White Drive

From Rony Robinson

So there we were in Dronfield listening to the great David Hey talk about medieval Dronfield at a meeting that had been arranged to try to get us to give some money to save some barn there. Quite a few other Totley people were hanging about, because we were Dronfield ourselves once, of course. Anyway at half time, mainly to avoid buying the raffle tickets, I was lingering by the tea queue and my old All Saints school pal Graham Gregory turned up out of the past and said did I remember the WW2 gun placement at the top of the White Drive on the right hand side going up, just before the gate near the cycling hut. I said no but why did he call it the White Drive when everyone else calls it the White Lane, except my family who've always called it the White Line. We agreed the best thing to do was to write to the Independent and ask what anyone else remembers. 

April 2013

From M.G. Roberts

The lane linking Mickley Lane to Woodthorpe Hall (Shepleys) was widely known during the War years as Shepleys Drive. Sometime towards the end of that period White Drive began to appear. My simple explanation that the drive was surfaced with limestone chippings, hence the colour. I well recall Frank Shepley and Mr Salt the farmer at Woodthorpe driving their respective cars down the lane, followed by a cloud of white dust. In my childhood the lane was used by many Totley people walking to Holmesfield. 

At the bottom of Wingshill there were two large gate posts painted white. From there to Woodthorpe Hall was considered private by our children and we respected this. Regarding an anti- aircraft gun being positioned in the position mentioned by Graham: I have no recollection of this, nor a search light, which has also been suggested. There are plenty of signs of wartime occupation in the field. The passing of time erases facts. I hope this is of help. 

June 2013

From Jean Smithson

Yes, I remember sometime when I was in my teens someone mentioned White Lane to me - Goodness, I thought, I never knew it was called that - we always knew it as Shepley’s Drive as it led eventually to Woodthorpe Hall. Stephen says that his Dad called it Salt’s Drive, Salt’s Farm being a close neighbour to Woodthorpe Hall. (Just in passing Stephen, I remember your dad as I too was born at Totley Bents).

Like the Turner and Roberts families, we often walked. that way but before we reached the stone gate posts to the hall, we would turn left and climb Wing Hill, the drive being a concessionary path as far as the gate posts, from where it was private. If my memory serves me correctly, Mr Wing was the owner of Woodthorpe Hall before the Shepleys. I remember well (though I was only 8 years old at the time) the soldiers stationed in the paddock. It was definitely a search light battery and I am reliably informed by my friend who lived at Woodthorpe at that time that there was a gun there but only a light one. A heavier, more powerful gun was sited at Dore but I have no knowledge of that myself.

The winter of 1940 is remembered for the deep snow and the soldiers at the search light battery were housed in tents at that time. Later some kind of huts were built and these were demolished at the end of the war by a local builder. My sister Pat and. I grew up on Main Avenue and I remember the concern of our neighbours ln case the beam of the search light reflected on our roof tops making us a. target for the German planes. They need not have worried, though my sister still possesses pieces of shrapnel which she picked up on Main Avenue just after the Sheffield Blitz so we were not entirely out of the firing range. 

The rest of the shrapnel we found, we took to the rifle range to give to the soldiers, hoping they could use it to fire at the Jerries. Mrs Shepley of Woodthorpe Hall was an exceptional lady who, when her son was killed in his Spitfire, resolved to buy a new plane and organised many garden parties, concerts, whist drives etc. and she did indeed raise enough money for a new Spitfire, hence The Shepley Spitfire. Mrs Shepley not only helped the war effort by buying a new plane, she also raised the spirits of everyone in those war years with the events she organised which were always well supported and enjoyed. 

August 2013

From J. W. Abson

Replying to the recent article “Do you remember”: there was a full A.A. battery stationed at Winns Hill (also known as Wings Hill) near White Lane during the war (search light and A.A. gun). The search light and the gun were often tested and used when enemy aircraft were about. I was in the RAF and knew some of the soldiers concerned with the AA battery. Some corresponded with me after the war. There were of course many soldiers billeted in private houses in and around Totley. Before the war, as young boys we would take farmers’ horses to be shod at the blacksmiths in the chemical yard. Of course when he no longer shoe’d horses we took them to Holmesfield - Bill Rayner being the blacksmith. 

October 2013