Ecclesall Ward—which includes the

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

of Banner Cross, Bents Green, Carterknowle, Ecclesall, Greystones, Millhouses, and Ringinglow—is one of the 28 electoral wards in the

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

district, in the county of

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, England. It is located in the southwestern part of the city and covers an area of . The population of this ward in 2007 was 19,211 people in 7,626 households, reducing to 6,657 at the 2011 Census. Ecclesall ward is one of the four wards that make up the South West Community Assembly and one of five wards that make up the Sheffield Hallam

Parliamentary constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

. The Member of Parliament is

Olivia Blake Olivia Frances Blake-Dagnall (born 10 March 1990) is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam since 2019. Early life and education Olivia Blake was born on 10 March 1990 in Northallerton, N ...

, a Labour MP. Ecclesall is one of the least socially deprived wards in the entire country, with a 2002 deprivation score of 4.7—making it the 8,105th most deprived (hence 309th least deprived) ward out of 8,414 wards in the country. The demographic consists largely of white, middle-class families.

History

Evidence of early occupation of the area can be found in

Ecclesall Woods Ecclesall Woods is an area of woodland in south-west Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, between Abbeydale Road South and Ecclesall. It covers approximately of mature semi-natural deciduous woodland which was previously used for timber and cha ...

. A cup and ring-marked stone was discovered in 1981, and has been dated to the late

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

periods. It, and the area a diameter around it, is a scheduled ancient monument. Ecclesall electoral ward was created 1934 when the old Ecclesall Bierlow ward was divided into Ecclesall, Broomhill and Hallam. The boundaries of the ward include about half of the area that was historically known as Ecclesall Bierlow—one of the six 'townships' that made up the old Parish of Sheffield. Ecclesall Bierlow encompassed most of the land between the

River Sheaf The River Sheaf in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, flows northwards, past Dore, through Abbeydale and north of Heeley. It then passes into a culvert, through which it flows under the centre of Sheffield before joining the River Don. Thi ...

and the

Porter Brook The Porter Brook is a river which flows through the City of Sheffield, England, descending over from its source on Burbage Moor to the west of the city to its mouth where it joins the River Sheaf in a culvert beneath Sheffield railway stati ...

from The Moor to Ringinglow. It also included the areas of Broomhall and Crookesmoor to the north of the Porter Brook. Though this area contained numerous small villages and hamlets, there was never a village called Ecclesall. The parish of Ecclesall was formed on 1 April 1904 from "Ecclesall Bierlow", on 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Sheffield. In 1931 the parish had a population of 203,892. It is now in the

unparished area In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparis ...

of Sheffield. In ancient times this area was part of the

Barnsdale Forest Barnsdale, or Barnsdale Forest, is an area of South and West Yorkshire, England. The area falls within the modern-day districts of Doncaster and Wakefield. Barnsdale was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Barnsdale is commonly ...

that, together with

Sherwood Forest Sherwood Forest is the remnants of an ancient royal forest, Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, within the East Midlands region in England. It has association with the legend of Robin Hood. The forest was proclaimed by William the Conqueror and ...

, made up the forest of the

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...

legends. The River Sheaf was thought for a time to be a "boundary" between the kingdoms of

Northumbria Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland. The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...

and

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

to the south. There is no historical proof of such a boundary as Northumbria stretched deep within

Lindsey Lindsey may refer to : Places Canada * Lindsey Lake, Nova Scotia England * Parts of Lindsey, one of the historic Parts of Lincolnshire and an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 ** East Lindsey, an administrative district in Lincolnshire, ...

and modern Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire at different stages between the 6th and 11th century. What is thought to be the earliest historical record of this area refers to a defeat of the native

n army to an invasion force from the

Kingdom of Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Saxons beli ...

, which some historians have speculated may have taken place in the area around nearby

Dore Dore or Doré may refer to: Geography Places *Dore, South Yorkshire, England ** Dore and Totley, electoral ward that includes this village * Abbey Dore, village in Herefordshire, England *Dore, in the district of Gweedore, Ireland * Dore Lake, ...

in 829.

The name ''Ecclesall'' (either from ''Heeksel-Hallr'' meaning the witches' hill, (

wikisource Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...

) or ''Eccles'' (church) ''halh'' (hollow)) is not mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086—at that time Ecclesall was a part of the manor of

Hallam Hallam may refer to: Places * Hallam, Victoria, Australia ** Hallam railway station UK * Hallamshire, an area in South Yorkshire, England, UK ** Royal Hallamshire Hospital ** Sheffield Hallam (UK Parliament constituency) ** Sheffield Hallam Univer ...

. The name Ecclesall/Eccleshall is thought to be of

Anglo-Scandinavian Anglo-Scandinavian is an academic term referring to the hybridisation between Norse and Anglo-Saxon cultures in Britain during the early medieval period. It remains a term and concept often used by historians and archaeologists, and in linguist ...

origin. The name is first found about 150 years later in the name of Sir Ralphus De Ecclesall a Norman feudal overlord who had taken over lands in the area from native Northumbrian landlords after the Norman invasion. The De Ecclesall family gave land to Norman and French monks who had come to Britain after the invasion. At Beauchief they established a

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

mill on the river Sheaf, which was part of

Beauchief Abbey Beauchief Abbey is a medieval monastic house now serving as a parish church in the southern suburbs of Sheffield, England. History The abbey was founded by Robert FitzRanulph de Alfreton. Thomas Tanner, writing in 1695, stated that it was fou ...

. Many of the buildings of Ecclesall corn mill can still be seen at the northern end of Millhouses park—the district of Millhouses taking its name from this mill. In payment for the mill the monks of Beauchief were to provide a canon to say prayers daily at the Ecclesall chapel. These services continued at the chapel until the Dissolution of the Monasteries when Beauchief Abbey was abandoned. The chapel was restored in 1622 but was demolished when the present church was built nearby in 1788. Until the 19th century Ecclesall Bierlow was very sparsely populated—in 1801 there were just 5362 people. This changed with the coming of the

industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

and the subsequent expansion of nearby Sheffield and by 1831 the population had increased to 14,239. In 1837 the Ecclesall Bierlow Poor Law Union came into being. As well as Ecclesall Bierlow, this encompassed Nether Hallam, Upper Hallam, Beauchief,

, Norton, and

Totley Totley is a suburb on the extreme southwest of the city of Sheffield, in South Yorkshire, England. Lying within the historic county boundaries of Derbyshire, Totley was amalgamated into the city of Sheffield in 1933, and is today part of the ...

. A workhouse was built near Ecclesall at Cherry Tree Hill, an area now part of the suburb of

Nether Edge Nether may refer to: * The Nether, a hell-like dimension in the video game ''Minecraft'' * '' The Nether'', a sci-fi play * ''Nether'' (video game), a first-person multiplayer survival video game for Microsoft Windows See also *Kingdom of the N ...

that was built up in the latter half of the 19th century. In 1929 the Ecclesall Bierlow Union Workhouse closed for good and became the

Nether Edge Hospital The Nether Edge Hospital was a health facility on Union Road, in Nether Edge near Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The main building, known as the Kingswood Building, remains a Grade II listed building. History The facility has its origins in the Ec ...

, it remained in use as a hospital into the 1990s. Part of the old Workhouse the administration buildings that were across Union Road separate from the main Union Workhouse building became Nether Edge Grammar School, later renamed Brincliffe Grammar School in the late 1950s. Historic sites within the ward include

Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet is an industrial museum in the south of the Sheffield, City of Sheffield, England. The museum forms part of a former steel-working site on the River Sheaf, with a history going back to at least the 13th century. It c ...

and

Shepherd Wheel Shepherd Wheel is a working museum in a former water-powered grinding workshop situated on the Porter Brook in the south-west of the City of Sheffield, England. One of the earliest wheels on the River Porter, it is one of the few remaining—a ...

(both now museums). Ecclesall Wood has many examples of

white coal White coal is a form of fuel produced by drying chopped wood over a fire. It differs from charcoal which is carbonised wood. White coal was used in England to melt lead ore from the mid-sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. It produces more ...

kilns and the grave of a wood collier who was killed here when his cabin burned down on 11 October 1786.

Neighbourhoods

Banner Cross

Banner Cross is a district of Sheffield centred on the intersection of

Ecclesall Road Ecclesall Road is a road in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, that runs for about south-west from Sheffield's city centre under the number A625. At Banner Cross, where the house numbers reach 1001, the road name changes to Ecclesall Roa ...

and Psalter Lane. This district is split evenly between Nether Edge/Sharrow and Ecclesall Wards.

Banner Cross Hall Banner Cross Hall is an English country house situated on Ecclesall Road South in the Banner Cross area of Sheffield, England. The hall is a Grade II listed building which is now the main headquarters of Henry Boot PLC, the Sheffield-based prope ...

, an ancient

esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

seat, was virtually rebuilt in 1820. The main place of worship is

Banner Cross Methodist Church Banner Cross Methodist Church is situated in the district of Nether Edge (ward)#Banner Cross, Banner Cross in the city of Sheffield, England. The church stands on Ecclesall Road South, south-west of the city centre. The church and attached scho ...

. The nearby Banner Cross pub gained infamy when the notorious criminal

Charles Peace Charles Peace (14 May 1832 – 25 February 1879) was an English burglar and murderer, who embarked on a life of crime after being maimed in an industrial accident as a boy. After killing a policeman in Manchester, he fled to his native Sheff ...

shot and killed Arthur Dyson in the passageway beside the pub on 29 November 1876. The base of an old stone cross still remained at Banner Cross in 1819. Addy (1888) suggested that the name derives from ''bæna kross'', meaning the cross of prayers.

Carter Knowle

Carter Knowle or Carterknowle () lies south of Brincliffe Edge, between

and Abbeydale. A residential area, which includes what was originally known as Knab Farm Estate. Housing was built on former farmland there, in the valley between Brincliffe Edge and the upper part of Carter Knowle Road during the late 1950s / early 1960s by local building firm Gleesons. The area was home to

Sheffield College The Sheffield College is a large general further education college in Sheffield, England. The college has six campuses across the city and has 13,500 students enrolled (including 2,501 apprentices) as of 2021. It provides academic, technical an ...

's Bannerdale campus, but after its closure and demolition, a new educational academy, the Mercia School was opened on the site adjacent to Carter Knowle Road in September 2018.

Ecclesall

The district of Ecclesall () is centred roughly on Ecclesall parish church at the intersection of Carter Knowle Road and

. The present church, dedicated to All Saints, was built in 1788, consecrated in 1789 and has been altered several times since.

, also in the area, was built in 1820.

Greystones

Greystones () lies to the north of the district of Ecclesall. It is on a headland overlooking the

Porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian airline based in Toronto * Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets * Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer * H.K. Porter, Inc., a locom ...

valley to the north and west.

Millhouses

Millhouses () lies to the south of the district of Ecclesall. Its origins lie in a small

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

that grew around the Ecclesall Corn Mill.

Bents Green

Bents Green () lies to the west of the district of Ecclesall

Ringinglow

Ringinglow () is a village on the western border of Ecclesall Ward. Although it is within the boundary of the City of Sheffield, it is self-contained, entirely surrounded by open countryside. It is focussed on the intersections of Fulwood Lane and Houndkirk Road with Ringinglow Road.

Transport

Ecclesall Road is the main road ( A625) from central Sheffield to the south-west, at first following the

, then running through Ecclesall and

. The road is a major

shopping Shopping is an activity in which a customer browses the available goods or services presented by one or more retailers with the potential intent to purchase a suitable selection of them. A Retail#Shopper profiles, typology of shopper types ha ...

area. Attractions including the

Sheffield Botanical Gardens The Sheffield Botanical Gardens are Grade II listed botanical gardens situated off Ecclesall Road in Sheffield, England, with 5,000 species of plants in 19 acres (77,000 m2) of land. History The Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Socie ...

and the

Sheffield General Cemetery The General Cemetery in the Sheffield, City of Sheffield, England opened in 1836 and closed for burial in 1978. It was the principal cemetery in Victorian era, Victorian Sheffield with over 87,000 burials. Today it is a listed Landscape (Grade I ...

lie alongside it, as does one of the campuses of

Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield station, Sheffield railway station, whil ...

Abbeydale Road Abbeydale Road and its continuation Abbeydale Road South together are an arterial main road and bus route in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The road begins at a junction with London Road (Sheffield), London Road near the former Royal Hote ...

South ( A621) is another major road that runs through the ward. The

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line (MML), sometimes also spelt Midland Mainline, is a major Rail transport in Great Britain, railway line from London to Sheffield in Yorkshire via the East Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras railway ...

railway line runs along the southern boundary of the ward, though the closest stations are outside of the ward at

and Dore & Totley. The former Millhouses & Ecclesall station was closed on 10 June 1968. The

Sheffield Supertram The South Yorkshire Supertram, sometimes referred to as the Sheffield Supertram, is a tram and tram-train network covering Sheffield and Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. The network is owned and operated by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Co ...

currently has no routes through Ecclesall ward, but a planned extension to Dore would skirt the southern boundary.

Parks and recreation

About half of Ecclesall ward is made up of rural areas, parkland, or woodland. These areas include a large portion of the

, an area of

ancient woodland In the United Kingdom, ancient woodland is that which has existed continuously since 1600 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). The practice of planting woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 1600 i ...

that is known locally for being a

bluebell wood A bluebell wood is a woodland that in springtime has a carpet of flowering bluebells (''Hyacinthoides non-scripta'') underneath a newly forming leaf canopy (biology), canopy. The thicker the summer canopy, the more the competitive ground-cover is ...

. In the north section of the ward is Bingham Park,

Whiteley Woods The Porter Valley Parks are a series of public parks and green spaces in Sheffield, England. Lying along the valley of Porter Brook, they run radially out from the city centre, providing a direct green-space connection to the Peak District nati ...

and part of the Porter valley;

Millhouses Park Millhouses Park is a public urban park located in the Millhouses neighbourhood in south of Sheffield, England. It is a park stretching approximately along the floor of the valley of the River Sheaf, sandwiched between Abbeydale Road South (A6 ...

marks the ward's southern boundary. The ward also includes some of

Whirlow Brook Park Whirlow Brook Park is a landscaped garden of in Whirlow, Sheffield, which are open to the public, containing Whirlow Brook Hall. It stretches from Ecclesall Road and joins on to Limb Brook Valley heading towards the Peak District, with an entra ...

and the Limb Valley. The

Sheffield Round Walk The Sheffield Round Walk is a walk through the south west of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Starting from Hunters Bar, it travels along the Porter valley to Ringinglow. It then descends through the Limb valley and Ecclesall Woods to ...

skirts the ward, running through a number of these parks.

Education

There are two secondary schools within Ecclesall ward,

High Storrs School High Storrs School is a mixed secondary school and sixth form college with academy status located on the south-western outskirts of Sheffield, England. The main school building is Grade II listed. It moved to its current site in 1933. The sch ...

and

Silverdale School Silverdale School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is the founding school of Chorus Education Trust (formerly Silverdale Multi-Academy Trust). It opened in 1957 ...

. The ward also includes Ecclesall Primary School (formerly Ecclesall Infants) and Clifford All Saints C Of E Primary School (formerly Ecclesall Junior School), Dobcroft Junior School, Greystones Primary School, Mylnhurst Convent School, and St Wilfrid's Primary School.

References and notes

Bibliography

* Harvey, Peter (1996). ''Abbeydale and Millhouses''. Stround: The Charlford Publishing Company Limited. * Hunter, Joseph (1819). The Township of Ecclesall Byerlow. In ''Hallamshire. The History and Topography of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York'', pp195–219. London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mayor & Jones. * Vickers, J. Edward MBE (1999). Ecclesall. In ''Old Sheffield Town. An Historical Miscellany'' (2nd ed.), pp58–64. Sheffield: The Hallamshire Press Limited. . * * *

External links

Sources for the history of Ecclesall
Produced by Sheffield City Council's Libraries and Archives {{Sheffield Areas of Sheffield Wards of Sheffield Former civil parishes in South Yorkshire