Recollections: by Mrs Eliza Lockwood

NOTES ON THE FAMILY OF ELIZA LOCKWOOD

PORTER

     John Porter's son, another John, (John 2) born in 1736, came to Sheffield in about,1759 and opened a grocer & flax dressing business in King Street. He married twice but no record exists of his first wife. In 1784 he married, as a widower, Nary Bright. Her family had a distinguished past in Sheffield's history and was the subject of much more successful research by Dr Porter.

     John & Mary Porter had two sons: John (John 3) who married Hannah Willott Taylor (of whom there is a portrait in the possession of Prue Stokes) and was Dr Porter's grandfather, and Thomas who married Ann Girdler (another portrait). They were Eliza Lockwood's parents about whom she writes. John Porter senior contributed to various aspects of public life in Sheffield and his portrait was painted by the young artist Francis Chantrey before he went to London to become a famous sculptor. This portrait is now in the Mappin Art gallery in Sheffield. John Porter2 died in 1812. A John 3 was left the house his father had built in Howard Street and also managed a wine merchants In the High Street; Thomas inherited the shop & premises, purchased from the Duke of Norfolk in 1800. Eliza's brother Charles Girdler Potter was the last proprietor of the business.

     One of Eliza's brothers, Richard Thomas Porter, was able to invest and share in the success of the steam roller company, Aveling & Porter of Rochester, Kent.

Girdler

Lockwood

     We are fortunate to be able to read-her description of the town before industrial prosperity and expanding population engulfed the woods and fields of her childhood.

     The first two or three years of my life were passed mostly at Ollerton at my Aunt Wright's Sheffield did not suit my Mother's children; she lost five babies before 1 was ten years old. and no wonder, the sitting room and nursery looked on to a small yard; the drawing room and all the bedrooms (except the servants' attic) faced King Street, but my Mother preferred the parlour, an It was called, because, being close to the shop, my Father could frequently go and sit and chat with her, bringing many an amusing bit of gossip; that and our next neighbour's, Mr G Ridge. were the greet meeting places for the clergy and gentry in those days.

     The earliest things 1 seem to remember were our walks - daily mostly towards Leavy Greave - there were some small gardens above Porto Bello of which my Father owned or rented one; we had a garden House up a few steps In which there wore table, chairs, carpet, fireplace & cupboard in which ware kept everything wanted for tea, & It was a great treat when Edward* and I could go with our, Parents and have tea there.

     I remember the lilac and laburnam trees & one or two fruit trees wallflowers, daisies etc. grass-plot, etc. & our own little gardens.

     When the weather was fine, the servants took a basket of fine clothes (washed at home) to dry or bleach there; (what would servants say to that now!) I have been told that once when rain threatened they hastened to fetch them home,& when just opposite the Old church (going or coming back 1 do not know) cam a fearful flash of lightening, sending them home an fast as they could run, the church spire was struck and much damage done so the bolt was very near. Our Sunday walk took us often up Spital Hill, past a toll bar house which was quite In the country, and on the Occupation Road an far an a scat under come oak tree* opposite "Quaker" Smiths and just about the turn to Osgathorpe, where we found acorn& In the autumn, the road went on to Grimsthorpe, but branched off on the left to Osgathorpe, & on the right by a narrow lane to Attercliffe.

     My Uncle Wright, (Aunt was my Mother's sister) was a term r on a small scale & maltster. 1 used to love the sweet small of the roasting & drying malt, and to watch the malt come down the hopper Into the seeks. My Aunt's wash-house bed a brick floor,- which was washed by a mop which the maid did not wring with her hands but by twirling the handle round & round & so shaking the wet out. There was a large old-fashioned garden - fruit vegetables flowers in luxuriance. I never saw such fine lavender. The bow window* of the "parlour" & room above (my bedroom) wore always full of plants, geraniums, fushlas, pelagoniums, hydrangeas etc.

     I think I must have been an unobservant child, for I do not seem to remember any of my early journeys either to Ollerton or elsewhere, the only thing I recollect of my next vIsit to Ollerton when I was I suppose six years old, was my Father taking me from Worksop where my Uncle Wright must have met us. & our drive across the forest, my Father getting down to gather me some flowers, & my uncle leaving him to run after us for a joke. My Cousin Matilda took charge of me, & I think was very kind to me though no doubt she kept me In order & made me learn some sort of lessons.

     The forest lay on the other side of Ollerton where I loved to walk. Rufford Manor was not far off; we once went there with a party of yound people professedly ladies & gentlemen, one man made me very indignant by jumping over the chancel rails & on to the altar on his head; I think he was the same man who pushed me into a bed of nettles. My Cousin Matilda was a great deal at our house in King Street. She went for some time to school at Miss Fawcetts, Belview, Upperthorpe. I went with her for a short time for the sake of the country air; probably I was about five years old, there was a "large" garden with an arbour at the end, & into this I was sent with a slate & pencil, & told to amuse myself, which meant crying mostly. The girls had each a piece of bread for lunch, the two top pieces were buttered, & my Cousin always raced to get one piece for me; I suppose I said some sort of lessons, for once when 1 was being scolded, she jumped up & snatched me away, saying I should not be forced to do or say what I did not know.

     I suppose I went to Miss Brady's when about six or seven, & Ed. when about tour, we wore weekly boarders, some said she (Miss Brady or Governess Mary as we were told to call her) made favourites of us in those days; she was very fond of my Father. We went up High Street, Church Street, Trippet Lane, Portobello & so to Leavy Greave. I have heard Mrs John Porter* saying she remembers us passing her Father's (Mr Smith's) house, our nurse and theirs were friends - afterwards she, her sister & some of her Brothers went to Miss B's school, Indeed half the better class children in Sheffield went I think - Wakes, Sorbys, Heppenstalls, Wilsons etc. etc.

     What she did teach she did thoroughly & in some ways was In advance of her age. She was a clever but passionate woman, very strict & stern & some of her punishments were very queer: standing in a corner holding one or both hands above our heads with often a book or slate in them. a most dangerous punishment 1 think. We had long desks in the school room with forms fixed to them & foot boards underneath; once a girl was punished by being made to lie on these boards & the girls' feet on her. Often the hands were caned, and occasionally the birch rod was applied to the little ones. If a child could not or would not cat the food, he or she had to drink some camomile tea, rather a good punishment for it the child was not well, It was an excellent medicine.

     Her sister Miss Rebecca was a worriting person, with no natural ability.

     A few of the pupils went once a fortnight to a dancing class at the SS (Surrey Street) Music Hall; we had the long narrow room at the end of the Concert Hall. & In the cloakroom we had our dinner*, 1 think our hours would be from twelve to three - a servant went with us, & afterwards Kiss Brady or a teacher came for the remainder of the lesson. Occasionally the Concert Hall was opened for an evening entertainment when we had a good game, & perhaps an Inspection of some of the preparations. I remember some of the boy pupils once coming to school with terrifying tales of the Medical School was next door, & It seems the mob what would happen to us had got the Idea that the students got dead bodies for dissection, & they smashed all the windows & tried to break Into the place.*

     Sheffield was in a poor way in those days, people said It had seen Its best days; graze grew between the stones In King Street, and no doubt In other streets also; we once had come Indian Jugglers spread their carpet In ' the street opposite our house, & go through their performance with balls, knives etc. The cattle fair was held twice a year in the Wicker, of course there wore also bazaars, shows etc.

     We were at Burlington* when I was probably five or six years old, but do not remember much about it, or how we went. I think my Aunt Porter & one or two of her children were also there, and I have a dim Idea that either her or our rooms overlooked the harbour. I very well remember a shrimp woman on the sands giving me a live shrimp & putting it In a pool until I was ready to take It home, of course I never found it, We had a book of pictures of the sands etc. with some doggrel rhymes, of which 1 only remember one:

In a row on the sand
	All the bath houses stand,
	Some red &*some covered with green,
	Now Wellington here & Blucher appear
	And near them the famed British Queen.

     My Mother's grandfather* farmed the Stand House Farm, Sheffield Park; he had three sons, Richard, Edward and Joseph & one or perhaps two daughters. Richard was my Grandfather and he had three children: my Aunt Wright (Elizabeth) my uncle Richard & my Mother (Anne). He rented the Manor Lodge Farm, Worksop. I never saw the house, there is an engraving of it in the plan of the estate sold a few years since. I have heard my Mother say that it had been one story higher than in her day, the top story having been taken down; the top story left was one large room, used by her Father as a granary, they had a dance in it when my uncle Richard came of age*. My Grandfather left it for him & came to live in Worksop when my Mother was about seventeen or eighteen. He saved on the whole nearly thirty thousand pounds, I am afraid he was almost mean in his housekeeping but my Mother more than once persuaded him to give large sums (for him) to free my Uncle Richard from debt & set him up In a business again as a tanner at Mansfield.

     At Stand House where my Mother's uncle Joseph lived I was frequent visitor in the summer. One of my Mother's greatest friends Rebecca White lived with her brother John, at Sheffield, manor & there also Edward & 1 spent some of our summer holidays. The oldest part of the house had been one of poor Mary Queen of Scots' prisons, a largish room on the ground floor when we stayed there was used as a sort of store room for seeds etc. A corkscrew staircase led from it to the flats above & thence on to the leads & turretted roof; it was a fearful delight to us children to be taken up the re and allowed to look down; each flat had only one room (I think), the door of which opened directly on to the stairs. The whole tower has been thoroughly repaired since those days, & I believe is shown to visitors, at least I once took Miss Chapman there.

     Miss Rebecca White was well educated for those days & quite a lady, but very poor. John was one of my Mother's lovers & as long as she lived he did not marry, & he was much cut up when he heard of her death (1852). His eldest brother James who lived at Morthen (?) was land surveyor or steward to some nobleman, he was an executor & co-trustee with my Father under my Grandfather's will so we saw him frequently. He was a clever upright man, quite a gentleman in mind & manners. Another brother Joshua, a dapper little man, married a Miss Aldam a quakeress with money. I think he had a farm called I believe, Park Farm. This house has probably been pulled down. I know parts of it sank considerably being undermined by coal workings. His Mother & Grandmother or Great Aunt I do not know which lived with him, the latter was to my childish eyes a very old lady - her name was Wright & in some way related to the Shirecliffe Watsons who were always very kind to all the Whites, Rebecca being a special favourite. Mrs Wright's husband was the first to run a stage waggon up to London; on her marriage she went to London on a pillion behind him.

     We removed to Woodside. Pitsmoor when I was ten years old - It was a pretty neighbourhood In those days, after you got to the top of Pie (Pye) Bank there were very few houses, none on the right hand except a public house the Fox & Duck, and a market gardeners, until you got to the village of Pitsmoor, all else were fields & on the left Mr Marshal's, Mr Heywood's Mr Howard's - then came the row of gentleman's houses each in their own grounds called Woodside; the lowest one occupied by Mr Blake afterwards by Mr J H Barb(?k)er, Miss Wake & Mr ---- this house on the low side &butted on a lane loading into Old Park Wood, lovely then with wild flowers we often went that way to St Philip's church on summer evenings. Above Mr Blake's came Mr Ed. Grooves, Mrs B's brother, then Mr W Fisher's, Mr Nose (?) a retired chemist (Mr Cooper's house) Mr Bardwell (our house) Mr Middleton, Mr J H Dixon, two semidetached often changing hands & Mr Hodgeon (afterwards Miss Wever's). Beyond Pitsmoor there wore only some half dozen country houses, Shirecliffe, Firshill, Osgathorpe Hall and cottage, The Hills, Cammon (?) Hall, The Vale, Pahe Hall, Raisin Hall, Goddard Hall, Bolsover & Brushhouse

     Once in the woods at the back of Shirecliffe etc. there was a lovely view down the valley of the Don over to Walkley Wardsend, Wadsley etc. The Burngreave Road was not made until many years after, it was then all wood fields & with a little stream that came down from Shirecliffe running through. Pitsmoor Road was the Great North Road from York to London, so there wore many coaches carriages etc. on it. Mall coaches with their tour horses & cheery horns several times a day, the road looking from my Father's bedroom window resembled a noble avenue, & showed the coaches off to advantage. The land on which *Woodside* was built had once been market gardens, & a few of the old fruit trees were still left; on* in my Father's yard was a kind of winter peer, not worth eating; my Mother used to exchange them for apples, as they wore not bad stewed, and the tree was generally loaded. In front of us was Burngreave Wood, lovely In spring with wild flowers, nightingales sang there In summer.

     One way to the church we attended for many years (St PhIlip's) was down Woodslde Lane 1 past Mr Cooper's tanyard over a field or two - over Hill toot bridge & so to Philadelphia. Another way took us round what was then called Green Lane & past the Globe Works'.

     I went to Miss Brady's school as a weekly boarder until I was ten years old & we removed to Woodside in 1832 the year when the cholera was so-bad, that a piece of waste ground had to be hastily arranged for a burial ground. Mr John Blake, Upperthorpe (W G Blake's uncle) was nearly the first victim, 1 think. The disease was confined mostly to the lower parts of the town, especially by the river; Mill Sands was very bad.

     That was also the year of the passing of the Reform Bill about which there was great excitement; all that I remember about the procession was a dray gaily docked out carrying a printing press at which worked an old man called Frederick Gordon, employed at the Independent Office. He was dressed to represent Caxton & he printed & distributed leaflets as the dray went slowly forward.

     I was about twelve when I again began to go to Miss Brady's School as a day boarder when I was by no means a favourite. She found me behind her pupils, especially in grammar & memory lessons, parsing. I had to write out both sides of a large slate of it until I had mastered the rules & spelling with meanIngs. I was returned in again & again with an added column each time until 1 had I think five on hand, at last I had that also to write down until It became no trouble to learn It. I had French lessons of a Monsieur Plisson* a refugee I think & had for a dictionary a large one of my Father's: Mons. Plisson Immediately recognised it, he had taught my Father, whether at school at Nottingham or afterwards In Sheffield I do not remember.

     Edward at the same time went to school to Mr Wright's at Steel Bank - there was one boy there remarkably kind to him as a youngster - William Smith now W Smith Esq., Westwood House. The boarders sat In front of us at St Philip's Church and always looked so nice. Dr Earnest the first physician at the Infirmary also sat there; he wore powder which I thought very dirty, not knowing what it was.

     I walked to school & back in all weathers (nearly) when very wet rain or snow In pattens & camlet* cloak. After going over the Iron Bridge I had a choice of two ways, to the left along Bridge Street, the attraction that way being an open shop where a man forged large nails, 1 have stood many a five minutes watching the sparks fly out. I then turned along Love Lane into Gibralter Street where was a second hand book-sellers Into whose window I loved to gaze, I bought two or three books there, Bloomfields & Crabbe's poems, Mrs Ratcliffe, Italian etc.

     After we went to Pitsmoor I revelled In some delightful books of my Father's. The Arabian Nights 4 vols, The Excentric Mirror 4 vols, The Mirror, several vols, a Magazine with illustrated papers of passing events; the Duke of York's funeral & the shooting of a huge elephant In the Zoo, I think being the two things of that kind that 1 remember beet; there wore also tales, some of Sir W Scott's abridged, & others - poetry, riddles etc. One book that we loved to look at, it in existence now, would I think be valuable, it was called Pantalogia, nearly as large as the Graphic, with pictures of costumes of many countries many dates & wonders of nature & art - (the earthquake at Lisbon, the colossal statue at Rhodes, the Pyramids etc.)

     There ware only tour churches In Sheffield when I was a child, The Old Church, St James's, a most dismal little place, St Paul's, St George's just built & later St Philip's & St Nary's - I went to the consecration of the last. There were also Ecclesall & Attercliffe, called Chapels of Ease.

     My Mother visited Sheffield two or three times (perhaps more) before she was married; besides her Uncle Joseph Girdler & Mine Rebecca White she had another kind friend, Mrs Green,. to whom her winter visits were paid & with whom she went to the Assemblies; which I think were very enjoyable In those days, Including all the 'Elite' of the town, officers from the barracks etc. I fancy It was at those that she got two at any rate of her beaux, a Mr Ed. Webster (brother to Mrs J H Dixon) and to whom she was engaged for a short time at her Mother's persuasion, for 1 do not think she really cared for him; and Mr William Stacey; I think my Father may have seen her there, at any rate he had seen & noticed her In the streets for she was striking, I am told, and beautiful In spite of rather prominent teeth. She was clever with her needle and knew how to dress well on very little.

     A friend of my father's, Capt Bradling (?) (only a militia captain) Introduced him to her, telling him she was just the wife for him, though others told him she would be a very extravagant one (which she was not). I never heard much about the courtship except that she was very angry the first time he went to Worksop with the Captain on some excuse or other & that her Father liked him from the first.

     They were married in March 1821*, one bridesmaid and a Cousin from London & my Father's great friend Mr John Stanitorth. After the ceremony all four drove in a carriage to Doncaster I think coming home to King Street at night.

     Business was conducted very differently in my young days, my father had as a rule two journey men & two apprentices; there was no counting house, and he was, when in the shop. behind the counter with his white apron on, ready to chat with any lady or gentleman who came in. As tar as I remember his hands were employed mostly in turning paper cones and closing them when filled I never saw him fill them - sugar, rice, currants & raisins were put into them in lbs (pounds); bags were made for other things & for large quantities. The men had a geat beg making day now & then, when fine these were arranged on shutters outside the shop to dry. Fruit was cleaned from the stalks etc. in the shop by putting it into a long beg or bolster of sacking & tossed by two men from end to end, the stalks being afterwards separated In sieves. There were no railroads then. no tradesmen's carts, no penny postage, but any number of country carriers, who brought In the orders, and took back the goods; ladies who had carriages would bring their own orders and frequently take the goods back. For short journeys such as Pitsmoor, a wheelbarrow sufficed, wheeled generally by a porter, though 1 have seen an apprentice have to bring it.

     After we went to Pitsmoor our groceries were so brought every Saturday evening, together with fresh vegetables and sometimes chickens or ducks (alive maybe) that some country woman had not cold early enough & persuaded ray Father to buy. Our butter, eggs, pigeons sometimes (5 pence each), fruit had to be fetched by our cook on Tuesday morning; she also had to fetch brewery barm (yeast) for the week, she tok a large queer-shaped blue octagonal jug & left it at Nanson's brewery In Bridge Street on her way to town, calling for it on her return. In the winter when all our fruit and vegetables were stored she sometimes carried the baby & from the age of ten to twelve I sometimes went with her, and carried the jug; there was a large vat of barm (or yeast) in the yard for sale, but ours was always fetched from some reserve & was much better.

     We had no greengrocers at Pitsmoor, but sometimes could buy new potatoes, peas or cabbage from a garden on the hill; we had also a fair-sized garden (vegetable as well as flowers) with gooseberry & currant bushes, & some splendid pear trees. notably a grand wall jargonella. My Father's was mostly a family trade to my Mother's regret as she said counter trade paid the best but 1 do not think he cared to push that. He always said the clergy were the worst payers. His bedroom when he lived in King Street was over part of the shop, there was a trap door looking down Into it, which he slightly raised at night; this was the means of frightening off some burglars once, they hoped, it being Saturday night, to have found money, but no silver or gold was left down.

     My Father was daintily clean, tidy and methodical; he put on a clean, neckerchief every morning (they were 1 & 1/4 yards square) after tea he took It off - had a good wash, refolded It wrong side outward, put It on again, & then went oft to the news-room, a small affair in those days I should think. I suppose some London & Provincial papers came In every day, Sheffield papers were weekly only, our neighbour Mr G Ridge editing the "Tory" paper, the Sh(effield) Mercury & J Montgomery* at one time the Radical paper, "The Iris'. our back premises joined a chemist's, Mr James, who took it into his head to make gas; 1 think there was none in the town, but he had t ' o give it up, as there was an explosion in our coal cellar, setting a servant's cap on fire. Of course it could have been much worse. I do not know how soon we got Companies' Water, but we had certainly a pump on the kitchen sink, and also a well somewhere in the cellar which was cut out of the rock, and of nearly equal temperature summer & winter. My Mother made gooseberry wine and also vinegar and my Father made raisin,,,_ wine, the former he drank in summer & the latter in winter. He had two barrels, one huge, in which he steeped the raisins for some months or a year, he then racked It off into the smaller barrel to stand for a year or two until It was wanted, when it was bottled; he never drank any other wine except we had company & a glass of gin & water on Saturday night.

     The favourite kind of visiting among the "neighbours" at Woodside was tor whist - tea & coffee with cake etc. at six o'clock sharp - watches being shewn to prove that they were true to time, afterwards cards, two tables for whist, the remainder of the visitors forming a round game. Cake & wine at eight, & supper at nine to half past. This supper was a grand affair game etc & hot, & many & various sweets. The evening closed from 11 to 11.30.

     They wore very cordial meetings and were kept up wore or less until my Mother's Illness & death. We did all the cooking etc. within ourselves, and there was a certain rivalry between the lady cooks. Mr J H Dixon carrying off the palm. My business in the earlier years was to look after the baby* which I did not like.

     The "neighbours" (par excellence) were Mr & Mrs J H Dixon and for a few years her mother Mrs Webster, a dear old lady - Mr & Mrs Howard, Mr & Mrs Blake, two batchelors Mr Heywood & Mr Horn, varied in most houses by a few outriders, & later by new residents - Mr & Mrs Peach, Mr & Mrs Middleton, & the growing up youngsters: J Blake (T?), Stirling Howard, Jane Middleton etc. etc. Ed. & I had not a large circle of acquaintances, still we had a few friends who gave dances, we generally walked to & from their houses pretty well bundled up, at least 1 was. Foremost came the Smiths of Dam House (Porto Bello first) Staceys, Laycocks, H J Mappin, Mrs J Dixon, N Creswicks, H Jubbs (?) & nearer home Middletons, Blakes, Walkers, of Osgathorpe & Yeomans. I think we met about seven, I liked to go to them, but not dancing waltzes etc. I did not care for the dancing part.

     When I was about fourteen I went to school at Rhyl; scarcely a school, for the lady Miss Barber had only two boarders besides myself, she had kept school with her sister at Broughton near Manchester but her health failing, came to Rhyl & took a furnished house. I was there about eighteen months altogether; from March to December one year 1836 & from March to Sepr 1837. There were a few pupils from the neighbourhood with whom we had nothing to do.

     Rhyl at that time consisted of a few fishermen's cottages - a church, two hotels, a few shops, & several detached houses in their own grounds, occupied mostly by retired naval officers, there were also baths & a library, so that there was really the nucleus of the present flourishing watering place. Our neighbour in King Street, a chemist, said the water was the saltiest he ever tasted.

     My Father took me the first time we went by coach to Manchester, from there to Liverpool we went by train across the Chat Moss, at that time a wonderful feat of engineering skill; from Liverpool we went by coach to Chester, coach, horses & passengers crossing the ferry In the boat - thence to Holywell &.,from there by car* to Rhyl. The second time I went from L'pool by steamer sleeping the night at a friend's of Mr Fisher's (7) who took charge of me, and thence alone. Miss Barber did not find the school pay. & had to give it up. When I crossed the moors that time the road had only that day been cut through the snow, we could touch it with our hands out of each window; that must have been the end of March.