Ecclesall Ward—which includes the
neighbourhoods
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...
of Banner Cross, Bents Green, Carterknowle, Ecclesall, Greystones, Millhouses, and Ringinglow—is one of the 28 electoral wards in
City of Sheffield
The City of Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Sheffield, the town of Stocksbridge and larger village of Chapeltown and part of the Peak ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It is located in the southwestern part of the city and covers an area of . The population of this ward in 2007 was 19,211 people in 7,626 households, reducing to 6,657 at the 2011 Census. Ecclesall ward is one of the four wards that make up the
South West Community Assembly and one of five wards that make up the
Sheffield Hallam Parliamentary constituency
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
. The Member of Parliament is
Olivia Blake
Olivia Frances Blake (born 10 March 1990) is a British Labour politician. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam at the 2019 general election.
Early life
Blake grew up in Otley, a market town north of Leeds, We ...
, a Labour MP. Ecclesall is one of the least socially deprived wards in the entire country, with a 2002 deprivation score of 4.7—making it the 8,105th most deprived (hence 309th least deprived) ward out of 8,414 wards in the country. The demographic consists largely of white, middle-class families.
History
Evidence of early occupation of the area can be found in
Ecclesall Woods
Ecclesall Woods is an area of woodland in south-west Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, between Abbeydale Road South and Ecclesall. It covers approximately of mature semi-natural deciduous woodland which was previously used for timber and cha ...
. A cup and ring-marked stone was discovered in 1981, and has been dated to the late
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
or
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
periods. It, and the area a diameter around it, is a scheduled ancient monument.
Ecclesall electoral ward was created 1934 when the old Ecclesall Bierlow ward was divided into Ecclesall, Broomhill and Hallam.
The boundaries of the ward include about half of the area that was historically known as Ecclesall Bierlow—one of the six 'townships' that made up the old Parish of Sheffield. Ecclesall Bierlow encompassed most of the land between the
River Sheaf
The River Sheaf in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, flows northwards, past Dore, through Abbeydale and north of Heeley. It then passes into a culvert, through which it flows under the centre of Sheffield before joining the River Don. Th ...
and the
Porter Brook
The Porter Brook is a river which flows through the City of Sheffield, England, descending over from its source on Burbage Moor to the west of the city to its mouth where it joins the River Sheaf in a culvert beneath Sheffield railway statio ...
from The Moor to Ringinglow. It also included the areas of
Broomhall and
Crookesmoor to the north of Porter Brook. Though this area contained numerous small villages and hamlets, there was never a village called Ecclesall.
In ancient times this area was part of the
Barnsdale Forest
Barnsdale, or Barnsdale Forest, is an area of South and West Yorkshire, England. The area falls within the modern-day districts of Doncaster and Wakefield. Barnsdale was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Barnsdale lies in th ...
that, together with
Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England, famous because of its historic association with the legend of Robin Hood.
The area has been wooded since the end of the Last Glacial Period (as attested by pollen sampling cores ...
, made up the forest of the
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...
legends. The River Sheaf marked the boundary between the
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
kingdoms of
Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era=Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ye ...
and
Deira
Deira ( ; Old Welsh/Cumbric: ''Deywr'' or ''Deifr''; ang, Derenrice or ) was an area of Post-Roman Britain, and a later Anglian kingdom.
Etymology
The name of the kingdom is of Brythonic origin, and is derived from the Proto-Celtic *''daru' ...
(later
Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
). In fact the earliest historical record of this area refers to the submission of the
Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
n army to
Egbert of Wessex
Ecgberht (770/775 – 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlema ...
at nearby
Dore in 829.
![EcclesallMill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/EcclesallMill.jpg)
The name ''Ecclesall'' (either from ''Heeksel-Hallr'' meaning the witches' hill,
[ (]wikisource
Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually rep ...
) or ''Eccles'' (church) ''halh'' (hollow)) is not mentioned in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086—at that time Ecclesall was a part of the manor of
Hallam. The name is first found about 150 years later in the name of Sir Ralphus De Ecclesall a knight of the realm who had settled in the area. The De Ecclesall family gave land to the monks at Beauchief and established a
corn
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
mill on the river Sheaf, which they subsequently also gave to
Beauchief Abbey. Many of the buildings of Ecclesall corn mill can still be seen at the northern end of Millhouses park—the district of Millhouses taking its name from this mill. In payment for the mill the monks of Beauchief were to provide a canon to say prayers daily at the Ecclesall chapel. These services continued at the chapel until the
Dissolution of the Monasteries when Beauchief Abbey was abandoned. The chapel was restored in 1622 but was demolished when the present church was built nearby in 1788.
Until the 19th century Ecclesall Bierlow was very sparsely populated—in 1801 there were just 5362 people. This changed with the coming of the
industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
and the subsequent expansion of nearby Sheffield and by 1831 the population had increased to 14,239. In 1837 the Ecclesall Bierlow Poor Law Union came into being. As well as Ecclesall Bierlow, this encompassed Nether Hallam, Upper Hallam,
Beauchief,
Dore,
Norton Norton may refer to:
Places
Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada
*Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan
*Norton Parish, New Brunswick
**Norton, New Brunswick, a ...
, and
Totley
Totley is a suburb on the extreme southwest of the City of Sheffield, in South Yorkshire, England. Lying in the historic county boundaries of Derbyshire, Totley was amalgamated into the city of Sheffield in 1933, and is today part of the Dore ...
. A workhouse was built on Cherry Tree Hill at
Nether Edge
Nether may refer to:
* The Nether, the hell-like dimension in the video game ''Minecraft''
* ''The Nether'', a sci-fi play
* ''Nether'' (video game), a first-person multiplayer survival video game for Microsoft Windows
See also
*Kingdom of the ...
. In 1929 the Ecclesall Bierlow Workhouse was renamed
Nether Edge Hospital and it remained in use as a hospital into the 1990s.
Historic sites within the ward include
Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet
Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet is an industrial museum in the south of the City of Sheffield, England. The museum forms part of a former steel-working site on the River Sheaf, with a history going back to at least the 13th century. It consists of ...
and
Shepherd Wheel
Shepherd Wheel is a working museum in a former water-powered grinding workshop situated on the Porter Brook in the south-west of the City of Sheffield, England. One of the earliest wheels on the River Porter, it is one of the few remaining—and ...
(both now museums). Ecclesall Wood has many examples of
white coal
White coal is a form of fuel produced by drying chopped wood over a fire. It differs from charcoal which is carbonised wood. White coal was used in England to melt lead ore from the mid-sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. It produces more ...
kilns and the grave of a wood collier who was killed here when his cabin burned down on 11 October 1786.
Neighbourhoods
Banner Cross
Banner Cross is a district of Sheffield centred on the intersection of
Ecclesall Road
Ecclesall Road is a road in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, that runs for about south-west from Sheffield's city centre under the number A625. At Banner Cross, where the house numbers reach 1001, the road name changes to Ecclesall Road ...
and Psalter Lane. This district is split evenly between Nether Edge and Ecclesall Wards.
Banner Cross Hall
Banner Cross Hall is an English country house situated on Ecclesall Road South in the Banner Cross area of Sheffield, England. The hall is a Grade II listed building which is now the main headquarters of Henry Boot PLC, the Sheffield-based prop ...
, an ancient
esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
seat, was virtually rebuilt in 1820. The main place of worship is
Banner Cross Methodist Church
Banner Cross Methodist Church is situated in the district of Banner Cross in the city of Sheffield, England. The church stands on Ecclesall Road South, south-west of the city centre. The church and attached schoolroom as well as the boundary wall ...
. The nearby Banner Cross pub gained infamy when the notorious criminal
Charles Peace
Charles Peace (14 May 1832 – 25 February 1879) was an English burglar and murderer, who embarked on a life of crime after being maimed in an industrial accident as a boy.
After killing a policeman in Manchester, he fled to his native Shef ...
shot and killed Arthur Dyson in the passageway beside the pub on 29 November 1876. The base of an old stone cross still remained at Banner Cross in 1819. Addy (1888) suggested that the name derives from ''bæna kross'', meaning the cross of prayers.
Carter Knowle
Carter Knowle or Carterknowle () lies south of Brincliffe Edge, between
Ecclesall Road
Ecclesall Road is a road in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, that runs for about south-west from Sheffield's city centre under the number A625. At Banner Cross, where the house numbers reach 1001, the road name changes to Ecclesall Road ...
and
Abbeydale. A residential area, which includes what was originally known as Knab Farm Estate. Housing was built on former farmland there, in the valley between Brincliffe Edge and the upper part of Carter Knowle Road during the late 1950s / early 1960s by local building firm Gleesons. The area was home to
Sheffield College
The Sheffield College is a large general further education college in Sheffield, England. The college has six campuses across the city and has 13,500 students enrolled (including 2,501 apprentices) as of 2021. It provides academic, technical an ...
's Bannerdale campus, but after its closure and demolition, a new educational academy, the Mercia School was opened on the site adjacent to Carter Knowle Road in September 2018.
Ecclesall
The district of Ecclesall () is centred roughly on
Ecclesall parish church at the intersection of Carter Knowle Road and
Ecclesall Road
Ecclesall Road is a road in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, that runs for about south-west from Sheffield's city centre under the number A625. At Banner Cross, where the house numbers reach 1001, the road name changes to Ecclesall Road ...
. The present church, dedicated to All Saints, was built in 1788, consecrated in 1789 and has been altered several times since.
Banner Cross Hall
Banner Cross Hall is an English country house situated on Ecclesall Road South in the Banner Cross area of Sheffield, England. The hall is a Grade II listed building which is now the main headquarters of Henry Boot PLC, the Sheffield-based prop ...
, also in the area, was built in 1820.
Greystones
Greystones () lies to the north of the district of Ecclesall. It is on a headland overlooking the
Porter
Porter may refer to:
Companies
* Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto
* Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets
* Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer
* H.K. Porter, Inc., ...
valley to the north and west.
Millhouses
Millhouses () lies to the south of the district of Ecclesall. Its origins lie in a small
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
that grew around the Ecclesall Corn Mill.
Bents Green
Bents Green () lies to the west of the district of Ecclesall
Ringinglow
Ringinglow () is a village on the western border of Ecclesall Ward. Although it is within the boundary of the City of Sheffield, it is self-contained, entirely surrounded by open countryside. It is focussed on the intersections of Fulwood Lane and Houndkirk Road with Ringinglow Road.
Transport
Ecclesall Road is the main road (
A625) from central Sheffield to the south-west, at first following the
Porter Brook
The Porter Brook is a river which flows through the City of Sheffield, England, descending over from its source on Burbage Moor to the west of the city to its mouth where it joins the River Sheaf in a culvert beneath Sheffield railway statio ...
, then running through Ecclesall and
Dore. The road is a major
shopping
Shopping is an activity in which a customer browses the available goods or services presented by one or more retailers with the potential intent to purchase a suitable selection of them. A Retail#Shopper profiles, typology of shopper types ha ...
area. Attractions including the
Sheffield Botanical Gardens
The Sheffield Botanical Gardens are botanical gardens situated off Ecclesall Road in Sheffield, England, with 5,000 species of plants in 19 acres (77,000 m2) of land.
The gardens were designed by Robert Marnock and first opened in 1836. ...
and the
Sheffield General Cemetery
The General Cemetery in the City of Sheffield, England opened in 1836 and closed for burial in 1978. It was the principal cemetery in Victorian Sheffield with over 87,000 burials. Today it is a listed Landscape (Grade II*) on the English Herit ...
lie alongside it, as does one of the campuses of
Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegiate Cr ...
.
Abbeydale Road
Abbeydale Road and its continuation Abbeydale Road South together are an arterial main road and bus route in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The road begins at a junction with London Road (Sheffield), London Road near the former Royal Hotel ...
South (
A621) is another major road that runs through the ward. The
Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield in the East Midlands.
...
railway line runs along the southern boundary of the ward, though the closest stations are outside of the ward at
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
and
Dore & Totley, the former
Millhouses & Ecclesall station was closed on 10 June 1968. The
Sheffield Supertram
The Sheffield Supertram is a tram and tram-train network covering Sheffield and Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. The infrastructure is owned by the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE), with Stagecoach responsible for th ...
currently has no routes through Ecclesall ward, but a planned extension to Dore would skirt the southern boundary.
Parks and recreation
About half of Ecclesall ward is made up of rural areas, parkland, or woodland. These areas include a large portion of the
Ecclesall Woods
Ecclesall Woods is an area of woodland in south-west Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, between Abbeydale Road South and Ecclesall. It covers approximately of mature semi-natural deciduous woodland which was previously used for timber and cha ...
, an area of
ancient woodland
In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...
that is known locally for being a
bluebell wood
A bluebell wood is a woodland that in springtime has a carpet of flowering bluebells ('' Hyacinthoides non-scripta'') underneath a newly forming leaf canopy. The thicker the summer canopy, the more the competitive ground-cover is suppressed, encou ...
. In the north section of the ward is Bingham Park,
Whiteley Woods and part of the Porter valley;
Millhouses Park marks the ward's southern boundary. The ward also includes some of
Whirlow Brook Park and the
Limb valley. The
Sheffield Round Walk
The Sheffield Round Walk is a walk through the south west of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Starting from Hunters Bar, it travels along the Porter valley to Ringinglow. It then descends through the Limb valley and Ecclesall Woods to Ab ...
skirts the ward, running through a number of these parks.
Education
There are two secondary schools within Ecclesall ward,
High Storrs School
High Storrs School is a mixed secondary school and sixth form college with academy status located on the south-western outskirts of Sheffield, England. The main school building is Grade II listed. It moved to its current site in 1933. The sch ...
and
Silverdale School
Silverdale School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is the founding school of Chorus Education Trust (formerly Silverdale Multi-Academy Trust). It opened in 1957 ...
. The ward also includes Ecclesall Infants and Junior Schools, Dobcroft Junior School, Greystones Primary School, Mylnhurst Convent School, and St Wilfrid's Primary School.
References and notes
Bibliography
* Harvey, Peter (1996). ''Abbeydale and Millhouses''. Stround: The Charlford Publishing Company Limited.
* Hunter, Joseph (1819). The Township of Ecclesall Byerlow. In ''Hallamshire. The History and Topography of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York'', pp195–219. London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mayor & Jones.
* Vickers, J. Edward MBE (1999). Ecclesall. In ''Old Sheffield Town. An Historical Miscellany'' (2nd ed.), pp58–64. Sheffield: The Hallamshire Press Limited. .
*
*
*
External links
Sources for the history of EcclesallProduced by Sheffield City Council's Libraries and Archives
{{Sheffield
Wards of Sheffield