Whiteley Wood Grange, Sheffield

The mention of Charles Thompson Coach Propietor jolted my memory of my family who lived on Pinstone Street opposite the new Town Hall.

 

Where Maplins shop is today was a large archway which led into Reuben Thompson's Yard who was a very successful Coach Proprietor.

 

My family often spoke about the business.

 

Does anyone know if he was any relation to Charles Thompson of Whiteley Woods?

 

Happy Days! PopT

 

Courtesy of Sheffield Indexers:

Thompson, Reuben (, Cab & omnibus proprietor, motor garage & undertaker).

Address: 30 & 32 Pinstone Street, 535 Queens Road &c., in 1905.

Recorded in: Whites Directory of Sheffield &Rotherham.

 

I have a receipt for a funeral of April 1928 from Reuben Thompson Ltd., the address is: Glossop Road, Pinstone Street, Queens Road and Midland Station, established in 1825.

Regards,

Duffems

Reuben Thompson's Yard who was a very successful Coach Proprietor....Does anyone know if he was any relation to Charles Thompson of Whiteley Woods?...

Yes he was, at least by marriage. Reuben Thompson, cab & omnibus proprietor, turns up in Sheffield census returns from 1891 onwards. Curiously, his place of birth is given as "Rhode Island, America". He married Emily Thompson in Sheffield in 1875; she was the daughter of Charles Thompson of Whiteley Wood Grange. Edited August 26, 2014 by hillsbro

Thankyou again for your replies to my query about Reuben Thompson & his Father in Law Charles.

 

Little snippets of information add so much to my family history, living in the centre of an emerging Sheffield in the 1890's & early 1900's-

 

Happy Days! PopT

Even Picture Sheffield can't find anything but a picture of Lieut Shirley ...., killed in action.

 

(Sorry can't remember surname)

Hi all

Just joined the site and found this info,

Im decended from charles thompson on my mums side, and I believe my great great grandfather was rueben thomphson, who you mentioned above.

My family have a lot of the old photos of the family members at my aunties house, unfortunatley a lot of the weath of his businesses was lost over the years and theres nothing to show for it.

Im 20 and currently studying history at sheffield uni and am so intruiged to find this out about my family, Ive never actually checked through the old items at my aunties house ill definatley have to do so.

As for reuben thompsons birth place being 'rhode island' thats very exciting ill have to talk to my nan about it when I see her next.

At the risk of turning this into a family reunion, Charles Thompson (1815-1897) was my great, great grandfather. The family business had been started in a small way by Charles father James, which Charles carried on, as did his brother Thomas (1827-1902).

The difference between them was that Thomas emigrated twice to take up farming, in the 1850s to Rhode Island where sons Reuben and Henry were born (although both were christened back in Sheffield) and in the 1860s to Melbourne. He only got as far as South Africa and when he heard that his connecting ship (the London) had sunk in January 1866 (see local papers for reports of how bad the weather was at this time), he must have taken it as an omen and returned to Sheffield, where he resumed his business.

Inn the meantime, brother Charles had expanded his own firm greatly but desired to live in 'a large gentleman's residence'. So he set about building Whitely Wood Grange.

To do this he retired from business and sold the assets, including 90 carriages (Landaus, Broughams,4-horse buses, wedding carriages, mourning coaches, wagonettes, gigs and drays) fetching 'upwards of £10500' (Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, 2 October 1873). Most were bought by his competitor WH Haigh, and his brother Thomas.

Unusually, Thomas's son Reuben married his cousin, Charles daughter Emily, so the two parts of the family tree come back together at that point. Reuben greatly expanded the family business of weddings, funerals, horse-buses and hackney/taxi cabs, turning the business into a limited company (Reuben Thompson Ltd) in 1914, based mainly on Glossop Road and later, Pinstone Street. It was wound up in 1959. Reuben is also said to have had the first motor-cab in Sheffield, and an image can be found on pictureSheffield.com.

We don't have any photos of Whitely Wood Grange. We have snippets - there were maids, and a gardener who lived in a cottage nearby, and fruit trees in the garden. After Charles died in 1897, it passed to a Dr Roper,and later was derelict. A relative remembered seeing broken stained glass windows. No doubt a sad end.

One day I'll put all this onto the web.

I hope it has been of some assistance.

 

---------- Post added 22-10-2014 at 20:16 ----------

 

By the way, it goes without saying that if anyone does uncover an old photo of Whitely Wood Grange, we'd be rather interested in seeing it! Thanks.

Hi all, I believe I have found photos of whitely wood grange, however I first need to post at least five posts on the forum, as it will not allow me to post links until I have done so (to avoid spam).

 

---------- Post added 10-02-2016 at 14:01 ----------

 

Hi all, after some research I believe I have found photos of whitley wood grange.

 

The first photo is an aerial photo, from 1950. It shows the hanginwater Road allotments in the foreground, and one can see the long driveway leading to a house, on the junction of Carr bank lane, and hanginwater road.

 

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/download/EAW031267

 

The second photo is somewhat better, it was taken in 1893, looking towards hanginwater road from a hill behind the shepherds wheel. (Note) the fields which are now allotments are the fields in the foreground. Notice the long driveway, again leading to the junction of what is Carr bank lane, and hanginwater road. There appears to be a large house, with another rooftop just visible behind it, (most likely another wing of the house). You will probably need to zoom the photo in order to get a better look.

 

http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s11694&pos=2&action=zoom&bt=europeanaapi

Edited February 10, 2016 by A wilson

Whiteley Wood Grange, Sheffield.

 

It was during the summer of 1972, when I was sat patiently as a patient, waiting in the waiting room at the Doc's. The doc's was the surgery on White Lane, Gleadless Townend. The surgery was directly next door to Dobson's television shop which was next door to the Midland bank which was next door to Styan's bread and bun bakery shop.

 

At that time the Doctor's surgery was ran by Doctors Whitaker, Smith, Mathews, Porteous and Crowther. Dr Mathews was the doctor I generally dealt with. On that summer's day in 1972, he called me into his surgette. I had gone to see him because I had become somewhat bamboozled by red blotches covering the length of my lean body, front and back. The amiable short shirt sleeved Dr Mathews left the room to summon Dr Smith. Moments later, they both came into the room, looked at the blotches then spoke about roseola and other stuff. They were totally baffled by my Spotty Muldoon appearance, and asked me if the blotches were causing me discomfort.I told them the rash was itchless, but my vanity was badly damaged. After the doctors had had a short confab, the stern, pinstripe suited Dr Smith cleared off. Dr Mathews then wrote out a short letter for me to take immediately to the Royal Hospital on Westfield Terrace/West Street in town.

 

At the hospital, i showed the letter to a cute mini-skirted receptionist with a generous mouth. She then gave to me directions to a room alongst a few corridors, where i was to ask for a dermatological dermatologist named Dr Sneddon. Having reached the room, I showed Dr Mathews' letter to another cute receptionist, this time with thin lips,who was seated behind a walnut wooden desk, making it impossible for me to ascertain, whether she was also mini beskirted. Having read the letter she invited me to take a seat. I sat down in a red upholstered archair with pine wooden arms.

 

After a wait of about 10 minutes, an unattractive lady aged approximately 40 winters, also arrived in the room, and took a seat, possibly also in red. Immediately after having sat down, the plain looking lady offered a friendly smile to my face, then she smiled with a look of recognition to the receptionist. The receptionist returned the smile, then said, " Hello dr Sneddon". I was somewhat confused by this, and wondered whether I was in a Monty Python or a Candid camera type sketch. Having taken a few moments to gather my thoughts, I asked Dr Sneddon if she was the dermatological dermatologist [i had come to see]. After a short attempted girlish laugh, she said, " No, no, that's my bed partner [husband], "I am a doctor of psychiatry [or psychology]". I then presumed she had come to visit her bloke.

 

A few minutes later, having become bored listening to the receptionist's typewriter rattling away, i asked Dr Sneddon if she was always busy in this [big] hospital. Her response was to tell me, that she did her work at Whiteley Wood clinic, but many of her patients she initially met here at the Royal. I presumed she meant people who may of been off their trolleys.

 

I told Dr Sneddon that I had heard of Middlewood Hospital [from school; Thart a nutter thee, thar belongs locked up in Middlewood]. She then told me she also knew Middlewood Hospital, but her clinic was in an affluent area of Sheffield, with big gardens, rosebeds and rolling lawns etc. She continued in quite a voluble way, making me feel tempted to go and have a look at the place. I resisted the temptation though.

 

Towards the end of our conversation, I was left with the impression that Whiteley Wood clinic, was a better class of puzzle factory than Middlewood Hospital was.

 

Then the Dr Sneddon I had come to see, appeared in the doorway.

 

 

Greetings from padded cell number 5.

 

 

Ps. I feel honoured to have been on the same thread as Boyfriday and Hillsbro. 2 great posters. I so enjoy reading all their posts, when those big men here with bushy black beards, wearing long white smocks, loosen my straps. I do so wish they would learn how to put my straightjacket on strait. Ugh.

 

Zakes, I was also a patient of the dermatologist, Dr. Sneddon. While an inpatient at Whiteley Wood Clinic, I was given a medication to which I was allergic. It resulted in a serious systemic reaction, one of the symptoms of which was exfoliation (peeling off) of the skin. I was transferred to the Infirmary and placed under Dr. Sneddon's care. After over a month of this, I recovered to the point where I could be transferred back again to WWC. Doctors make mistakes and in my case, it was giving me a drug that had a bad history of causing allergic reactions. No longer used nowadays.

1. Regarding photos of Whiteley Wood Grange - I cant help you...as yet.

 

2. Here are 2 unusual photos 1 2 of Whiteley Wood Clinic. These may be of interest to Hilsbro and to SoftAypeth (Rog G).

 

3. This is a booklet of Whiteley Wood Hall - 40 pages and 20 photographs.

 

4. Further to my post number 23 - the rash I had vanished withn a few days. It must have been caused by something I was allergic to. I recall I had etten loads of Ski yoghurts I'd bought at the local Fine Fare...bilberry flavour. Greetings from Padded Cell number 5.

Back in June 2013, you wrote about Whiteley Wood Grange in a reply to BoyFriday:

The 1925 directory gives "Arnold McTurk Spencer, J.P."

 

You may be interested that

 

In November 1916, the Telegraph reported that “Mr Arnold M. Spencer J.P. of Whiteley Wood Grange. Hangingwater Road, Sheffield, has received official intimation that his only son, Lieutenant Shirley McTurk Spencer, has been severely wounded in the arm and foot during the recent heavy fighting in France. Lieutenant Spencer, who is nineteen years of age had just completed his studies at Marlborough College, when he responded to the country's call, joining the Officers' Training Corps, attached to Sheffield University. He was serving with the Royal Field Artillery when he received his wounds. Lieutenant Spencer has participated in some heavy fighting, both at Ypres and on the Somme.”