I have spent many thousands of hours over the last 40 years in Sheffield Archives reading and making notes from the archives of a number of local landed estates, principally those of the Duke of Norfolk (the Arundel Castle Manuscripts (ACM)), Earl Fitzwilliam (the Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments (WWM)) and the Earl of Wharncliffe (the Wharncliffe Muniments (WM)), and of various families of the non-aristocratic landed gentry such as the Spencer-Stanhopes of Cannon Hall. This has led to many books and articles, and even an invitation to research the family history of Graham Norton for BBC 1’s Who Do You Think You Are? – his ancestors were migrants from South Yorkshire to Ireland. Using the Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments it was possible to pinpoint exactly which cottage his earliest Irish ancestor had inhabited in the early 18th century in the town of Carnew in County Wicklow.

It is amazing what is stored in these archives. Whether you are researching the economic and social history of an area, of an individual farm or woodland or tracing your family history, these archives are treasure houses of information. Every penny spent or earned had to be accounted for, so little of the paperwork was thrown away.

Records of sales
Let me illustrate the last point. Timber, coppice wood and bark from the Duke of Norfolk’s woodlands were sold by ticket. First the sale was advertised through handbills. At the sale, which was normally held at a local inn, the woodward (the officer in charge of the estate’s timber and forest management) would write the estate valuation on a ticket and put it folded on the table in front of him. Within a specified time all those wishing to tender for the timber, coppice wood and any other woodland products included in the sale had to put their bids on separate tickets (one ticket per bidder) and place them on the table. This was done three times, on each occasion the woodward announcing the highest bid. The highest bidder on the third occasion became the purchaser provided the bid equalled or exceeded the estate valuation. What needs to be emphasised is that the tickets were not official, specially printed tickets, they were simply pieces of paper torn from a note book. And what is extraordinary is that for a series of sales in the 19th century not only has the winning ticket survived but all the unsuccessful ones as well (ACM S303 – see picture above).

Continuing the woodland theme, woodlands were crucial to the income on many landed estates. In one document in the Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments (WWM A1273), the 1st Marquis of Rockingham – who controlled the Wentworth estate from 1723 to 1750 – wrote in his own hand a woodland management plan in 1727 for all his woods in South Yorkshire. Significantly it was headed: ‘A Scheme for making a yearly considerable Profit of Spring woods in Yorkshire’. These woods were valuable and had to be protected. Manorial court proceedings are full of instances of thieves and trespassers being fined and I have even seen a letter of apology to the Duke of Norfolk’s woodward from a thief (ACM S312). The year was 1829 and William Revitts was accused of taking underwood from the Coppice Wood in the Rivelin valley to the west of Sheffield. His apology states:I have begged to be pardoned… and now express my contrition for the offence… His apology was accepted which would have saved him from prison or much worse.

Family diaries
Heads of these families and family members often also kept diaries which are full of interest. For example, John Spencer (1718-1775), a lawyer and MP, who inherited the Cannon Hall estate to the west of Barnsley from his father in 1756, recorded the work on re-designing the park in the 1760s in his diaries, which are in the Spencer Stanhope Muniments (SSM 60633) in Sheffield Archives. He mentions permanent employees, occasional workmen and neighbours with country estates. In 1760 he engaged Richard Woods, nurseryman and landscape architect from Chertsey in Surrey, to re-design the parkland. On 20 July he wrote in his diary that Mr Woods came here to plan my Gardens, Park, etc. The plan made by Richard Woods can be seen in Sheffield Archives and it shows a new walled kitchen garden, a pinery and hot-house and the park with trees and shrubs. He noted on 29 October that he had cut his first pineapple. Once the park wall was intact the landscaping of the park and stocking with deer could begin in earnest. In February 1762 the first deer arrived. He wrote: The Gamekeeper returned from Sprodborough with twenty Bucks. It appears that work began to make the serpentine lake on 26 October 1761 and in March 1765 he recorded that he had ordered two boats. On 9 July of that year, after a spell in London, you can almost feel the pleasure when he wrote At Home all day sailing and fishing .

Mining records
In all the records so far cited, the individuals – employees, buyers, thieves and trespassers alike – are all named. If you have an ancestor who worked in some capacity on a country estate it is probable that he or she will be recorded in the estate archives. Two more examples from the Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments illustrate this point. The first is a list of 100 ironstone miners working in Tankersley Park in 1849 (WWM G-45). The mining was organised on an ‘undertaker’ basis, a type of organisation widespread throughout the British Isles not only in ironstone mining but also in coal mining and lead mining. In this system, undertakers or contractors were appointed, who then ‘undertook’ to ‘get’ the ironstone and ‘hurry’ or ‘tram’ it to the bottom of the shaft.

Most of the miners in Tankersley Park were mining in 12 different small bell pits. The list of ironstone miners in 1849 gives the full name of each miner, their place of residence and, in the case of those under 20 years of age their ages. From this information it is possible to work out the job undertaken by each member of the team. In Pit 2 for example, George Bennett (aged 56) was the undertaker, and other members of the team were his three sons: Thomas (aged 24 in 1849), James (aged 21 in 1849) and Harry (aged 19). These would all have been getters, working with pick and shovel to mine the ironstone and fill the corves (small wheeled wagons).

Then there were Henry Smith (aged 14) and William Ball (aged 11). These two would have been hurriers, who pushed and pulled the corves full of ironstone to the pit bottom and then back again to the working face. The last member of the team was Samuel Platts, aged only nine. He would have been the gin boy who worked on the surface with a pony or donkey winding the ironstone up the shallow shaft and winding the empty corves back down again. Sometimes a gin boy was assisted by an elderly miner (the ‘hanger-on’) in emptying the corves and attaching them again, once emptied, to the rope for their descent down the shaft.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, the Milton Peterborough Estates Company, S. W. Fraser Esq. and the Head of Leisure Services, Sheffield City Council for permission to quote from the Arundel Castle Manuscripts, the Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments and the Spencer Stanhope Muniments which are all held in Sheffield Archives. I also wish to thank Eric Leslie for his wonderful line drawings.

More to read: Read the second part of Melvyn Jones’s article in the February Periodical; plus our next print edition, out in February, will feature his article on child miners.