Download PDF

Summary of Dominant Character

Figure 1: A group of mid C19 stone built villas typical of this zone set back from a tree lined avenue in the ‘Nether Edge’ Character Group

© SCC UDC

The groups that make up this zone were first developed in the 19th century as middle class suburban developments away from the industrial and commercial city centre which at the time of development was becoming increasingly densely developed with back to back and courtyard housing. A general pattern of intensification of housing density can be discerned across much of this zone - with the high status and initial low densities of the original developments resulting in an inevitable market led pressure towards back-land development of former garden plots particularly since World War II. This has led, across much of this area, to a complex mix of interwoven historic characters where the earliest significantly legible landscape is that of the original streets and villas, with subsequent development forming an integral part of a multi-period landscape. The predominant building types range from detached mansions to large semi detached domestic houses, normally featuring generous private gardens or (around the larger mansions) small parks and other designed grounds. The majority of buildings in these areas are from stone with a mixture of Tudor, Classical and Gothic architectural styles generally employed. Larger residences can include such high status elaborations as libraries, ballrooms, conservatories or even (in Nether Edge’s Kenwood Park Road) a private theatre. They have largely remained free from

Figure 2: The tiny Lantern Theatre, built by cutlery manufacturer William Webster in the grounds of his house on Kenwood Park Road

©SCC UDC

large areas of later terraced infilling although this type exists to some extent in most character areas, as do pockets of mid 20th century semi detached infill. Significant densities of mature plantings of trees (in both streets and private gardens) and evergreen shrubbery contribute to a ‘Gardenesque’ atmosphere clearly differentiating these areas from the terraced housing areas and younger middle class suburbs surrounding them. In larger scale planned developments such as Kenwood, Broomhall and Endcliffe Crescent, surveyors and landscape gardeners were employed to design the curvilinear road networks so as “to create constantly changing vistas of the picturesque “villa” residences emerging from their leafy surroundings” (Doe 1976, 177). Public open spaces tend to be less common in this zone than in either 19th century terraced or later 20th century municipally developed suburbs with public parks tending to cluster on the fringes of these areas rather than at their centres. In contrast to these areas most residences are provided with some level of private ornamental space. Sports clubs where they exist tend to be private developments rather than being accessible to the general public. Industrial land uses are generally absent but institutional buildings are a feature – especially in the Broomhall and Nether Edge groups where various departments of Sheffield Hallam University have colonised earlier residential and institutional buildings.

Inherited Character

Figure 3: Overlaying 1851 1:10560 map data on modern aerial photography demonstrates a pattern typical of this zone with little legibility of earlier field boundaries despite a well preserved earlier network of lanes (detail from Ranmoor and Stumperlowe Character Group).

Aerial Photography © 1999 Cities Revealed / Geoinformation Group Ltd. Mapping © Crown Copyright and Landmark Information Group Ltd (All rights reserved 2008) Licence numbers 000394 and TP0024

The land on which these areas developed tended to be away from sites of historic nucleated settlement and the lower slopes of the river valleys. Indeed much of their attraction to the middle classes who sponsored their development was probably this detachment away from the industrialised areas (and the concomitant smoke, noise, poverty stricken working classes and dirt) of these older settlement sites and industrial valleys. As a result, areas characterised by older residential property boundaries and relict industrial sites tend to be extremely rare or even absent within this zone. Early maps (e.g. Carey 1795) show these areas as enclosed farmland characterised by a pattern of dispersed settlement. Individual HEC records generally interpret these earlier enclosure patterns as indicative of piecemeal enclosure processes, probably of medieval date, from the assartment of woodland. There are also small areas of common land enclosed in typical geometric fashion by parliamentary awards at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.

In contrast to the generally poor survival of field boundaries, earlier medieval lanes (generally of irregular form), and later enclosure period roads (generally of 20 or 20 foot width and perfectly straight form) survive well, sometimes with original boundary walls. Buildings earlier than the 1830s (when the planned estates of Endcliffe Crescent and Broomhall began to be laid out) are rare. An exception to this is the original timber built Broom Hall which survives as the earliest phase of a later 18th century elite residence (Harman and Minnis 2004, 258). The timber-framed section is of post and truss construction and has been dated dendro-chronologically to c.1498 with further extension in c.1614 (ibid, 259).

Figure 4: A former lodge (now reused as commercial premises) originally controlling access to the Broomhall Park Estate from Ecclesall Rd.

© SCC UDC

Broomspring and Broomhall: The earliest phases of this development are to be found around Glossop Road in the districts of Hanover and Broomhill. Developed from the 1820s onwards (Harman and Minnis, 2004, 247) by a variety of landowners, development included many large villas as well as more modest housing. Patterns of development in these areas tended to follow long established traditions of land subdivision. Regular straight-sided enclosure and strict building lines are the norm in these areas. The regular subdivisions of land produced grid iron street patterns particularly between Broomspring Lane and Glossop Road, where larger examples of terraced housing dating from before the 1864 bylaws have survived the widespread demolition of their back-to-back counterparts due to their grander proportions.

Figure 5: The Broomhall Park Estate in 1891. The layout of the estate was based applied ‘Picturesque’ principles to the layout of an exclusive suburb of large villas set in pseudo naturalistic surroundings despite their urban surroundings. The exclusivity of the surroundings was enhanced by the provision of gates and lodges at its entrances (marked by red dots).

Base map © and database right Crown Copyright and Landmark Information Group Ltd (All rights reserved 2008) Licence numbers 000394 and TP0024

From around 1840 (Doe 1977, 177) the owner of the Broomhall Estate, John Watson, sponsored the development of a new housing development based around Collegiate Crescent, a grand sweeping road lined with trees around which were laid out generous plots for villas which are themselves approached by further curving driveways. Gates controlled entrance and access to the estate until their removal in 1916 (Harman and Minnis 2004, 256). Lodges built to oversee these gates survive on Park Lane, at either end of Collegiate Crescent and on the junction of Broomhall Road and Broomhall Place. The restrictive access to this new picturesque utopia was mirrored elsewhere in the Broomhall suburb at the Botanical Gardens opened by Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society in 1833 with access only granted to shareholders and subscribers (ibid, 261).

Nether Edge: The area now known as Nether Edge is bounded to the west (as the name suggests) by the dramatic escarpment of Greenmoor or Brincliffe Edge Sandstone (GSGB Sheet 100 1974). To the west of Brincliffe Edge the landform slopes gently towards the east. Little survives of the pre-suburban countryside, although Machon Bank and Cherry Tree Road fossilise the routes of earlier lanes that served the enclosed countryside depicted in the early 19th century. The recently closed Brincliffe Oaks Hotel on Nether Edge Road incorporates much of a post-medieval farmhouse.

The first major developments stimulating the suburban development of the area were the construction of the Ecclesall Bierlow Union Workhouse on Union Road (which will be discussed further in ‘Later Developments’), and the laying out of the Kenwood Park Estate around the cutlery manufacturer George Wostenholme’s mansion from 1844 onwards. The estate was designed for Wostenholme by garden designer Robert Marnock (whose hand was also responsible for the Botanical Gardens) who laid out a series of curving avenues radiating from the main gate to the enclosed grounds of Wostenholme’s mansion. Despite a greater level of later infilling than has occurred within the Broomhall Park Estate, the large stone villas and their gardens (often accessed through grand gateways) as well as the large numbers of street trees mean that the early picturesque character of this suburb is still instantly recognisable. The remainder of the 19th century saw the development of semi-detached housing to the east of the area by the speculative builder Thomas Steade and the establishment of varied villa housing to the west by the Montgomery Land Society. These developments employed grid iron patterns of development, but generally feature larger stone built properties than common in neighbouring groups.

Ranmoor and Stumperlowe: The suburban development of this area is generally later than the other areas within this zone although at its core lies Endcliffe Crescent an estate development of 1824 by the Endcliffe Building Company (Harman and Minnis 2004, 264), the earliest example of ‘picturesque’ suburban development in Sheffield. An interesting parallel with the development of the Broomall Estate lies in the restriction of access to the development as a whole by the provision of a gate and (surviving) lodge at its entry from the north along Ranmoor Road.

Figure 6: Endcliffe Crescent, Sheffield. OS mapping

© Crown Copyright and Landmark Information Group Ltd (All rights reserved 2008) Licence numbers 000394 and TP002

Later Characteristics

Development trends over the 20th century have led to the continuing intensification of the building density of these areas with areas of open land infilled up to the present day. Back-land development where the rear gardens of large properties are sold as development land is a particularly obvious threat to the historic character of these areas. The proximity of the ‘Broomspring’ and ‘Broomhall’ character areas to campuses of the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University has led to a significant trend from the mid 20th century onwards regarding the conversion of large residential properties to institutional use.

Areas within this Zone

• ‘Ranmoor and Stumperlowe’
• ‘Norfolk Park and City Road’
• ‘Broomspring’
• ‘Nether Edge’
• ‘Broomhall’

Bibliography

Doe, V.

1976 Some Developments in Middle Class Housing in Sheffield. In: S. Pollard and C. Holmes eds. Essays in the Economic and Social History of South Yorkshire. Barnsley: South Yorkshire County Council, Recreation Culture and Health Dept, 174-186.

Cary, J. (engraver)

1795 A Map of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York. 3¼ inches: 1 mile. Sheffield: Wm Fairbank and Son.

Geological Survey of Great Britain

1974 Sheet 100 Sheffield– Solid and Drift, 1:50,000. Southampton: Ordnance Survey for the Institute of Geological Sciences.

Harman, R. and Minnis, J.

2004 Sheffield: Pevsner Architectural Guide. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.