Millhouses is a suburb of the City of Sheffield, England. It is located in Ecclesall ward in the south-western portion of the city on the west bank of the River Sheaf. Its origins lie in a small hamlet that grew around the Ecclesall Corn Mill.

The agriculture and industries of this area are now largely gone leaving Millhouses as a mostly residential suburb. Local amenities include three schools, a large park, three pubs, three supermarkets, three churches and numerous small shops.

Contents

1 Geography 2 History 3 See also 4 References

Geography

Millhouses is set in the bottom of the Sheaf valley. It is bordered to the south-east by the River Sheaf and Hutcliff Wood , to the south-west by Ecclesall Wood , and to the north by the woods in the grounds of Abbeydale Grange Secondary School . Running directly alongside the River Sheaf is the long and thin Millhouses Park. The main road through the area is Abbeydale Road/Abbeydale Road South (A 621). The Midland Main Line also runs through Millhouses. Residential development was in a fan-shape focussed on the junction of Abbeydale Road and Millhouses Lane. Most houses in the area were built in the 1920s although there are many dating back to the 19th century.

History

In ancient times this area was part of the Barnsdale Forest that, together with Sherwood Forest, made up the forest of the Robin Hood legends. The River Sheaf marked the boundary between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. In fact the earliest historical record of this area refers to the submission of the Northumbrian army to Egbert of Wessex at nearby Dore in 829.

As a reparation for his part in the murder of Thomas Beckett (According to some reports), Robert Fritz Ranulf gave land for the establishment an Abbey just south of Millhouses at Beauchief. This was consecrated in 1183, and in time most the area now covered by Millhouses had been given to the the Abbey by the De Ecclesall family. One of the gifts to the monks was the Ecclesall Corn Mill. This mill existed at least as early as 1280 and considerable remnants of it can still be seen at the north end of Millhouses Park.

Millhouses remained mostly agricultural until the 19th century, although two cutlery works had been established in the area: Moscar Wheel , which may originally have been a corn mill, was making cutlery by 1496, and Bartin Wheel was built as a cutler's wheel in 1631. The establishment of a turnpike road from Sheffield to Bakewell (now Abbeydale Road) through the area in 1790 led to some growth but it was only with the extentiaon of the Midland Main Line through the valley in 1870 (with a railway station at Millhouses) and the subsequent arrival of trams in 1902 that Millhouses began to develop as an affluent residential suburb.

Map of the Millhouses area in 1895

See also

• Ecclesall

References

• Harvey, Peter (1996). Abbeydale and Millhouses. Stround: The Charlford Publishing Company Limited. ISBN 0-7524-0732-5
• 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. This book is out of print but can be purchased on CD-ROM
• Vickers, J. Edward MBE (1999). Ecclesall. In Old Sheffield Town. An Historical Miscellany (2nd ed.), pp58–64. Sheffield: The Hallamshire Press Limited. ISBN 1-874718-44-X.
• "Water Wheels on the River Sheaf in Abbeydale." The Tilt Hammer. Accessed on February 15, 2005.