William C. Carter

                                                               Bill and Olive Carter, 1973

Totley Independent

May 1986

On a recent visit to Sheffield I picked up a copy of issue No. 93 of Totley Independent in the Shepley Spitfire and have found it most interesting. We came to Totley from Marple, Cheshire, in October 1908 and settles at Grove Villa, now Bridge House, at the corner of Grove Road and Abbeydale Road South. The cartilage was much bigger then and a marvellous place for a young boy to grow up. There was a large coach-house between the house and the railway line, (now a separate bungalow) and a paddock behind facing Grove Road, (now the site of another house). The house belonged to the Midland Railway who let it to my father for £35 a year! In 1913 they needed it for one of their area managers, so we moved - temporarily as it was then thought - to a newly built semi-detached house, the fourth up King Ecgbert Road off Totley Brook, named Netherfield.

We were actually the first residents in the road, which then only extended a short way up, surrounded by fields. With the onset of the 1914-18 war, we were marooned there and did not leave until 1922 when my parents purchased at auction "The Dingle" in Woodland Place, Queen Victoria Road. We had some happy years there but my father sadly died in 1932 and by 1940 when I had gone away to the forces, my mother couldn't manage there alone. (There were 2 1/2 acres at the time, now all built upon). She sold it and moved away. Incidentally, we got £2,900 for the house and land! So as a family we lived for 32 years in and around Totley.

Reverting for a moment to Grove Villa, by the time we lived there, one bedroom had been converted to a bathroom and there was an inside water-closer provision, But in the garden there were still earth closets and a two-seater! I have often wondered, given normal modesty, how and when those were used! Behind the former coach-house there was - and still exists - a railway siding. Around 1915 King George V visited the Sheffield munitions factories and spent the night on that siding in the Royal Train, presumably to avoid any zeppelin bombing.

While at Netherfield, the upper end of the Totley Brook Road, which in those days ended at a small reservoir, was my happy hunting ground and I delighted to the etching of the front cover of the magazine. It was a private, magic world up there and apart from Totley Grange there was no building until the big house with a lodge, "The Elms" at the top of old Hay. (instinctively I have called it "Totley Grange" : do I mean "Totley Grove" I wonder?).

My parents took me to St. John's Church, Abbeydale, where in 1911 I joined the newly formed Scout troop. Years later, my sister was married there. I remember so well the lodge at Abbeydale Hall to which reference is made in a letter. It was as described. Opposite the Hall gates, across Abbeydale Road, there was an elaborate matching gate, with a driveway down to the river where there was a pavilion. I forget the name of the old lady at the Hall (was it in fact a Mrs. Hall?). On Sundays she was wheeled to the church (which I believe her husband had endowed), in a most massive and elaborate wheeled chair, pushed by an elderly retainer. 

She was accompanied by her house-keeper, a Mrs. Thompson, a most erect and stately woman in her own right, who later lived in retirement with her husband at "The Cottage". This was an attractive old-world cottage, long since gone, just across the river at the foot of the climb up to Queen Victoria Road. She was a very kind woman and often invited us boys in for tea and delicious home-made scones with cream and strawberry jam. Wonderful memories!

At that time, Brinkburn Grange was occupied by Dr, Laverick, a colliery proprietor. I did not know him then, but came to know him after the war in his eighties. The Grange was memorable at this time of year for a remarkable display of crocuses and snowdrops in a small wooded area adjoining the road.

Later, I played tennis at the Devonshire Road Club, situated at what was then the top of Devonshire Road. Before that, around 1920, there was a thriving tennis court in Victoria Road, near the junction with Mickley Lane, opposite the path leading to Tinkers' Yard. My mother used to play there. Another member at that time was E. Ransom Harrison, a Sheffield accountant, who became Chairman of the Rover Motor Company.

My late wife was the former Olive Turner, a well-known Sheffield soprano singer, who took the lead in many Croft House productions in the thirties. We married in India where I had served most of the war and where Olive, to whom I had been engaged since 1940, joined me after VE day in Europe. On coming home in 1946 we settled in London but her family remained in Sheffield. One could go on, but enough!

Yours very truly
William C. Carter

Old Windsor
Berkshire