, nationally important complex tracing the evolution of the site from an early 19th century glassworks to a 20th century steelmaking centre.
The monument includes standing, earthwork and associated buried remains of a steelworks established in the late 1830s, as well as the buried remains of a late eighteenth century glassworks. The site retains its original boundaries to the north (Darnall Road), east (Wilfrid Road) and south, but has been partly truncated to the west in the 20th century by later steel works and other redevelopment.
HISTORY Originally agricultural land in the 18th century, the Don Glassworks is possibly the glassworks that was advertised for rent in the 1793 Sheffield Register. It first appears, but is not named, on a survey of 1795 which matches a more detailed plan of 1819. This 1819 plan labels the glassworks and shows other details such as a short terrace of houses within the work's plot to the east of the glass cone. In 1835 the glassworks was leased by Sanderson Brothers, one of Sheffield's largest steel producers, who then established Darnall Steelworks on adjacent land to the south. It is thought that Sanderson Brothers leased the glassworks to aid their steel business, learning from glass manufacturing technology, possibly adapting the glass cone into a cementation furnace.
However the glassworks, still shown by the 1853 Ordnance Survey map, reverted to glass manufacture by 1859 under the management of Melling, Carr and Co., and ceased production, with the demolition of the glass cone, by 1905.
Sanderson's 1830s steelworks complex, incorporating both cementation and crucible furnaces, was depicted in a contemporary illustration and shown on the 1853 Ordnance Survey map. After Sanderson's became a limited company in 1869, they abandoned their works at West Street, Sheffield, and expanded their operations at Darnall. Additional land was purchased and further crucible furnaces and administrative buildings were built in 1871-2. This included two parallel ranges of small, single storey crucible shops with a large crucible shop to the south. All of these shops were coke-fired,providing a total of 132 melting holes, the large shop housing 48 melting holes, with the small shops having 12 each. In 1873-4 a Siemens gas-fired crucible shop, complete with an adjacent gas production plant, was built to the west of the large coke fired shop. This gas-fired shop was about the same size as the coke-fired large shop and provided the equivalent capacity of 60 coke-fired melting holes. In 1934 Sanderson's passed their Darnall works to Kayser Ellison, the operators of the steelworks on land immediately to the west that was established in 1913. Kayser Ellison used electric arc furnaces and although they operated the older Darnall works plant for a while, soon switched to all-electric melting, expanding their works with the demolition of the 1830s cementation furnaces, which had been working into the 1920s, and the western range of small 1870s crucible shops. In 1960 a company merger resulted in the whole complex being operated by Sanderson Kayser Ltd. Following the merger, the gas-fired plant was demolished, but its site was not redeveloped and significant buried remains are believed to still survive in situ.
His will dated February 7, 1879, and made at Armley Gaol, Leeds. Peace, a murderer twice over and probably the most famous cat burglar in Victorian England, was hanged on Shrove Tuesday, February 25. It had taken the jury just 12 minutes to convict him of the murder in Sheffield of Arthur Dyson at Banner Cross three years before.
In it Peace bequeaths all he has "to my dear wife Hannah Peace now residing now residing with my son in law William Bolsover, of Hazel Road, Darnall." According to JP Bean, author of Sheffield Gang Wars and writer on the city's history, the story went that Charlie signed the will the day before he was due to hang, when his brother Dan visited him.
In Darnall, the Peace family lived near Mr. Arthur Dyson, an American civil engineer and his English wife, Katherine. "Mrs. Dyson is described as an attractive woman, 'buxom and blooming'; she was dark-haired, and about twenty-five years of age," Irving writes.
Surprisingly, the 6-foot-5-inch Dyson was no match for the diminutive Peace, and Charlie, who apparently had a roving eye, soon became enamored of Katherine. The extent of their relationship remains in dispute to this day, with Peace swearing as he readied himself for the hangman, that Katherine Dyson was at one time his mistress. Mrs. Dyson, for her part absolutely refused to admit anything other than an innocent friendship with the burglar."
Shortly before he was hanged for murder, Charles Peace expressed remorse for having lived a life of crime and told his parish minister that he hoped after death humanity would forget his name. While nearly everyone who knew him during his last weeks agrees that his repentance for his crimes was sincere, his humility in the face of his demise is certainly uncharacteristic. He may have simply been trying to appear humble and contrite before an old friend. In any event, heartfelt or not, Charlie's wish did not come true.




It is a testament to his notoriety and skill as a criminal that Charles Peace would be immortalized by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and included as one of the few real criminals to ever attract the attention of the world's greatest consulting detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. In the short story The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, Holmes is discussing how the most brilliant criminals often have talents outside their chosen fields: "A complex mind," said Holmes. "All great criminals have that. My old friend Charlie Peace was a violin virtuoso."
Peace was indeed skilled with musical instruments, particularly violins and other strings, although it was his ability as a cat burglar that gained him wealth and fame in late 19th century England. As adept as he was with music, Peace was equally accomplished as a cat burglar, or "portico thief" as they were known in Victorian England. During his lifetime, few people knew his face, but many all over England knew his name and his deeds. Charles Peace epitomized the master criminal, and like the foppish highwaymen of earlier times, helped cast crime in a romantic light that obfuscated its true nature. His bold offenses and almost supernatural ability to escape from the clutches of the law embarrassed Scotland Yard and entertained the public. When he was finally caught, his bizarre life story captivated readers and spawned stage plays, novels and stories of England's master thief.
Even as a murderer and burglar, Peace has his admirers: "Not only had he reduced house-breaking to a science, but, being ostensibly nothing better than a picture-frame maker, he had invented an incomparable set of tools wherewith to enter and evade his neighbour's house," wrote historian Charles Whibley in his work, A Book of Scoundrels. "He lived the king of housebreakers, and he died a warning to all evildoers, with a prayer of intercession trembling upon his lips. At a single stride he surpassed his predecessors; nor has the greatest of his imitators been worthy to hand on the candle which he left at the gallows.

DUKE OF DARNALL - RUSSIAN EDNA

William Walker, a resident of the settlement, is one of several people rumoured to have been the executioner of Charles I of England. At the door of the chancel of St Peters Parish Church, in 1700, was buried William Walker of Darnall Sheffield, who is supposed to have been the executioner of Charles I. Walker was a person of considerable standing in the neighbourhood, and was at all events a violent republican, and the translator of a book entitled " Vindicire contra Tyrannos." ' Handbook of Yorkshire 



SHEFFIELD BLITZ - 15th December 1940

Largest loss of life in a single incident on the "second night" of the blitz

COLEFORD ROAD
Appleby John 60 yrs 15 Dec 1940 Coleford Road ARP Post,
Armstrong Joseph 44 yrs 15 Dec 1940 Coleford Road ARP Post,
Armstrong Leonora 41 yrs 15 Dec 1940 Coleford Road ARP Post,
Bloor Arthur 18 yrs 15 Dec 1940 117 Coleford Road,
Bloor Harry 54 yrs 15 Dec 1940 117 Coleford Road,
Brown Frederick 38 yrs 15 12 1940 Coleford Road ARP Post,
Gascoigne Cecelia 46 yrs 15 Dec 1940 Coleford Road ARP Post,
Gascoigne John 50 yrs 15 Dec 1940 Coleford Road ARP Post,
Hall Lawrence 38 yrs 15 Dec 1940 Coleford Road ARP Post,
Hallam Winifred 15 yrs 15 Dec 1940 117 Coleford Road,
Hemmingfield Walter 54 yrs 15 Dec 1940 Coleford Road ARP Post,
Howard Edward 62 yrs 12 Dec 1940 Coleford Rd ? Sheffield,
Salisbury Victor 42 yrs 15 Dec 1940 Coleford Road ARP Post,
Air Raid Warden. Husband of Florence May Salisbury, of 300 Greenland Road, Darnall.
Winter Frank 50 yrs 15 Dec 1940 Coleford Road ARP Post
Winter Frank, corn merchant, 110 Coleford Rd, Attercliffe. (1925)

Now a Business Park

Monday 17 November 2014

Western Road Board School (Crookes, Sheffield)

Whilst I was researching material for the walks I have been doing in Crookes (Sheffield) recently I came across this advertisement in The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent dated 27th April 1899 inviting tenders from builders for the construction of Western Road Board School (now known as Westways School)



Elementary?

Ernest Crapper (Sheffield) -Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) - October 1917

In between walks it was a workday at Walkley Cemetery last Saturday (15th November 2014) and whilst we were tackling Section B, a colleague pointed out the family grave of one of his ancestors. The family name was Crapper and one of their sons Ernest  is remembered on the grave.


The family were local to the Walkley area of Sheffield as shown by the entries in

1901 Census


1911 Census


The Commonwealth War Graves Commission database gives the following information
ERNEST CRAPPER
Rank: Private
Service No: 205608
Date of Death: 12/10/1917
Age:36
Regiment/Service: Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) 7th Bn.
Panel Reference: Panel 106 to 108.
Memorial: TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Additional Information: Brother of Harry Crapper, of 76, Freedom Rd., Walkley, Sheffield. 

I also accessed Ernest's Army service record which is in rather poor condition - it stated that he was "missing" assumed dead on or around 12th October 1917. A brief search on the actions of the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) 7th Bn. revealed at the time Ernest's death they were fully engaged in what became known as the Third Battle of Ypres or more commonly Passchendaele

"The German attack of October 3rd repulsed. October 4th: a successful advance. The 7th Battalion in action again. The attack on Poelcapelle: mud the chief obstacle"

I wonder if Ernest was swallowed up by the Flanders mud and simply disappeared? 

Needless to say I would be delighted if anyone could supply me with any further information on the family in general, and Ernest in particular.

A Walk Around Crookes (Sheffield) - Sunday 16th Novemer 2014



Crookes – ‘Crookes of the Past
Sunday 16 November – 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm
A short walk around Crookes of just under 2 miles. Chris Hobbs will be leading the walk looking at Crookes’ Victorian & Edwardian heritage, how the district of Crookes has changed or in some cases not changed over the last 100 years. This circular walk will start and finish at the Grindstone pub (S10 1UA). 

·     Hallam Gate
·     Old Grindstone
·     Noahs Ark - 1865 Frederick Harrison beer retailer October 1868 election meetings 


·     
     St Thomas Church - "The district of Crookes, including Tapton, Steven Hills, Crookes Moor Side etc.at this time contains a population (which is rapidly increasing) of 1500 souls, nearly destitute of Pastoral superintendence and instruction. To provide for this lamentable destitution, a few friends of religion and The Established Church commenced a subscription for building a Small Church..." The trustees gave the Church the original £1,350 The church is a classic Victorian church with a square tower and gothic arch stained glass windows
The foundation stone for the Church which incidentally given by local quarry owners was laid on 30th August 1839 by a Henry Wilson of Westbrook. Local farmers did much of the work for free. The Church had a nave, south aisle and porch, short chancel and west pinnacled tower. St Thomas's Church and the adjacent Burial ground were consecrated on October 1st 1840 by the Archbishop of York and the Church soon began rectifying the "lamentable destitution" that had occurred in the Parish
    St Vincents – Tramsheds - Designed by F.E.P. Edwards the City Architect, construction on the sheds started prior to 1914 on the site of an old brickyard but, due to the onset of war, the work was not fully completed until 1919. Above the first gate on a Queen Anne Gable is the inscription "SCT1919" but in fact the sheds did not actually open until a year later.
·     
The Chapel had to be enlarged and re-developed several times as the work of the church grew. But it was still too small. Finally, in 1907 the foundation stones were laid for a completely new building, on a new site, that could accommodate up to 1000 people – Wesley Hall.
The new building was designed as an octagonal “Mission Hall”. As one reporter noted: “Wesley Hall looks more like the Hippodrome that a place of worship. And one is thankful for it … it is pre-eminently a place to worship in, to breathe and be glad in.”
Since the Wesleyan Chapel was first built in 1836, Crookes had been transformed from a village into a densely populated suburb. The vision for Wesley Hall was that it would be “a church where rich and poor, ignorant and cultured, would all be welcomed, and the Christian cause would be exalted.”



Masons Arms
·      
      Model Dairy -one at 140-142 Crookes and the other at Wesley Lane (Model Dairy Farm). I'm inclined to say that the one at 140-142 Crookes was the earlier one and was used by the horse and cart deliveries (selling un-pasteurised milk) whilst the newer one at Wesley Lane was a depot for the Archer Road site and sold pasteurised milk. It seems to have a tie-in with the S&E site at Millhouses
·  
      The Ball Inn - Open 1825 or even earlier - I think that the BALL was initially a farm that had a beer-house attached to it. The 1856 Sheffield gives Joseph Skelton as a Licenced Victualler of the BALL but the same address mentions a George Skelton as "Cowkeeper". This would be very much what you would expect - most publicans had more than one string to their bow. And Crookes was very much a rural farming village at the time - difficult to believe I know.
As an Inn is a "an establishment for the lodging and entertaining of travellers" they may well also have been stabling for horses etc. for Crookes was one of the routes out of Sheffield to the West. 
"Crookes - A History of a Sheffield Village" mentions that the BALL was kept by the Skelton Family but was once kept by John Johnson. He boarded apprentices and fed them poor porridge. They rebelled and threw their wooden spoons and bowls into the fire, The food improved" Skelton wrote a book the reference is below - Joseph Skelton "Books of Particulars 1826 - 1951" (Sheffield City Libraries REF MD2064 and Miss S Kelly)
Obviously the original farmhouse was demolished and replaced by the current building together with its bowling green. It is difficult to say when this occurred but I would estimate 1890-1900. Michael Liversedge in his A - Z just mentions that the BALL was one of Sheffield's "Bowling Green" pubs i.e it had a bowling green
·     
       Crookes House
·     Sheffield Mercury 14 Jan 1837 page 11b - MRS. SMITH begs leave to announce to her Friends and the Public, that she has removed, during the Christmas Recess, to CROOKES HOUSE, near Sheffield, late the Residence of T. Branson, Esq., Solicitor.
The Situation is peculiarly open and salubrious; the House very commodious, with Gardens and Grounds attached, calculated to promote the health and comfort of the Pupils, and commands one of the most interesting and extensive Prospects in the neighbourhood of Sheffield. The special regard shewn to the mental improvement and religious instruction of the Young Ladies entrusted to Mrs SMITH’s care, will, it is hoped, continue to ensure the confidence of Parents, and to secure to the Children the highest advantages, present and future.
A Wesleyan Chapel has been recently opened in the immediate vicinity.
The School will re open January 24th. They add: “Masters of acknowledged eminence [in their respective departments (1838)] attend the Establishment.”

 
Crookes Picture Palace - opened its doors on 2nd December 1912. The building was primarily a brick building with a cement frontage. Above the entrance to the cinema were some embossed decorations and the name "Crookes Picture Palace". The front of the building was flush with the adjoining shops and a blind alley ran down one side of the building to accommodate the queues waiting to see the films. From the small foyer a door on the right gave access to the stalls whilst a series of steps lead up to the rear of the auditorium. The auditorium was a single floor with the audience only sitting in front of the stage. A heavy red curtain covered the screen when not in use.  A raised section at the rear had a steeper rake than the rake in the stalls. The overall capacity of the cinema was 660.
The proprietors of The Picture Palace were Hallamshire Cinemas Ltd. In 1931 a Western Electric Sound System was installed. The cinema remained open until 2nd April 1960 when it shut its doors for the final time. The last film to be shown was the Brigitte Bardot classic "Babette Goes To War" and "Senior Prom" with Jill Corey.

·  Punch Bowl
·  St Lukes Wesleyan Methodist Church
Although conventional in plan, the detailing of St Luke's (1899-1900) makes it stand apart from the great mass of Methodist chapels. Samuel Meggitt Johnson, Chairman of the liquorice allsort manufacturers, George Bassett & Co, covered the £4,000 cost of the chapel and adjacent Sunday school and this generous funding gave Hale greater scope in preparing his designs. He took the PerpendicularGlossary Term style favoured by chapel architects at the beginning of the twentieth century and transformed it into something quite individual. The buttresses that flank the west window rise to form towers each with a pyramidal cap while the archGlossary Term over the window springs straight from them. The way in which the railings reflect motifs used in the porch window lintels and in the carvings on the top of the buttresses is typical of Hale's care in detailing. The church closed in 1985 and has been converted to flats under the name Hale Court.

· Old Heavygate Inn - The actual pub came into being in the nineteenth century, but the building prior to that may initially have been a farmhouse and then at the beginning of the eighteenth century became a place where tolls were collected. Above the doorway to the bars is this date stone stating the year 1696 and the initials of the owners. I seem to recall the E standing for "Ellis" On a Harrison’s map of 1637, Steel Bank is named and there's evidence of Heavygate Road already existing. The name could well predate this map and could be an ancient name that's survived. Certainly Crookes was connected to the village of Owlerton by the pack horse track which descended Walkley Lane and continued to Owlerton.
There has been a discussion over the years as to how the building/pub got its name.  One explanation is that it is related to the name of a field adjacent to the farmhouse, and the gate that secured it. Another is that it is named after the " heavy" gate was placed across the road where tolls were collected But my preference is for this explanation. 'Gate' probably doesn't mean gate here. It's more likely to mean 'road' from Middle English derived from Old Norse 'gata'. So a 'heavy' gate is a steep road. And 'Heavygate Road' is a tautology, and the pub sign is a misunderstanding. A variation on this is that heavy means muddy or hard going and gate means road. In the book "A Short History of Walkley" by Albert Stacey (1985) he states that.
"Later the road that went over Steel Bank became a turnpike road and a heavy gate was placed at the point where Heavygate Inn was later built. The first licensee of the Heavygate Inn was John Webster. He was keeper of the Tollgate. His family had farmed Steel Bank Farm years before. In the time before the Heavygate Inn was built in 1698 a survey was made by Harrison in 1637 and a view from Steel bank was mentioned where one could look down on the town of Sheffield....." Sadly he does not give a source, evidence or exact dates for the above statement and so I cannot use it as a fact. But he does indicate that the "Heavygate Inn was later built" which seems to infer that the Inn replaced an earlier building.
According to a 1855 map, the area is open countryside . But when the tolls were abolished in the mid-nineteenth century, it is thought that it was then that the Heavygate became a public house.
  Princess Royal


l   St Timothy’s Church - Origins in the iron chapel that stood on top of the Bolehills. a mission church from St Thomas, Bought a house and strip of land, Moved the iron chapel to the site and survived as a church hall until 1928. Foundation stone laid 1910 
·     
 Crookes Congregational Church – Springvale Road
Crookes Congregational Church opened in 1906. Octagonal, it was designed to ensure that everyone in the congregation could see and hear the preacher, vital in nonconformity where preaching was the focus of worship. There was a tradition of octagonal chapels within nonconformity, a number having been built in the eighteenth century and the idea was revived to a limited extent in the 1870s. Hale made full use of the sloping corner site, emphasising the mass of the building with battered (sloping) buttresses. The great open space of the interior was preserved in a skilful conversion to offices in 1989
Buttresses pass through some of the windows, a detail used by some of the most avant-garde architects of the day such as W. D. Caroe. As with St Luke's,Northfield Road there is carving of a Tree of Life and of pomegranates.
·         Westways School - Western Road Board School – Opened 6th May 1901 – with woodwork, cooking facilities and even a science lab. November 1915 – military hospital – re-opened June 20th 1919 – classes of 60
·         Wesleyan Chapel - School Road