The History of Hunshelf House

Hunshelf House was situated at the top end of Hunshelf Road between Brick Houses (known locally as Brick Lump) and Brownhill Row. It was newly-built by John Brownhill in about 1860 (it does not appear on an Ordnance Survey map of 1854). Apart from being known as The Butchers Arms until 1864, this building doesn’t seem to have had an official name until around 1911 when records begin to give it the name Hunshelf House, although I shall refer to it as such for the sake of clarity. Confusingly, there was another building known as Hunshelf House, which was next to the Rising Sun public house. It was built much later, in about 1896, by Joseph Newton, the former landlord of the Rising Sun.

The Butcher’s Arms 1860-1864

John Brownhill was a butcher, and until 1860 he had lived in Penistone near the Rose and Crown Inn where he had a butcher’s shop. Hunshelf House stood in its own grounds and was fairly substantial, with a stable, slaughter-house and piggeries, covering 3,229 square yards in total. The first mention of him living at Hunshelf is in an 1860 trade directory, which records John Brownhill, butcher, grocer and beer retailer, Hunshelf.  He used part of the building as a beerhouse.

John was in trouble with the magistrates almost immediately when he was charged with failing to comply with the rules about opening hours. On 17 November 1860 it was alleged that his beerhouse was still open after 10pm. He said that he had mistakenly thought closing time was 11pm, and he was let off providing he paid the expenses. Originally the Butchers Arms was a beerhouse, and would not have been allowed to sell stronger liquors, but a full wine and spirit licence was granted in 1863.

One Monday in April 1864 John sent his assistant, William Horton, to Rotherham to purchase a bullock. Horton drove the bullock and another beast all the way to the Wortley Toll Bar before carrying on to Hunshelf with just the bullock, which was quiet and steady all the way. He arrived back at around 6 or 7pm. Horton let the beast into the yard and went into the stable. His boss was drinking a glass of beer in the taproom with Benjamin Batty, a local famer, and saw Horton return and went out to see to the animal, and to move some children off a wall. The beast turned on him and gored his thigh with one of its horns. Mr. Batty went out into the yard and asked, “what’s amiss?” and John replied, “I’m a killed man.” He added that “them playing children have set the beast raving mad.” Several children were had been looking into the yard, the top of the wall at the back being level with the ground behind. Batty thought the bullock seemed inclined to attack again and moved Brownhill into the privy until the beast was driven into the slaughterhouse. John managed to get himself upstairs and into bed, and seemed to be improving, but then he deteriorated and died around 10pm on the Thursday. He was 71 years old and apparently “strong and hearty.” The Inquest was held at the Butchers Arms where a verdict of “accidentally injured” was returned.

After this the bar closed and the building spent much of its life as a shop. There are still people living who can recall a shop here.

A family of Shop Keepers

John’s daughters Mary Ann and Sarah carried on running the business at Hunshelf House, but his other children were also shop keepers. The eldest, William Brownhill (born 1819) ran a shop from his home at Well House, Hunshelf, from the 1850s until the 1860s. Reminiscing in 1936, Ben Hoyle, who had been born at White Row, Hunshelf, in 1847, said that there was only one shop in Stocksbridge when he was young, and that was at Brownhill’s Farm [Well House]. He could have meant the nearest shop to where he lived, and it is true that there were no other shops in the immediate vicinity. John Brownhill didn’t open his shop at Hunshelf House until 1860, John Milnes didn’t open his grocers and drapers shop at Hunshelf Bottom until about 1857, and the Stocksbridge Co-operative Stores didn’t open until the 1860s. William later lived at Edge Mount.  See the end of this page for the newspaper article about Ben.

Daughter Rachel (1821) married Richard Parnell, a farmer, in 1842, but after being widowed in 1847 she ran a shop in Penistone.

Son Joseph (1823) followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a butcher, and in 1861 the census recorded him in one of the shops near the Coach and Horses at the top of Smithy Hill running a butchers and grocers shop.

Elizabeth (1826) married Edward Vaughton, a stone mason, in 1862 but sadly she died five months later.

John’s next two daughters were Mary Ann (1829), grocer and beer retailer, and Sarah (1832), who married the butcher William Horton.

John’s youngest child was called John (1840). He too became a butcher, opening a shop at Spring Vale, Penistone. He later became the landlord of the Wentworth Arms Hotel in Penistone.

Brownhill & Horton 1864-1898

Two of John’s daughters, Mary Ann and Sarah ran a shop and off-licence from Hunshelf House for many years. Sarah married Wiliam Horton in 1870 and he ran his butchery business from here too. The shop was known as Brownhill & Horton, and its address was simply Hunshelf, Deepcar [sic]. Mary Ann, being the eldest, had the off-licence in her name. When she applied in 1869, her solicitor put her case forward to the magistrates; he said she was an “elderly maiden lady living with her sister” and that the two had “conducted the house very respectably for eight or nine years” and also that the population of the district was so small that neither the shop nor the beerhouse would keep them alone.” A License to sell off the premises was granted. Mary Ann was born in 1829 and would be about 40 years old; her sister Sarah was born in 1832 and would have been about 37 years old. Mary Ann appeared on the magistrates’ “Black List” in 1873 for breaching an (unnamed) condition of her beer-off licence, but her licence was still renewed albeit with the offence recorded on it. Repeated convictions might lead to her losing the licence.

The 1871 census records the Brownhill/Hortons at “Hunshelf Bottom” (despite the house being half way up or down Hunshelf Bank), Mary Ann being a grocer and William Horton being a butcher. An 1879 trade directory records Brownhill & Horton being grocers, butchers, beer retailers and also drapers.

For some reason the Brownhill/Hortons were not recorded at Hunshelf House when the 1881 census was taken. I can find no obvious entry for this house and shop, unless it was recorded as “Hunshelf Villa,” which was in the occupation of John Jeffery, steelworks foreman. The Brownhill/Hortons seem to have been at, or in the vicinity of, Low Laithe, a bit further east along Hunshelf Bank.  However, because the entry appears at the end of the “district” it could be that Hunshelf House was missed when the enumerator wrote up his findings, and tacked it on to the end of his book. William Horton was incorrectly recorded as Frederic but his age, occupation and place of birth (Monk Bretton) match, as do the other names on the entry (his wife, children, and his sister-in-law Mary Ann, no occupation).

In 1889 Mary Ann and Sarah’s eldest brother William Brownhill died at his home, Edge Mount. He owned considerable property and land, and this went to auction the following year. Up for sale was the property at Hunshelf Bank [Hunshelf House], 16 cottages at Brownhill Row, his residence Edge Mount, Oxspring House with two cottages and some adjoining land, and four closes of land at Hartcliffe, otherwise Hornthwaite Moor, in Thurlstone. Hunshelf House was described in the sales advert as, “dwelling house, grocer’s and butcher’s shop, with slaughter-house, stable for two horses, and piggeries, also the adjoining building land, the whole being in the occupation of Miss Brownhill and Mr. William Horton. Total area 3,229 square yards.” The property was “well adapted for business purposes, and possesses an Off Beer Licence.” The purchaser was William Horton and he paid £700, which the Bank of England’s Inflation Calculator equates to be worth around £75,587 today. He also bought the 16 cottages at Brownhill Row for £1,600.

One of the tenants of the houses at Brownhill Row when they were sold was a widow called Elizabeth Birkhead, who lived there with her son John. John married Clara Chadwick in 1889 and she went to live with him and his mother after they were wed. Clara was a staunch supporters of the Co-operative movement and she found out that the owners of these houses ran the store just below the Row. She told of how the owners brought pressure upon their tenants to trade with them. Mrs. Birkhead, however, broke away and joined the local Co-operative society instead. Clara and John were the parents of Tyson Birkhead who married one of Leonard Rusby’s daughters in 1919 and helped them run their own shop at Hunshelf Bottom. I wonder if Mrs. Birkhead ever patronised their little shop?

When the 1891 census was taken, Mary appears to have retired and was “living on her own means.” She would be about 62 years old. Her brother-in-law William Horton was still working as a butcher and draper, with his son being employed as a draper’s apprentice and one of the “visitors” on census night being a journeyman butcher. William retired in 1898 and the family, including Mary Ann, moved to Penistone High Street.

Mary Ann died at Westfield Villa in 1902. Her obituary said that she and her sister Sarah owned “considerable property” in Penistone.  William died in 1910 at a private asylum called Marsden Hall in Nelson, Lancashire. He was brought back to Penistone to be buried in Stottercliffe Cemetery. Sarah went to live in Barnsley with her daughter Olive Geraldine Elizabeth, and died there in 1915. William did not leave a Will, perhaps because he was of “unsound mind” but Mary Ann left £3,778 (equates to around £390,216.87 today) and Sarah left £6,450 (equates to around £557,184.39 today).

The following is an account of the people who lived and worked at Hunshelf House after the Brownhill/Hortons had moved out. There are some gaps, because records just aren’t available for some years, or are not detailed enough. The list has been compiled from information obtained from census returns, parish registers, trade directories, electoral registers and newspapers.

Joseph Credland 1898-1901

Joseph Credland and his wife Nellie were the next occupants, and would have been paying rent to the Brownhill/Hortons. Joseph had been born in Sheffield. His eldest child was born in Leicester in 1897, and the next one was born locally in 1899, which narrows down his move to Stocksbridge. When the 1901 census was taken he was living at Hunshelf [House], and was a grocer and shopkeeper. He had moved to Bracken Moor by the time his third child was born in 1902, his occupation now being fishmonger. He died young in 1906, aged just 33. His widow, Nellie, went to live at Button Row, Stocksbridge.

On 6 May 1901 the Sheffield Telegraph ran an advert, just two months after the census had been taken, which advertised as being available To Let “a grocer’s and butcher’s shop with beer-off licence, at Hunshelf Bank; slaughter-house, pining house [a place where beasts were placed for a day or so before slaughter], stable, etc.” These match the details for Hunshelf House, but prospective applicants were directed to apply to The Old Albion Brewery (Ltd.), Ecclesall Road, Sheffield.

James Bulloss Nichols 1905-1912/13

James had been the landlord of The Castle Inn from about 1885 until he was made bankrupt in 1898. His wife Mary (nee Illingworth) had died in 1898 aged only 38. After leaving the Castle, James took work as a mechanic and in 1901 he was living at Bracken Moor. He was recorded at Hunshelf from 1905. He was at Hunshelf House when the 1911 census was taken; this is the first census that gives this house and shop its name, Hunshelf House. There is no mention of it being a shop on the page for James and his family, but the census enumerator’s summary books clearly call it a house and shop. When he married again to Blanche Newton Furness on 1 January 1912 he gave his address as Hunshelf House. Electoral registers simply list him at “Hunshelf,” and he later moved to Ewden and Penistone. He died in 1933.

Mrs. Frances Beever c1912-c1919

A Mrs. Frances Beever of Hunshelf House was recorded in the Electoral Registers of 1918 and 1919 as being entitled to vote. These are the only two entries for her. It is possible she had been living here since 1912, but she wouldn’t have been entitled to vote. The Representation of the People Act was passed in 1918, which allowed women over the age of 30 who met a property qualification to vote.  Mrs. Beever nee Peace was married to John, a coal miner, and they had lived at Brownhill Row. John died in 1914 aged 38.

Sarah Horton, widow of William, and owner of Hunshelf House, died in 1915 and Hunshelf House went up for sale in 1919. An advertisement in the local papers announced the auction of a property at Hunshelf on 3 June 1919, and although it didn’t specifically call it Hunshelf House, the details match what we know about it, and the fact that Mrs. Beever was living there in 1918 and 1919 confirms it. The property was described as “a freehold grocer’s shop, with dwelling house, stable, outbuildings and large garden” and it was being let to a Mrs. Beevor [sic] at an annual rent of £15. The site contained 923 square yards, which was much less than the 3,229 square yards when Hunshelf House was sold in 1890. The mines and minerals were reserved by the Hunshelf Inclosure Act of 1810. Although the auctioneers J. J. Greaves published the result of that day’s property sales in the local paper of 4 June, this property was not mentioned, neither to say it had sold, nor to say it had been withdrawn.

John William & Alice Marshall c1920-1924

The shop was presumably sold when it went to auction, although I can find no record of this. Mrs. Beever then left and John William Marshall and his wife Alice nee Eustace moved in. When the 1921 census was taken, John was a colliery deputy, but was out of work. There was no mention of this being a shop.

Fred & Lois Ann Bower 1924 until 1926

Fred Bower had been a tenant farmer at Schole Hill Farm, Cubley, Penistone, but after the owners, the Wentworth Estate, sold the farm, Fred moved to Hunshelf House where he briefly ran a butchers and grocers shop, from 1924 until he was declared bankrupt in April 1926. He attributed his failure to a lack of business and insufficient turnover to justify the expenses of carrying on the business. In July 1926 an auction took place at Hunshelf selling a nearly new Ford delivery van, counters, scales, shelving, tables, furniture, harness, ironwork, joiner’s bench, chicken meal, etc.  After leaving Hunshelf, Fred and his family moved back to Cubley.

Unknown: 1926-c1936

Herbert & Harriet M. Williams c1936/39-1959

Herbert Williams had been a police constable based at Hunshelf and living in the “Constable’s House” at Green Moor. After retiring from the police some time between 1935 and 1939, he had left his tied accommodation and moved to Hunshelf House. The 1939 Register records the building as a shop, but there was no mention on the form itself of anyone being a shop keeper. Herbert was a “police constable (retired)” and his wife Harriet M. did “unpaid domestic duties,” which is how most women were recorded on this Register. It must be remembered that it was not uncommon for a wife to run a shop but for there to be no mention of this fact on census returns etc. The previous entry on the Register was for “Hunshelf House Cottage,” which I have not come across before. Horace Marsh was living here, a steelworker, and his wife Edith. Herbert and Harriet ran a shop at some point, because people can remember a shop being here in the 50s or 60s. The Williamses were in residence for about twenty years before moving out and going to live at 236 Woolley Road, Garden Village, in 1960.

The house has now been demolished but gateposts can still be seen on Hunshelf Road, immediately adjacent to the electricity sub-station.