Local Parishes
Woodhouse
In 1822 was part of the Parish of Handsworth
This map of Woodhouse is dated 1850
Woodhouse had at one time windmills, a water mill, a pinfold, a tithe barn, a spa with baths, a bull ring, a racecourse, and a workhouse (closed in 1837), with tanyard and malt house appertaining thereto. The two posts of the old stocks stand on the east side of the cross; but the wood bars have long since been removed. The last persons to be pilloried here were Bill Sykes and William Broad, in 1820, for disturbing the peace while the worse for liquor, they were released at Midnight!
Woodthorpe Hall
Woodthorpe, was the property of John Woodruffe, then Edward Cheney before coming into to the possession of the Parkers.
In the early 1850's John Bower Brown resided at Woodthorpe Hall.
1850
Peter France & Sons were owners of Ballifield Colliery.
Other gentry were Edward Hobson and Benjamin le Tall, a surgeon.
Manor Farm
John Siddall(1853-1895) Of Manor Farm, Woodhouse was the youngest son of William Siddall (1805-1889) of Curbar and his wife Mary (Nee Buxton) (1808-1883). John died December 12th 1895 aged 42 and was buried at All Saints Curbar.
Manor Farm, Woodhouse was run by Catherine Siddall after the death of her husband John (1853-1895), until about 1902, when her eldest son Charles William Siddall took over the running of the farm. Catherine moved to Fence Farm with her son John Henry.
Woodhouse, the Cross and Old Cross Daggers c1960
Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection.
1900
The following was written by Howard Brierley for the Leeds Mercury describing a tour of the area in 1900
At Woodhouse town, within 6 miles, easterly, from Sheffield, I have completed the 385th mile of my Itinerary. The town does not boast much more that one main street, with a cross at the open space, which they may call its heart, and a new church in a commanding situation behind the thoroughfare. There are a good few houses centrally situated - houses which would scorn to belong to start-up aristocracy - and can even aspire, I daresay, to crocus and croquet lawns, and to bundles of golf clubs. Yet, after all, Woodhouse is a thoroughbred democrat, clinging to its colliers as the true sons of its soil, and no family of note appears to have condescended to fix its permanent residence here. One, John Booth, servant of Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury, who lived at Stubbings Lane End House, is cited by W. J. Le Tall as the ablest man, so far as property can make an able man, who ever set up housekeeping at Woodhouse.
A string of neat villas - the best I have seen since leaving Sheffield - lines the high road between the town and the Midland Railway Station. They cheer the eye, and look bright and sanitary. Inscriptions over some of the ancient houses go back nearly two and a half centuries. Woodhouse, although it looks like a full blown parish of some fame, has throughout all time belonged to Handsworth - probably a smaller place until recent years. Somebody has prettily conceived it to take its name from "Han," cock, and "worth," farm; an explanation, however, which must not be forced, admirably as it works out in relationship to its dependant, Woodhouse.
Woodhouse may have been a deer keeper’s house in the poultry farm wood; though I regard it as far more probable that, as Woodhouse and Woodhall are such common names, the germ of such places was a remarkable timber building, the residence of some considerable person. The full parish appellation is given in histories as Handsworth-cum-Woodhouse, or Handsworth-Woodhouse, just a few miles away there is Harthill-cum-Woodall, Hatfield-Woodhouse, Wentworth-Woodhouse, and, in Nottinghamshire, Mansfield-Woodhouse, and Hodsock-Woodhouse. Tradition says that the germ of Handsworth-Woodhouse was a large timber structure, situated at the top of Furnace Lane.
Mr. J. W. Hooley, of Station Road, kindly lent me a booklet entitled "Gathered fragments of the Past and Present History of Woodhouse and its Vicinity," by William James Le Tall, a local schoolmaster, descended from a Huguenot family. The booklet was published at Sheffield by Pawson and Brailsford, 1876. From it I was able to make several selections which were highly interesting to myself, and may be so to others.
I should say Woodhouse has improved considerably since the book was published. It has got a druggist, a music seller, an art store, a stationer, a newspaper of its very own, in the shape of the "Eckington, Woodhouse, and Staveley Express," and, yes, a Literary Society. I was amused to find the butcher's shop and the post office fraternising on the same premises, the post office being simply a box partitioned off from the beef and mutton counter.
The "Market Cross" is a structure to be proud of, and there is a clean, bright, new church in a commanding situation behind the town street. The most ancient place of worship is the Friends' Meeting House. One wonders how the Mormons or Latter Day saints came to make such an impression here. In 1848 they had acquires a meeting house, and met regularly, their influence extending for a time. It is not said whether the exponents of polygamy keep their mission dark from the fair ones of Woodhouse. The hard headed Yorkshire sons soon, however, got tired of the system - its vigour showed signs of abatement and at last the few faithful left Mother country for Salt Lake City.
In 1775 the old cross was replaced on its circular steps by Joshua Littlewood, and the dial and ball were added about 1820. At present the surmount is a gilded fox vane. In 1884, consequent upon a lockout at the local colliery, after which some reckless deeds were performed. William Overend, at the head of the troop of horse, read the Riot Act at the cross, and four local Amazons were arrested for stripping the clothes off some of the knobsticks. On May Day it was the custom to adorn the cross with flowers and streamers, many of the gardens in the neighbourhood being rifled for this purpose. An egg and butter market used to be held here; but it is a long time since the vendors found it to their advantage to migrate to Sheffield.
Woodhouse to Wales
The Cobbler Rhymer of Woodhouse - Dick Massey, or Moss, of Woodhouse, all for want of a pension, died in Sheffield Workhouse one day in May, 1864. He had been one of the warders of Napoleon Bonaparte on St. Helena, and often spoke of drinking champagne with "Old Boney." His brother, Thomas, a shoemaker, was known as the Woodhouse poet. I am quite unable to resist the temptation of furnishing my readers with a specimen of his muse. It seems that a Dr. Staniforth resided at Beighton Bridge, and made a daily professional round on the back of his ass. This Aesculapius was fond of a good living, and he was showing signs of "embonpoint." One day Thomas and the practitioner had a parley at a village ale house, and the latter, on leaving, said he would any time pay for a quart of beer if his friend the cobbler could perpetrate a rhyme of not more than six lines, the doctor to be the hero of it, and no such word as God or devil figuring therein. Next day the old shoemaker, trudging along the road from Beighton to Woodhouse, met Staniforth on his ass. The muse moved him instanter, and he delivered himself of the following:
It happened on a certain day
I met two asses by the way;
The one, like monk with gorged hide,
Upon his brother was forced to ride-
Was forced to ride upon his brother,
A greater assy than the other.
The doctor was wroth with Thomas, and in plain language told him he would have him up before his superiors for insult upon the public highway. More shame upon Staniforth, he scouted the claim that Thomas had earned his quart pot.
On Guilthwaite Common, near Ulley, live a Yorkshire Rob Roy, content to do business on a small scale. This sheep stealer was the cobbler's rival rhymer, and often indulged in a shot at him when he had no pressing work on hand. I give one specimen:
Far famed Woodhouse! - Famed, and why?
There lived a cobbler not fit to die;
This man, 'tis true, would go to hell
His epitaphs to try to sell.
And if he can get plenty of ale
He'll neither stitch nor drive a nail.
Downward he'll go, and, like Jack Horner,
His patron will fix him in a corner.
"Here comes my Moss." old Sulphur will say.
"He's worked for me full many a day."
He of the last retorts in rhyme which, falling so very many degrees short of the standard set by his illustrious namesake, Gerald Massey, is scarcely worth quoting here!
Take the equally interesting personalities of Godfrey Oldale and his first wife, Elizabeth Linley, both of Woodhouse, Elizabeth's mania does not appear to have been dipsomania, but that cleanliness which is the second virtue to godliness. The cottage in Furnace Lane she whitewashed throughout every week, and when she did the tops, Godfrey supported the tub on his head. The living room she overhauled in this fashion every morning of the week except Sunday's. Somebody measured the thickness of the plaster on the walls after they had gone to a fresh domicile, and found it an inch and a half thick. But Elizabeth had an equal partiality for black tar, She daubed Godfrey's gun all over with it twice a year. She tarred the polished wood of the old clock case, and she waterproofed her own bonnet with tar. In the back kitchen Godfrey had to undergo the ordeal every Saturday night of being swilled and vigorously scrubbed down from head to foot by his loving wife. Yet there were days when Elizabeth thought proper to appear out of doors in sheeny silk dresses, of which she always kept a stock in her wardrobe. Prodigal was she in her expenditure on silks, scrubbing brushes, and brooms. Godfrey had had property worth £2,000 left to him by his careful father. Elizabeth dissipated all this, and left her lord to die penniless in Sheffield Workhouse.
Francis Chawntry, a Woodhouse farmer, who represented the wardenship of his native place at Handsworth Parish Church in 1698, was the great grandfather of Sir Francis Chantrey, who as a boy hawked milk in the neighbourhood of Sheffield. Rowland Hibbard, of Lamb Hill, near Woodhouse, was one of the earliest appreciators of Chantrey's dawning genius, and it is said that he was the first to give him a "leg up" the ladder of fame.
Bear Baiting
Bear baiting generally took place at the town cross at holiday times, the last occasion being Woodhouse Feast in 1816, 22 years before the sport was abolished by Act of Parliament. The bear belonged to a person the name of Ward. A dame named Betty Laver cleared the circle by a magic rune, which concluded with an anathema on bystanders who dared to make any encroachment thereupon.
The ancient and royal sport of bear baiting was made illegal in this country by Act of Parliament in April, 1838. Instances might be cited of the parish Bible being sold for the purchase of a bear for this unholy purpose.
Bull Baiting
The bull baiting arena was on Potter's Land, situated between the village pool, school garden, and a row of lime and elm trees which extended as far as the pinfold. if the bull would win the day he must toss his antagonist into the air; if the dog would be applauded as victor he must fasten Taurus by the nose. "Whoa, bos!" was usually the war cry of the crowd. The last fight took place about 1800, but the more popular sport of bear baiting went on for a further 16 years. In the old annals it is recorded that a maiden lady of the name of Baker left a field called Bull Close to the town authorities on the understanding that they rented it to a farmer by a drawing of lots, his business being to keep there a fine bull for breeding purposes. According to the ordnance map, many parishes in Yorkshire had their Bull Coppy. "Bull Land" originated in the time when a large tract of unenclosed land was termed the "town's pasture," and when the villagers had a right to run a cow or more upon it. A portion of this land was fenced in - set apart exclusively for the grazing of a bull - and anyone having a right in this stray might have to use of him; hence the name "town's bull." Now that this land is all enclosed and distributed among those who established their claim to a right in it, the "bull land" is let to the parish authorities, and the rent accruing therefrom divided among the ratepayers in ratio to the amount of yearly rent they pay, and which is divided out at the annual parish meeting, on the understanding that each one shall attend to receive it.
The field called Long Rein, on which wormwood grew abundantly, was left to the Woodhouse folk by the same Miss Barker for their children to play in, but it has long been enclosed as cottage gardens, from which children are rigidly excluded.
Fasten Tuesday
Every "Fasten Tuesday" a barbarous game, having for its object the humiliation of King Chanticleer, was played at Allis Yard, virtually a cock pit. This game disappeared 10 years previous to the discontinuance of bear baitings.
The Races
The races, which took place on Woodhouse Common, fell into desuetude about 1796. The course boasted a circuit of nearly 3 miles, and every week had to be cleared of a vast growth of bracken. At other times of the year it was used as a stray for cattle. From the Cow Gates, another stray quite as useful, if smaller, the kine were on May Day removed to Carr Side, this giving the milkmaids a goodly walk morning and evening. On May Day it was their custom to deck their kits and piggins with flowers and ribbons.
Statutes
Woodhouse had its "doggy statutes" in October, several of the townswomen giving children pennies and twopences to go round with sticks and beat every dog at large. Cases of rabies were probably very rare here. I heard, however, that some children were bitten in 1877, and that after that the police successively stamped out every vestige of these low lived and useless "statutes."