Dissenters’ Paradise walk

• Start: Start at the junction of Clarkehouse Road and Glossop Road.
• Distance: 1.5 miles / 2.5 km
• Time: 1 hour
• Access: The first part of the walk is easily accessible to those with mobility aids. Frog Walk is pot holed. Inside the cemetery, the ground is rough and uneven away from the main path, which can become slippery when wet.

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A self-guided trail through the Porter Valley’s Nonconformist rural past.

• Follow in the footsteps of Sheffield’s nonconformist philanthropists.
• Discover the diverse delights of the Botanical Gardens.
• Explore the historic General Cemetery.

This trail has been produced by the Hunter Archaeological Society in partnership with inHeritage.co.uk to celebrate the centenary of the Society in 2012. It is based on a guided tour created, researched and led by Pat Wagner.

This trail is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

A History of Dissent

The 1830s saw a wave of philanthropic activity in Sheffield’s leafy Porter Valley, as newly wealthy nonconformist industrialists sought to make their mark on their rapidly expanding city. Outside the conservative, Anglican, land-owning Establishment, these nonconformists were cementing their positions in society. Central to this was the Wilson family of Sharrow Mills. They had bought more land in the valley than they needed for their business and sold some of it to help create the Botanical Gardens and General Cemetery.

1. Junction of Clarkehouse Road and Glossop Road

In 1820 Clarkehouse Lane wound through fields and meadows containing only two substantial houses, Broomhall to the south and Broomhill to the north. Glossop Road was built in 1820, part of a turnpike road to Manchester.
One of the next buildings to be built here was The Mount, a terrace of eight neoclassical townhouses created by William Flockton between 1830 and 1832. Hymnist, preacher, poet and editor of Sheffield’s radical Iris, James Montgomery was among The Mount’s first residents. You need to sit upstairs on a double-decker bus along Glossop Road to get a good view!

Walk 200m along Clarkehouse Road until you see the imposing columns of a school on your right.

2. King Edward VII School

Methodist Dr Waddy founded the Wesleyan Proprietary Grammar School, and William Flockton designed the impressive neoclassical building. In 1838 James Montgomery gave the opening address. Wesley College, as it soon became known, housed up to 300 boys in its upstairs dormitories. The City Council took on the College in 1905 and merged it with Sheffield Grammar School (founded 1604) to create King Edward VII School, still justly proud of its reputation.

Walk along Clarkehouse Road to the Botanical Gardens entrance.

3. Botanical Gardens

Thomas Asline Ward, a staunch Unitarian, led the 1833 petition to create the Botanical Gardens. Shares were sold to raise funds, with access restricted to shareholders and, occasionally, their guests. In 1834, the committee bought 18 acres from snuff-manufacturer Joseph Wilson of Sharrow Mills. Benjamin Broomhead Taylor (who also worked on the Cutlers’ Hall) designed the fine entrance and pavilions, of Peak District stone, and supervised building the pavilions. Robert Marnock won the competition to design the gardens, officially opened in 1836.

In the gatehouse, you’ll find a gift shop with maps and further information from the Friends of the Botanical Gardens. Just inside the gardens, there’s a café and toilet. Then turn right along the front of the pavilions.

4. Pavilions and Promenade

The pavilions offered education and recreation. They housed plants from around the world, with an emphasis on useful plants. Disaster struck in 1843, when a hailstorm destroyed
swathes of glass. A new society took over and improved the pavilions. These in turn suffered WW2 bomb damage, were restored and then deteriorated through the 1980s. The pavilions were splendidly restored in 2002 and populated with plants from around the world.

Walk through the pavilions. From the exit, you take the path almost directly ahead and follow it round into the sunken stone-lined pit.

5. Bear Pit

The metal sculpture gives away this strange hollow’s secret. The garden’s ‘fine bear’ was not the only animal here in the early years. A small menagerie housed eagles, deer, a fox, even monkeys! As late as the 1970s, bright macaws chattered in the pavilion aviary.

From the bear pit turn right and walk downhill to the Thompson Road Gates.

6. Swiss Cottage (South Lodge)

This gardener’s lodge once marked the humble south entrance. To your right, the wall turns a sharp angle, marking the original extent of the gardens. In 1898 the gardens were expanded and Sir Frederick Mappin insisted that Thompson Road be built 60-feet wide to show off the splendid new gates! A new tram along Ecclesall Road brought visitors almost to the door.

Go down Thompson Road and cross Ecclesall Road. Take the unmarked road beside Berkeley Precinct and walk to the gates of Sharrow Mills, the core of this landscape. Follow the service road to the right and you can glimpse the brick mill and house.

7. Wilson’s Snuff Mill

There has been a mill here since 1604. In 1738 former Master Cutler William Wilson leased the site. His son Joseph inherited it in 1740. Joseph was a toolmaker, who produced Sheffield Plate and diversified into grinding snuff from tobacco. When fire destroyed the mill in 1746, a national appeal (motivated by the tax income from snuff) enabled Joseph to rebuild the mill – protected by insurance and, eventually, its own fire engine! Westbrook Mill was built in 1831 and two branches of the family divided the firm between this and Sharrow Mill. Descendants of the Wilson family still own and run Sharrow Mills to this day. The old pestle and mortar grinders were finally replaced in the mid-1990s and you can still see them in Kelham Island museum.

Now retrace your steps to Ecclesall Road and turn right. Walk past two side roads to Cemetery Avenue and approach the cemetery gates.

8. General Cemetery

Broad leafy Cemetery Avenue leads visitors up to the General Cemetery, opened in 1836 as one of the first and most beautiful municipal cemeteries in England. In the early 1800s, churchyards overflowed, as people flocked to insanitary cities for work. Putrefaction liquids seeped into the streets; dead bodies were left lying. Sheffield’s wealthy dissenters led by Thomas Asline Ward financed this nonconformist burial ground on land purchased from Henry Wilson of Westbrook Mill. Architect Samuel Worth used the hillside to create sweeping sightlines across his Egyptianate nonconformist chapel and office buildings, with vistas to the Porter’s other two new nonconformist monuments – Wesleyan College and Botanical Gardens.

Continue along Cemetery Avenue and just before entering the Cemetery Gates take a right turn into Frog Walk. Follow along, keeping right at the fork. (The uphill path takes you to the site of Westbrook Mill.) Just before the high stone wall begins you can get a better look at Sharrow Mill and house.

9. Millpond

At the end of the wall, where the hedge starts, you can see the snuff mill’s substantial millpond.

Retrace your steps and enter the cemetery, crossing over the River Porter. Follow the main path round on top of the catacombs.

10. Catacombs

The unusual catacombs proved unpopular with nonconformists keen to make
their mark with stunningly designed unique monuments. Very few sold and today they
are sealed.

Continue following the main path till you can see the Anglican Chapel to your right. Take the steep stone path up to the Chapel.

11. Montgomery Pedestal and Anglican Chapel

The mid-1800s saw a partly commercial decision to add an Anglican section to the cemetery – pauper burials earned 5s per head, but must be in consecrated ground. The Neo-Gothic Anglican Chapel was built in assertive contrast to the nonconformists’ Egyptianate chapel to the west. More land was bought and the original boundary became the Dissenters’ Wall, marking the line between consecrated and unconsecrated ground. The Cemetery Road entrance was built to accommodate carriages and daytrippers, enjoying the fresh air and views of the Porter Valley.

James Montgomery’s empty pedestal stands testament to his home in this landscape. A Moravian by upbringing, writer of Anglican and Methodist hymns, Montgomery died without heirs and was buried in consecrated ground. Montgomery’s statue is now at the Cathedral in town.

The cemetery declined in the twentieth century as other city cemeteries opened. By the 1950s there were only 10 burials per year and the buildings were in disrepair. Sheffield City Council took over in 1976 and required an Act of Parliament to convert the major part to public open space. Most of the bodies remain in the ground and the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust vigorously care for the cemetery today.

Take time to explore the cemetery, rich in historical interest and wildlife. To leave, follow the straight path that runs through the green open space to the exit in Montague Street. Turn left. Cross the River Porter and head for Ecclesall Road.