Just interested to know if anyone knows the reason behind Hunters Bar having it's name...? Anybody?

Not sure about this, but I think there was a toll house there where travellers had to stop to pay a toll to use the road - I seem to think the 'bar' was (or still is) in the middle of the traffic island. Hunter maybe the name of the tollkeeper (or whatever the right name is for someone who collects tolls) - I'm sure there must be someone who'll confirm this or come up with another explanation

Hunter's Bar is a suburb of Sheffield, named so because of the toll gate (bar) that used to be in effect on Ecclesall Road, in the late 19th Century, which now resides on Hunter's Bar roundabout. The district includes a large park, and Hunters Bar Infant and Junior Schools, as well as many shops, restaurants and off-licenses.

Same thing with Wakefield, where I'm from.

Eastgate, Westgate, all down to where there were gates and bars into the town. And thats not drinking bars!

It was a toll bar/toll gate on the Sheffield to Chapel-en-le-Frith turnpike road close by an old house called Hunter's House which later became a hotel.

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/picturesheffield.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.refno=s16140

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/picturesheffield.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.refno=s16162

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/picturesheffield.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.refno=u02625

Hunter House Hotel, No 685-691, Ecclesall Road. Built 1700s as a three-storey stone house. Plain front with three windows. Past owners include the Hunter family.

Similar thing in York, the gates through the city walls are called bars, Micklegate Bar, Monk Bar, Bootham Bar.

Isn't the 'original' gate still on the roundabout?

It is - and I know some people who "kidnapped" it for a few days during rag week when I was at University. It spent a few days in someone's back yard. Strangely, the Police spotted it over the yard wall and gently suggested that it be taken back!

One reason the original bar itself might have been placed on the traffic island is that that is , more or less , its original site . I know the entrance to the park , up to about the 1960's [ ?] was much , " further out " i.e. , about where the island is now . Obviously , the powers-that-be decided that Ecclesall Road and Brocco Bank needed widening at the junction and so the park lost some space .
I think on old photographs , the tram-lines are shown exactly where you'd expect them to be i.e going up [and down] the middle of Ecclesall Road . Then they went straight across the junction and naturally passed the Hunter House hotel on the left . I think as you wnt up the tram-lines , there was a house on the right , where the island is now , and that's where the man lived who collected the tolls .
The photograph I saw was dated 1905 and I often used to think that one of the little lads depicted in the photograph could have been my father , who was born very near Hunter's Bar in 1899 .

Isn't the 'original' gate still on the roundabout?

The original gateposts are, I think the gate is a replica.

dont ask the artic monkeys

they dont know the distance but they are sure its far!

the ZC

The photograph I saw was dated 1905 and I often used to think that one of the little lads depicted in the photograph could have been my father , who was born very near Hunter's Bar in 1899 .

Some more photos :)

This is the only late view of the toll house I can find looking up Ecclesall road, - Hunters House can be seen on the left and beyond it the chimneys of houses at the back of it (probably Hunter House road) which suggests a date of 1880s. Tolls weren't collected after October 1884.

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/picturesheffield.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.refno=s16163

I think the Toll house was demolished when Ecclesall road was widened to accomodate the tram. Nothing to be seen of the old toll house in 1900 -

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/picturesheffield.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.refno=s17478

the gateposts were used at the entrance to Endcliffe Park for many years and can be seen in this photo

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/picturesheffield.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.refno=s11180

which is very much as I remember in the 40s/50s.

Thanks for putting on the photographs , Greybeard .
Yes , I think my memory must be a bit faulty and I've mixed up a number of photographs about Hunter's Bar . Maybe the one I remember was taken about 1910 and was just a general view of Hunter's Bar . Now I've had a bit more time to think about it , I remember thinking that IF my father was , co-incidentally in the picture , he would have been a boy of 10 or 11.
There was another thread a few months ago which overlaps with this one about the history of Endclffe Park.

Same thing with Wakefield, where I'm from.

Eastgate, Westgate, all down to where there were gates and bars into the town. And thats not drinking bars!

and fargate , named as it was a gate far away from the main tollgate into sheffield, to stop people sneaking in without payin :D :surprised

There was another thread a few months ago which overlaps with this one about the history of Endclffe Park.

I've revived that thread and put links to some pics of the Endcliffe swimming pool on it.

Similar thing in York, the gates through the city walls are called bars, Micklegate Bar, Monk Bar, Bootham Bar.

These were the medieval 'bars'. Essentially used to extract tolls from country folk bringing their produce into the town market. I think Sheffield's only surviving name of this type is Westbar.

The toll 'bars' of the 18th and 19th century were to enforce a charge for using the road. Passage was usually blocked by a gate or a chain across the road, not a bar that could be raised and lowered. Of this type the only two names I can think of that survive in this area are Hunters Bar and Owler Bar....any others ? :)

Same thing with Wakefield, where I'm from.

Eastgate, Westgate, all down to where there were gates and bars into the town. And thats not drinking bars!

The 'gates' are all called so because they derive from the old Norse 'gata', meaning street, rather than toll gate.

Yes i remember that from doing some research into Beccles in Suffolk. A small town with most of the roads called (blahblah)gate. I didn't imagine it had that many gates but as you said it actually means street.

The 'gates' are all called so because they derive from the old Norse 'gata', meaning street, rather than toll gate.

Like Whipmawhopmagate in York?

Without doubt the most ridiculous name for a street in the world. Makes me smile :)

Apparently it's thought to have been the place where dogs called whappets were whipped on St Lukes Day.

Only in Yorkshire.

Hunter House Hotel, No 685-691, Ecclesall Road. Built 1700s as a three-storey stone house. Plain front with three windows. Past owners include the Hunter family.

I wonder why they were so important as to have a toll gate and then a suburb named after them.

Mr Hunters house is still there, it`s part of the HUNTER HOUSE HOTEL, hence the name of the hotel.His house is the right hand half of the Hotel which has now been taken over by some religeous group, Mr Hunters House has the groups name on it.

I wonder why they were so important as to have a toll gate and then a suburb named after them.
It wasnt that they were important, it was a case of local people used Mr HUNTERS BAR as a reference point in general talk and giving directions i.e. " The Banner Cross pub is just up the road from Hunters Bar" it was in general parlance for years subsequentley the Council at the time officially adopted it as a area of Sheffield.

I wonder why they were so important as to have a toll gate and then a suburb named after them.

For no better reason than that the nearest notable feature to the toll gate was Hunter's House ?

Why it became the name of a suburb is a difficult process to analyse with any certainty. Being the first toll bar on the road out to Deryshire, Hunters Bar would be a place that stuck in peoples minds and was remembered. When initially constructed in 1811 it would have been in almost entirely rural surroundings and was possibly built on land owned by whoever then occupied Hunter's House. Later and until 1899/1900 it was the terminus for a horse-drawn tram so the 'place-name' would be reinforced, but meanwhile in the period 1850 to 1880 new housing and shops etc had been creeping up Ecclesall road, and the tram route would have accelerated this process in the 1880s. People living in the new housing there would think of themselves as living at 'Hunter's Bar'. The property developers may also have used the name to give a readily identifiable location in their advertisements.

Several 'suburbs' in Sheffield derive their names from 'single feature' locations and are associated with early tram termini; - two that readily spring to mind are Malin Bridge and Nether Edge.

I take it you live somewhere near there kensnroses? Wheer exactly?

I remember when Tommy Nelson/Harris (Thomas Craig) joined Coronation St a few years ago.
His character came from the Hunter's Bar area of Sheffield. "Full of smackheads" apparently!

Just interested to know if anyone knows the reason behind Hunters Bar having it's name...? Anybody?
Ibelieve it got its name when the hunt used to dismount for various reasons ,then remount from the [bar] think there used to be a large stone there before a wooden bar gate took its place a number of years ago.

Of this type the only two names I can think of that survive in this area are Hunters Bar and Owler Bar....any others ? :)

West Bar

Catch Bar (Lane)

have the gates at firth park been replaced recently? they aren't the original ones are they? Always wondered why they were there ..

and there's the toll bar at Pitsmoor, immortalised in the name of the pub, and the quaint little cottage on the junction of barnsley road and burngreave rd.

and on Collegiate Crescent, there are two, single-storey buildings which I assume are toll cottages, one at either end:- at its junction with Ecclesall Road, and one at its start, by Brunswick Street (although, they could be gatehouses for the original private estate.. i don't know)

PT

West Bar

Catch Bar (Lane)

I'm pretty sure West Bar was a medieval bar like the bars in York, thanks for the reminder about Catch Bar lane.

There seem to be three tollhouses remaining in Sheffield from the turnpike era, the one at Pitsmoor mentioned by PT, the little tollhouse on langsett road,

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/picturesheffield.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.refno=s16151

which has had the front bay removed, and the Roundhouse at Ringinglow.

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/picturesheffield.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.refno=s16150