View From A Hill - 31st December 2017

This blog is the 65th I've posted in 2017 which is an increase on 2016. I have also managed to post a few more articles to the site but not as many as I would have liked. 

I have had issues in recent months with Find My Past who were positive that a 26% increase in annual subscription rates was acceptable. Furthermore they seemed at the time to be at a loss as to why I did not renew my annual subscription. Since then they have had second thoughts and decided that 26% was on the low side, and increased it by nearly 90%!! 

Needless to say they have lost a subscriber 

But on a more upbeat note, a big thanks to the many readers who have contacted me in the last year, I have been able to update a few of the earlier articles on the site with new information.  

And so all that remains is to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year

Crookes Valley Park - Sheffield - Old postcards

Just over three weeks ago I posted a blog relating to Crookesmoor Methodist Church. It is situated on the corner of Crookes Valley Road and Barber Road. Below are four old postcards of Crookes Valley Park. I was going to post them as part of an article but in the end decided not to.

The final two postcards clearly show Crookesmoor Methodist Church on the hillside overlooking the park. On the horizon in the first card is a construction that appears to be related to the buildings of the University of Sheffield. If that is the case it would date the card as being circa 1900.

There is also a piece of field artillery in the foreground. I am unsure of its purpose in the park and can only speculate that is was there for training and/or fund-raising purposes. (the Boer War was at it zenith in 1900). I think that if it was to be ornamental in purpose it would have been placed on a plinth and put in a more central location.      

The funeral of Colonel Mainwaring - St John's Roman Catholic Church Bath 11th January 1928

The following cutting is from the Manchester Guardian dated 12th January 1928

Colonel Charles Vaughan Mainwaring (1862 - ), Commander, City Battalion

Location: Sheffield  Date: 1914

 
Until I read the report, I had never heard of the Twelfth Club but there is a reference to it in Peter Warr's excellent book "Sheffield in the Great war and Beyond"

"Previous members of the Twelfth (Sheffield City) Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment (the Sheffield Pals) formed the Twelfth Club, taking part in annual memorial services close to 1 July, the initial day of slaughter in the Battle of the Somme, as well as reunion dinners, concerts, dances and other events"

"A tragedy of youth and inexperience" - Charles and Leonard Brett Sheffield August 1935

This is from the Manchester Guardian dated Saturday 24th August 1935

Drowning in the canal was not an unusual occurence, but what made this accident so tragic was that the younger brother Leonard had dragged his older brother Charles into the deeper water and they had both drowned as a result.

They were buried together in Sheffield's Tinsley Park Cemetery - the funeral took place on Tuesday 27th August 1935

BRETT Charles 27 Aug 1935 14 son of Louisa 11 Southern St Sheffield RC91c
BRETT Leonard 27 Aug 1935 12 son of Louisa 11 Southern St Sheffield RC91c

The boy who attempted to rescue the brothers Robert Partoon lived to be 90 years old. He died in Sheffield in 2013. His older brother Thomas (b1915) was killed in Normandy on 26th June 1944 whilst serving with the Hallamshire Batallion, Yorks and Lancs Regiment

A Victim of the Sheffield Blitz - Kate Tingle (1866 - 1940)

At the beginning of this month, there was a workday at Walkley Cemetery. The section that we were working in is called the new section which is on the hillside overlooking the Rivelin Valley.

And one of the graves in that section was a victim of the Sheffield Blitz (the only one in the cemetery)

TINGLE, Kate (WW2 Civilian War Dead, age 74).  Died at 98 Cobden View Road on 13 Dec 1940; Buried on December 20, 1940 in Consecrated~ ground;
Grave Number 77, Section L of Walkley St Marys Cemetery, Sheffield.

Parent or Next of Kin if Available: ~. Remarks: Identified by Kate Ethel Ralsron of 52 Sheard Rd     (Daughter).

The actual grave is unmarked but now that it has been located it will be included in the annual remberance tour that takes place in the cemetery

Kate's family 1901 Census

Kate's family 1911 Census

As the 1911 census indicates Henry and Kate lost their son Cyril

This is the entry from the BMD registers

Deaths Sep 1907

TINGLE Cyril  age 10 Worksop  Volume 7b Page 2

 

Crookes Valley Methodist Church January 2005

On 29th June this year I posted a blog on the opening of Crookes Valley Methodist Church and mentioned how the building had been allowed to deteriorate prior to its conversion to the student apartments.

I came across this cutting the other day  - it is from the Sheffield Telegraph dated Thursday 6th January 2005 which reports that planning permission was given to developers for the change of use

What I did not realise was that there was widespread local opposition to the application and that Sheffield City Council hardly passed a ringing endorsement of the plans. No-one could come up with any viable alternative for this marvelous building and so student flats and apartments it became A DECADE LATER.

It is a long and sorry saga that reflects badly on all those concerned but I suppose the fabric of the building was retained. But it is a mystery to me why so many glorious buildings are allowed to literally fall to bits before something is done. Surely the Methodist church should have least ensured that the dry rot should never have taken hold in the way that it did.

'Visitation of God' (ex visitacone dei). in Wickersley Rotherham - August 1828

A fellow researcher passed this cutting on to me. It is from The Sheffield Independent dated 30th August 1828. The interesting inquest is the third - that of the late Joshua Spurr who died by the "Visitation of God." I had not heard this phrase before in this context  

but it appears that is was used when doctors struggled in the darkness over the causes of disease and death, and how the human body functioned. If a person died, because of the doctor's limited knowledge they could only describe the cause of death as a fever, apoplexy, or convulsions, or what he could visibly see such as a head wound, or evidence of a lifestyle such as over indulgence of drink.

Occasionally he would describe the cause of death as a Visitation of God. Used in a more religious time than ours, it meant the death was inexplicable and it was thought that God had decided that it was time for the person to die.

It later came to mean that the person died of natural causes. It was a verdict often given by Coroner's juries, particularly in the 19th century. It was very rare that any autopsy was held and a doctor would give his opinion from the physical evidence of the body before him and the accounts he heard from others of the health of the deceased.

Also the coroner was only really concerned with the detection of crime, so the medical reason for the death did not matter to him once criminality had been ruled out.

In 1837 compulsory registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages was introduced. In an attempt to bring statistical order to the reports made by the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages on the numbers of such events, coroners were directed that the cause of death were to be made in precise terms. Terms such as Natural Death or Visitation of God were to be avoided where more precise medical terms on the cause of death could be used.

However, there was a slow response to these directions, and it did not overcome the problem of a death where the coroner was not involved. Many doctors continued using the term.

(From the History House site)

Attercliffe Parish Church (Sheffield) and the opening of a Garden of Rest - August 1953

The above photograph is Christ Church Attercliffe which is also referred to as Attercliffe Parish Church. My grandparents were married there on 12th August 1918. However the church was badly damaged in the Sheffield Blitz of December 1940 and was later demolished.

A shame because it was a fine building. But nearly thirteen years later the "Blitzed Church Site" was now "An Oasis". This cutting is from The Sheffield Telegraph dated 13th August 1953, thirty five years after my grandparents wedding.

I have not been to Attercliffe for three years but I cannot remember seeing "an area of pleasant green turf" with salvias and beds of petunias in bloom. I certainly cannot remember seeing a "refreshing spot in the heart of industrial Attercliffe." 

There is an excellent photograph taken in 1959 showing the Garden of Rest and it does look a "refreshing spot." I obviously need to find out its current status for want of a better term

  

The Opening of Tinsley Park Golf Club (Sheffield) Saturday 17th July 1920

This cutting is from The Manchester Guardian dated Monday 19th July 1920 and refers to the official opening of the golf course at Tinsley Park two days earlier.

I did not realise that the course was nearly 100 years old, and that plans for the course must have been made prior to that date. It would be interesting to know the last time the course was played by "celebrated professionals"!