Porter or Shepherd Wheel?

(The following is from David Crossley)

The earliest possible reference is to 'a whele in Porters Feild' in the will, proved 2nd May 1566, of Roger Barnsley, who left the wheel to his son Thomas.

 

In 1584 Porter Wheel is mentioned in the will of William Beighton of Stumper Lawe as leased from the Earl of Shrewsbury, and three years later it was among lands in dispute in the Court of Exchequer between the Earl and Nicholas Strelley. Witnesses attested that rents had been paid to the earl's father and grandfather, but the wheel was described as being 'sett in Ecclesall neare Greystone Clyffe'. If this statement is accurate, it puts the wheel or, more probably the cottages (now demolished), across the township boundary (the Porter) and, arguably, in Strelley's domain: hence the likely source of dispute.

Confirmation that it was the same wheel is provided by the Beighton connection which continued for more than 70 years: in 1604 Thomas Beighton paid the £2 rent, and from 1637 to the 1650s William Beighton, Ralph Pursglove and William Forest paid £2 4s annually.

In 1664 the wheel was 'down', and no rent is recorded for at least 15 years. Joseph Hynde was tenant in the later years of the 17th century, before Thomas Marshall, Quaker, took a 21-year lease at £1 per annum in 1698, a rent which may indicate that the wheel had been reduced in size. On the other hand, at renewal in 1718 for the same term at the same £1 rent, Marshall paid a £15 fine - a form of advance payment to reduce the annual outlay and the total rent paid over a 21-year period. 

The Marshall tenancy continued with Thomas to the mid-1730s, briefly John Marshall, then Sarah, widow, of 'Cliffe Bottom Ecclesall' who died in 1741. 

Henry Hall was tenant by 1743, and finally in or shortly before 1749 it was Edward Shepherd whose name the wheel was to adopt.

The next lease, of 1759 to Shepherd, is of interest: coming about five years after the building of both Leather and Ibbotson Wheels, the new rent was more than three times the previous level. Even without a fine it was still a steep rise. 

Ten years into the lease, major digging and embanking was done and a new stone wheel house was built without affecting the rent. 

The 1794 printed list does not explain why the rents of Shepherd and Ibbotson should have been so different: both had 22ft falls of water, and Shepherd had 10 troughs, one less than at Ibbotson, whose annual rent was still only £1 16s. 

In 1794 Edward Shepherd died, and his son-in-law Thomas Kinnersley renewed the lease for 63 years before assigning it to Anthony Thompson who thus managed Whiteley Wood Forge, Whiteley Wood Rolling Mill, Leather Wheel and Shepherd Wheel. This arrangement did not last long, and the lease was reassigned to John Eyre, and Shepherd Wheel was operated by his tenants.

One such was Samuel Hind who began there at the age of ten, about 1818, and spent his working life at the wheel. 

Another, Benjamin Wildgoose, worked there for over 30 years from the age of 12. 

In 1811 Eyre purchased the freehold from the Norfolk estate. His executors did not dispose of it until 1864, when Robert Younge took over for 15 years before bequeathing it to his nephew Francis Otter. The latter transferred Shepherd Wheel to Sheffield Corporation in the late 1890s, although the conveyance was not completed until 1908.

The Hind(e) family continued to work there, paying £30 rent for no. 2 hull with its six troughs from 1898, but on a basis of one month's notice from either side in lieu of a lease. Thomas Hinde, his son Henry and two cousins worked at the wheel until about 1930.

Thereafter it was kept in repair by the forerunner of the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society which arranged weekend demonstrations until 1941. 

After 1945 the wheel was in a poor state of repair, and demolition was considered. In the end Shepherd Wheel was restored and handed over to the City Museums. 

It is now occasionally open to the public under the authority of Sheffield Museums Trust, largely due to fundraising by the Friends of the Porter Valley in 2012.

Two weirs, in good order, can be seen from the Hangingwater Road bridge, and they could provide a full head of water for the wheel.

 

The iron overshot wheel (18ft by 6ft) was restored as part of the FoPV restoration efforts. It appears originally to have had wooden buckets, but these have been replaced in wrought iron or mild steel.

 

Because the wheel is set low in relation to the river, the tail goit, initially culverted, has a less steep gradient, and joins the Porter some 100 metres downstream. 

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As a result of 'grinders lung' the average life-expectancy of some of the grinders was 27. Some of the earliest scientific papers on the subject were written by Sheffield physicians, and the subject was considered important enough to be put in the Illustrated London News of 1866. 

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