![Ughill Manor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Ughill_Manor.jpg)
Ughill is a small, rural hamlet within the City of
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 ...
in
Bradfield Parish in England. It is 5 mi (8 km) west-northwest of the city centre. It stands in a lofty position at 918 ft (280 m) above sea level, on a ridge between
Bradfield Dale and the valley of the Ughill Brook. It has traditionally been a farming community, but there was some mining in the area in the late 19th and 20th century. Ughill Hall was the scene of an infamous murder in September 1986. The hamlet falls within the Stannington ward of the City.
History
Ughill is thought to have been founded in the 10th century by a group of Norwegian
Vikings
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
with the name deriving from the
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
language as Uhgil meaning Uha's Valley or Uggagil meaning Uggi's Valley. In the Old Norse language, gil is a steep-sided valley.
[ Worrall family from Ughill](_blank)
Gives details of name meaning. Ughill was one of six small estates in
Hallamshire named 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, these included the nearby settlements of
Holdworth
Holdworth is a small rural hamlet situated within the boundary of the City of Sheffield, England. It is located northwest of the city centre at an altitude of 280 metres above sea level, giving it extensive views south over the upper Loxley val ...
,
Worrall and
Onesacre
Oughtibridge ( ) is a residential village in the north of Sheffield within the bounds of Bradfield civil parish. The village stands north-west of the city centre in the valley of the River Don. The population of the village has increased si ...
. Just prior to the
Norman conquest of England
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...
Ughill had developed into an
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- ...
farming holding under the control of Healfdene or Aldene who was Lord of approximately 50 settlements, mainly across
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
,
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
and
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
.
[ Open Domesday](_blank)
Gives details of Healfdene‘s settlements. After the Conquest ownership of Ughill was taken over by
Roger de Busli
Roger de Busli (c. 1038 – c. 1099) was a Norman baron who participated in the conquest of England in 1066.
Life
Roger de Busli was born in or around 1038. His surname comes from the town now known as Bully (near Neufchâtel-en-Bray, mentioned ...
who was given large swathes of land across
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
and Yorkshire for his part in the Conquest. In the Domesday Book Ughill had a taxable value of 1.8 geld units with two plough lands and one league of woodland.
[ Open Domesday](_blank)
Gives details of Ughill in Domesday Book.
Ughill was mentioned in documents in the late 13th century when the Lord of Hallamshire Thomas de Furnival granted local herbage rights to Ellys and all men of Ughill. Around 1290, the first mention of the Ughil family was recorded in the manor when John the son of John de Ughil was mentioned in a deed, Adam de Ughil and Roger de Ughil were mentioned at a later date, so the surname had become hereditary but it did not survive. By the 15th century, the Marriott family had settled in Ughill, they were another Norman family who rose from modest beginnings to become minor gentry throughout Hallamshire. John Marriott took over a farm in the low-lying part of Ughill in 1442 and was succeeded at the farm by several generations of John Marriotts up to the 17th century. Thomas Marriott (1679–1754) became Lord of the Manor in the early part of the 18th century, where he was styled Mr Marrott of Ughill Hall. Marriott was a
Dissenter
A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc.
Usage in Christianity
Dissent from the Anglican church
In the social and religious history of England and Wales, and ...
who in 1743 built
Underbank Chapel, four km to the east at
Stannington. Thomas was succeeded by his brother Benjamin but the male lineage then failed, ending the Marriotts family’s connection with Ughill after 300 years.
[ Rotherhamweb](_blank)
The Marriotts of Ughill.[''"Historic Hallamshire"'', David Hey, Landmark Collectors Library, , Gives general history of Ughill.]
Buildings
Ughill Manor
Ughill Manor is a farmhouse which dates from the early 18th century, however buildings have existed on the site from a much earlier date with timbers from the adjoining
cruck barn being dated to 1504. Ughill Manor and its barn and cow house are Grade II
listed buildings.
Ughill Hall
Ughill Hall is a substantial stone residence which has been much altered over the years; it existed in a form much different from the present-day building in the reign of
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066.
Edward was the son of Æth ...
(1042–1066). For many years it was the home of the Marriotts. In more recent times the hall was owned by Charles Vickers who used it as a summer shooting lodge and then by Mr. Lomas, the owner of some of the mines in the surrounding area. The adjacent Ughill Hall farm is still a working farm.
[ Local Mouth](_blank)
Gives details of Ughill Hall.
Ughill Hall shootings
The
Ughill Hall shootings occurred on 21 September 1986 at Ughill Hall in Bradfield near Sheffield.
Ian Wood shot and killed his mistress Danielle Ledez and her daughter Stephanie and severely injured Christopher, Ledez's elder child.
He went on the run for eight days when he surrendered to authorities in France after threatening to commit suicide by jumping off Amiens Cathedral.
Wood was later convicted of double murder, attempted murder and theft.
Upper House
A plaque on the building states that Upper House was the home of the Worrall family from 1540 to 1988 and that the family had lived in Ughill for in excess of 700 years over 25 generations.
Other buildings in Ughill include Platts Farm, Nether House, Manor Farm Cottage and Cherry Tree Cottage.
Mining
The
fire brick
A fire brick, firebrick, or refractory is a block of ceramic material used in lining furnaces, kilns, fireboxes, and fireplaces. A refractory brick is built primarily to withstand high temperature, but will also usually have a low thermal con ...
company Thomas Wragg & Sons owned a Pot Clay mine immediately to the south east of the hamlet. Pot Clay is a very mouldable type of fireclay long used in the past to make crucibles for the local Sheffield steel industry. It is found in beds together with beds of
Ganister throughout the area and from about 1860 was in demand to make casting pit (pouring pit) and ladle control refractory bricks for the growing Sheffield steel industry following the introduction of Bessemer converters. In the early 1970s the mine was producing 15,000 tons of clay per year, with the company quoting, “The mine can be worked at the present rate for 100 years”. A
refractory
In materials science, a refractory material or refractory is a material that is resistant to decomposition by heat, pressure, or chemical attack, and retains strength and form at high temperatures. Refractories are polycrystalline, polyphase, ...
brick works stood at the entrance to the mine. However the Ughill mine had drainage problems and although powerful pumps had been installed in the 1950s to pump between 600 and 800 gallons per minute from the mine, the mine closed on 17 November 1977. It had become uneconomic to mine the clay due to water problems and the owners found it more profitable to bring in clay from the Midlands. The site of the mine has been landscaped and returned to agricultural use.
[''"The Forgotten Mines of Sheffield"'', Ray Battye, ALD Design & Print, , pages 70, Gives details of mining.] J&J Dyson mined fireclay at their open cast quarry at Wheatshire between Ughill and Sugworth. The quarry is closed but can still be seen from the nearby road. Thos. Wragg had small firebrick works at Load Brook (closed 1957) and Brookside (Stopes Road, Stannington, closed 1960) the former previously owned by the Trickett family, the latter by the Drabble family and a major works (Storrs Fire Clay Works) in the nearby Loxley Valley. Wraggs along with its local competitors, J&J Dyson of Griffs Works, Stannington and Thos. Marshall of Storrs Bridge Fire Brick Works, Loxley, mined the Stannington Pot Clay seam and manufactured fireclay-based casting pit holloware refractories for use in steel making worldwide. All three plants closed following a collapse in demand for casting pit refractories of the type made locally mainly because of the introduction of continuous casting of steel worldwide and the general demise of the British steel industry.
References
{{coord, 53.410242, N, 1.611782, W, scale:5000_region:GB, display=title
Villages of the metropolitan borough of Sheffield
Towns and villages of the Peak District