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How did Dead Mans Hole Lane get its name

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Just found an old article in Rotherham Advertiser from 1957 - by WF Smith who grew up there in the early 1900s - he says was a nesting place for wild birds in the middle of the countryside. He was told there was an old mass grave there from a battle in Roman times. It was pretty much at the end of his lane.

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As kids we called it dead mans hollow and were told a postman fell off his bike and died there but perhaps that was just to scare us as It was out of bounds.

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RE Deadmans Hole Lane

 Coming from South Sheffield myself and friends became aware of this strange sounding lane from Geographia's Sheffield and Rotherham street by street guide. My copy of which is still in my possession. It is shown on page 15. Google earth shows scrubland with no indication of a lane but with a bridge over the don leading to the sewage works.  I also have a print out showing a Deadmans Hole Lane going north of the Sheffield road just past Fraser road on the other side. This must be the one mentioned by Basalt in his entry of Feb12 2005. The two could have well been connected once, having the same very unusual name indicates the probability of this. 

 The Name Itself.

  Being situated in industrial sheffield with a lot of railway lines in the vicinity and most likely more in the past ones mind turns to the " Dead Man's Handle"  a safety device in engines. It had to be held down or the engine would stop so if a driver Died when in control of a moving train he would release ( THROUGH NO FAULT OF HIS OWN, HAVING  DECEASED ect) the handle and the loco and pursuing train would stop. Clever eh ?

Who knows! maybe a siding were Locos went to have adjustments made to this safety device.

   Keep Safe

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ON reflection I do not think that this unusual name has anything to do withe so called "Dead Mans Handle". They were not fitted to steam locomotives.

  On the Ordnance Survey series of 6 inch maps,1888-1913 ( freely available on line) Dead Mans Hole Lane is shown going south of Steel St through Holmes rolling mills crossing the canal at Holmes Lock Bridge then south for approximately 1/5 of a mile to the site of Holmes farm where it turned west again for approx 1/5 of a mile to the railway branch that led to the rolling mills, after that it is shown as a track down to the river.

 Now on the other side of the Don on the site of Temple borough steel works is the site of a Roman camp (Fort?) which brings to mind Simon Heywoods interesting post of Aug26 2013 wherein he state that a certain Mr W.F.Smith who grew up there in the early 1900s had been told that there was an old mass grave there containing the bodies of the fallen in a battle from roman times. With the proximity of the fort I think that this is the most likely explanation

Edited by J. READ
spelling mistake

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On 17/02/2008 at 01:43, Marooned said:

I love the one at Connisborough, Butt Hole Lane, evidently named after the shooting butts.

Butt Hole Road until the po-faced residents had the name changed in 2009 to Archers Way. I wonder how many tourists photograph the nameplate now.

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14 hours ago, J. READ said:

ON reflection I do not think that this unusual name has anything to do withe so called "Dead Mans Handle". They were not fitted to steam locomotives.

  On the Ordnance Survey series of 6 inch maps,1888-1913 ( freely available on line) Dead Mans Hole Lane is shown going south of Steel St through Holmes rolling mills crossing the canal at Holmes Lock Bridge then south for approximately 1/5 of a mile to the site of Holmes farm where it turned west again for approx 1/5 of a mile to the railway branch that led to the rolling mills, after that it is shown as a track down to the river.

 Now on the other side of the Don on the site of Temple borough steel works is the site of a Roman camp (Fort?) which brings to mind Simon Heywoods interesting post of Aug26 2013 wherein he state that a certain Mr W.F.Smith who grew up there in the early 1900s had been told that there was an old mass grave there containing the bodies of the fallen in a battle from roman times. With the proximity of the fort I think that this is the most likely explanation

Oh right, so Dead Man's Hole Lane went down to the bank of the Don? I've heard that there was a spot somewhere on the banks of the Don known as Dead Man's Hole. Apparently it was on a bend in the river but I have to admit I have no idea where it was. Bodies of drowned people had a tendency to wash up in Dead Man's Hole. Could there be a link somehow or was it a bit of an urban legend? 

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On 05/04/2020 at 09:14, apearson said:

Oh right, so Dead Man's Hole Lane went down to the bank of the Don? I've heard that there was a spot somewhere on the banks of the Don known as Dead Man's Hole. Apparently it was on a bend in the river but I have to admit I have no idea where it was. Bodies of drowned people had a tendency to wash up in Dead Man's Hole. Could there be a link somehow or was it a bit of an urban legend? 

I understand that the roman burial ground theory is the correct one. I read an article somewhere that said the name originated from human remains, washed out of the cemetery on the banks of the Don when the river flooded. There was a Roman Fort and vicus(associated settlement) in the area. 

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