Brook Hall - February 1998

Brook Hall stands well on the east side of Mickley Lane and just below the Cheshire Home. By a strange quirk, which may have arisen from an exchange of land, dating back to 1280 AD, the Hall stands in Totley. The original Totley boundary would no doubt have followed the Totley Brook but a few hundred yards south of Mickley Lane the line follows what I call the Tricket Brook, up the Tricket Wood and then follows the small escarpment past St. Georges Farm and then east up Mickley Lane, before cutting across to meet the small stream which then runs into Totley Brook. So, technically speaking, Brook Hall is a few yards outside Bradway and about 150 yards from the post-1935 Derbyshire boundary.

The earliest obvious record I have of the hall is its occupation in 1846 by Joseph Ward, a coal owner. It is quite probable that an earlier building, perhaps 18th century, stood here and that Ward altered and extended that building and added a new dressed stone facing to the facade as a plaque indicates. I do not know much about him, but one Joseph Ward, gentleman, of Bradford, near Manchester, laid claim in 1839, to the rights of common of Totley Brook Field, Middle Field and Low Field, an area of over 8 acres, then tenanted by local farmer Samuel Biggin. At that time there is no indication of a building on the site. Perhaps Ward extracted coal at Mickley pit? I have a suspicion that, despite the limited water flow of the stream running to the rear of the Hall, there may have been a dam nearby, and that at one time, a mill could have been sited in
the vicinity. There is certainly some evidence on the ground to support this view and the 1875 map indicates a shape that looks remarkably like a small dam.

Perhaps a reader has more information? Anyway by 1866 Ward must have died, but his wife remained until the following year, when Geo. Rodgers, manufacturer was installed.
The major change came in 1866 when Edward Taylor bought Brook Hall with seven and a half acres and moved in the Cherrytree Orphanage, whilst a new building was erected in the next field. Subsequently, Brook Hall was owned by Cherrytree until its sale in 1976. In the meantime there were a number of tenants including Charles Hoyland, a Brush manufacturer of Sheffield, and later his son Edward. By 1900, Sheffield architect John Creswick Brameld was there and by 1907 was succeeded briefly by bank manager Sydney Arthur Robinson.
Mrs Frances Osborne and her daughter Miss Frances Marie Osborne, a teacher of music, took up residence and were there until at least 1920. Do any readers remember them or perhaps took lessons?

In 1930 Robert Benjamin Grayson moved into Brook Hall and stayed there until his death at the age of 84 in 1976. Up until that date the Hall had been leased from Cherrytree. Robert Grayson was one of Sheffield's oldest practising solicitors and worked from Paradise Square. He had started the firm after returning from service in the first world war. After his death the Hall was bought by his son Gordon, thus continuing a family connection which now totals 68 years.

Brook Hall has a lodge, built about the same time as Wards occupation and which for many years housed gardeners at Cherrytree, although from time to time, it appears to have been rented to various tenants. In more recent times the lodge has been extended to the rear.

Brian Edwards.
Ed. We hope to cover the story of Cherrytree in a future issue. Illustrations of Brook Hall and its Lodge appear in Brian Edwards book 'Dore Totley & Beyond' available price £ 8.90 from 'Best Wishes' at the Twentywell Shops.

Stan Jones recalls - May 1998

When Stan Jones first came to Bradway 66 years ago he was 9 years old. It was a quiet village in those days, with the kids able to play safely on the main road, accompanied by the chickens that wandered freely. He lived in the cottages next to Bradway School, which were demolished in the 1960s.

Stan attended Greenhill County School which closed a year ago and is now used as a doctor's practice. He played football for the school (see picture) and would be interested in meeting any of his old school chums that might still have contacts within the area.
Stan's first job was at the Twentywell Brick Company on Twentywell Lane, where he started at the age of 14. The company itself closed in 1939.

Stan recalls that Fox Lane used to be known as Flowerday's Lane and that during the war period Bradway Road was often referred to as Main Road. He also remembers Prospect Road being known as Outram's Lane, with Outram Farm standing complete with duck pond and ducks where the Old Mother Redcap is today.

Robert Jackson recalls - February 1998

Some of the history of Bradway and the Castle Inn as recounted by him in 1979, and 1997, at the opening of extensions to the Castle Inn.
When the Totley to Dronfield Tunnel was built in the 1860's, cottages were built on what is now Twentywell Road to house the "bosses".
In 1866, Brampton Brewery of Chesterfield advertised to let the Station Inn in Bradway. Also in 1866, on the end of the cottages, a newly erected Beer-House called the Castle Inn opened. Bradway was then in the parish of Dronfield.
In 1868 there were 5 pubs in the area - only two survive today - The Castle and the Miners Arms, better known now as the Bradway Hotel on the main road.

Records from the 1860's show there were a lot of fights in the area. Navigators - navvies (mainly Irish) against the locals, or Navvies v Navvies. They used "Hankies weighted with stones and broom handles sharpened to a point" - compare that with 1998!
On one occasion two navvies were fighting over a lady of doubtful repute when the landlord and other customers intervened to attempt to stop them. Enter the Police! P.C.Hibbet stopped the disturbance with the aid of a large piece of wood. He swung it mightily but, inadvertently, "Knocked down the landlord which rendered him insensible for two hours and consequently unable to be of any help in quelling the disturbance".

P.C.Hibbert was often mentioned in reports of troubles in Bradway and also in Dronfield. On one occasion outside the Blue Posts Pub (now the Blue Stoops) he, and a colleague, were set upon by 20 Irish navvies. Local Dronfield people rescued them.
On another occasion P.C.Hibbert was attacked by "three drunken Irishmen." He repaid them "with interest thanks to his cutlass," which was standard issue to the police in the last century.
The JPs gave them two weeks in goal but one, who was "less severely cut" got three weeks!
Dore & Totley railway station opened ½/1872 (the Hope Valley Line in 1894). The cottages rent rose from 2/9d a week to 3/6d a week in 1880.

Six navigators died in the building of the Tunnel - four from having tools dropped on their heads from the ventilation shafts as they walked (no hard hats) in the Tunnel.
The phrase, "living over the brush", used to describe an unmarried couple who live together, originated in the tunnel building days of the 19th Century. If a navvy and a girl (usually camp followers from the towns, prostitutes in reality) took a liking to each other then the other men and women would respect them as man and wife. They could not afford a church wedding so, holding hands, they jumped over a brush handle held by two older people. They were then "married" in the eyes of their peers.
How things move on - but the Castle Inn remains.

I drank lemonade at the Castle in the 1930s and 1940s having walked up from my house in Dalewood Road with my dad and my brother. Up the Beauchief Abbey Lane (the "carriage drive") over the golf course (still a right-of-way) and into Twentywell Lane. A quick pint for dad, a lemonade for us and back for Sunday lunch (or Saturday grub).
Sheila and Steve Priestnall the current landlords have sunk a lot of time, effort and money into maintaining a truly local pub which has been going now for over 130 years.

Robert Jackson
Ed. In 1979 Robert hosted the occasion for Frank Gilbody. Mrs Grace Howe was landlady between 1952 & 1964. But what of other landlords over the 130 years. Can anyone remember or name some of them?

Footnote - May 1998. You asked about landlords at the Castle Inn, there was a man named Outram listed as a publican for one of two Bradway beerhouses (no names given) in the 1872 White's Directory, one of these must have been what we now call the 'Castle'. The name continues, in 1937 Thomas Outram is given as the landlord of the 'Castle' and the family probably went on for some more years. Some 70 years occupation by one family. A family of Outrams also ran Poynton Farm, next to Bradway House on Prospect Road. They appear tohave farmed from here for at least 100 years.

Tony Smith

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