Meersbrook Hall
Meersbrook Hall is a Grade II listed Georgian house located at the north west corner of Meersbrook Park.
The land that formed the estate attached to Meersbrook Hall, (and that later would become Meersbrook Park) had been owned by the Blythe family for hundreds of years before being sold in the eighteenth century.
Fields used for grazing once stretched from where Bishops’ House is down to the road that today is Chesterfield Road. The roads immediately surrounding the park were all carved out of the Meersbrook Hall estate much later, in the late 1800s, when the houses on these roads were built.
Meersbrook Hall walled garden
At about 1820 a walled garden was built about 80 m to the south west of Meersbrook Hall, to produce vegetables and fruit for the residents. Private walled gardens were often a feature of the residences of wealthy Georgians and Victorians and the one at Meersbrook Hall would have been built in the time of Samuel Shore senior (1761 1836). After the last of the Shore family, Urith Lydia Shore died in 1864, Meersbrook Hall was occupied by William Pashley Milner (1806-1884), a J.P for the west riding and Derbyshire and magistrate. Milner was also a keen gardener and had a daffodil named after him. The walls are about 3.3 m high and their total length is 274 m. The garden covers an area of 3,616 m square . Now blocked up, the garden had two entrances in the east and west walls, just south of the north wall, with the main entrance, wide enough for a horse and cart, in the centre of the south wall. This entrance led to a path connecting to the Cliffefield House estate, and eventually to Derbyshire Lane. The garden seems to have got its water supply from a well, 23 m to the SE of the SE corner of the garden wall. The north wall of the garden was a Hot Wall. Hot walls were popular in Georgian and Victorian estate walled gardens and were used to stretch out the growing season fo vegetables and fruit. A Hot Wall is basically a cavity wall. Furnaces on the outside would have forced their hot air and smoke into the cavity, heating the wall and creating a microclimate on the inner surface which would have been south-facing. A total of 21 flues, now blocked up, were found on the outer surface.
The earliest known gardeners,who lived in the sandstone building to the immediate east of Meersbrook Hall were John Tyzack, born 1805, gardener, and his daughter Mary, born 1825, housekeeper; with Thomas Cant, born 1797, gardener, and his daughters Elizabeth, born 1837 and Sarah born 1845; all listed in the 1861 census. By 1871 the gardener was Samuel Bowler born 1821 and his wife Susannah born 1826. In 1881 the gardener was Robert John Knott, born 1846, living with his wife Mary Elizabeth, born 1842 and daughter Elizabeth Charlotte born 1872. By 1891 the gardener and park keeper was William Knowles, born 1849, living with his wife Charlotte, born 1852, son George born 1876, and daughters Jane, born 1875, Clara born 1880 and Catherine born 1882. By 1911 he was living there with his second wife Caroline born 1860. He is recorded as the park keeper and head gardener up to 1912, after which William Faulkener took over until 1937. Abel Garnett, born 1903 living with his wife Doris, born 1904 was listed as gardener and park keeper from 1938 until at least 1944, with James Hogg as gardener. From 1951 to 1963 Cyril Castleton was listed as park keeper. The walled garden became a plant nursery and training area for Sheffield Parks from 1975. From 1999 it has been run by an enthusiastic group of volunteers. See: https://www.meersbrookpark co.uk
Please note that on all the early maps, the building is at first called ‘Meersbrook House’ and then ‘Ruskin Museum.’ The current name, ‘Meersbrook Hall’ first appeared in records from the 1880s and then after the Council left in 2016.
Sources
Drury C, Parker, M.D., W S (1927) The Parish Register of Sheffield, transcribed by Charles Drury and William S Parker M.D. Indexed by Edith M Ordish. Edited by T Walter Hall F.R. Hist. S. privately printed for the Hunter Archaeological Society of Sheffield. Available at the Sheffield Archives Library at 52 Shoreham Street Sheffield S1 4SP.
Fairbank W (1759) Benj. Roebuck’s purchase surveyed on 02/05/1759. Ref: FC/FB/15. Available at the Sheffield Archives Library at 52 Shoreham Street Sheffield S1 4SP.
Flavell N (2009) A Sheffield banking scandal, the fall of the house of Parker, Shore. Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological society v 23, p 45-52. Available at the Sheffield Archives Library at 52 Shoreham Street Sheffield S1 4SP.
Simpson L L (1908) Register of Norton, Co., Derby transcribed by Llewellyn Lloyd Simpson. Printed by Harper and Sons, Derby. Available at the Sheffield Local Studies Library, Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 1XZ.
Smith H (2003) The Sheffield and Chesterfield to Derby Roads. West Bar Printing Services. ISBN 0-9521541-5-3.
Various authors (2013) Meersbrook Park Sheffield Green Flag Management plan. The Roebuck family tree on the Ancestry.com website accessed on the 6 th to 8 th June 2022.
Ordnance Survey maps from 1875, 1894, 1898 and 1904.
Sheffield Trade Directories from 1900 to 1951.
The electoral register from 1945 to 1971. Available at the Sheffield Local Studies Library, Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 1XZ.
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