Fun Facts about Sheffield's Harcourt Road, provided by Simon Ogden

1. Why Harcourt?

It appears that we are living on a street named after Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt (1827-1904) who entered Parliament as Liberal member for Oxford in 1868 and from that date devoted himself to politics. He was Home Secretary 1880-5, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1886 and 1892-5. Given that the street was built up in the 1870s and 80s he must have been commemorated either whilst still in office or shortly after resigning.

These days it is almost unheard of for a street to be called after living politicians – don't hold your breath for Thatcher Streets or Blair Boulevards or even Obama Avenues for many years yet. Trump Square anyone? However Sir William's son did even better, Lewis, 1st Viscourt Harcount (1863-1922) was Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1910-15 and got a whole town in Nigeria named after him – Port Harcourt – now a city of 4m population about seven times the size of Sheffield !

Irrelevant fact - Sir William’s house ‘Nuneham’, a mansion outside Oxford, is believed to have provided the imaginary setting for many scenes in Alice in Wonderland.

2. Harcourt History 2 The Dams

One of the joys of living on Harcourt Road is the view of the lake in Crookes Valley Park. Ever wondered why it is there?

It was built as part of a whole flight of reservoirs to provide drinking water for the growing town of Sheffield back in the C18th by the Company of Proprietors of the Sheffield Waterworks – a private concern. For centuries before the only water supply other than the rivers was the Barkers Pool situated in town near the top of Fargate. The lake we know today was the largest – known as the Great Dam, but between 1735 and 1790 nine others were constructed – five in the area either side of Northumberland Road now occupied by the University sports facilities and the old Glass Technology site, and four in what is now the Ponderosa.

Thus the rural Crookes Valley with its stream, part of the common land of Crookes Moor, was turned into a series of terraces containing the water. Some had now mysterious names, such as Godfrey, Ralph (not named after Nic and Penny) and Misfortune. Later in the 1830s they were joined by the Hadfield Dam on Crookes, now decked over by football fields and linked to the Redmires Reservoirs. The Dam House was built in the 1780's originally for the Company Secretary of the Waterworks. In the 1870s the area around the dams was built up and many houses especially on Marlborough Road and Whitham Road still have large rear windows obviously built to take advantage of the spectacular watery views. The whole area was taken over by the Sheffield Corporation who bought out the unpopular Water Company in the 1880s but remained out of bounds to the public until the 1950's when Crookes Valley Park was created, the nine smaller dams filled in (allegedly with blitz rubble) and the Great Dam altered to create a boating lake albeit still connected as an overflow to Hadfield Dam. Today the Great Dam is no longer used for boating although the Friends of Crookes Valley Park are trying to get them brought back. Owing to its considerable depth (forty feet in the middle) it is home for some truly immense fish especially carp. There is also more interest in improving the habitat of the lake for birds and other wildlife by creating duck islands and softening some of the edges. Interestingly the hapless builder working on the corner of Harcourt and Northumberland Roads has recently virtually recreated one of the dams in an attempt to find foundations for his new flats!

3. A Famous Resident

John George Graves (1866–1945) is probably the most well-known and influential resident of Harcourt Road (so far ...). He was an extraordinarily successful business man and public benefactor and his name is known to every Sheffielder and particularly every University of Sheffield student. Graves was born in Lincolnshire in 1866 and moved to Sheffield to become an apprentice watchmaker in his teens. He set up one of Britain's first mail order businesses, selling first watches and then a huge range of goods from fashion clothes to machine tools. The company employed, at its peak, 3,000 people in Sheffield and had an annual turnover of £1m. The main warehouse, a landmark building, was located on Durham Road, where now stands the Octagon Centre. One of his ideas was to allow working class people to order goods without a bank account or reference. This opened up a vast new market, based on the Hire Purchase or 'the Never-Never' as it became known. In the early 1900s he fought a very public battle with the Royal Mail to force them to collect parcels direct from his warehouse – an essential service for a Mail Order company. He did it by flooding the General Post Office with his deliveries just before closing time each day, forcing it to stay open till they were all dealt with. He gained considerable local popularity from these activities. During the early years of his business career Graves lived at No 33 Harcourt Road with his family, presumably conveniently close to his warehouse and offices. Later he moved to a large house at Riverdale in Ecclesall. The company was absorbed by Great Universal Stores after Graves' death in 1945. He became a Conservative City Councillor, Alderman and eventually Sheffield's Lord Mayor in 1926. A keen art collector, Graves donated nearly £60,000 towards the development of art galleries in Sheffield, including Central Library, the Graves Art Gallery and the Mappin Art Gallery. He also contributed hundreds of pictures from his private collection. Graves also donated over £1 million to Sheffield, including the establishment of Sheffield University's Student Union. Part of the Union building is still known as the "Graves Building". He also made gifts of land to the city, including Graves Park, Ecclesall Woods, Beauchief Woods, Tinsley playing fields, Concord Park and Blacka Moor. The J. G. Graves Trust, a charitable trust set up in his name, exists to the present day. Interestingly many of his gifts were made during the period when the Council was Labour controlled whilst he remained a Tory. Maybe he was after a Knighthood. If so he never got one.

4. Harcourt Road History: Post War to 2022

Harcourt Road has seen many different kinds of communities over the years. Built from the 1870s on one of the new horse tram routes out of town it attracted mainly middle-class families along with skilled craftspeople. Houses were large but gardens were quite small and the street became more multi-class as the C20th progressed.

During World War II, quite a few houses were split into flats to accommodate people bombed out of their homes. After the war, these turned into permanent ‘houses in multiple occupations’ often providing lodgings for single working men, particularly from Ireland and Eastern Europe.

By the late 50s, there was a strong Hungarian and Polish community on Harcourt Rd. Later in the 60s they were joined by families arriving from the Caribbean and India. More homes were turned into flats.

In the 1970s the University of Sheffield began to buy houses on the street, initially for demolition as part of a plan to expand the campus into Crookesmoor. Some houses were deliberately left empty to encourage others to sell. However, a strong campaign by local residents defeated this plan and the University then converted their houses to student-shared houses.

South Yorkshire Housing Association also took advantage of cheap prices to acquire a number of houses including some for people with a variety of challenges. The street began to be classified as an area of poverty. However it also developed a strong community spirit, expressed in collective responses to crime, the poll tax, litter and dumping in the street, guerrilla gardening and street parties.

As families moved out landlords bought houses and turned them into flats and shared lets, increasingly aimed at students. By the 90s the street had become student-dominated and very few families with children were left.

Then around 2000 came another turning point when the University decided to sell all its houses in Crookesemoor. The local community managed to persuade them to agree to exclude landlords from the sale process through a permanent ‘covenant’ on the buildings. This allowed over twenty families to buy homes and substantially changed the dynamic and social composition of the street again. More houses were also taken up by families and the number of children rocketed along with more social interaction, street events, shared projects and involvement in the local environment.