Thomas Glossop
Thomas Glossop holding the Abbeydale Amateur Gardening Society Cup
We are grateful to Gordon Wainwright for drawing our attention to this newspaper article about his great grandfather that appeared in 1958. Gordon asks "Whatever happened to the cup?"
Friday 5 September 1958 Sheffield Telegraph and Star
A Blind Man's Cup is Prize
A cup won by a man who continued gardening, though blind for at least 35 years, is a new trophy which will be offered in Sheffield Corporation Housing Estate Gardens Competition.
It is the "Thomas Glossop Memorial Cup," a tribute to a man who not only liked his garden but was also well known in cricket circles. The cup, nearly 50 years old, is of sterling silver, weights 14oz. and with its plinth is contained in a plush lined case.
Only Man
It was offered to the Corporation by Mr. Arthur H. Glossop [Arthur Austin Glossop], the oldest surviving member of the family. It was presented when the Rev. J. Jokerfoot [Rev. J. A. Kerfoot], Vicar of St. John's Abbeydale, started the Abbeydale Amateur Gardening Society and Mr. Ebenezer Hall, of Abbeydale Hall, gave the cup for the most points scored.
When the 1914-18 war broke out, Mr. Glossop was the only man who had ever won the cup. At the time of his death in 1940 he had been gardening the same piece of land at Abbeydale for 69 years, and for the last 35 years of his life was blind.
Sense of Touch
Yet he did all his own gardening, raising from seed, pricking off, and bedding out, his rows were always straight, and he could keep his garden free from weeds by sense of touch. Now it is suggested that the cup he treasured should be for the runner-up to the the winner of The Kemsley Cup, presented by The Star.
"My father always had a lot of sympathy for the man who was 'just pipped at the post,' and I am delighted to think that his cup would be a consolation to such a competitor," said Mr. Arthur Glossop.
If the Corporation Gardens Competition is ever dropped, it is suggested, the cup should be passed over to the Sheffield and District Allotments Federation.
Who Was Thomas Glossop?
Thomas Glossop was born on 23 February 1853 in what was then called Bright Street and is now the lower end of Fitzwilliam Street, Sheffield. He was the youngest of three children born to Albert Glossop and his first wife Elizabeth Senior who had married on 6 September 1846 at the Cathedral Church of St Peter & St Paul. Thomas's sister, Sarah Elizabeth, was born in 1849 and his brother, George, in 1851. Sadly George died of the brain condition hydrocephalus at the age of 5 and was buried at St. Mary's Church, Bramall Lane, on 6 August 1856.
Thomas went to St. Mary's Road School but left at the age of 11 and for a while he worked at Samuel Sanderson's hatters shop in Fargate during the heyday of the silk top hat which was worn by working men as well as the more affluent. The shops employed young boys, dressed in Eton suits, as "cash lads". Their job, when a purchase was made, was to rush with the money from the shop assistant to the cash desk and return with the change.
Albert Glossop was a razor scale presser and Thomas was soon drawn into the family business which had been started by Thomas's grandfather Joseph Glossop in 1829. Having a passion for cricket from an early age, Thomas would get up in the summer months at 3 a.m. so that he could finish his day's work in time to get to nearby Bramall Lane for the start of play. An enthusiastic supporter of Yorkshire cricket, Thomas's first encounter with an Australian touring team was in 1868 when the Australian Aborigines toured England and played at Bramall Lane.
In 1870 Thomas's older sister Sarah Elizabeth married Joseph Ash, cutlery manufacturer, so that by the time of the census the following year there was just Thomas and his parents living at 15 Pear Street, Sharrow.
Thomas's mother died on 14 July 1873 at the age of 46. His father married Mary Ann Glossop at the Cathedral Church on 30 July 1874. She was the daughter of John Glossop, another cutler and possibly a relative. The marriage had lasted a little over three years when Mary Ann died on 7 December 1877 at the age of 43.
The 1881 Census shows Albert now living at 43 Pear Street with his third wife Sarah Ann although it would appear that the couple didn't actually marry until 25 December 1884 at St. Mary's Church. Sarah Ann was a widow, the daughter of Charles Andrew, a silversmith. She had married her first husband, Joseph Belk a cutler, at the Cathedral Church on 28 February 1846.
Sheffield's New Midland Station which opened in 1870.
The manufacturing side of the family business was in Harmer Lane, off Pond Street. With the opening of Sheffield's new Midland Station in 1870 and Dore & Totley Station two years later, it became an easy and relatively cheap journey from our area into the city. Thomas Glossop was clearly a man who planned ahead. When the Duke of Devonshire decided to sell land at Bushey Wood, Thomas Glossop went to the first meeting of the Abbeydale Freehold Land Society and became a member of the committee. In 1875, he bought a large plot of land, working it initially as an allotment whilst it was being paid for in instalments.
On 4 October the following year Thomas married Martha Walton Rodgers at Hanover Chapel and the couple set up home in St. Mary's Road. Martha was the daughter of Barnett Rodgers, a Sheffield tailor, and his wife Martha (nee Walton). A daughter, Annie Elizabeth, was born in 1878 and a son, William Walton ("Willie") on 25 August 1880. Thomas was now working on his own account and he was shown in the 1881 Census as an employer of 5 men and 2 boys. A second son, Thomas Albert, was born on 28 July 1882. A third son George Harry was born on 14 December 1886 but he died aged 13 months on 16 January 1888 and was buried in the General Cemetery. The family were still living at 71 St. Mary's Road in the 1891 Census and a fourth son, Arthur Austin, was born on 24 May 1894.
By around 1897 all the roads, footpaths, curbs and sewers on the Abbeydale Freehold Land Estate had been built, the roads metalled and the estate connected to the town's water supply. After working his large plot of land as an allotment for more than 20 years, Thomas set about building a house. The family moved from St. Mary's Road soon after the 1901 Census to what became known as Pattysbrooke, 3 Brinkburn Vale Road. The house might well have been built earlier had Thomas not taken over paying the instalments on a second plot of land that his father had acquired but been unable to afford.
In 1903 Thomas's daughter Annie married Frank Gliddon, a clerk for the Midland Railway Company, and the couple made their home at Woodland Villas, on (Queen) Victoria Avenue.
Norfolk Market Hall, Haymarket, Sheffield
The Norfolk Market Hall had been built by the 13th Duke of Norfolk on the site of the former Tontine Inn and opened on Christmas Eve 1851. This photograph shows the west end of the market hall which was rebuilt in 1904-05 with shops fronting on to the Haymarket. It is not known when the firm of Thomas Glossop and Sons first occupied stalls in the market hall but the firm were there in 1899 when they were first visited by three members of the touring Australian cricket team: Hugh Trumble, Monty Noble and Victor Trumper. Even more members of the 1902 and 1905 Australian touring teams visited the stall, taking supplies of razors back with them to the antipodes.
An article in the Sheffield Independent on 21 November 1905 mentions that the Aussies had presented Thomas Glossop with a large autographed team photograph. The article comments on the well-ordered display of cutlery of almost every conceivable type valued at around £4,000. Some were ingenious devices with over twenty blades and instruments whilst others were novelty items.
"Kno Kut" Safety Razor advertisement.
Various newspaper articles commented favourably too on a new invention which Thomas had patented called the "Kno Kut" Safety Razor, which had an electro-plated guard, which fitted into the hollow ground blade, making it virtually impossible for the user to cut himself, without being cumbersome to use.
So safe indeed, that one Australian cricketer, Bert Hopkins, became the butt of his team mates' jokes when he couldn't fathom out how to open the safety razor, and opted for another type instead. Hopkins had not paid for the razor in cash but had exchanged a pair of his cricket flannels for it. The trousers in question were in a poor state of repair and had been autographed by various members of the 1909 Australian cricket team in indelible ink as a means of preventing Hopkins from ever wearing them again. Amongst the signatories were Monty Noble, Roger Hartigan, Warren Bardsley, Bill Ferguson, and Frank Laver.
"Hopkins' Trousers" were greatly treasured and were just one of many cricket memorabilia that were to be seen on display at the market stall for many years. Other items included a bat presented by Victor Trumper in 1905 and a ball used in a 1909 England v Australia Test Match. You can listen to Bill Glossop, Thomas's grandson, explaining how the bat came into the family's possession at Victor Trumper's Bat.
Nan and Charlie Macartney, autographed 30 May 1928
The association with the Australian tourists would last for at least 35 years passing down from Thomas to his sons who were keen cricketers themselves. Many of the Australians stayed at the Glossops' home in Brinkburn Vale Road at one time or another, sometimes when on private visits to this country. The photograph above is of Charles George Macartney (1886-1958) who toured England with the Aussies in 1909, 1912, 1921 and 1926. It is autographed in 1928 when he stayed with the Glossop Family whilst on a private visit to this country with his wife Anna.
The caricature of Charlie Macartney below is dedicated to Thomas's son Arthur and was drawn by fellow Australian cricketer Arthur Alfred Mailey (1886-1967) who played in 21 Test Matches between 1920 and 1928. Mailey became quite well known for his drawings of sporting personalities which were published in several collections.
Charlie Macartney, drawn by Arthur Mailey, 1927
After the war, the cutlery business of Thomas Glossop and Sons was run by Thomas's sons. Thomas Albert Glossop had married Sarah ("Sallie") Beckett at the Friends Meetinghouse, Hartshead, Sheffield on 6 June 1907. Willie Glossop had married Gertrude Elizabeth ("Gertie") England at the first wedding to take place at the Dore & Totley Union Church, Totley Brook Road, in May 1910. Elsewhere on our website you can read about William Walton Glossop's wartime training in the northeast of England and Arthur Austin Glossop's essay about the wounded Belgian servicemen cared for at St. John's V.A.D.
Youngest son Arthur married Dorothy Nellie Crighton in Leytonstone, Essex in 1922. The couple had met whilst Arthur, who was excused military service because of defective eysesight, was working as a chemist at a munitions factory at Cliffe at Hoo, Kent, where Dorothy had been born. Sadly, later that year, Thomas's daughter Annie died on 14 November aged 44. She was buried on 17 November at Dore Christ Church.
In the 1930s, Norfolk Market Hall was decorated in the lead up to Christmas and the Sheffield newspapers carried full page articles describing the scene and the various wares on sale during an Annual Shopping Festival. Thomas Glossop and Sons, as one of the oldest and most respected of traders, were always heavily featured. Picture Sheffield has a photograph of Thomas Arthur standing by one their stalls. For a while, Willie Glossop was the treasurer and secretary of the Norfolk Market Hall Traders' Association.
The photograph below was taken on 18 November 1932 when the third annual festival was opened by the Lord Mayor, Alderman Ernest Wilson, seen here with his wife the Lady Mayoress, Sir Arthur Shirley Benn (M.P. for the Park Division of Sheffield), Councillor W. J. Hunter and Mr C. G. Thompson (general secretary of the Norfolk Markets Tenants' Association). A bouquet of pink roses, pink carnations, white chrysanthemums and asparagus fern, tied with blue ribbon, was presented to the Lady Mayoress by Jean Margaret Glossop (aged 5 years 10 months), daughter of Arthur and Dorothy Glossop, and Gordon Wainwright's mother.
New paragraph
Jean M. Glossop presenting a bouquet to the Lady Mayoress, 18 November 1932.
The newspaper article that we quoted at the top of this page suggests Thomas Glossop went blind in the early 1900s but perhaps his eyesight merely deteriorated over many years like his father's had done. No mention of his blindness is made on the 1911 Census and in 1913 Thomas wrote a letter to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph in which he described how he was closely following the nesting experiences of a family of thrushes in his garden at Pattysbrooke. The following year he became a subscriber to, and director of, the newly formed Bushey Wood Bowling Club Ltd.
In an interview with Thomas published in the Sheffield Independent on 4 September 1929 it was said that Thomas had been blind for ten years but that he still enjoyed cricket matches at Bramall Lane. His wife Martha would tell him who was batting and bowling and where the fielders were positioned and keep him abreast of the scores. In his later years he liked to listen to the "wireless" in the evenings, following the news and, of course, the cricket scores. He said the wireless placed him on the same level as others.
When Martha died on 8 December 1934 at the age of 79, Thomas described her passing as like losing his "second sight". Even so, he continued to visit Bramall Lane. He said he could still get a good idea of how the game was progressing and recognise off side hits from the sound of the ball on the bat but found football easier to follow from the varying roar of the crowd. There was never any doubt in Thomas's mind as to who had scored a goal.
In January 1939, Thomas recalled his memories of old Sheffield to Margaret Simpson who wrote a column for the Sheffield Daily Telegraph called A Sheffield Woman's Diary. She said Thomas had 'a brilliant memory' of days when Sheffield was visited by the likes of Blondin, the tight-rope walker, who thrilled crowds at the Botanical Gardens and by past Royalty. Thomas was in the procession in 1875 when Firth Park was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales. He could remember accurately the names and positions of all the shops on the main streets of Sheffield. He spoke about the days at Bramall Lane when a part of the ground was used for keeping pigs and he remembered seeing W. G. Grace and George Ullyott hit huge sixes right out of the ground, breaking windows in the houses on Bramall Lane.
Glossop Family memorial stone, Dore Christ Church
Thomas Glossop died on 25 May 1940 and was buried 3 days later in the same grave as his wife Martha and daughter Annie at Dore Christ Church. He was aged 87 and a quite remarkable man. Now if only one of our readers can tell us what happened to the silver cup...
Our thanks go to Anne Rafferty, Thomas Glossop's great granddaughter, for her help with this article.
November 2017
The following books on Charlie Macartney and Victory Trumper are available to borrow for members of Totley History Group:
My Cricketing Days by C.G. Macartney, published by William Heineman Ltd. London. Hardback. 240 pages.
The Immortal Victor Trumper by J. H. Fingleton, published by William Collins Sons & Co Ltd., London and Sydney. Reprinted August 1978. Hardback. 208 pages. Victor Trumper died in a private hosital at St. Vincent's, Paddington, Sydney at the age of 37 on 28 June 1915. On pages 164-167 of Jack Fingleton's book a letter from his widow Annie to the Glossop Family is reproduced in full.
Victor Trumper and the 1902 Australians by Lionel H. Brown, published by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., London, 1981. Hardback. 208 pages.
Stroke of Genius: Victor Trumper and the Shot that Changed Cricket by Gideon Haigh. published by Simon and Schuster, London, 2016. Hardback. 315 pages.