'The Celebrated Longshaw Lodge Estate' was offered for sale by auction on 5th July 1927. This comprised some 11,533 acres reaching from Burbage and Houndkirk Moors in the North, to Eagleston Flat, Leash Fen, and Birchen and Gardoms Edge in the South. Also included in the sale were Fox House Inn, The Peacock at Owler Bar and The Chequers at Froggatt Edge, together with several small farms, quarries, woodlands and building sites. There were sporting rights over an additional 2,200 acres.
Lot 1 contained the Lodge and its grounds and 'park-like lands suited for the lay-out of a golf course', together with the lodge, woodland and quarry at Yarncliffe and, over the other side of Burbage Brook, what was described at 'well heathered and picturesque moorland known as Lawrence Field'. These 747 acres form the original core of the estate today owned by the National Trust.
Prior to auction, Sheffield Corporation purchased over 3,000 acres of moorland for the collection of water, including the lodge and grounds. Under the auspices of the Sheffield Association for the Protection of Local Scenery (which later became the Sheffield Branch of the CPRE) an appeal was launched to raise the £14,000 necessary to purchase the lodge and grounds from the Corporation. The Longshaw Committee was formed under the chairmanship of Mr J H Doncaster (of the Sheffield steel firm Daniel Doncaster). Over £9,000 was raised in five months through donations by members of the public and local businesses. Various local rambling groups also assisted in the appeals and collections were held every weekend by the volunteer wardens who started patrolling the estate on Easter Weekend 1928.
On 25th March 1931 the estate was handed over to the National Trust who paid the outstanding amount of £1,339.
A further appeal was made to purchase 'The Surprise View' in 1935 to prevent the possibility of the land being used for housing, and a total of £7,000 was raised for this purpose.
Sources
- Sale catalogue of Longshaw Estate
- Contemporary newspaper cuttings
- CPRE Sheffield & District Branch 'Account of sixty-six years' work 1924-1989'
|
