Peter Machan has written a number of books about Sheffield, its surroundings and its traditions. His talk is titled the same as his book published in 2021. A reason he finds the Loxley Valley curious is that it has no main roads running through it. It is now an agricultural economy with the River Loxley flowing down its centre from Strines in the west to Malin Bridge in the east with Agden in the north.
The valley is hemmed in on all sides by steep slopes and has a feeling of semi-isolation and yet lies within the city boundary of Sheffield. Many who live in the valley can trace their local ancestry back generations. The close sense of community is similar to that found in other sparsely populated rural areas like the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. There are several small hamlets consisting of a few farms with names taken by the families. The Dungworth family can be traced back to 1323 and still live in the Dungworth area. Only the twin settlements of High and Low Bradfield and Dungworth can be described as villages.
In the 1100s William de Lovetot, the Lord of Hallamshire, built the Church of St Mary in Ecclesfield. The parish was huge and it is probable that the Church of St Nicholas was built around the same time in High Bradfield as a chapel of ease of Ecclesfield. The Norman origins of St Nicolas were concealed by remodelling in 1480 with a high-roofed nave and perpendicular tracery to new windows. In addition to a gargoyle on the south elevation, with a person’s mouth stretched open to facilitate roof water discharge; there are two stone sculptures mounting corner buttresses on the east elevation. One of a dog and the other of a mythical creature (in this locality the Talbot dog as the symbol of the Earl of Shrewsbury is not unknown.) It is curious to find such ornaments on such rural buildings.
The Church displays a carved stone cross dating back to Viking times and which may have come from Iona. To the northwest of the Church is a bailey with surrounding earth banks but no record of a castle. It may have housed a watch tower cum defensive structure. There is a well-polished brass plate fixed to the wall in the Church that alone depicts a local valley family. John Moorwood died in 1647 and his wife Grace died in the previous year. They had nine sons and seven daughters. They wore puritan clothes and had a coat of arms. Clearly this was a family of some standing.
In 1830, after a Sheffield “resurrectionist” was apprehended whilst seeking a recently buried body in the graveyard, a watch-house was built overlooking the graves.
With the Valley’s relatively sparse population, farm buildings have remained unchanged for many generations. There are several crook barns to be found. Some have the farmhouse incorporated within the barn. There is a tradition of constructing a small single story on the end of the long barn which was often a foundry. To supplement the poor income from farming, various metal working sidelines developed that were linked to the Sheffield cutlery industry.
The water power of the rivers along the Valley was harnessed and, by 1794 there were 24 mills and 380 hands involved in steel working. At this time, children were educated at various dissenter and nonconformist schools. At Underbank in 1652, Sim House was left by Richrd Spoone as a school for the education of poor children.
Peter’s talk covered an array of interesting and curious subjects relating to the valley that are too many to cover in this report. His book has even more curious details on this beautiful valley in Sheffield.