Meal Deals

Major Cards Excepted

Situated as it is in the middle of Grenoside, started off following the enclosures act of 1789 when a man called Matthew Ellison was awarded one rood (about quarter of an acre) and five perches (about five and a half yards) of land on the westward side of the Sheffield to Halifax Turnpike

For this land he paid £9.00 .when nine pounds was nine pounds!!!..but this was a time when other workers usually got two shillings for a weeks wages. It had a cottage though.... The cottage was later merged into the pub buildings when later additions and alterations were carried out.

Matthew Ellison was an inn keeper, although not until 1802 was the "cottage " on the site first mentioned as being a public house. Then it was referred to as "The Sign of the Harrow." There follows a fairly complicated passage about family deaths and inheritances. Matthew Ellison, it is believed, died fairly soon after getting the land, leaving his property to his four children ...Sarah, Elizabeth, David and George, Sarah died in 1796...followed soon by her sister, Elisabeth in 1800. George bought out his brother David's share of the property in 1802, but died soon afterwards in 1804 when the property was passed on to his two daughters, Ann and Mary. Ann married Joseph Haigh and Mary married Joseph Woodhead..good old Sheffield names! ...Woodhead bought out Haigh's share of the pub in 1823 and when he died the premises was inherited by Benjamin Woodhead ...probably his son Benjamin sold The Harrow in 1849 to George and William Walker Smith......Are you with me so far?...I'm not going too fast for you am I...

.....Although owners of the pub, these people don't seem too have run the place...because in a trade directory of 1825, Mary Turner is recorded as being landlady.... In 1833, William Croft was landlord, he was also a butcher. James Gillot, also a stone mason, was landlord in 1841 and in 1852, Thomas Lint was the landlord. He came originally fro Cudworth. Henry Beaver was landlord in 1861 followed by Edward Morrison in 1871. He also ran a horse bus service between the village and Sheffield..... Nancy Nuttall was landlady in 1881 but had vacated the premises by 1884 when William Kirk took over. Shortly after... William Heaps took over the licence and also was a bus proprietor. on the corner of the road at Main Street and Steven Lane became known locally as "Heaps Corner"... Perhaps it still is. Following the death of Mr. Heaps in 1898, his daughters husband, Tom Wastney or (Wasteney), became landlord and when he passed away in 1901, his wife Phyllis, William Heap's daughter took it over. When she re-married, her husband was licensee until he died in 1925. There is a butchers called Wasteney with a shop at the top of Norfolk Hill, opposite the pub. As this is rather an unusual surname, it seems likely that there is some family relationship.

During the latter part of the 19th and the early 20th century The Harrow was possibly the most popular pub in Grenoside. It has a lot going for it...there was a bowling green, a knur and spell team as well as a room upstairs that was used for dancing. The Grenoside Sword Dancers perform now outside The Old Harrow as they have done every Boxing day Boxing day!

In prehistoric times flint from the Yorkshire coast was made into tools at Deepcar. Two thousand years ago, Wharncliffe was the site of one of the largest Quern manufacturing sites in Europe.

The most obvious signs of Grenoside antiquity is the Birley Stone which has stood, commanding a splendid view over Sheffield since before 1161. We have a little knowledge of the Norman overlords but then comes a long period of when a number of isolated hamlets existed by farming later helped by Nailmaking once the harvest was gathered in. Two main routes have run through the area. One from Ecclesfield Priory to Bradfield and one from Sheffield to Wortley and beyond. Near where they crossed was to become the focal point of Grenoside particularly in the 18th century when the Walker brothers established a rudimentary iron founding business using crucibles. This was so promising that they eventually moved to Masbro' where it was hugely successful. In the meantime other foundries had sprung up and during the 19th century the village developed into a busy cottage-type industry based on iron and steel. As the nail industry died so it's place was taken by filecutting and similar trades such as shuttle parts, springs, tips, butchers steels and cutlery.

The other major trade in the 17 & 1800's was quarrying. Vast quantities of local sandstone was shipped out for use as building stone, grinding wheels, furnace lining, cementation chests and so on. Over the years various other trades have flourished and then disappeared such as rug making, basket weaving, linen weaving, charcoal burning and forest management.

Today the village retains much of its Victorian character; it's stone buildings looking much as they did over a 100 years ago.

To the south and east lie the great Sheffield estates but to the north and west, open fields and dense forests give some idea of the rural almost isolated village of yesteryear.

We could with more info about recent history if you have any please email me