Churchfield House and the Beighton Hill Windmill, Mosborough

By John RotherhamMarch 2021

Beighton Hill in Mosborough is the name given to the ancient route between Eckington and Halfway, and ultimately, Beighton. Now known as the B6053 Rotherham Road, it takes a northerly direction from the river at the foot of the Rother Valley, rising to almost 100 metres above mean sea level at its highest point at the junction with the Windmill Greenway. The road is clearly shown on Peter Burdett’s map of Derbyshire in 1767 (Figure 1), which also marks Halfway House at the junction with the Mosborough to Killamarsh road1.

Figure 1. Extract from Burdett’s map of Derbyshire, 1767.

During the medieval period, the road also marked the western boundary of Streetfield and Churchfield, two of Mosborough’s common arable fields. One of these fields, Churchfield, lay to the south of the present Hollow Lane, formerly called Mosborough Hall Lane.

1 P.P. Burdett, Map of Derbyshire, (1767, published 1791, reprinted by the Derbyshire ArchaeologicalSociety 1975).

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The layout of roads and fields at the turn of the nineteenth century is illustrated in the (rather faint) Eckington Enclosure map of 1804. It shows how the land had been divided into individual parcels, those of particular interest being Nos. 35 and 36, which would later become the site of Churchfield House.

Figure 2. Extract from the Eckington Enclosure map (1804)

The larger of the two parcels, No. 36, comprising 1 acre and 37 perches of copyhold land, held from the Manor of Eckington, was awarded to Mary Shaw, along with a narrow strip of common land lying beside the Beighton Road. Parcel 35, comprising one rood and 20 perches of copyhold land, was awarded to John Wasnedges, who also accrued a strip of common beside the road.

George Sanderson’s map of Twenty Miles round Mansfield2, surveyed between 1831 and 1835 (Figure 3), reveals the presence of buildings upon parcel No. 36. The map evidence corresponds with the appearance in a local newspaper in 1827 of a Notice of Sale of a close of land near Eckington called the Churchfield or Windmill Close, occupied by Mr George Wilson, “whereon a windmill and cottage are erected”. The land was subject to a lease granted to James Morton and William Wilson for 99 years from April 18253.

James Morton was baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church on 22nd April 1764, the son of Jeremiah Morton (1731-1794) of Eckington, cooper, and his wife Sarah (nee Hodkin, 1739-1816). He married Frances Coupe (1763-1826), the daughter of George Coupe (173-1781) of Cuckney, Nottinghamshire, and his wife Mary (nee Beeley, 1732-1781) at Cuckney on 26th December 1787. James, like his father, was a cooper. In 1798 he acquired the Angel Inn at Eckington, occupied by his brother, also Jeremiah, of which James occupied the outbuildings, probably as workshops. He also received, with his mother, a small area of land on Eckington Marsh awarded by the Enclosure Commissioners.

2 Sanderson, G., Twenty Miles Round Mansfield, 1835.3 Derby Mercury, 19 September 1827.

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Figure 3. Extract from Sanderson’s Twenty Miles Around Mansfield map of 1835.

James and Frances had six children:

• Maria (b. 1788) was baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 27th December 1788.

• George (1791-1876) was baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 2nd October 1791. He married Hannah Couldwell (1789-1858) at All Saints parish church, Rotherham, in May 1812. He was a cooper and was qualified to vote in the 1832 parliamentary election by virtue of his copyhold landholding in Eckington. George and Jane lived in Eckington, where they had their seven children. He was elected to serve as Surveyor of Highways and parish constable for Eckington in 1846. George built up a successful woodturning business and, by 1851, was employing ten workers. Hannah died at Eckington on 2nd July 1858, aged 70 years, and was buried at Eckington on 6th July. George died in 1876, aged 84, and was buried at Eckington on 23rd January 1876.

• Elizabeth (1793-1853) was baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 27th December 1793. She married William Wilson (1795-1855), her father’s co-lessee in the Beighton Hills Windmill site, at Eckington on 25th August 1815. William was a dish turner, and the couple lived first at Eckington, where their eight children were born. Before 1841, the family had moved to Maltby in Yorkshire, and then by 1851 to Chadwick Row, Conisbrough, where William was employing five men in his woodturning enterprise. Elizabeth died there of Consumption on 15th June 1853, aged 59. William also died there of Consumption in 1855, aged 60.

• Jeremiah (1786-1845) was baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 29th March 1796. He married Ann Hutton (1797-1829) at Eckington on 22nd January 1828. Ann died on 17th January 1829 whilst giving birth to their first child, Job. She was buried two days later at Eckington, aged 31. Jeremiah then married Francis Rodley (1806-1858) at

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Eckington on 26th June 1830. They settled initially at Handsworth Woodhouse, where they had their first child, Ann, in 1832, after which they moved into one of the three dwelling houses at Churchfield around 1834, where Jeremiah worked as a cooper. He died in 1845, aged 49, and was buried at Eckington on 10th October of that year. Five years later, Frances married Samuel Boot (1812-1874), Licensee of the George and Dragon Inn, East Street, Mosborough, at Sheffield. She died there aged 51 and was buried at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 1st December 1858. Four children.

• Harry (1799-1802) was baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 12th May 1799. He died three years later and was buried at Eckington on 15th May 1802.

• Amy (1801-1860) was born at Eckington on 14th October 1801 and was baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 26th December 1801. On 25th June 1826, she married George Wilson (1797-1872), a brother of her father’s business partner in the lease of the Beighton Hills Windmill site, and to whom her sister, Elizabeth, had become married a decade or so earlier. George was a woodturner, and it seems likely that he and Amy lived at the Churchfield windmill site from the outset, and where all of their eight children were born. Amy died there on 2nd June 1860, aged 58, and was buried at Eckington two days later. George died of bronchitis at Churchfield House in 1872, aged 74, and was buried at Eckington on 31st January 1872. The grant of probate associated with his will describes him as a woodturner and timber merchant, suggesting some diversification of the business operating from Churchfield House at the time of his death.

George Wilson (1797-1872), the occupier of Churchfield in 1827, was born on 15th November 1797 at South Kirkby in Yorkshire and baptised at All Saints Church there on 3rd December 1797, the son of “Widow” (Jane) Wilson (nee Wilby, 1768-1846). His father, William Wilson (1765-1797) of South Kirkby, clerk, had died on 14th July 1797, four months previously. George married Amy Morton, the youngest daughter of James Morton (1764-1827) of Eckington, cooper, and his wife Frances (nee Coupe, 1763-1826) at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 25th June 1826.

George and Amy Wilson had eight children:

Valentine James (1827-1891) doubtlessly named because he was born on 14th February 1827 at Eckington and baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church on 24th June 1827. He was a woodturner and remained unmarried, living with his parents at Churchfield House until their deaths, when he moved to Windmill House (thought to be the house on the opposite side of the road), where he died on 22nd January 1891, aged 63. He was buried at Eckington parish church on 26th January 1891 and is commemorated by a stained-glass window inside the church.

Jane (b. and d. 1828) was born on 26th October 1828 and was buried at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on the 1st November, aged three weeks.

John (1829-1906) was born at Eckington on 1st December 1829 and baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church on 10th January 1830. He was a woodturner and remained unmarried throughout his life, living at Churchfield House until his parents’ death, when he moved to Windmill House with his older brother, Valentine James. Returning to live at Churchfield House with his sisters after Valentine’s death in 1891, he died there on 29th August 1906, aged 75, and was buried three days later at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church Eckington.

Ann (1832-1892) was born at Eckington on 8th January 1832 and baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 1st July 1832. She lived with the family at Churchfield House and remained unmarried throughout her life, serving as a housekeeper for her parents and then her older brothers when they moved to Windmill House from around 1872 until 1891. She returned to Churchfield House and died there on 8th March 1892, aged 60, and was buried at Eckington parish church three days later. A stained-glass window inside the church commemorates her.

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Mary Harriet (1834-1908) was born on 18th May 1834 and baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 29th June 1834. She lived with the family at Churchfield House, remaining unmarried throughout her life. Moving to Windmill House with her sister Ann and brothers Valentine and John, she was housekeeper jointly with her sister before returning the Churchfield House in 1891. She died there on 25th May 1908, aged 74, and was buried three days later at Eckington, being the last of the Wilson family to live at Churchfield House, a property they had continuously occupied for almost 80 years.

George Richard (1835-1919) was born at Eckington on 9th December 1835 and baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 22nd May 1836. He was a wood turner by the age of 15 and lived with his parents at Churchfield until his marriage in 1872 to Ada Teresa Spalton (1844-1917) at Christ Church, Burton upon Trent. The couple lived at 85 Station Road, Eckington, where their children were born, and then later at 33 Church Street, Eckington. In the 1911 Census, he is described as a retired gardener, perhaps for his brother-in-law, George Stevenson, builder and contractor, who lived at the Manor House on Church Street. His wife, Ada Teresa, died on 25th January 1917, aged 72, and was buried at Eckington Cemetery three days later. George moved to live with his son, Bernard, at 21 Traffic Terrace, Barrow Hill and died there, aged 83. He was buried with his wife at Eckington Cemetery on 20th September 1919. At the restoration of the bells and bell tower at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, in 1936, one of the two new tenor bells was given by George’s family in his memory4. Four children.

Horace Morton (1838-1884) was born at Eckington on 24th August 1838 and baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 20th January 1839. Horace was a woodturner, living with his parents at Churchfield House until his marriage to Sarah Booth (1844-1885) of New House, Eckington, at Eckington on 14th November 1878. Their marriage certificate describes Horace as a woodturner and timber merchant. The couple settled at Dane’s Balk, a substantial villa residence, which had been specially built for Horace and his family “regardless of cost”5. Presumably, this investment also involved purchasing the two fields on the opposite side of Beighton Hill Road.6 They had their only child there before Horace died somewhat prematurely in 1884, at the age of 46. He was buried at St. Peter and St Paul parish church on 18th September 1884. Messrs. Wilson Brothers installed a stained-glass window in the church in his memory. Tragically, their only child, William Frederick George, died four months later, followed by Sarah, aged 40, just seven days after their son. They were buried at Eckington Cemetery on the 17th and 24th January, respectively. Dane’s Balk was sold by the family a year later7.

Amy Jane (1842-1916) was baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 26th June 1842. She lived at Churchfield with her parents until she married George Stevenson (1842-1921) of Eckington, joiner, at Eckington on 19th August 1866. The couple lived first at Bank Street in Eckington before moving to Church Street around 1881, their home being described as Eckington Manor. George became Chairman of the Eckington and Mosborough Gas Company, and director of various companies including the Baku Wire Rope Co. of Russia, of which he was Chairman, Messrs. J. & G. Wells, Eckington, the Wombwell Foundry and Engineering Company and Messrs. William Cooke & Co., Sheffield. Possibly the largest builder and contractor in the area, employing some 500 men at one point, his contracts included the building of the Bishop’s Palace in Wakefield, the restoration and re-seating of Eckington and Norton churches, extensive alterations at the seat of Lord Masham at Swinton Castle, Yorkshire, the building of a hydro at Harrogate, the construction of Owler

4 Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 23rd October 1936.5 Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 18th November 1885. The house was built on the Beighton Hill Road, just opposite to Churchfield House6 Two closes of land, named Morton Wells and Gawtrice Close, were included with the sale of Churchfield House in 1922.7 Ibid.

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Bar and Ramley Reservoirs and the laying of the whole of the drains from the reservoirs to Eckington, Mosborough and Killamarsh. He was a Justice of the Peace and Rector’s Warden at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington; also a member of Derbyshire County Council and the Royal Agricultural Society. It was at the Manor House that George and Amy had their three children. Amy died there on 18th May 1916, aged 74, and was buried at Eckington Cemetery. George erected a tower screen at the parish church in her memory, adding to the chancel screen he had placed in his parents’ memory8. George died on 20th June 1921, aged 79, and was buried at Eckington Cemetery.

Presumably, it was George Wilson’s older brother, William (1795-1855), who first secured the 99-year lease for the Churchfield site with James Morton (1764-1827) of Eckington, cooper, in April 1825. This arrangement probably came about after William came to Mosborough from South Kirkby for his marriage to James Morton’s second daughter Elizabeth (1793-1853) in 1815.

Both of these large families’ lives were intimately associated with the Churchfield House and windmill/sawmill for almost eighty years. The impression given is that the families were relatively self-reliant, isolated and insular, apparently taking little active part in the local community. However, George Morton, James’s son, became a highways surveyor and parish constable after settling at Eckington village with his wife and family.

Development at Churchfield seems to have advanced at pace after a lease for the site was secured by George Morton and William Wilson in 1825. The windmill was certainly in existence by 1826, probably built by George Wilson, as evidenced by a Poor Rate Assessment for that year which records “Part of the Church field, with windmill and house, occupied by George Wilson”9.

Doubtless, the death of James Morton in 1827 must have been a significant loss. Still, the opportunity to purchase the site outright in that year when it was offered for sale by the owner in September 1827 provided the security for the families to invest in the property and their futures. It was bought by William Wilson, George Wilson’s older brother, the surviving partner in the 99-year lease of 182510.

However, a disastrous fire brought about the windmill’s demise in 1832. A report in the Derby Mercury gave an account of the incident:

“On Thursday night last, between 10 and 11 o’clock, a windmill belonging to Messrs. Wm. and George Wilson, situated near Eckington, was discovered to be in flames by a person in Mr Wilson’s employ. The mill was completely destroyed notwithstanding the exertions of Sir George Sitwell’s men servants, who were very kindly sent down to assist on the first alarm of the fire. We regret to say that the premises were insured to only half their value, and also that there is every reason to believe that the fire was the work of an incendiary, as for the last fortnight neither candle nor any other light has been used in the mill.”11

The purchase of the land, construction of new buildings and the loss of the windmill, only partially insured, must have placed considerable financial pressure on William. He, by 1838, had become an insolvent debtor in Derby Gaol. His property, including the houses occupied by his brother George, brother-in-law Jeremiah Morton and himself, were placed on the market by his creditors12. The family must have raised the money to buy the property since George and Jeremiah were still living there at the 1841 Census. William, however, had moved his family to Maltby and, within a few years, was successfully established as a master woodturner employing five men.

8 Derbyshire Courier, 25th June 1921.9 Eckington Poor Rate, 1826, D.R.O. D6074/210 Gifford, A., Derbyshire Windmills Past and Present, 2003, p. 57.11 Derby Mercury, 25th January 1832.12 Derbyshire Courier, 6th October 1838.

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The two families continued the successful operation of the woodturning and timber merchant business at Churchfield House throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century, with the last remaining active member, John Wilson, dying in 1906. His sister, Mary Harriet, the last surviving member of the two families at Churchfield, died there in 1908.

Shortly afterwards, an auction sale of Miss Wilson’s household furniture was held at Churchfield House13, and a few weeks later, the house was offered for rent. The property was described as containing dining, drawing and breakfast rooms, two kitchens and six bedrooms, with stable, out-offices and a cottage14.

The property was taken on a ten-year lease by Mr and Mrs R. G. Woodward. Not much is known of this family. They had several domestic servants, including a cook-general, housemaid, nursery governess and gardener. An event was held at Churchfield in aid of the Mosborough Endowed School in 191515, and Mr E. Woodward of Churchfield was a patron of the Holbrook Football Club16.

Two years before the lease expired, the property was offered for sale in 192017. It was reported that Mr Robert Dumbleton of Eckington had acquired Churchfield and that the freehold field opposite had been sold to Mr Joseph Wells of Eckington Hall. Another close of land had been sold separately to Charles Fellowes of Eckington18.

Mr Robert E. Williams was living there in 192319, and the property was sold by someone named Bladen in 193620. Mr and Mrs Wright and their daughter Vicky lived there in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Derek Drabble and family lived in the stone house opposite Windmill Greenway21.

13 Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 6th June 1908.14 South Yorkshire Times and Mexborough and Swinton Times, 18 July 1908.15 Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 27th October 1915.16 Derbyshire Courier, 19th May 1911.17 Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 13th November 1920.18 Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 19th November 1920.19 Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 28th September 1923.20 Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 22nd May 1936.21 I am grateful to Graham Walker for this information.

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