Loxley, South Yorkshire
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Loxley is a village and a suburb of 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 ...
, England. It is a long linear community which stretches by the side of the
River Loxley The River Loxley is a river in the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its source is a series of streams which rise some to the north-west of Sheffield on Bradfield Moors, flowing through Bradfield Dale to converge at Low Bradfield. I ...
and along the B6077 (Loxley Road) for almost . Loxley extends from its borders with the suburbs of
Malin Bridge Malin Bridge is a suburb of the city of Sheffield, England. It is located at grid reference and stands 2½ miles north-west of the city centre where the rivers Loxley and Rivelin meet. Malin Bridge is only a small district centred on the roa ...
and
Wisewood Wisewood is a suburb of the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England and situated north-west of the city centre. It is a residential suburb consisting almost exclusively of council housing, some of which has been bought by tenants under the ...
westward to the hamlet of Stacey Bank near
Damflask Reservoir Damflask Reservoir is situated at grid reference five miles (eight kilometres) west of the centre of Sheffield in the Loxley valley close to the village of Low Bradfield and within the city's boundaries. The hamlet of Stacey Bank is located ...
. The centre of the suburb is situated at the junction of Rodney Hill and Loxley Road where the old
village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...
stands and this is located north west of Sheffield city centre. The suburb falls within the Stannington ward of the City of Sheffield. Loxley was a village in the
West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
under the jurisdiction of Wortley Rural District Council, until it became part of the City of Sheffield in the 1974 boundary changes brought on by the
Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...
. Today the suburb is within Bradfield Parish Council and consists almost exclusively of residential housing but it did have some industrial activity in the past. Much of the Loxley Valley is designated as
green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...
land. The place-name derives from the
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
words , meaning '
lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, Ontar ...
', and , meaning "glade". Loxley had a population of 1,775 in 2011.


History


Post–Conquest

The area on which Loxley stands was originally moorland; Loxley Chase was a large expanse of upland ground set aside for hunting by the
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...
lords after the
Conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...
in the 11th century. The Loxley valley was an extensive woodland which was mentioned in the ''inquisition post mortem'' after the death of Thomas de Furnival, 1st Lord Furnival (1270–1332). Hunting on Loxley Chase was an infrequent pursuit, and so much of the more productive ground in the valley was turned over to farming. Loxley developed over the following centuries as agricultural and common land with a few scattered farms.


Robin Hood legend

The extensive forest of Loxley Chase extended as far south east as
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 ...
in the 12th century where it joined up 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 ...
. Loxley is one of the locations claimed as the birthplace of
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 ...
. It is maintained that Robin of Locksley or Robert Locksley was born in the area in 1160 with John Harrison saying in his ''Exact and Perfect Survey and View of the Mannor of Sheffield'' of 1637, "Little Haggas Croft (pasture) wherein is ye founacion of a house or cottage where Robin Hood was borne." Little Haggas Croft was in the area of present-day Normandale House on Rodney Hill. Ballads from the
High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...
published in the
Child Ballads The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as ''T ...
such as '' A Gest of Robyn Hode'', ''
Robin Hood and the Monk Robin Hood and the Monk is a Middle English ballad and one of the oldest surviving ballads of Robin Hood. Original work and later publications The work was preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, albeit heavily damaged by wear. ...
'', ''
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne is Child Ballad 118, part of the Percy collection. It introduces and disposes of Guy of Gisborne who remains next to the Sheriff of Nottingham the chief villain of the Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary he ...
'', and ''
Robin Hood and the Potter Robin Hood and the Potter is Child ballad 121, and among the oldest existing tales of Robin Hood. The device of disguising himself as a potter may have been taken from the older legends of Hereward the Wake. Synopsis Robin Hood demands a toll of ...
'', as well as Sir
Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...
's 1820 novel ''
Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...
'' all point to a possible South Yorkshire birth for the legend. In her
maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...
to
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
in 2020, the local MP
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, W ...
said that the Sheffield Hallam constituency had a "very long history of social justice", as mythology points to a Yorkshire origin for Robin Hood in Loxley, lending her support to the idea that Loxley was the birthplace of Robin Hood.


Industrial and agricultural expansion

Industry came to the Loxley area in the middle of the 17th century when the first mills were set up on the fast flowing River Loxley as small pocket businesses. Steel and iron forging and rolling mills were established and became the main manufacturing processes with the Loxley Steel Works, the Green Wheel Steel Works, the Little Matlock Rolling Mill and the Olive Rolling Mill all becoming established industries by the river. Many of the mill ponds associated with these mills are still present on the river and provide a haven for fish and wildlife. During the 1800s, the Loxley Valley became an important producer of
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, ...
bricks and materials for the expanding Sheffield steel industry. The bricks were used to line the furnaces and were made from Fireclay from the Stannington pot clay seam which was prevalent in the Loxley area and the ramming materials and some bricks were made from
ganister A ganister (or sometimes gannister ) is hard, fine-grained quartzose sandstone, or orthoquartzite,Jackson, J. A., 1997, ''Glossary of geology'', 4th ed. American Geological Institute, Alexandria. used in the manufacture of silica brick typically ...
, a sort of
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
. Many ganister and fireclay mines existed in the area supplying the local firms of Bramalls (ganister bricks and monolithics) Siddons Bros. (ganister monolithics), Thomas Wragg & Sons (Storrs Fire Clay Works) and Thomas Marshall and Co. (Storrs Bridge Fire Brick Works) and later Hepworths, which sprang up in the district and produced the bricks. Refractory production ceased in the area in the 1990s.
Wraggs and Marshalls along with Dysons Griffs Works at nearby Stannington, specialised in manufacturing fireclay-based casting pit (pouring pit) refractory holloware and ladle flow control bricks for the steel industry worldwide. Carblox, part of the Marshall group, shared the Storrs Bridge Works site manufacturing carbon blocks for use in hearths in blast furnaces. All three plants (Marshalls, Wraggs and Carblox) 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 because of the general decline of the British steel industry. Farming in the Loxley Valley was extended by the passing of the Wadsley and Loxley Chase Parliamentary Act in 1789. This allowed the conversion of moorland to grass pasture which was enclosed by straight
dry stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...
walls and roads.


Great Sheffield Flood

Loxley suffered greatly on 11 March 1864 when the dam wall of the Dale Dike Reservoir was breached causing the
Great Sheffield Flood The Great Sheffield Flood was a flood that devastated parts of Sheffield, England, on 11 March 1864, when the Dale Dyke Dam broke as its reservoir was being filled for the first time. At least 240 people died and more than 600 houses were da ...
. 17 people died in the flood in the Loxley area including five members of the Chapman family along with their domestic servant Alathea Hague and apprentice John Bower. The
trip hammer A trip hammer, also known as a tilt hammer or helve hammer, is a massive powered hammer. Traditional uses of trip hammers include pounding, decorticating and polishing of grain in agriculture. In mining, trip hammers were used for crushing meta ...
and
rolling mill In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simil ...
works owned by the Chapmans was completely destroyed. Most of the industrial mills in the area were either destroyed or severely damaged but were quickly rebuilt with compensation money from the Water Company.


Residential development

The substantial residential development of Loxley started between 1905 and the beginning of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
with housing expansion taking place on Rodney Hill and Loxley Road near the village green. Inter-war building established the Normandale area and post-
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
building saw a large amount of
Council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...
being built in the area.


Present day


Statistics

Present-day Loxley has a population of 1,828, living in 753 households, the majority of which (82.6%) are owner occupied. 12.5% are rented from the local authority. A high proportion (76%) of the housing in the area is either detached or semi-detached and this is well above the average for the whole of Sheffield.


Buildings and landmarks

Loxley has no extensive shopping area with most of the residents commuting to Hillsborough to do their shopping. There are three
public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
s in the area, the best known of which is the Admiral Rodney; the pub has a long history and was originally named after
George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney Admiral George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB ( bap. 13 February 1718 – 24 May 1792), was a British naval officer. He is best known for his commands in the American War of Independence, particularly his victory over the French at the ...
after his defeat of the French in the
Battle of the Saintes The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The Brit ...
in 1782. The current Admiral Rodney dates from 1957 when the old pub was demolished and a new one built further back from the road. The Nag's Head is in the small rural hamlet of Stacey Bank and is surrounded by farm buildings at the very west of the suburb. The Wisewood Inn is the most easterly of the three and is situated in the Normandale area. After the closure and sale into private ownership of Loxley Methodist Church in 2012, there are no longer any places of worship in Loxley. The church building being situated at the junction of Loxley Road and Low Matlock Lane; this was built in 1885. Loxley United Reformed Church, a Grade II* listed building, located near the junction on Loxley Road and Rowell Lane was constructed in 1787 and closed in 1993 and is now in private ownership although the burial ground is still used, in 2016 the chapel was destroyed by fire and as of 2020 still sits as an empty shell surrounded by construction fencing. There is one school in the area: Loxley Primary School opened in 1911 and is situated on Rodney Hill; it has just over 200 pupils between the ages of 4 and 11. Senior pupils in the area go to
Bradfield School Bradfield School is a secondary school with academy status situated on the edge of the village of Worrall, in the civil parish of Bradfield, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The school is a specialist Engineering College formerly cater ...
in
Worrall Worrall is a small rural village in the civil parish of Bradfield, South Yorkshire, England, north west of Sheffield city centre. It has an area of 233 hectares, and population of 1,306 as of 2006, and borders the Sheffield suburbs of Wad ...
.


Hepworths refractory site

The site of the former Hepworth's refractory works (previously Marshalls, Wraggs and Carblox works) was purchased by the house building company,
Bovis Homes Group Vistry Group, formerly Bovis Homes Group, is a British house-building company based in Kings Hill, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Vistry Group was the result of a 2019 me ...
who intended to build 500 homes on the site in plans released in 2006. However the plans have met opposition from the Loxley Valley Protection Society, the Loxley Valley Design Group, the
Campaign to Protect Rural England CPRE, The Countryside Charity, formerly known by names such as the ''Council for the Preservation of Rural England'' and the ''Council for the Protection of Rural England'', is a charity in England with over 40,000 members and supporters. Forme ...
and Bradfield Parish Council. Bovis have not received permission to go ahead with the development and as of 2020 the site is still a derelict industrial site.


Recreation areas

Loxley has a recreation ground on Loxley Road near the junction with Long Lane; it is the only substantial public open space in the suburb. However, just to the north is Loxley Common, an ancient area of
common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect Wood fuel, wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...
which is now owned and managed by
Sheffield City Council Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Contr ...
on behalf of the people of the city. The common consists of
heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...
land interspersed with trees. The southern slopes of the common which run down to the Loxley Valley have a
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
escarpment, below which is thick woodland.


References

*


External links


Sources for the history of Loxley
Produced by Sheffield City Council's Libraries and Archives {{Robin Hood Suburbs of Sheffield History of Sheffield Villages of the metropolitan borough of Sheffield