Yorkshire Almanac Echoing Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe”, John Collier tells a meeting at Walkley (Sheffield) that local Normans and Anglo-Saxons initially lived apart

10 April 1877: Echoing Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe”, John Collier tells a meeting at Walkley (Sheffield) that local Normans and Anglo-Saxons initially lived apart

Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 1877/04/14. Old Walkley. Sheffield. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

“OLD WALKLEY.”
On Tuesday evening Mr. John Collier delivered a lecture on this subject before a very large attendance of members and friends of the Walkley Mutual Improvement Society. The Rev. T. Smith, vicar, presided.
Mr. COLLIER commenced by describing our beautiful suburbs, and said – Walkley was one of the tithe-lands of St. Wandrille in Normandy, who claimed two-thirds of the tithes, small and great, and of the mortuaries of Darnall, Brincliffe, Crookes, Walkley, Attercliffe, and Little Sheffield, and charged the Prior of Worksop with having received the whole tithe of those places for 14 years. This quarrel was settled at York in March, 1279. Walkley, therefore, was of some consequence 600 years since. Whilst speaking of the walks of the artisan, it might be imagined that the origin of the word Walkley was derived from walk and “ley” (an open place in a wood). Why not then connect the “walk” with the place, as a walk to some part that was opened and cleared – a walk to the “ley” – which would eventually get shortened to Walk-ley? He did not know that that was so, but it was a reasonable supposition. Walkley was a term that included many clumps of houses in its embrace, each of which once bore a separate name – there were Upper and Lower Walkley, Walkley-green, Walkley-bank – proverbial for those twigs which produced such salutary effects upon refractory boys; Bole-hill, near the old quarries, and Burgon’s houses. When the lecturer was a boy Walkley-bank was covered with dwarf oak, birch, holly, and bramble bushes, and was a capital place for birds’ nests. White House-lane was so called from the retired whitewashed residence of the late Francis Hoole, Esq., – a lane so dark and lonely that Walkley people going homeward would wait at the bottom until company arrived to join in the journey. Fir Wood was at the top of White House-lane; there was one also just above, near the Heavy Gate public-house, and one near to Mr. Clague’s house, but the finest was Spring Wood, a noble clump of forest trees, which extended from the new Board Schools to the Old Cottages, down to Langsett-road (which did not then exist) through which ran a small stream. First on the record of people who lived near Walkley was no other than the great Saxon Earl Waltheof. Hunter was of opinion that he had his residence or aula at Rivelin, hence the name of Hallamshire – the district round the aula. This great man married Judith, the niece of William the Conqueror, but having joined in a conspiracy against him he was taken and beheaded at Winchester; and it is supposed that both the aula and vill of Hallam were completely annihilated by William, and may have remained a desolation ever since. The lecturer also gathered from Hunter that there were large trees growing at Rivelin in the 17th century; and that the ancient family of Rawson lived at Walkley at a very early period. In the year 1650 Robert Rawson, of Wardsend (Rawson’s Meadows), married Mary Rawson, daughter of Edward Rawson, of Walkley, Esq. The father of this Edward Rawson was William Rawson, of Walkley, yeoman, who married Alice Dale, at Sheffield, on the 9th of July, 1599. The lecturer said he knew of no house that would be equal to the requirements of such an important man except Walkley Hall – not that he thought the present building of that name was standing at so early a date, but the name may have been continued to the new and beautiful house erected on the site of an older one, and which would be quite worthy of the family. It appeared also that the wealthy Clays lived at Walkley, but when is not known. He thought the old hall had been built about 200 years; its many elegant gables, its porch, and square-walled and circumscribed garden all bore witness to its importance, and must have given it a noble appearance when it was newly-built – and showed that Walkley was a more important place than its neighbour Crookes. In the 14th century they had evidence of its importance in the fact that “Arabella, daughter of Adam, son and heir of William de Walkelay, gave William de Scheffield, Lord of Waldershelf, and to Isabella, his wife, all his right in the lands of Waddisley.” The deed is dated A.D. 1323. It was worthy of notice that many of the names of the neighbouring villages denoted great antiquity, such as Ughill, Wadsley, Bradfield, Storrs, Stannington, Waldershelf, and Worrall. The lecturer then proceeded to notice the chief farmers and residents of a generation or two gone by, their manners, habits, and the families they had founded. He asserted that the grinders of old times were a steady, acute, and independent body of men, the exceptions being the rough and drunken amongst them. The names of the old inhabitants were somewhat remarkable, as denoting an Anglo-Saxon settlement – Bradshaw, Egbro’, Spooner, Marsden, &c. It was probable that the Norman warriors would settle around the dwelling place of their chief at the junction of the Don and Sheaf, near Lady’s Bridge, whilst the milder Saxons of peaceful lives and agricultural occupations would betake themselves to the neighbouring hills for quietness and shelter. He concluded by alluding to the religious aspects of the place, from the first establishment of a New Connexion chapel to the building of St. Philip’s Church – the church then nearest to Walkley – and congratulated the inhabitants upon having a new and comfortable church and the institutions connected therewith, thanks to their indefatigable vicar, who had been successful in ministering to their spiritual wants. The customary votes of thanks followed the interesting address.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

David Clarke:

[T]he idea of Anglo-Saxon identity exerted a strong influence upon writers who collected folklore in Hallamshire, the geographical region that became the city of Sheffield in the modern county of South Yorkshire… [T]hat identity coalesced around two folk heroes, Earl Waltheof and Robin Hood (Robin of Loxley), who are portrayed in literature and folklore as ethnic Saxon rebels who fought against Norman occupation of the region. Both also came to symbolise the region’s independence of spirit and its rebelliousness. Today they are regarded as distinctly English national folk heroes, but their complex links with the folklore of southwest Yorkshire is less well known. During the nineteenth century, their legends became part of an imagined heritage based upon ideas of Anglo-Saxon indigeneity to Britain. As a result, folklore interacted with history to create a hybrid of fact, story and interpretation that persists to the present day… The rebel traditions of [southwest Yorkshire are] reflected in Victorian literature. Barczewski (2000, 132) notes that, ‘virtually every major fictional text written after 1820 features the conflict between Saxon and Norman as a prominent motif,’ and this division is projected backwards in accounts of the history and folklore of southwest Yorkshire. The most influential example is Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (1820). His novel is set in the twelfth century, a generation after the Norman Conquest, and the narrative is located geographically in the valley of the River Don… Scott (1820; 2000, 15) says, ‘here flourished in ancient times those bands of gallant outlaws, whose deeds have been rendered so popular in English song.’ The plot of Ivanhoe is centred upon an imagined, ongoing struggle between dispossessed Saxons and their Norman lords that post-dated the Norman Conquest. Significantly, the outlaw Robin Hood – ‘Locksley’ – is both a central character and a figurehead for the freedom fighters.

(Clarke 2022)

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Comment

David Clarke:

[T]he idea of Anglo-Saxon identity exerted a strong influence upon writers who collected folklore in Hallamshire, the geographical region that became the city of Sheffield in the modern county of South Yorkshire… [T]hat identity coalesced around two folk heroes, Earl Waltheof and Robin Hood (Robin of Loxley), who are portrayed in literature and folklore as ethnic Saxon rebels who fought against Norman occupation of the region. Both also came to symbolise the region’s independence of spirit and its rebelliousness. Today they are regarded as distinctly English national folk heroes, but their complex links with the folklore of southwest Yorkshire is less well known. During the nineteenth century, their legends became part of an imagined heritage based upon ideas of Anglo-Saxon indigeneity to Britain. As a result, folklore interacted with history to create a hybrid of fact, story and interpretation that persists to the present day… The rebel traditions of [southwest Yorkshire are] reflected in Victorian literature. Barczewski (2000, 132) notes that, ‘virtually every major fictional text written after 1820 features the conflict between Saxon and Norman as a prominent motif,’ and this division is projected backwards in accounts of the history and folklore of southwest Yorkshire. The most influential example is Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (1820). His novel is set in the twelfth century, a generation after the Norman Conquest, and the narrative is located geographically in the valley of the River Don… Scott (1820; 2000, 15) says, ‘here flourished in ancient times those bands of gallant outlaws, whose deeds have been rendered so popular in English song.’ The plot of Ivanhoe is centred upon an imagined, ongoing struggle between dispossessed Saxons and their Norman lords that post-dated the Norman Conquest. Significantly, the outlaw Robin Hood – ‘Locksley’ – is both a central character and a figurehead for the freedom fighters.

(Clarke 2022)

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15 August 1805: The Sheffield volunteer infantry depart to fight Napoleon on the beaches

25 September 1066: The Stamford Bridge massacre by Harold Godwinson’s army of Harald Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson’s force – symbol of the end of the Viking Age

11 March 1864: An inhabitant of Bacon Island survives the Great Sheffield Flood

18 November 1237: Robin Hood is bled to death by the nuns of Kirklees Priory, according to Victorian fakelorists

22 September 1829: John Broughall, an elderly Jewish pedlar, complains to Sheffield magistrates that he was ejected from the Tontine Inn (Haymarket) for running a shop inside

26 May 1941: Headingley’s Shire Oak falls, legendary site of Anglo-Saxon local government between Aire and Wharfe

30 October 1981: Joanne, Michelle and Carl go caking in their Sheffield villages

21 July 1666: A white ghost army is seen by the Don near Sheffield

4 September 1947: Conflicting hopes for the future of the nationalised coal industry, as a wildcat strike against increased hours at Grimethorpe spreads through the South Yorkshire coalfield

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Comment

Re this wave of unofficial strikes:

Major-General Sir Noel Holmes, chairman of the north-eastern division of the National Coal Board, in a statement yesterday on the strike at Grimethorpe Colliery, said that 140 coal-face workers, out of 2,682 employed at the pit, were not doing a fair day’s work. A committee representing management and workmen had decided that the stint for the 140 workers should be increased by 2ft., but they refused to accept its findings and came out on strike. The other coal-face workers came out in sympathy. “As much as I dislike mentioning this fact,” said Sir Noel Holmes, “it is only right to recall that at Grimethorpe since January 1, 1947, and before the present strike, there have been 26 sectional unofficial stoppages, which have lost 33,000 tons of coal to the nation. The present stoppage up to date represents a further loss of more than 40,000 tons.” (Times 1947/08/27)

Holmes’s Wikipedia article curiously doesn’t mention this phase of his career.

I’m guessing that the Welsh ex-Puritan authoritarian Communist Arthur Horner is the voice of the NUM in the above – see e.g. the Times for 9 September.

Interesting comments on the wartime coal boards by T.S. Charlton, colliery manager at Cortonwood:

The management of the collieries is in the hands of men trained primarily in management of mines and miners. They have a working knowledge of all the machinery available and how best it can be used, but the details of this side are left to the mechanical and electrical engineer. Labour costs are two-thirds of production costs, and therefore the handling and the best use of men are of the greatest importance to managers. Why it should have been decided that labour leaders should be good labour directors is, apart from the political issue, difficult to understand, unless it is on the old adage of “poacher turned gamekeeper.” Unless and until the production director has control of his labour side, I can see little hope of his schemes proving effective.

The miners have put forward suggestions to improve output, but they appear to do no more than improve the position of the miner. Can it be said that any suggestion already put forward by the men has put up the output figure? Why should it be assumed the men’s side of the pit production committees should be able to improve output in any way? Their training, inclinations, and very job depend upon their obtaining the best for their electors rather than for production.
(Charlton 1943/12/01)

Charlton was clearly a clever and capable man – it would be good to know more about him.

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