Bagshaw Wood,Sheffield

[maddys52]

Thanks Ruskie, it was bugging me too - kept coming back to it for another look.

Having read through the newspaper report of the incident in 1825, I see that I was wrong, it does say the girls were going from Sheffield to their father's house. They stopped at Mr DYSON's, Agnes describes this as her sister's house. Also a Mr BISHOP lives nearby.  Does this help locate the area at all?

I can't readily see any parish records for the family - father is Joseph HAWKESLEY, daughters Martha (c1809) and Agnes (c1811) and another married DYSON before 1825 - is this Harriet HAWKESLEY who married Thomas DYSON in 1809 at Sheffield?

Not sure if this is relevant - There is a family of a couple of generations of DYSONs in 1841 at "Shotnell" which is on the Stubbing House Lane, north of the Bagshaw Wood near Ecclesfield.
HO107/1327/7 pg29

[maddys52]

Have just seen another report of the incident in the Times which also mentions her mother Martha, and sister Harriet DYSON, as well as a brother Joseph HAWKESLEY. So I'm guessing that was the correct marriage above.

There are a few mentions of a Joseph HAWKESLEY, farmer, of Owlerton - is this the right Joseph? Though I see other reports say they were of Beauchief. I guess the girls could have been travelling to their father's from Sheffield via their sister DYSON's if it was near Bagshaw Wood.    Shame I can't see a Great Tom's Cross/ Tom Cross Field, although another report says that Great and Little Tom Cross fields were on her father's land.

As heywood said, there was a Tom Cross (Tomcrosse) Lane, near Spital St, which is apparently now Brunswick Rd. Not really in the same area. 

[Annie65115]

You detectives have been busy (and done well!)

Yes, this is the right newspaper report and right family.

I have a copies of maps of the Beauchief area drawn in around 1811 (not available on line, and I can't scan them as they're not great copies) and Great Tom Cross field was to the north of the eastern end of Abbey Lane - I'm pretty sure that it was close to what's now Periwood Lane, and Abbey Lane cemetery now covers that area. It was one of several fields owned by Benjamin Steade, occupier of Beauchief Hall, and farmed by Martha's father. I don't know where the Hawksleys lived but it would have been local to the fields, maybe in the Woodseats area; the children were baptised and buried at Beauchief Abbey, just up the road from there.

So that's why I expect Bagshaw Wood to be roughly to the north of Abbey Lane, between there and Sheffield.

I think the Joseph Howksley, farmer of Owlerton, may have been a relative but I don't think it was Martha's father. Again, it's a fair distance to travel from there to Abbey Lane (a 5-6 mile walk each way). There were quite a few Dysons around and I have tried to find where Harriet and her husband lived, but not been successful. On their marriage licence, Thomas was of Ecclesall-(nb not Ecclesfield!) but that was 15 years before this incident so clearly they could have moved.

Edited - just checked my records and I'd forgotten that Joseph had left a will, which mentioned his dwelling house on Abbey Lane; this was in 1836.

[Annie65115]

Oh, just to throw another curveball in; the Beauchief estate was actually an extra-parochial liberty, so no tithes were payable. This means that the tithe maps don't show any of the fields/land that belonged to the estate.

I've been very lucky to have been able to track down the maps drawn up for the landowner.

[Annie65115]

I often find that posting requests for help and hearing other people's comments spurs me on to look harder at what I can find!

There was the death of a scythe manufacturer called Thomas Dyson in Mill Houses, Sheffield, in 1830. He clearly ran a farm as well, going from the newspaper ad for the sale of his possessions - it wasn't uncommon for the scythemakers to do that as well as farming (the grinders, on the other hand, seemed to have worked f/t in that trade).

Anyway, Millhouses is only a mile cross country from Beauchief, and the age of Thomas Dyson at death matches the age of Thomas when he married Harriet, so that looks eminently possible.

[maddys52]

Doesn't really help with determining exactly where Thomas DYSON lived, however I notice on the advertisements for sale of Thomas DYSON's estate that it says the owner is Mr WHITEHEAD. For interest, there is a fascinating long running case about the disputed inheriting of this property at Millhouses involving Thomas WHITEHEAD, the original owner Peter WIGFALL (who died 1828) and Joseph OLDALE. If you search for any of these names in newspapers I'm sure you'll find many articles - including alleged forgery of parish records, which is of great interest to family historians!

[Annie65115]

Thanks, maddys52 -- that looks like this afternoon sorted out!

[Annie65115]

I don't think it will be possible to know just exactly where the Dysons lived.

I've found reference to the blocking off of a footpath crossing land owned by Peter Wigfall , and which ran between Archer Lane Top and Millhouses. And someone called Thomas Gregory was being threatened with eviction from one of the disputed properties in the late 1860s; in the 1871 census he was listed as miller at Millhouses, and that would seem likely to have been at one of the mills which stood in what is now Millhouses Park (which is where I'd be RIGHT NOW with the granddaughter if it weren't raining!) "Tom" Gregory was still miller at Millhouses in 1873, when 3 of his children were baptised at Beauchief.

My reference book "Water Power on the Sheffield Rivers" shows a Peter Wigfall as tenant at Heeley Wheel between 1783 - 1824, and Thomas Gregory was tenant of the next mill downstream, Heeley Tilt, in 1865. However neither of these would be called Millhouses. The Dyson family were associated with what is now Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, a mile or so upstream, but Thomas Dyson is not mentioned. That's not Millhouses either!

In summary: Tom Gregory, a miller, lived in property in 1871 in Millhouses which was previously owned by Peter Wigfall 50 years earlier. This would probably have been at the eastern end of what is now Millhouses Park. Don't know if the Dysons lived in the same place - it's possible, with Thomas D being a scythe manufacturer.Going from there back to Beauchief even these days, takes you through woodland. I think it's likely that "Bagshaw Wood" was probably either misnamed, or a copse enroute that maybe no longer exists. In fact, I've walked that very route on more than one occasion over the years 

[maddys52]

I was beginning to wonder if Bagshaw Wood was just a mis-reporting of the name of the place. As you say, lots of wooded areas that it could have been, nothing that at first glance sounds like Bagshaw Wood in the right area, maybe Bole Hill Wood (near Norton Cemetery)? Probably clutching at straws here. 

Certainly looks like a very pretty countryside.