Gardens at 10 Taptonville Road
Location/Address
10 Taptonville Road
Sheffield, S10 5BR
Type
Description
The gardens at 10 Taptonville Road, in the Sheffield suburb of Broomhill, are located on three sides of a detached Victorian villa. They were laid out in the mid- to late-1920s in an Arts & Crafts style by eminent English garden designer Percy Cane for the industrialist Arthur Samuel Lee. The plot, including the house, is about one-tenth of a hectare (1,400 sq yards). Originally a private home, since 1956 the site has been owned by Sheffield City Council (formerly Sheffield Corporation) and served as a public library and garden; in 2014 the library service became volunteer-run.
The Percy Cane design for the site, described below, replaced an earlier Victorian garden. Cane’s design was largely still in place when the site became a public library 30 years later. The Council retained and renovated the gardens, advertising them in several ways as a significant new municipal provision.
Although some features were simplified or removed under the Council’s management, the gardens continued to be maintained broadly in line with Cane’s designs into the early 21st century, and there were plans to apply to add them to the National Register of Parks and Gardens. In 2003, when many of the York stone flags were stolen from the rear garden, the plans for registration were halted, and Council maintenance of the rear garden largely ceased. All parts of the gardens were overgrown when the site became a volunteer library in 2014 but are now [2022] being investigated and gradually reclaimed, as explained in each of the three sections below (rear garden, driveway & rock garden, front garden).
The largest element of the Percy Cane design is the walled REAR GARDEN, which was well documented by Cane at the time of its creation, and can be seen in three contemporaneous photographs and an illustrative drawing made in 1931. Copies of the three photographs are part of this record. The drawing can be seen at https://thegardenstrustblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/screenshot-43.png?w=1280&h=970
Since 2014, library volunteers have been clearing this rear garden of woody weeds and undergrowth; commissioning surveys and organising archaeological work to establish how much of the Cane layout remains; and working with Sheffield City Council as owners of the site, to effect repairs to various structures. A 2018 Archaeological Evaluation Report by ArcHeritage, for the library trustees, reported that ‘archaeological investigations revealed a greater survival of elements of the Percy Cane garden than had been expected.’ The full report is available online at https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1171250
Sited in an irregularly triangular plot, the sheltered, intimate rear garden is entered through a low zigzag stone wall and down a step from the driveway. The wall, step and much of the entrance path remain in situ. The rear garden's central feature was a sunken square York stone terrace, accessed by a set of steps on each side, with a circular pool in the middle. Called the ‘pool garden’ by Cane, this originally featured a small fountain, and included a small ornamental tree in a corner bed, the pair of a similar tree nearby, both since lost. These trees look mature in early photographs and probably pre-dated Cane’s design; he often advised that new garden plans should retain and make the best use of existing trees. The 2018 archaeological work revealed the clear outlines of the sunken terrace and steps, with the bedding layer for the stolen York flags still in place. The circular pond was partly excavated and found to be 0.9m deep with a rendered lining on its sides and base.
To the left, along a high stone boundary wall, Cane placed a substantial wooden pergola, with shaded seating on York stone flags. The planting on the pergola was originally ivy but oral history interviews reveal that by the early 1950s it had become climbing roses (‘when it was in bloom, that whole area was a huge display of roses’). The pergola was removed by the City Council at an unknown date, but holes remained in the boundary wall, showing where the purlins had once rested. The rubble stone foundation of the pergola area, with its distinctive off-set angles, was uncovered during the 2018 investigations, as were sections of surviving flagstones to either side. Much of the high boundary wall subsequently collapsed in 2019 and was rebuilt using salvaged stone in 2021.
Against the house to the right of the plot was a substantial garden shelter with low stone walls and wooden pillars supporting a slate roof. Oral history interviews confirm that this garden shelter was still in use into the mid-1960s, when library visitors would bring a picnic and enjoy views of the garden, while sheltering from poor weather. Several courses of the thin sandstone blocks of the low walls remain on site, with some capping stones on the wall to the east. The archaeological work found that the internal floor was largely a bedding layer, with a few flagstones still in situ. Further surviving flagstones from the path immediately outside were also uncovered, along with an adjacent area of flags that probably defined the edge of former flowerbeds. The shelter must have been planned at the same time as the extension to the rear of the house, as the stone back wall of the extension has an area of bricks where the shelter’s roof was located (bricks being a cheaper material than stone, and so suitable for an area that would not be visible once the shelter was in place).
At the far end of the garden, where the two boundary walls meet at a sharp angle, was a small stone statue of a young child holding a water pitcher, displayed in an arched niche of stone tiles set on edge, serving as a focal point. Just to its left was a low semi-circular stone dipping well, which provided water for the gardens. The walls, niche and (recently repaired) dipping well remain, as does much of the original flagged paving in this area.
The rest of the rear garden was divided into geometric flower beds and flagged pathways, of which some evidence is visible and some was confirmed through soil comparisons during the archaeological investigations. Although most of Cane’s planting has been lost, six original topiary yews (Taxus baccata) are still evident, now very overgrown.
The plan is to restore the rear garden broadly to Cane’s original design, so that it can function again as a library garden, open to the public.
Between the zigzag wall into the rear garden and the garages at the back of the house is an area of hard standing, which Cane would have called a ‘garage yard’; this is currently asphalt / blacktop. From here a long DRIVEWAY, also now asphalt, formed an arc around the side of the house and then ran in a straight line alongside the northern side of the house and front garden to Taptonville Road, where it exited the property between two fine stone pillars (still in situ). Percy Cane almost certainly introduced this layout as part of his redesign of the gardens, replacing the previously curved Victorian carriageway. He would likely have specified stone flags or setts, loose gravel or stone chippings pressed into bitumen as the surface material, in line with driveways he designed elsewhere.
Alongside the north side of the driveway is a long, sloping ROCK GARDEN, a feature frequently used by Percy Cane in his designs. It includes two large sycamores (Acer pseudoplatanus) and three lime trees (Tilia x vulgaris ‘Pallida’) that probably pre-date Cane’s time and were incorporated by him into the design. At some point since the late 1950s part of the driveway, beyond the low stone wall that supports the western third or so of the rock garden, has been widened, presumably to allow cars to turn. This has somewhat reduced the width of the rock garden and obscured Cane’s geometrical approach to the driveway layout.
Less well-documented than the rear garden, the rock garden had become overgrown with woody weeds by 2014, which were cleared by the library volunteers to reveal the original rocks still in situ. They were professionally reset in 2020. The garden is likely to have featured a careful mix of small trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs and was replanted in 2020 with plants that Cane is known to have used in other gardens of around the same period, including Japanese maples, mahonias, rhododendrons, lilies, irises and primroses. The restoration of the rock garden was organised by library volunteers using funds from the Pocket Park Initiative, National Lottery Community Fund and the Yorkshire Gardens Trust. It was officially reopened in 2021 by the Green Party peer, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle.
At the widest point of the rock garden was a small water feature, with a lion’s head spout feeding water into a bowl, which then overflowed down a small rocky slope to a circular pool at the level of the driveway. It was a feature used by Cane in several gardens of this period, including at Hascombe Court in Surrey. An oral history interviewee who played in the Taptonville gardens as a child in the early 1950s recalls this as ‘a little dribbling pool’, while later library visitors remember the feature as a ‘wishing well’ into which children would throw coins. Although not yet restored to full functionality, all the elements of this water feature remain in place; the lower circular pool has been filled in, but its shape is still visible.
Cane’s original design for the FRONT GARDEN has been altered at least twice since it was installed. There remains a fine rectangular flagged terrace adjacent to the house, characteristic of Cane’s style, with access steps and flower borders within low stone walls. In front of this he probably laid out geometric flower beds and lawns, edged in stone. A 2016 tree survey confirmed that the majestic oriental plane tree (Platanus orientalis), which is still present at the front of the garden, pre-dated Cane’s work by several decades and was incorporated by him into the design.
The house was extended to the southern edge of the plot by its second owner Arthur Samuel Lee, and a sunken servants’ or tradesmen’s entry path was added, possibly by Cane when he redesigned the front garden. Between the driveway to the north of the plot and the servants’ entrance to the south, a continuous stone wall separated the front garden from the pavement. Plans and photographs show that this wall was lowered and a central entrance introduced when the site became a library in 1957, with new steps from the street leading up to a central path, now serving as the main access point to the building. A small stone feature (possibly a sundial) was taken out or moved elsewhere in the front garden, to make way for the new path. Later, a partial redesign of the lawns and flower beds in 2010 by the Heeley Development Trust, to a design by a Sheffield landscape student, further blurred evidence of the original Cane layout for this part of the gardens. Today the front garden is maintained by volunteers as two pleasant lawned areas surrounded by beds of roses, shrubs and perennial plants. It is used for regular community events, while three benches allow library users to enjoy the garden while reading or eating lunch.
Statement of Significance
Asset type
Garden.Age
The private gardens at 10 Taptonville Road were laid out in the mid- to late-1920s, by the internationally renowned garden designer Percy Cane, thus providing strong historical and artistic interest for the site. Images of the new gardens were published in the national magazine 'Garden Design' in 1931. The design was installed on the site of an earlier garden from the 1870s, of which parts were retained. In particulars of sale from 1954, Cane’s design is clearly recognisable from the description of the gardens as ‘attractively laid out’ with a ‘Summer house’ and comprising ‘lawn, rockeries, rose beds, crazy paved walks and lily pond.’ The house and gardens were acquired and renovated by Sheffield City Council in 1956, to be adapted into a new branch library for Broomhill and Crosspool and were explicitly associated with a growing municipal identity and provision: for instance, a short pamphlet produced for the official opening ceremony hailed the rear part of the site as ‘an attractive formal garden with a small fountain and lily pond, a pergola, a shelter and attractive flower beds.’Rarity
This a rare inter-war garden almost frozen in time. There are very few gardens of this period and style left, and it is remarkable how public ownership has allowed the rear garden in particular to be preserved almost unchanged (save for the theft of many of the flagstones). There are a number of additional ways in which the library gardens can be seen as rare. Broomhill Library is the only one of the 28 library buildings owned by Sheffield City Council with an integral designed garden of any age. It is almost certainly an unusual example, more widely, of a domestic garden laid out by a significant garden designer that has subsequently become a valued example of municipal provision: a newspaper article about the imminent official opening of the library in 1957 was titled ‘New library with garden in which to read’ and focused on the fact that ‘Visitors to the new Broomhill branch library in Taptonville Road, Sheffield, will be able to sit in a garden there to read or study. … The garden at the rear of the premises has been renovated and set out by the Parks Department, and seats and benches have been provided.’ The gardens are also rare as a design by Percy Cane in the north of England; the only other private gardens in northern England listed in his biography are two large adjacent estates in North Yorkshire, both of which were completed much later in Cane’s career. As noted above, the Taptonville gardens are unusual in having been retained with almost no further development since the late 1920s. Many of Cane’s other designs from this period have been lost or substantially reworked, such as Anna Pavlova’s Ivy House in Hampstead and Sir Malcolm Fraser’s Pixholme Court in Dorking. The gardens are one of the smallest designs that Cane is known to have laid out, and are undoubtedly the smallest Cane design open to the public. They are also small for a public garden in Sheffield: Beauchief Gardens are described in the Local Heritage List as ‘probably the smallest and most beautiful public garden in the city’ but they appear to be four or five times the size of the Taptonville gardens.Architectural and Artistic Interest
The gardens at 10 Taptonville Road were designed by Stephen Percival (Percy) Cane (1881 – 1976), a renowned English designer, author and nurseryman during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Although best known as a garden designer, he also worked in the public realm, on parks, squares and memorial landscapes. His popularity was such that in April 1956 Country Life magazine declared that Cane ‘seems as much in demand for making and reshaping as Lancelot Brown was in his day and ... he gets further afield than Capability ever dreamed of.’ With influences ranging from Humphry Repton and Harold Peto to austere Japanese gardens, Cane’s style is generally classified as late or simplified Arts & Crafts. It is characterised by his use of architectural elements (terraces, steps, shelters, pergolas); classical sculptures and water features; meticulous planting, especially in his selection and placement of trees and shrubs; and, perhaps above all, by his use of focal points and vistas to manage views across the site. Noted horticultural writer Arthur Hellyer described Cane’s typical style as ‘excellent stonework, good use of water, effective placing of ornaments, well-planted flower borders’ and the ability to ‘make the garden appear much larger than it is.’ The gardens at Taptonville Road are from an early, highly productive part of Cane’s career and are clearly identifiable as his style, with their use of formal flagged terraces at different levels linked together by steps, three classical water features and several small sculptural elements, the play of light and shade in his careful retention/placement of trees and structures, and a masterful direction of views. Cane’s best-known works today are probably the large estates at Dartington Hall in Devon and Falkland Palace in Fife, but his reputation earned him commissions throughout much of the United Kingdom, as well as international projects for the president of Greece, several clients in France and Austria, the British pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York and, in the 1950s, new palace grounds in Addis Ababa for the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. Cane also won at least eight gold medals for his designs at the Chelsea Flower Show between 1934 and 1955; in 1963 the Royal Horticultural Society awarded him its Veitch memorial medal for his ‘most beneficial influence on garden design in Britain.’ Today Cane is mentioned 22 times in the Historic England National Heritage List for England (principally on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest), for designs including substantial architectural and garden development at Hascombe Court, Surrey (1928 – 29, Grade II, contemporaneous with his work at Taptonville Road), the public park at St Ann’s Hill in Surrey (also 1928 – 29, Grade II), development work at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire (c.1930, Grade I), terracing at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire (1930s, Grade II*), the gardens at Hedsor Priory, Buckinghamshire (1940s, Grade II), Dartington Hall, Devon (1945 – 1970s, Grade II*), Westfield House in Bedfordshire (1953 – 64, Grade II), and the formal terraced gardens at Sharpham House in Devon (c.1960, Grade II*). In Scotland, three of his gardens are designated as nationally important sites in the Historic Environment Scotland Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes. His designs at Falkland Palace in Fife (1947 – 52) and for the River Garden at Monteviot in the Scottish Borders (1961 – 63) have both been designated as giving the gardens ‘outstanding value as a Work of Art.’ Cane’s formal garden and woodlands in the historic grounds of Llanerch Park, Clwyd (1927 – 29, contemporaneous with Taptonville Road), are listed Grade II in the Cadw Register of Landscapes Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. In Northern Ireland, his designs for Aughentaine, Ulster (mid-1950s), are included in the Environment and Heritage Service of Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Inventory. Cane was also a significant contributor to garden literature. He wrote for, and subsequently edited and owned, the monthly journal 'My Garden, Illustrated' (1915 – 20) and his own magazine 'Garden Design' (1930 – 39). In addition, he was author of four books: Modern Gardens, British & Foreign (1926), Garden Design of Today (1934), The Earth is my Canvas (1956) and The Creative Art of Garden Design (1967). The first of these was an early (perhaps the earliest) international survey of contemporary garden design, and included some examples now seen as Modernist. His work was also documented in a biography, Percy Cane: Garden Designer, by Ronald Webber in 1975. Together, these published works give a detailed picture of Cane’s distinctive approach to garden design. A number of Cane’s apprentices themselves became prominent in the field of landscape design (including Frank Clark, Maria Shephard, Christopher Tunnard and Peter Youngman), but Cane’s own reputation rather faded towards the end of his long career, and his name was largely forgotten after his death. In 1994 garden writer Anna Pavord praised his designs but wrote that he ‘has yet to find a champion to set him up in the garden designer's pantheon where he belongs.’ A later article in the journal Hortus (no. 51, Autumn 1999) called him ‘a forgotten garden designer’ and noted that ‘today, in spite of this gilded career, his work is rarely … accorded the attention it deserves.’ Interest in his work has, however, revived in the last few years [leading up to 2022], and a number of his gardens have been the study of recent research and restoration, including Falkland Palace (major replanting by the National Trust for Scotland), Dartington Hall (as part of a masterplan for the Dartington Trust by Dan Pearson MSGD), Hascombe Court (by landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith for the new private owners), Hanstead House (saved by pressure from the Herts Gardens Trust during development work), Sharpham House (by the head gardener for the Sharpham Trust), Ardchoille (by new owners using original Cane plans) and Lower Sharnden (for private owners by garden designer Jo Thompson). In addition, the French and Ethiopian governments are co-funding the partial restoration of Cane’s designs for the palace grounds in Addis Ababa [from 2022], as one element in a plan to turn the site into a national museum and heritage tourist attraction.Group Value
The gardens are part of the historic plot at 10 Taptonville Road, which also includes the 1870 building as a heritage asset. The house is already designated a Building of Townscape Merit, as part of the residential north-west quadrant of the Broomhill Conservation Area. It was designed in a Classical Revival style by well-known Sheffield architect Thomas Henry Jenkinson, 1836 – 1900, to a (non-extant) plan dated 26 November 1869. Jenkinson was a partner at Frith Brothers & Jenkinson of 4 East Parade from 1862 to 1898, responsible for several buildings in the city centre, including the Britannia Printing Works on Mulberry Street (1865) and the William Bush & Sons auction house on Church Street (1895), as well as the addition of a large Italianate wing to the residential mansion Shirle Hill on Cherry Tree Road (1865). Jenkinson and his firm also designed two houses on the adjacent Taptonville Crescent. Two plans were produced by Frith Brothers & Jenkinson in late 1865 for Oakwood House at no. 20, home to timber merchant John Walker and his family. Jenkinson was responsible for the 1877 plan for Taptonholme at no. 14, which shares a long boundary with what is now the library site. It was briefly (c.1883 – 84) home to Dr Henry French Banham, lecturer in medicine to the Sheffield Medical School and honorary consulting physician to Sheffield General Infirmary, and his family, and then for many years to Alfred Ernest Maxfield, of Henry & Alfred Maxfield, Solicitors. Particulars of sale from 1910 describe 10 Taptonville Road (then known as Oriel House) as a ‘Substantial Stone-built Detached Freehold Residence’ fitted with ‘Warming Apparatus’ and including an entrance hall with stone portico, large dining, drawing and morning rooms, all with bay windows, side entrance with lobby, china pantry, kitchen with two pantries, landing, six bedrooms, two dressing rooms, linen closet, bathroom with two lavatory basins and W.C., and a boxroom. The basement consisted of a ‘Wash Kitchen’, two cellars, wine cellar and coal cellar with entrance from the yard. Also listed were a ‘Carriage or Motor House, Garden Ground, Yard and Conveniences.’ The particulars note existing covenants and conditions, including that the building was to be used ‘as a private dwellinghouse only’ and that the space around the house was to be ‘garden or pleasure ground.’ Its purchaser in 1910, Arthur Samuel Lee, submitted four planning applications between 1910 and 1925. The details of the applications are now lost, save that one in 1911 was for a ‘tool shed’, and others were for ‘additions.’ These must have allowed for, first, the extension of the house to the southern edge of its plot with a new front-facing door replacing the original side entrance; secondly, for an addition to the rear of the building at basement and first floor level, in part to add an integral garage to accommodate Lee’s prized motor cars (both extensions visible on the 1935 OS plan) and, thirdly and less definitely, for Percy Cane’s designs for the gardens. Particulars of sale from 1954 indicate that, internally, the building remained broadly similar to its 1910 layout, with the addition of more modern facilities, such as gas fires and additional toilets. It includes an entrance porch, hall and tiled cloakroom with WC and wash basin. The largest room on the ground floor, described in 1910 as the dining room, is now a ‘lounge’, the original drawing room is now the dining room and the 1910 drawing room is now the ‘morning room.’ All three rooms have large bay windows and fireplaces. There is also a ‘good kitchen’ with Triplex range and ample cupboards, scullery, larder, china pantry, conservatory (presumably for food storage), cellar with a hot-water boiler, four bedrooms on the first floor, one with a wash basin and three with gas fires, a dressing room with wash basin and built-in wardrobe, two bathrooms each with a WC and wash basin, and, on the second floor, two further bedrooms and a box room. Outside are two garages for three cars, a ‘Summer house’ (presumably Cane’s garden shelter) and ‘attractively laid out’ gardens. Council plans and newspaper articles from 1956 and 1957 show that, once the property had been acquired for public use, the house and gardens at 10 Taptonville Road were considered and publicised together as the new library provision. The gardens and exterior of the building were left largely unaltered, except for minor repairs and the opening up of the new central access. Internally, the house was remodelled under the direction of City Architect J. Lewis Womersley, with the original staircase moved and most of the interior walls and fireplaces on the ground floor taken out, to create an open plan adult lending library. The pantry and conservatory became a staff kitchen, dining and rest room. On the first floor, two of the bedrooms, a bathroom and linen room were combined to form the children’s library. The remaining rooms became a study room, staff room and cloakroom. Descriptions and photographs from the time of the official opening reveal a light, open, modern interior on the ground and first floors, with elements clearly inspired by the designs of the 1951 Festival of Britain, such as angularly geometric book stacks, futuristic pendant lights, steel-legged chairs, boldly geometric textiles, and floor coverings that included pale linoleum with a contrasting border on the ground floor, bright blue carpet on the stairs and cork tiles on the first floor. The basement and second-floor rooms were not included in the City’s plans to remodel the building, presumably because moving the original stairway meant that access became difficult, and they were left largely unused. Both have been partially refurbished since the library became volunteer-run, but the second floor remains only accessible by a narrow, open spiral staircase and the basement only from the two external garage doors at the rear of the house. Today, many of the Festival-style elements have disappeared from the library on the ground and first floors. The main rooms feel less open, as a result of more and taller book stacks, and many aspects need refurbishment or replacement. However, the building very clearly retains the internal layout that the City designed for the new library in 1957, together with its well-preserved Victorian exteriors, and has a clear historic relationship with the surrounding gardens, thus contributing to Group Value. As well as the direct link with neighbouring houses by the same architect, the house and gardens at 10 Taptonville Road have a historic relationship with other nearby Victorian villas, all of them individually designated as Buildings of Townscape Merit and grouped together as part of the Broomhill Conservation Area. The Conservation Area Appraisal of 2007 notes the ‘outstanding historic ambience of Taptonville Road and Taptonville Crescent’ and records that: Taptonville Road and Crescent is one of the highlights of the conservation area. It prompted John Betjeman’s description of Broomhill as the prettiest suburb in England. He wrote [in] 1961, “I thought of the leafy district of Broomhill on the western heights of Sheffield, where gabled black stone houses rise above the ponticums and holly, and private cast-iron lamp-posts light the gravelled drives. Greek, Italian, Gothic, they stand in winding tree-shaded roads, these handsome mansions of the Victorian industrialists who had made their pile from steel and cutlery in the crowded mills and slums below. They lived in what is still the prettiest suburb in England.” Other houses of similar age and architectural value on Taptonville Road, all located in ornamental gardens, include Cedar House at no. 27, built in 1858 in a style variously described as Egyptian or Italian, for silver plate manufacturer Matthew Hale, and later home to his architect son, William John Hale (1862 – 1929); Erin House at no. 25, built in 1861 for Dr Henry Merryweather (1820 – 1882), dental surgeon and lecturer; and nos. 22 and 24, known together as Mounthill House, built in the Gothic Revival style by George Hague in 1861 – 62. Six handsome, Georgian-style houses opposite the library site, built together c.1851, are listed at Grade II on the National Heritage List (nos. 9 & 11, 13 & 15, 17 & 19).Historic Interest
As well as the link with nationally renowned designer Percy Cane, the plot at 10 Taptonville Road has associations with several well-known local figures from its time as a private home and, since becoming the library site, has helped create a strong sense of belonging for the local community, remaining a focus up to the present day. Taptonville Road was built on fields previously owned by John Hobson, scissor manufacturer and prominent local citizen, whose own family home, Tapton Elms, sat on the prime plot at the top of the road. The house and garden at number 10 were built in 1870 for John Fanshaw Littlewood (1822 – 1904), a well-known cooper and packing case manufacturer, who lived there with his wife Martha and their three sons. Starting as an apprentice cooper, he worked his way up to partner in an established firm (Cooper and Littlewood) and finally became owner of the firm, renamed J. F. Littlewood & Sons. He ran his business from half a dozen sites in the city (more than any other local cooper) and, according to the 1881 census, employed 15 men and 8 boys. His obituary portrays him as a well-known personality, readily sharing his ‘recollections and anecdotes of Sheffield’ from the mid-19th century. He was also active in politics (being a founder and later president of the West End Conservative Club), the church (one of the instigators of the 1871 St Mark’s building), an active member of the Britannia Lodge of Freemasons and the Broomgrove Bowling Green, and a committee member for 25 years for Sheffield Botanical Gardens. His youngest son died in a much-reported freak accident involving a collision between his carriage and a traction engine. Littlewood Senior died in the Taptonville house in 1904, leaving £16,808 7s 7d (equivalent to over £1m today). His widow remained in the house until her death in 1910. Between 1910 and 1942 the property became home to industrialist Arthur Samuel Lee (1873 – 1941) and his family. He was the eldest son of the founder of the steel firm Arthur Lee & Sons Ltd and served for many years as the company’s Managing Director. According to the University of Sheffield, the firm ‘left a memorable mark’ on the city, making everything from skirt hoops and bicycle spokes to a wide range of steel materials in aid of combat efforts during both world wars. The firm was a large industrial employer in Sheffield across two major sites, the Crown steel works in Attercliffe and the Trubrite steel works in Wincobank. Arthur S Lee was also a major figure nationally in Freemasonry, serving as Grand Deacon of England among many roles. His obituary described him as a ‘prominent industrialist and Freemason.’ He left an estate valued at £73,387 (just under £3m in today’s money). It was Lee who commissioned Percy Cane to redesign the gardens at 10 Taptonville Road. The owner from 1942 was osteopath Henry Dean Foggitt (1884 – 1979), who lived there with his wife Caroline (1887 – 1943) and their sons. Carrie, as she was known, was the proprietor and manager of health reform stores in Liverpool in her early twenties before the Foggitts moved to Sheffield. Their paternal grandson, Roger, has (in a recent oral history interview) described Carrie becoming ‘the pioneer of vegetarianism in South Yorkshire.’ She opened the first health food shops and the first vegetarian restaurant in Sheffield and was ‘a very successful businesswoman.’ Much of the food was prepared in the basement of the Taptonville Road house (and perhaps some of it grown in the gardens?) and so, according to Roger, it could be described as the ‘high temple’ of vegetarianism in Sheffield. Roger also shared family stories that one of her sons, Bernard, worked for the British intelligence services in Nazi Germany during WWII, and that Carrie visited him there during the Berlin Olympics. Carrie died at home in 1943 and her husband remarried and moved away. Between 1946 and 1949 the house and garden were home to leading industrialist Gerald John Balfour (1908 – 1978), his wife Phyllis Mary, young twin sons Ian and Howard, and American mother Minnie Maud. Gerald was a director of the steel manufacturing company Arthur Balfour & Co Ltd, and nephew of the first Baron Riverdale. The owner from 1949 was Angus Forsythe (1864 – 1960) who lived there with his wife Elizabeth (c.1865 – 1951). According to an article in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 11 September 1950, Angus had been a Scottish shepherd who came to Sheffield aged 17 to visit his brother - and stayed. He became chairman and joint managing director of Duncan Gilmour & Co, the Sheffield firm which ran breweries and a large estate of public houses. The couple appeared in the local paper as they celebrated their diamond (60th) wedding anniversary at the Taptonville Road address. The final owner of the house and garden before it became the site for the library was Alice Hadley (d.1982), who lived there from 1954 to 1956 with her husband Cecil (d.1975), a steelworks engineer. Alice took in student lodgers in Taptonville Road and later ran a greengrocer’s shop and a small old people’s home. Sheffield City Council decided in 1955 to acquire the house and gardens from the Hadleys, to form a new branch library for Broomhill. It was bought by compulsory purchase in order to free the City of the restrictive covenant limiting the building to exclusive use as a private dwellinghouse. The creation of the library and retention of its designed gardens was part of a post-WWII long-term development plan by the City’s Libraries, Art Galleries & Museums Committee to provide at least eleven new libraries for the growing city. The Broomhill Branch Library completed the first stage of this development plan, following provision for Ecclesall (1949), Southey (1950), Manor (1953) and Woodseats (1956). The Broomhill Branch Library’s official opening took place on 12 September 1957 and, since then, the site has played an integral part in the development of the local community’s identity and has provided a sense of belonging for many people, from local school children through to elderly residents of the area. The rear garden proved eminently suitable as a library garden, with one visitor remembering how as a child in the 1960s she saw it as ‘a special place … where people would come in and sit …such a special thing.’ It was for many decades a quiet public green space in a part of Sheffield where so little such provision exists.Archaeological Interest
Conjectural plans indicate that the Crookes Moor racecourse ran across the site now occupied by the library between c.1711 and 1781. Probably organised by the Town Trust, the racetrack of about 1.3 miles was laid out through fields in a right-handed circuit from a high point on modern-day Lawson Road, through what is now the southern junction of Taptonville Crescent and Taptonville Road (the library site) to a finishing post and grandstand near the current Sheffield Girls Infant School. The racecourse was abandoned after 1781, probably as a result of the 1779 Ecclesall Enclosure Act. There may be buried remains or other evidence of the 18th century horse racing activities under the library site. The development of Taptonville Road began in 1851 along the alignment of earlier field boundaries. The house at 10 Taptonville was built in 1870. The OS town plan of 1890 offers a detailed plan of the early garden on the site, showing the curving layout of the carriage drive and main pathways; outbuildings in the rear garden, including one with a glazed roof and another likely to be a privy; informally shaped lawns and flower beds with three dozen or so trees and shrubs; the location of internal and boundary walls or fences; and the steep slope to the bed adjacent to Taptonville Crescent to the north. There is definite potential for archaeological evidence of this earlier design. In addition, some aspects of the Victorian garden were incorporated into the 1920s Cane plans and remain as evidence of the earlier phase of design: these include the oriental plane in the front garden and the limes and sycamores along the driveway. Four excellent contemporary records exist of the Cane design: three high-quality black and white photographs of the rear garden taken by the garden’s owner Arthur Samuel Lee, and one detailed drawing of the rear garden by Cane’s usual illustrator, Harold White, dated 1931. All four items were published in Spring 1931 in Cane’s journal, 'Garden Design', with captions written by Cane, describing the features shown (‘Pool Garden’, ‘Garden Shelter’, ‘Dipping Well’, ‘Pergola and Pool’). It was an edition of the journal aiming to be ‘of real assistance to the owners of even quite small gardens.’ There is also other substantial evidence of Cane’s design and planting styles throughout his career in the books and journals that he published from 1915 onwards. These have already [2022] been used to inform the restored planting in the rock garden at the library site.Landmark Status
The Broomhill library and heritage gardens are located in a suburban side street but have long been a well-known local landmark with strong communal and historic associations. The campaign to save the library in 2013/14 after Council cuts threatened its closure demonstrated the special significance of the place for the surrounding community. Public meetings, demonstrations, campaigns on social media and meetings with the Council cabinet all showed the strong level of support for retaining the library. Former Sheffield Lord Mayor and MEP Magid Magid recounts in his book The Art of Disruption that it was the first local campaign in which he was involved – as ‘libraries like this are so important.’ He says that saving the library ‘gave me a taste of what could be achieved.’ Before the Covid pandemic, out of 27 community libraries in Sheffield, Broomhill was the fifth busiest in terms of books issued, and the busiest of all the volunteer-run sites. It had a footfall of around 200 people per day, which post-pandemic has already [2022] recovered to 150 people per day. Scores of local volunteers have been involved in providing the library service since it became community-run, with opening hours increased and new events and activities offered. In addition, many neighbours, volunteer groups, local students and others have been involved in the work to uncover and restore elements of the heritage garden. See for instance: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/landscape/news/students-help-restore-abandoned-rock-garden-broomhill-library The local press and BBC Radio Sheffield have included frequent items on the progress of the volunteer library provision and, in particular, on the restoration of the gardens, for instance “History amid the Undergrowth: features of designer’s garden behind Broomhill Library emerge as restoration efforts gain momentum” (Sheffield Telegraph 18/05/17) and “Abandoned library garden in Sheffield suburb reopens after being rejuvenated by community volunteers” (Sheffield Star, 17/06/21, https://www.thestar.co.uk/lifestyle/outdoors/abandoned-library-garden-in-sheffield-suburb-reopens-after-being-rejuvenated-by-community-volunteers-3277177). Trails, heritage tours, garden blitzes, guided walks, plant sales, keep-fit weeding sessions, involvement in the Sheffield wheat experiment and other garden events have become a regular part of the library’s provision for the community, particularly during the Covid pandemic when the library building was frequently closed. The recent community-driven neighbourhood plan stresses the ‘key role’ that the library site continues to play for people in this part of Sheffield. The Broomhill Area Neighbourhood Plan was devised as part of the Localism Act 2011 by a local planning forum with over 200 members and received a 92% positive vote in a 2021 referendum. It includes very strong support for the retention and development of the library building and its historic gardens as a place of ‘immense value’ to the area.Images and Documents
A photograph of the rear garden published by its designer Percy Cane in 1931, titled ‘Pool Garden, Taptonville Road, Sheffield.’ It shows the view of the garden from the entrance, looking across the sunken terrace. To the left is part of the wooden pergola that ran along the tall boundary wall. Just visible at the end of the garden is the arched niche with its statue. [Copyright expired in 2012 as the photographer, Arthur S Lee, died in 1942.]
Oriel House and garden (marked in red) at 10 Taptonville Road, as depicted on the 1890 OS Sheffield Town Plan. The plan shows the curving carriage drive and pathways, extensive tree and shrub planting and outbuildings of the Victorian garden, as well as the original footprint of the house. [Crown copyright expired 1940.]
A photograph of the rear garden published by its designer Percy Cane in 1931, titled ‘Garden Shelter, Taptonville Road, Sheffield.’ It shows the large structure to the right of the garden, against the house, with its low stone walls, timber posts and slate roof. In the front of the image is part of the sunken terrace with its ornamental tree to the left, and some of the stone flags that were a common feature in Cane’s designs. To both sides of the shelter are a selection of flower beds on two levels. [Copyright expired in 2012 as the photographer, Arthur S Lee, died in 1942.]
A photograph of the rear garden published by its designer Percy Cane in 1931, titled ‘Dipping Well, Taptonville Road, Sheffield.’ It shows the far end of the garden, where Cane has installed the low semi-circular stone dipping well and, in the awkward point where the two boundary walls meet, an arched niche around a statue of a young child with a water pitcher. Similar statues were common features of Cane’s designs at this time. [Copyright expired in 2012 as the photographer, Arthur S Lee, died in 1942.]
10 Taptonville Road (marked in red), as depicted on the 1935 Yorkshire OS Plan, after Cane’s design was installed, showing part of the new straight driveway, part of the new zigzag wall at the entrance to the rear garden, and the extensions to the house to the south (bottom of the image) and east (to the right), the latter including Cane’s garden shelter. [Crown copyright expired 1985.]
One of the City of Sheffield plans of 1956 for ‘Proposed Adaptations for Branch Library at 10 Taptonville Road.’ Top right is the location of the site. Below that is the plan for reducing the height of the front boundary wall (the decision to add a new central entrance must have been made later). To the left is the site plan, showing the minimal changes planned for the exterior. The layout of the rear garden as drawn matches closely with the published photographs from 1931 and the findings of the 2017/18 archaeological excavations, suggesting few changes have been made since Cane’s designs were installed. [Image used with permission from the Sheffield City Archives, CA 663(114).]
The new Adult Lending Library on the ground floor of 10 Taptonville Road in September 1957, when the provision officially opened to the public. The image shows the Festival-style adaptations to the interiors and a glimpse of Percy Cane’s rock garden through the window. [Image used with permission from the Sheffield City Archives, PictureSheffield u01482.]
The ground floor of new library in September 1957, when the provision officially opened to the public. The image shows the new staircase (far right) and the Festival-style adaptations to the interiors. [Image used with permission from the Sheffield City Archives, PictureSheffield u01484.]
The front of the new library in 1959, showing the adaptations made by the Council to the boundary wall and the new central path. The oriental plane tree, to the left, was planted in the 19th century and retained by Percy Cane in his design. [Image used with permission from the Sheffield City Archives, PictureSheffield u01483.]
Topographical survey of the site in 2016, showing the gardens wrapping around three sides of the building. Many of Percy Cane’s design features are still discernible, including (in the rear garden, to the right of the image) the pool garden with its sunken terrace, circular pool and steps, the dipping well, niche, garden shelter, boundary walls and some historical vegetation; the fountain, rockery edges, walls and historical trees in the rock garden (at the top), and the terrace, steps, boundary walls and historical tree in the front garden (left). [Survey produced for Broomhill Community Library by Tower Surveys on behalf of Ecus Ltd. Used with permission from the library trustees.]
The entrance to the rear garden through a low stone wall, after archaeological excavations in 2018. The step and much of the flagged path leading to the pergola are visible, as well as the start of a path to the right, leading to the garden shelter. The distinctive shape of the rubble foundation for the pergola can be seen in the distance. [Photograph by ArcHeritage for a 2018 report to Broomhill Community Library. Used with permission from the library trustees.]
The pool garden in the rear garden following excavations in 2017. The edges of the terrace are apparent, along with three of the four sets of steps down, and the partially excavated circular pool at the centre. The flagstones had all been stolen from this area, leaving the bedding layer visible. [Photograph by ArcHeritage for a 2018 report to Broomhill Community Library. Used with permission from the library trustees.]
A side-view of the garden shelter in the rear garden after excavations in 2017, showing the remains of the low walls, including a section at the rear with coping stones, the few flags and bedding layer in the interior of the structure, and the step and some of the flagged path uncovered outside. [Photograph by ArcHeritage for a 2018 report to Broomhill Community Library. Used with permission from the library trustees.]
Photogrammetric plan of the original stone flags from the Percy Cane design adjacent to the dipping well in the rear garden, revealed by archaeological excavations in June 2017, and previously presumed stolen. [Photograph by ArcHeritage for a 2018 report to Broomhill Community Library. Used with permission from the library trustees.]
The tall northern boundary wall in the rear garden in November 2021, repaired after its collapse, with Percy Cane’s tiled niche at its far end, and the dipping well in front, awaiting repair.
The lion’s head fountain in the rock garden just after it was uncovered by library volunteers in 2016. Water would have trickled from the lion’s head spout under the stone arch into the small bowl and then down the rocky slope to the circular pool at the bottom (now filled in). [Image used with permission from the library trustees.]
The rock garden shortly after it was restored in 2020, with new plants including Japanese maples, mahonias, lilies, ferns and geraniums.
The official opening of the restored rock garden by Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle in June 2021, assisted by Willow Gandhi and Ubeid Saeed from Broomhill Infants School. [Image used with permission from the library trustees.]
Date Listed
18 Sep 2023
Last Updated
13 Jun 2023
Find Out More
Find out more about this Asset in South Yorkshire Local Heritage List:
https://local-heritage-list.org.uk/south-yorkshire/asset/12963
https://local-heritage-list.org.uk/south-yorkshire/asset/12963