St. James Church, Norton

However, shortly after they must have moved to Totley as the next child Ernest was born here on 5 January 1880. In the census on 3 April the following year, the Alderson family were recorded at Totley Rolling Mill, although that name was also applied to Bricky Row. A daughter Ethel May was born on 1 November 1882 but she lived only 19 days and was buried in Dore Christ Church. Finally William and Emily's youngest child, Minnie, was born in Totley in 1884. Some school admission records have survived from which we know that Alice, Jessie and Ernest attended Norton Free Church of England School and that Jessie and Ernest later went to Totley Church School. Unfortunately no dates of leaving are recorded but by the time of the next census on 5 April 1891 the family were to be found at 60 Chippinghouse Road, Sharrow. That address would remain the family home for the next twenty years but there would be many departures.

Firstly Henry married Margaret Booker at St Barnabas, Highfield on 17 September 1894. They had two children, Henry junior born on 7 June 1895 in Sharrow and Gladys born on 4 July 1899 in Crookes. Henry became a gardener. Next to leave was Alice Maud who married William Illingworth, a groom, at St. Barnabas on 5 September 1900. They had two children, Dorothy Hilda born on 26 May 1902 in Wortley and Evelyn born on 16 September 1904 in Sheffield. Both Jessie and Ernest married in 1906. Jessie married Ernest Leonard Fielder, a silversmith, on 4 July 1906 at St. Barnabas, Highfield. We have not found any children of the marriage. 

We will come to Ernest later but first we need to record the death of his mother. On 17 December 1906, Emily Alderson fell downstairs at home at 60 Chippinghouse Road and fractured her skull. She later died from her injuries. At the inquest the jury found a verdict of accidental death and also noted that they considered the stairs dangerous without a handrail. Emily was aged 63. 

Ellen Alderson married George Henry Dunstan, a plumber, at St Barnabas on 7 September 1898. They lived in Norton, Upperthorpe and later Mexborough and had four children but only John Harold, born on 28 June 1904, reached adulthood. 

William and Emily's youngest daughter Minnie died in 1909. She was aged 25 and unmarried. That left just her widowed father, aged 69, at home at Chippinghouse Road on census night 2 April 1911. He died in 1926 aged 84.

Ernest Alderson had become a life assurance agent but, having raised a capital sum of £150, he commenced business as a draper at 157 Fitzwilliam Street in April 1903. On 21 November his premises were burgled and, it was claimed, £80 of stock was stolen, very little of which was recovered when the culprit, Henry Marrison, was apprehended. Ernest's business soon failed and a receiving order was made against him on 30 December 1903. In court it was established that Ernest had not kept proper accounts, indeed any accounts, and that receipts were missing - he claimed they had been accidentally burned - and that his financial position had been made even even worse through betting. There was a deficiency of £216 13s 7d. Ernest's offer to pay 7s 6d in the pound was refused by his creditors and he was adjudicated bankrupt in February 1904. At a further court appearance in May the Official Receiver applied for a commitment but His Honour said that whilst he looked upon the case with very grave suspicion, he would refuse the application and give Ernest the benefit of the doubt as he felt that he was not "a very sharp person". 

In 1906 Ernest married Agnes Ethel Ronksley in Ecclesall Bierlow. Agnes was born on 18 March 1884, the tenth of eleven children of Arthur Ronksley, a scissors manufacturer, and his wife Sarah Hannah Hinchcliffe who had married at St. Mary's Church, Sheffield on 16 September 1869. After their marriage Ernest and Agnes left Sheffield and over the course of the next few years lived at many addresses in north Middlesex and south Hertfordshire including Hackney, Tottenham, Edmonton, Waltham Cross and Ponders End. Their three children were all baptised at St Luke, Hackney: Violet Agnes born on 22 February 1908, Ernest Sydney William born on 20 September 1911 and Henry Frederick born on 23 February 1913. Ernest was still a draper when Violet was born but thereafter he returned to his earlier occupation of insurance agent.

Ernest enlisted at Edmonton as Private number G/51868 in the Royal Fusiliers. He served briefly from 3-11 December 1916 in the 22nd Battalion before being posted to the 24th Battalion (City of London Regiment). His war ended when he was killed in action on 21 March 1918 during the Battle of Cambrai. He is buried at the Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery, Manancourt, Somme, France. He was awarded the the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Ernest does not appear on any local war memorial.

                                                                           Ernest Alderson's Medals l/r: British War Medal, Victory Medal (Courtesy of Chris Emsley)

Agnes also lost her younger brother during the war. Pte. Sydney Herbert Ronksley, number 7303, of the 2nd Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry died on 19 September 1914 at the Battle of the Marne. He was aged 26. Sydney is commemorated on the Hillsborough and Wadsley Bridge Parish War Memorial.

After the war, Agnes and the three children moved back to Sheffield and lived at 202 Sheffield Road, Wadsley Bridge and later at 138 Hangingwater Road, Ecclesall. On 11 July 1922 Agnes married John Lane, a gardener like his father Thomas, at the Parish Church, Owlerton. They lived at first at 8 Cheadle Street, Hillsborough. A son, John junior, was born the following year. 

It would appear that they later moved to 225 Nottingham Road, Burngreave as both Agnes and Ernest's sons died at that address. Ernest jnr, a cabinet maker's apprentice aged 18, died on 6 December 1929 and was buried at Burngreave Cemetery on 10 December. Henry, a clerk aged 17, died on 11 September 1930 and was buried in the same grave two days later. In the 1939 Register the Lane family were shown at 71 Fircoft Road, Shiregreen. Agnes died at 104 Homestead Road, Shiregreen and was buried with her two sons on 18 July 1958. She was aged 74. John Lane senior died the following year at Firvale Infirmary (Northern General Hospital) and was buried on 18 March. He was aged 82. 

Ernest's daughter Violet married James Horace Coxon, a surveyor, in 1932. It was, however, a bigamous marriage as James had married Teresa Mary Josephine Fitzgerald at the Catholic Church of Our Lady of The Rosary in Marylebone, London on 7 June 1920. She was the third daughter of Dr. Joseph Fitzgerald and his wife Mary Teresa Quinlan of Cappawhite, County Tipperary. James was sentenced to three years penal servitude for bigamy at Leeds Assizes on 4 December 1934 with a further 18 months imprisonment to run concurrently for theft, fraudulent conversion and falsification of accounts. He had been sentenced to imprisonment on at least two previous occasions for obtaining money by false pretences and fraudulent conversion: a term of six months in Leicester in 1929 and one of three months in Sussex in 1933. Teresa obtained a divorce in March 1936 whilst he was still in prison in Dartmoor. Violet and James remarried in 1938 and remained married until Violet's death on 7 August 1959 aged 51. James died in Rotherham in 1982, aged 89.

Clarence Belbin was born in Sheffield on 2 February 1892, the first of nine children born to Charles Albert Belbin and his wife Kate Eliza, nee Dufty. Clarence began his education in 1896 at the age of 4 at Totley Church School but left when the family moved back to Sheffield where they lived at 30 Rupert Road, Nether Edge and later at 5 Argyle Road, Meersbrook. After continuing his education at Sheffield Middle Schools, Clarence passed the incorporated accountant's preliminary examinations and became an auditor's clerk working with his father who was the accountant-auditor for Sheffield Corporation.

The family moved to Moorhill, Prospect Road, Totley Rise in November 1911. Clarence was brought up in a sporting family. His father was one of the original promoters and then secretary of Dore & Totley Golf Club as well as being President of Sheffield United Harriers and Athletic Club. Clarence became a keen sportsman himself and excelled at cricket and football.

After completing training with the 3rd West Yorkshire Royal Field Artillery, Clarence enlisted at Winchester in the 8th Battalion, Rifle Brigade on 8 September 1914 and was promoted to the rank of corporal on 12 January 1915. He died on 30 July 1915 in the German Field Hospital at Menin from wounds received in a flamethrower attack on his battalion at the battle of Hooge, near Ypres. He was aged 23. It was to be his last spell in the trenches before coming home to take up a commission.

His parents had already suffered the loss of their daughter Irene from pneumonia shortly after war started. They were at first told Clarence had died but then given the good news that he was merely wounded and a prisoner of war only to have their hopes dashed when Clarence's death was finally confirmed. Corporal Clarence Belbin is buried at Harlebeke New British Cemetery at West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Clement Stanley Binns

Clement Binns was born in Broomhall Park, Sheffield in 1885. He was the youngest of six children born to George Binns, a clothier and outfitter who had a large well-known store at Moorhead, and his wife Mary Jane, nee Wardlow.

Clement was educated at Ashville College in Harrogate where he was boarding at the time of the 1901 Census, and later Sheffield University. He was an enthusiastic member of the Hanover Street Chapel Literary Society and was much admired for his recitations from Shakespeare, Kipling and Twain.

Clement became a solicitor and by 1911 had entered into a partnership with Sam J. Newsom in the firm of Newsom and Binns of Melbourne Chambers, Cambridge Street.  On 14 May 1914 at Gateacre Parish Church, near Liverpool, Clement married Ruth Victoria Whitney and the couple made their home at Fern Bank, Brinkburn Vale Road, Totley Rise. 

He joined the Sheffield Volunteer Defence Corps, becoming a platoon commander, before resigning to take up a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 20th (Service) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers (1st Tyneside Scottish) on 5 May 1915. His battalion arrived in France in January 1916 and were involved in many months of fighting in the trenches on the Somme.

On 1 July 1916 they came under heavy machine gun fire near the town of Albert. Clement's brother Arthur received a telegram from the War Office on 9 July stating that Clement was missing. His body was never identified. He was one of 26 officers and 564 men from the battalion that were killed on that day.

Lieutenant Clement Stanley Binns is commemorated on pier and face 10B, 11B and 12B of the Thiepval Memorial, France, at Ashville School, at Sheffield University and on the memorial tablet at Hanover Street United Methodist Church. As well as a wife, Clement left two young children, George Leslie Whitney Binns born on 7 March 1915 and Lorraine Mary Whitney Binns born on 19 April the following year.

Colin Hedley Bishop

Colin Hedley Bishop, known as Hedley, was born in Dore on 8 April 1893 and baptized at Christ Church, Dore on 22 October 1893. He was the fifth child and second son of Colin Bishop, a gardener, and his wife Mary Ellen (nee Kirk) who were married at Dore on 4 June 1884.

                                                                                                     Hedley Bishop's 1914-15 Star, and Yorkshire Dragoons cap badge (Courtesy of Chris Emsley)

By August 1897 Colin Bishop and his family had moved to Totley and in the 1901 census they were living at Rolling Mill, Totley Rise. Hedley attended Totley All Saints School until April 1906 when, at the age of 13, he left to start work. By the time of the 1911 census, Colin and Mary Ellen Bishop had ten children, six of whom were still living with them at Ivy Cottage (now called Mill Cottage) in Mill Lane, Totley Rise. Hedley Bishop was aged 17 and was working as a machine file cutter.

Hedley's paternal grandfather, Joseph Bishop, was a farmer and scythe maker who lived at High Greave Farm, Whitelow Lane, Dore. He died young being buried in Dore churchyard on 27 July 1871 at the age of 41 followed 8 years later on 13 July 1879 by his wife Mary, aged 49. The family of Hedley's mother, the Kirks, were from the area around Hope and they were also farmers.

When the First World War began, Hedley Bishop must have volunteered almost immediately and he became Service No. 2763 Private Hedley Bishop in the Queen's Own Yorkshire Dragoons. The regiment arrived at Le Havre in France on 16 July 1915 as part of the 17th (Northern) Division and were deployed to the Ypres salient. In September 1915 Hedley will have received the sad news that his 17 year old sister Doris had died.

On 1 July 1916 the Battle of the Somme began and on the first day 19,240 British soldiers died. The Yorkshire Dragoons were involved in the Battle of Delville Wood which took place between July and early September. This was a subsidiary attack of the Somme offensive and it seems very likely that Hedley Bishop was wounded during the fighting and eventually died of his wounds on 21 October 1916. He is buried in Grave K34 at Aveluy Communal Cemetery Extension. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star as well as the Victory Medal and British War Medal.

1916 was a year of tragedy for the extended Bishop family as two of Hedley Bishop's cousins were also killed. Maurice Bishop died at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and his brother Harry died on the Somme in September 1916.

Charles Cartwright

Charles Cartwright was born in Callington, Cornwall on 25 November 1882, one of twin boys born to Rev. George Dawson Cartwright and his wife Maria, nee Root who had 14 children in all. His father had been a school teacher but by 1881 had became a clergyman.

Charles was educated at Denstone School, Staffordshire and at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge. He too became a school teacher and for about four years taught at King Edward VII school in Sheffield.

After leaving Sheffield he went to South Africa where he acted as a special constable during the Johannesburg strikes. He returned to England in 1913 to teach at St. George's School, Windsor before being appointed second master at Sutton School, Surrey.

On 27 August 1914 he enlisted into the 6th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment and was promoted quickly through the ranks to Sergeant on 1st November 1914. He was discharged to commission as a Temporary Second Lieutenant in the 9th (reserve) Battalion on 28 January 1915. It was whilst Charles was stationed at Aldershot that he married Louise Hoyland, the youngest daughter of Charles Hayward Hoyland, a brush manufacturer of Thornfields, Totley Brook Road at Christ Church, Dore on 3 March 1915.

Charles was later attached to the 8th Battalion and served with them on the Western Front from his arrival in early January 1916 until he was killed in action on 19 April 1916, aged 33. Second Lieutenant Charles Cartwright is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium.

His twin brother Edward, who had emigrated to British Columbia in 1906, joined the 7th Battalion Canadian Infantry and was badly wounded in September 1916. Private Edward Cartwright died at 2nd Northern General Hospital, Leeds on 10 October and was buried at St. Andrew's Church, Wimpole where his father was the Rector.

Herbert Collett

Herbert Collett was born in Totley and baptised at Christ Church, Dore on 25 October 1885. He was the ninth of ten children born to Charles Collett from Sandhurst, Gloucestershire and his Chelsea born wife Mary Ann nee Gray who had married at Woolwich, Kent on 10 April 1869. Charles's father had died before he was born and he had been brought up by his mother and older siblings.

Having become a groom, Charles enlisted as a driver in the Royal Artillery on 16 January 1856. He served for more than 21 years including a four year period in India. When he received his discharge on 28 August 1877 Charles gave his intended future residence as Wood End, Dore Station but why it was that Charles, Mary Ann and their four surviving children came to our area is unknown.

                                                                           Herbert Collett's British Campaign Medals (L/R): British War Medal, Victory Medal (Photo: Chris Emsley)

In the 1881 Census the Colletts are shown as living at Totley Rise. Charles had become a mason's labourer. Another daughter Lavinia had been born in 1879 but sadly she died aged two and was buried at Dore Christ Church on 16 October 1881. Four more children were subsequently born in Totley: Ada in 1883, Herbert in 1885, Louisa in 1889 and Arthur in 1890 by which time the family had moved to Green Oak and Charles had become a gardener. He died in 1896 and was buried at Dore on 3 October. Mary Ann and the younger children, including Herbert, moved to 31 Blair Athol Road, Banner Cross by 1901 and were still there ten years later. Herbert became a road labourer like his older brothers but later he worked as a moulderer and then concrete mason.

Herbert married Clara Bartell at the Parish Church, Worsbrough Dale, near Barnsley on 2 September 1914. Clara was the ninth of eleven children of George Bartell, a colliery labourer, and his wife Fanny, nee Allen. Clara and Herbert were living at 29 Hamilton Road, Firth Park on 9 December 1915 when Herbert enlisted in the 14th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment.

He was mobilized on 16 November 1916 but his service record gives no further details. He died on 2 July 1917 aged 31. Private Herbert Collett is commemorated on the Bay 8 of the Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France and on the memorial plaque at All Saints' Church, Ecclesall close to Silver Hill House which was where Clara was living at the end of the war.

New paragraphCharles William Collier was born in Totley and baptised at Dore Christ Church on 4 October 1891. He was the first of eight children born to Charles William Collier senior and his wife Emma, nee Davis who had married at St. Swithin's Church, Holmesfield on 1 September 1890.

Charles senior was a brickmaker's labourer who had come to Totley from Burton on Trent to work at Totley Moor Brickyard, the main supplier of bricks for the Totley Tunnel. When the tunnel work was finished the Colliers moved to Goldthorpe, near Bolton upon Dearne, Yorkshire where seven more children were born between 1894 and 1909, three of whom died in infancy.

Charles junior became a pit pony driver in a coal mine. On 14 June 1913 he married Maud Shepherd, a miner's daughter, at St. Andrew's Church, Bolton upon Dearne. The couple had a son, Alban, who was born at Goldthorpe on 20 September 1913.

Charles's war service record has not survived. We know only that he enlisted as a Private in the York and Lancaster Regiment and arrived in France on 10 September 1915. He served with the 10th, 9th and 1st/4th Battalions and was killed in action on 9 October 1917. He was aged 26. Private Charles William Collier is commemorated on Panels 125-128 of the Tyne Cot Memorial, near Ypres, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium and on the new Dearne Township Memorial at Bolton upon Dearne.