The Starter Six of 1891 Intro (14/03/2015)
Tennis had been played in private gardens since the 1870’s and the Botanical Gardens Club was formed in
1878. Andy Lusis, a tennis researcher from Nottingham, (hereafter referred to as A.L.) discovered this
March 9th 1891 Sheffield Telegraph article confirming the formation of a Lawn Tennis Association a few
days before. Further articles published until at least 1914 always referred to the 1891 date, and our first
President Sir Henry Watson presided from 1891. The 1889 date would appear to be simply a memory
failure passed on to a newer generation of officers of the Association. The article also confirms that there
were originally only six clubs, Hallamshire not being one of them.
Starter Six Intro
The Clarence in High St was one of Sheffield’s
premier hotels, indicative of the type of people
involved. C.F.Bennett, Solicitor, of Rustlings
was elected chairman, and from 1901 to 1905
President of the Association. T.J.Hughes store
now occupies the site, there being no Arundel
Gate at that time.
The matches scheduled were for two teams of
three couples, each of the three couples only
playing one doubles rubber against one opposing
pair, followed by six singles matches, both being
the best of three sets. Men's and ladies' matches
both followed this format. There was a Ladies’
League of three of those clubs of which more
information might be discovered. Later match
reports suggest a ‘home and away’ principle
which this report hasn’t correctly identified.
The dates are all Saturdays.(A.L.)
Interesting to speculate how they travelled to
each other’s clubs. In 1891 the horse trams
would only have been any use to Nether
Hallam, (Hillsborough), and Audrey &
Brincliffe, both in Nether Edge, but there were horse buses. However, I suspect these middle class teams
who tended to live near their respective clubs would have travelled to away matches together in a horse
carriage, either hired or owned by one of them. This painting of 1885 gives some idea of the game in those
days and tennis was perhaps a rarity in major sports in having no prejudice against women from the start.
The sites of the six have been identified although Rustlings hasn’t changed and each one features in its
own section.
Abbeydale the First
The site of the first Abbeydale Club (the current one dates only from 1922) has been revealed by this 1882
cutting extract (A.L.):
Abbeydale Hotel? The Beauchief’s original name was The Abbeydale Station Hotel, still carved above the
front door. There was no other Abbeydale hotel.
Audrey
The only one of the six clubs not named after an area, and the most difficult to trace. However, a chance
encounter with a gate post, Audrey Cottage, in Nether Edge pointed the way. It was always most likely the
club started on one court on the lawn of this property but moved a quarter of a mile along virtually the
same road to create a four court club. Ancestry.co.uk having confirmed that both WH & CW Nixon, father
& son, lived at Audrey Cottage in late Victorian times, and A.L. finding their names appearing in published
Audrey teams, confirms this beyond reasonable doubt. The Union pub, still there, is half way between the
two. By 1935 the site had more courts but was being built on by 1952. WH Nixon was the MD of Nixon &
Winterbottom Ltd, cutlers, of Pyramid works in Broomhall.
Brincliffe p1
Within half a mile of Audrey the Brincliffe site of 1891 is easily identified today by the unchanged roads
that surrounded it, and the Mortuary Chapel in the General Cemetery just off Cemetery Rd. By 1905 the
first houses were appearing on the site. But why Brincliffe when this is definitely Sharrow?
Brincliffe p2
Like Rustlings Club it is self-evident Brincliffe Club kept its
original name when ‘moving’ from Brincliffe. Like Audrey it is
likely to have started in a garden of one of the large villas in
the area, and a search of large scale 1890 maps has revealed
more than one possibility, the most distinctive being the one
in the grounds of Brincliffe Tower, now Chelsea Park. This was
a typical c100ft x 50ft levelled piece of ground with a path
from the house, sited at the top of the hill to minimise the
work required to level it, too large for croquet and not square
as a bowling green would be. There is now scant evidence on
the ground.
According to maps of the time, some time after 1923 but
before 1935 a Brincliffe Club existed on what is now the car
park for Baldwin’s Omega extending onto a lower level now
occupied by Chelsea Court and Chelsea Rise. The current
restaurant building incorporates the clubhouse named, by
1952, rather pretentiously as Brincliffe Hall! An aerial photo of
July 1950 suggests the club has already ceased functioning –
no nets and piles of grass or shale on one court. Can anybody
shed any more light on this more recent club? Where was it between 1905 to the 1920’s?
Nether Hallam
The first edition of this document
identified an incorrect location for Nether
Hallam. This 27th August 1888 cutting from
the Sheffield Independent conclusively
remedies that. It is difficult now to
imagine this picturesque location given
that the ‘dams’, reservoirs in reality, were
filled in by 1936 to allow the building of
Regent Court Flats. Evidence from maps
suggests their grounds were already being
‘squeezed’ by Owlerton Wire mills before
1935 and the fact that new tennis courts,
positioned differently, were provided
within the rear garden of the flats and
played on into the 1960’s is probably
coincidental; the original sales blurb for
Regent Court promised a swimming pool
and bowling green also but these never
materialised.
They participated in the men’s league
until 1902.
Pitsmoor
In a then relatively unpopulated area, from the 1880’s this club shared their President, Sir Henry E.
Watson, with Hallamshire club, his family home being Shirecliffe Hall. This might explain its location –
providing some entertainment for the gentry in the area? In 1891 he became first President of the
Sheffield Lawn Tennis Association, only ended by his death in 1901. By 1954 the site was being built on.
Rustlings p1
Cutting from the Sheffield Independent, 5th March 1888(A.L.):
Undoubtedly the oldest extant club in Sheffield & the confusion over its name has been resolved. There
was no Rustlings Rd prior to the club’s move to its present location in 1887, Rustlings Farm covering most
of what became Endcliffe (Woods) Park & on which the club occupied space. The farmland had been used
for sport for some years, soccer from at least 1876 and probably much earlier, Sheffield Wednesday
included. This report states its close proximity to Hallamshire club (for less than two years) and this
supports the long held belief that Queen Victoria’s statue marks the spot. However, given that a match
report of 1886 (A.L.) details nine rubbers of three sets each there had to be more than one court and my
guess is at least three, covering that area between the Porter Brook, Hunter’s Bar and including that
triangular piece of the park now occupied by the 1891 pavilion adjacent to Hallamshire club. It is almost
certain that, having only leased its space, the club had to move to allow the creation of the Park, and
specifically its main entrance, to commemorate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, the name Jubilee Park being
an early option. Hallamshire had bought their land and resisted efforts to remove them. Its President,
shared with the Pitsmoor Club, was Sir Henry E. Watson JP of Shirecliffe Hall whose family still owned much
of the Broomhall estate, and who was a much respected and well connected Sheffield elder. It is easy to
come to the conclusion that both Hallamshire’s not moving, and Rustlings’ being found an alternative site
within the Broomhall estate, was much to do with him. In 1891 he became the first President of the SDLTA.
Notice the flagstaff on this 1890 map of the current Collegiate Crescent site and the gated entrance to the
Estate, the lodge to the right of the gates still there. No modern photo required here, but a couple of
interesting illustrations appear in the next document.
Rustlings p2
Junction of Collegiate Crescent with Ecclesall Rd, post 1836.
The houses were built after 1894 but pre 1905
John Andrews October 2014