The History of Bank House

Bank House stood at Hunshelf Bottom at the western end of Ford Lane next to the old bridge. Many people know that this large building was the home of the local doctor (from 1906 until  1931) after which Fox’s used it for the Electrical Engineers’ offices, but I could find absolutely nothing about its earlier history. I started to look into this, and I believe that it was built by a local man called John Milnes, but it took me a while to work this out.

John Milnes (1826-1882) was a draper and grocer. Whilst researching the history of the building which is now known as Samuel’s Kitchen, the whereabouts of John Milnes’s shop developed into a little side project. The only clues to its location were that it was somewhere on the Hunshelf side of the river, in the vicinity of Ford Lane, and was “very close” to the entrance gates to Fox’s and that it was leasehold, Fox’s owning the land it stood on.

When John’s property went to auction in 1893, a sales notice described a large shop, a warehouse and a store room. A large stone-built house was attached, with four bedrooms, one living and sitting room, and a kitchen. There were cellars. Gas was laid on throughout, and the house and shop were warmed by a heating apparatus in the warehouse. There was a stable, garden and yard. The whole covered an area of about 1,327 square yards. Finding its exact location seemed impossible, but I believe that the answer was staring me in the face all the time!

John had been born at Whitwell Cottage on 21 March 1826 the son of Joseph Milnes, a tailor, and his first wife Martha. He was baptised at Netherfield Congregational Chapel in Penistone a few months later. John married Sarah Hardwicke in 1847, and they had four children; William (1848-1849), George Hardwicke (1850-1890), John Thomas (1855-1915) and Mary Hannah (1859). The 1851 census records John as living at Carr Head, Deepcar, and working as a tailor.

The first mention of John living at Hunshelf comes in the Post Office Directory for 1857 in which he is listed as being a shopkeeper at Hunshelf. He does not appear in the Electoral Registers until 1862, so although he would be renting, he didn’t pay enough to allow him a vote. Put very simply, at this time, men over the age of 21 were listed in an Electoral Register as being entitled to vote if they either occupied a property on which they paid a certain amount of rent per annum, or if they owned a property. He starts to appear in the Electoral Registers from 1862 as being an “Owner of Leasehold House and Garden and Shop” at “Stocksbridge, in Hunshelf.”

When John moved to Hunshelf he first rented a shop from William Newton of Berton-under-Edge in a building known as Bank Bottom Cottages, also known as Newton’s Cottages. This building later became Rusby’s shop, then Hanwell’s and is now the home of Samuel’s Kitchen. William Newton was a farmer, and he lived at Berton-under-Edge farm with his wife Martha and family.  He ran a public house from the farm, and also built what was to become The Rising Sun a bit further down the hill from his farm, although he died before he could open it; it was his widow, Martha, who licensed it and lived there. There was a cottage next to it known as Rising Sun Cottage. These two buildings do not appear on the 1854 OS map, but can be seen on a photograph dated 1860.  On this photograph, just to the east of the Rising Sun Cottage, can be seen some building materials which would be where another two dwellings known as Prospect Cottages, were shortly to be erected. In later years an extra dwelling was added to Prospect, and by 1920 a fourth one had been added.

William Newton died on 25 September 1864, and made his Will the day before he died. He left his widow Martha specifically “all those four freehold cottages lately erected by me and situate at Stocksbridge aforesaid, with the outbuildings, vacant grounds and appurtenances thereto respectively belonging, two of the same being now or late in the occupation of John Milnes and the remaining two in the respective occupations of Thomas Marsden and [blank] Patterson …” John Milnes was one of the witnesses to the Will. Unfortunately, the 1860 photograph cuts off just before where the building stands, so we don’t know if it was in existence in that year, but it does seem likely that it was there in 1861 when the census was taken, because the three men listed as tenants – John Milnes, Isaac Patterson and Thomas Marsden – were recorded consecutively on the census at Hunshelf Bottom. Unfortunately, the deeds, which would have given a date for its construction, have been lost. Perhaps it was in existence even earlier, if this was the building in which John Milnes was listed in when the 1857 trade directory was published.

Bank Bottom Cottages consisted of four dwellings, what we would now call apartments or flats, with a lean-to shop attached to one of them. Whether the shop was built at the same time as the apartments has not been ascertained. There were two dwellings on the ground floor/first floor, which were “one-up-one-down” and two on the top two floors which were larger, and accessed by stairs at the back of the building. The shop was attached to the right-hand ground floor dwelling. Incidentally, Isaac Patterson and Thomas Marsden were among the first founders of the Stocksbridge Band of Hope Co-operative Society in 1860.

Newton’s Will says that John Milnes was renting two of the four “cottages” in 1864, but what is contradictory is that the Electoral Registers begin recording John as an owner of a house, garden and shop earlier than this, in 1862. Perhaps he ran both shops for a while. By the time the 1871 census was taken, one of Newton’s sons, Joseph Newton, was running a butcher’s shop from the premises, and in 1881 another of Newton’s sons, William, also had a butcher’s shop here. William Newton senior’s widow Martha was to receive the rents from Bank Bottom Cottages for the rest of her life. Martha died in 1910 and the building went to auction in 1912, to close the Trust left by her late husband; it was bought by Leonard Rusby in 1912.

For more details on the history of Bank Bottom Cottages see here

Bank Bottom Cottages were in the ownership of the Newtons until 1912, so when John made his Will in 1870, in which he mentioned owning a house and shop, it was obvious he had moved out of the Cottages – but where did he go?

Extensive research ruled out not only Bank Bottom Cottages, but also other contenders such as Hunshelf House (a house and shop on Hunshelf Bank between Brick Lump and Brownhill Row) and Prospect Cottages. A forensic search of all the census returns, old photographs and maps led me to the conclusion that I had been ignoring a large building in the right area – one which became known as “Bank House.” This substantial stone-built property stood almost opposite Bank Bottom Cottages at the end of Ford Lane. It was the home of one of the local doctors from around 1906-1931. After that it was used for various purposes by the steelworks. I realised that the first instance of the name being recorded as Bank House didn’t occur until January 1906, so what was its earlier purpose? John Milnes’s house and shop seemed to fit the bill nicely.

The earliest known photograph of what became Bank House dates to 1868. Unfortunately, it is taken from a distance and the details are indistinct and impossible to tell where the stable and warehouse were. All the other photographs were taken after John Milnes’s death in 1882 when the building was sold to Fox’s who perhaps demolished these.

John died at his home on 11 February 1882 at the age of 54. He had been ill for several weeks. Obituaries mentioned that for many years he had been one of the superintendents of the Ebenezer Sunday School, a deacon of the church, and one of the trustees. He was one of the first men voted on to the newly-formed Stocksbridge Local Board in 1873, one of the other men being Samuel Fox. The Local Board later became the Urban District Council. He had been a member of the Local Board and also of the Hunshelf School Board ever since their formation, and had been for several years one of the Overseers of the Poor for Hunshelf.  He was a member of the Ancient Order of Shepherds, a Friendly Society, some of whose members acted as coffin bearers at his funeral. He was a Liberal in politics, and said be “of amiable and generous disposition,” winning the respect of those who differed from him in civil and religious matters. He was buried at Bolsterstone, and five coaches followed the hearse on its journey from Stocksbridge to Bolsterstone. Representatives of the Hunshelf School Board, the Stocksbridge Local Board, and the Thurlstone School Board followed, some in carriages and some on foot.

John’s Will was dated 25 October 1870. No address was given, he simply stated that he lived at Stocksbridge. He left all his real and personal estate to his brother Thomas Milnes and to John Wright of Sheffield, plumber and glazier, upon trust, and they were instructed that, within 2 months of his death, they were to offer all his stock-in-trade to his eldest son George, and to grant him the lease on his shop and house at Stocksbridge. This was to be for the lifetime of John’s wife Sarah, and the price of all this was to be decided by a valuer. Should George decline this offer, then John’s wife was to be permitted to carry on the business of grocer and draper. If she did not want to do so, then the offer that had been made to George should be made to the younger son John Thomas. If no one was interested in this deal then the trustees were to sell the shop and house and the stock-in-trade, his widow Sarah retaining all the household goods. After Sarah’s death, all the real and personal estate was to be sold, and the proceeds divided equally amongst the children. A Codicil was added on 20 February 1877 which removed Thomas Milnes and John Wright as trustees and executors of the Will, replacing them with Francis Hill of Stocksbridge, a Manager, and Robert Bocking of Bate Green, Bolsterstone, a farmer. The gross value of the estate was just over £1,503 (£1,187 net). The Bank of England’s Inflation Calculator estimates £1,503 to equate to around £151,453 today.

George did not take up the offer to take over the shop. After marrying Mary Elizabet Lievesley in 1871 he moved to Sheffield, living at Beet Street (near the Brook Hill roundabout at the top of Shalesmoor). He worked as a district manager for the Licensed Victuallers’ Insurance Company and as a grocer and ironmonger. He retained a link to his home, being secretary to the Hunshelf School Board. George died in 1890 at the age of 39 after undergoing an operation which was not successful.

John’s widow Sarah also did not take up the offer to run the shop, perhaps because she was ready to retire. The 1891 census recorded her at Bailey Row (which I think was an alternative name for Bath Terrace), aged 65, and living on her own means. She was living with her niece and companion Emily Hardwicke. She later moved to Hunshelf Terrace, to what I think was Gentleman’s Row.

It seems as if it was the youngest son, John Thomas, who took over his father’s shop, although he also ran a grocer’s shop on the Haywoods Park estate. His father seems to have run a shop here too, which John Thomas took after he got married. John Milnes had applied for a licence for a shop at Haywoods Park in 1876 but because he had failed to produce sufficient evidence as to the posting of a notice, his application was refused.

John Thomas married Mary Hannah Walker at Honley in 1878 and they lived at 110/111 Haywoods Park, Deepcar where they ran a corner shop. The 1881 census recorded him as a grocer, draper & beer dealer and the electoral registers list him as entitled to vote on an occupational qualification (occupier of a house and shop, not an owner) at Haywoods Park. After his father’s death the records place him in two places, Hunshelf and Haywoods Park, so it seems as if he ran the two shops simultaneously. There was no occupation recorded for his wife, which was quite normal at this time, even if the wife was working, and I would imagine that his wife ran the shop at their home at Haywoods Park and John Thomas ran the shop at Hunshelf. It appears that no one lived in the house attached to the shop after John’s death. In 1884 John Thomas of Hunshelf, grocer, was fined ten shillings plus costs for possessing a pair of “unjust scales.” Unfortunately, John Thomas got into financial difficulties in 1893. He escaped being declared bankrupt, but most of his personal and trade goods were auctioned off in October 1893 including household furniture, shop fittings, grocery and drapery stock.

The Hunshelf house and shop went to auction on 11 September 1893; could John Thomas’s financial troubles have forced its sale? The property did not belong to him, but was held in trust by the executors of his father’s will, so perhaps an agreement was made with John’s widow Sarah and his daughter Mary Hannah to sell up and divide the money. John Thomas was still recorded as being a grocer at Haywoods Park until 1895. After this he and his family moved away to the Huddersfield area where he found work as a labourer. He died in 1915 aged 59.

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