The Herdings The Herdings is a grade-II listed building located in Norton, Sheffield, England. Although the current structure dates back to 1675, the original Herdings farm building was recorded as being present as early as the 13th-century.
|
|
Queen Anne Court (left) and Queen Elizabeth Court in May 2020. Mid-2010s low-rise housing on the right is where the third tower once stood. The Herdings complex, also known as Gleadless Valley (Herdings), is located on Raeburn Place adjacent to Herdings Park at the southern end of the Gleadless Valley Redevelopment Area, which also included the Callow Mount and Gleadless Valley schemes. Construction of the Herdings towers commenced in 1958 and was completed in 1959.
|
|
Herdings, Gleadless Valley () borders with Hemsworth and Gleadless. Herdings used to be the highest point in Sheffield. Before the expansion of the city into more Derbyshire hamlets, villages, wooded areas and open green space. At the very top of the hill now sits the Herdings high rise flats, previously known as the Three Sisters of which one was demolished.
|
|
Gleadless Valley actually describes the valley that separates Hemsworth from Herdings, and is a broad area that covers several housing estates: Hemsworth, Herdings and Rollestone. Gleadless Valley is bordered by Gleadless and Norton.
|
|
Gleadless Valley () is a 1950s housing estate and suburb which includes the districts of Herdings, Hemsworth and Rollestone.
|
|
The towers can be accessed from the Purple Route of the Sheffield Supertram network at nearby Herdings Park tram stop, the southern terminus of this line. Additionally, Herdings Park bus terminus on Raeburn Road, a short distance from the towers, is served by First South Yorkshire bus routes 11 and 11a.
|
|
Herdings looking over the valley towards Hemsworth (Newfield Green and City also in view) Hemsworth, Gleadless Valley () borders with Herdings, Meersbrook, Norton and Rollestone. It's mainly accessible from Blackstock Road, the shops and a bus terminus are located off this road. To the south of Blackstock Road was the site of Hemsworth Primary School (which was demolished to be replaced with a new primary school called Valley Park, located on the former Herdings Primary School grounds). To date no development has taken place on the site of the demolished school.
|
|
Herdings mill was commissioned in 1907. It was designed by the Swiss architects Sequin and Knobel as a model mill. There were automated looms from the U.S. and 23,000 cotton spindles.
|
|
The building was compulsorily purchased by the City Council in 1958 with the intention of destroying it to build the Herdings estate. It is now used as a heritage and community centre.
|
|
The earliest mention of The Herdings comes from a grant from 1320 which mentions the name Thomas de Chaworth. On this deed we see two variations of the placename, first is Heytridding which appears to be the original name of the area, as well as Herdinge. The charter itself also mentions William and Robert de Heytridding. This grant shows that Thomas de Chaworth was giving land at Herdings to Alice, daughter of Agnetis Castelayn of Osberton and her daughter Rose.
|
|
A number of families have been associated with The Herdings, In 1560 William Staniforth has a baptism record at the nearby St James, Norton church with his father being recorded as Henry Staniforth (Henrici Stannyforthe) husbandsman of Heardynges. This same Henry Staniforth has a burial record at the same church in 1575.Norton Parish Records Following Henry's death it appears the farm was taken over by the Rollinson or Rawlinson family. Robert has a baptism at St. James dated 12 April 1582 and is described as being the son of Jerome Rawlinson of Herdings.
|
|
Herdings is served by Sheffield's light rail transit, the Sheffield Supertram. There, the tramway terminates next to a bus terminus. Original plans which included the construction of the route to the Meadowhead roundabout were rejected after local opposition.
|
|
The Herdings Twin Towers (officially known as Queen Anne Court and Queen Elizabeth Court) are twin towers located on Raeburn Place in the Herdings residential suburb of southern Sheffield, England. Although not the tallest buildings in Sheffield, their location atop a hill makes their rooftops the highest manmade location in the city. By virtue of its rooftop radio antenna, Queen Anne Court is the tenth-tallest building in Sheffield; it was the second-tallest upon completion in 1959, behind only Sheffield Town Hall. The towers were built in 1959; at the time of construction, there were three towers at this location, receiving the nickname of the Three Sisters.
|
|
There are also a number of descriptions and sketches of The Herdings from the 19th century, which depicts the building standing on a hill, covered with Ivy. A windmill also stood on the hill next to the farmstead however there appears to have been a lawsuit during the reign of Elizabeth I relating to the windmill and it was removed long before the turn of the 20th-century.
|
|
The woodland area to the north of the farm was known as Rollinson Wood. In a deed written in 1622 Robert Rollinson leaves all land tithes, hay, wool etc. to John Bullocke of Darleighe (Darley Dale).Chantrey Land: Being an Account of the North Derbyshire Village of Norton by Harold Armitage In 1653 Andrew Scriven, churchwarden was residing at The Herdings with his children Ann, William and Sarah.
|
|
An additional row of eight largely identical blocks were constructed away on Raeburn Road, next to Herdings Park. Each block is largely identical inside, containing twelve dwellings for a total of 432 residencies across the complex as-built. This area of the Gleadless Valley, particularly along Blackstock Road, is very steeply-sloping on the western side of the valley of the Meers Brook. Indeed, Sheffield County Borough Council had initially marked this area as unsuitable for development.
|
|
Gleadless Valley ward--which includes the districts of Gleadless Valley (Hemsworth, Herdings), Heeley, Lowfield, and Meersbrook--is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the southern part of the city and covers an area of 4.5 km2. The population of this ward in 2011 was 21,089 people in 9,516 households. It is one of the five wards that form the Sheffield Heeley parliamentary constituency whose Member of Parliament elected at the 2001 general election was Meg Munn.
|
|
As a result, it was demolished using explosives on 13 October 1996. Subsequently, the remaining buildings were newly nicknamed the Herdings Twin Towers. The site of Raeburn remained unoccupied for almost two decades, until low-rise private housing was constructed on the site and around the remaining twin towers between 2013 and 2015. All three towers were tall, containing 48 single-bedroom flats across the upper twelve floors; the ground floor contains a laundry area and other communal facilities, taking the total floor count to thirteen.
|
|
William would become well known in the village for his help with the poor, and upon his death he would leave money for children's education as well as clothing for the poor. The Hazard family also resided at The Herdings for some time, Mr T.O. Hazard was born at the farm and lived there until his death. The farm also went back into the possession of the Staniforth family during the 19th century, with Thomas Staniforth, born in 1805 living with his wife Ann (nee Hutchinson). He died in 1879.
|
|
The three towers at Lowedges were constructed between 1958 and 1959 on behalf of Sheffield County Borough Council by Tersons Ltd., who later became part of the British Insulated Callender's Cables company. As such, they were mostly identical to the tower blocks at Upperthorpe and the Herdings Twin Towers, which still exist, albeit now in a heavily refurbished state. Two of the towers, named Atlantic 1 and Atlantic 2, were situated on Atlantic Road; Atlantic 1 was located at the junction of Atlantic Road and Becket Road, while Atlantic 2 was located at the corner of Atlantic Road and Gervase Road.
|
|
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the brooks around Hackenthorpe and the neighboring villages of Eckington, Mosborough, Ridgeway, Ford contained a number of grinding wheels used for the sharpening of Sickles and scythes. In fact there is even documented evidence showing the Staniforth family itself was involved in sickle smithing in the 17th century in Ford. Prior to moving to the Eckington parish, this particular line of Staniforths can be found in the neighbouring parish of Norton. William Staniforth was baptized at St. James on 28 October 1560 to Henry Staniforth (Henrici Stannyforthe), a farmer at The Herdings. William would go onto marry Elizabeth Thorpe and have son William, baptized at the same church on 16 September 1671.
|
|
These local routes include the Penistone Line, the Dearne Valley Line, the Hope Valley Line and the Hallam Line. As well as the main stations of Sheffield and Meadowhall, there are five suburban stations, at Chapeltown, Darnall, Woodhouse, and Dore & Totley. Sheffield Interchange The Sheffield Supertram (not derived from the previous tramways), operated by Stagecoach, opened in 1994, shortly after the similar Metrolink scheme in Manchester. Its network consists of of track and four lines, from Halfway to Malin Bridge (Blue Line), from Meadowhall to Middlewood (Yellow Line), from Meadowhall to Herdings Park (Purple Line), and the tram-train line from Cathedral to Rotherham Parkgate (Black Line), with all four lines running via the city centre.
|
|
The suburb has excellent transport links being on the Sheffield Supertram blue and purple routes, there are three tram stops serving the Gleadless area, Hollinsend, Gleadless Townend and White Lane. The tram tracks divide at the Gleadless Townend stop with the main blue route continuing to Halfway while a short spur of the purple route goes to the Herdings Park terminus. The suburb has four GP practices within half a mile of its centre, these being the White Lane Medical Centre, Stonecroft Medical Centre, Charnock Health Centre and the Jaunty Springs Health Centre. There are three primary schools in the immediate area, these are Gleadless Primary School, Charnock Hall Primary School and Valley Park Community School.
|
|
A typical Gleadless Valley apartment block with mid- level bridge on Ironside Road. The Gleadless Valley project is an expansive complex of 36 six-storey tower blocks (of which 22 still exist) located throughout the wider Gleadless Valley Redevelopment Area, between the related Callow Mount and Herdings Twin Towers developments. The Gleadless Valley blocks were completed between 1955 and 1962 by a consortium consisting of H. Dernie Construction and direct municipal labour groups belonging to what was then the Sheffield County Borough Council. The blocks of flats are located quite widely across the development area, with a ring of them lining the outer side of Blackstock Road (four blocks), Gaunt Road (13) and Ironside Road (11) while the inner sides and areas confined by these three roads are largely covered by low-rise housing.
|
|
Following the conclusion of the games, they returned to use as council housing. The smallest and largest of the Hyde Park blocks, A and B respectively, were both demolished in 1992; they had not seen use during the games. Blocks C and D were subsequently leased out by the council to Places for People and refurbished in a similar manner to the Herdings Twin Towers in the late 1990s, receiving new names in the process – Harold Lambert Court for Block C and Castle Court for Block D. Both blocks were refurbished with predominantly white cladding covering their distinctive concrete structures, with red detailing on Castle Court and green detailing on Harold Lambert Court. The land formerly occupied by Blocks A and B was redeveloped as the Manor Oaks Gardens low-rise detached housing estate in the early 2000s.
|
|