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Sheffield is the fourth largest city in England and was where the
Industrial Revolution began in earnest. It is renowned for its
high-quality steel and fine cutlery, for its two large universities
and for having the biggest shopping centre in Europe, yet there is
so much more to know about this proud South Yorkshire city. In
Secret Sheffield, the authors pull back the carpet of history to
reveal what lurks beneath. They delve into Sheffield's murky and
mysterious past, its dark secrets and forgotten tales, introducing
us to some interesting characters along the way.
It was the home of a knight, a baron, a viscount, two marquises and
nine earls. The family had estates not only in South Yorkshire, but
also in North Yorkshire, the Midlands and Ireland, at their
greatest extent covering nearly 120,000 acres. One head of
household was beheaded. Another saw one of the last wolves in the
British Isles. One owner built the Palladian mansion at Wentworth,
which has the longest frontage of any country mansion in Britain,
and was one of the earliest growers of pineapples in this country.
One head of family was prime minister. Twice. Another provided
financial assistance to more than 6,000 of his Irish tenants and
their families to emigrate to Canada during the Great Famine.
Another had a christening attended by 7,000 official guests. Yet
another bought an ocean liner to go and search for buried treasure
in the Pacific. This copiously illustrated book explores the
history of the house, the estate and the family over more than 400
years, drawing on a wide variety of sources, particularly the
family records (the Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments) held in
Sheffield Archives.
The Rotherham area has undergone profound change in the last
century or so. There has been much demolition and rebuilding in the
town centre, the town has grown outwards in all directions and the
surrounding settlements - rural and industrial - have been
transformed in many cases. Many working patterns and workplaces
have disappeared, means of transport have changed beyond all
recognition and even how people used their leisure time in the
early twentieth century shows some striking differences from today.
This fascinating collection of old photographs, mostly from private
collections and many of them not published before, will take
long-established residents on an affectionate tour of their past,
and for relative newcomers it may be something of a revelation.
Secret Rotherham offers a unique insight into this bustling, modern
South Yorkshire town through a series of little-known and forgotten
stories, facts and anecdotes from its past. The town has an
enviable industrial history: Nelson's HMS Victory was armed with
Walker cannons made at Masbrough, the iron plates for Isambard
Brunel's steamship the Great Eastern were manufactured at Parkgate
Iron & Steel Works, and the firm of Guest & Chrimes
invented the modern screw-down tap. Over the centuries the
Rotherham area has also had its fair share of famous residents and
visitors. It was the home of the Earl of Strafford, who was
beheaded in 1641; John Wesley, the 'Father of Methodism', was a
fairly frequent (if not always welcome) visitor to the area;
Ebenezer Elliott, the 'Corn Law Rhymer', was born and bought up in
the town; and the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams spent many a
summer in one of the outlying villages. In Secret Rotherham Melvyn
Jones and Anthony Dodsworth pull back the curtains of history to
peer into the borough's distant and not so distant past to reveal
the forgotten, the strange and the unlikely.
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