Christ Church, Dore

The Chapel of Ease

Not everyone can date a church at a glance so may not realise that Christ Church, Dore was only built in 1829 to replace the semi–derelict chapel of ease which stood nearby. To celebrate in 2025 the reopening of the church after a major refurbishment this piece takes us back to the plans set out for the original church. You may be surprised who was involved and what the church looked like at first.

Early pictures of the church are scant, as indeed they are for the original chapel of ease. The chapel of ease is first documented in the early seventeenth century. We have to rely on paintings and sketches, which are possibly not truly accurate, to know what it looked like.

In this sketch of the chapel of ease, by an unknown artist, the village stocks are drawn in. A bell hung between the two gables and there was a sun dial over the door. The village school is visible on the right hand side of the sketch.

Richard Furness: schoolmaster

We know that the original plans and ideas for the new church were produced by Richard Furness, Schoolmaster of Dore….and much more. Richard Furness is sometimes referred to as 'the Poet of the Peak' being the writer and composer of poetry, music, Christmas carols and more. In his own words he says of himself:

I Richard Furness, schoolmaster, Dore.
Keep parish books and pay the poor;
Draw plans for buildings and indite
Letters for those who cannot write;
Make wills and recommend a proctor.
Cure wounds, let blood with any doctor
Draw teeth, sing psalms, the hautboy play
At chapel on each holy day;
Paint sign–boards, cut names at command.
Survey and plot estates of land,
Collect at Easter one in ten –
And on Sunday, say Amen.

Idle boasting or did he really have skills in all these areas? We are looking merely at his surveying and ability to work in stone as a sculptor. To find out if he really was a genius in so many fields look no further than Josie Dunmore's excellent book "I, Richard Furness" The Life and Works (1791 – 1857).

This drawing of the church, the school and the vicarage can be dated to around 1861 when new Gothic style windows were fitted. If local folklore is to be believed Richard Furness not only set out the plans of the new church to replace the old chapel of ease but sculpted the pinnacles atop the tower, having been persuaded by friends in 1828 to submit a plan.

This is the earliest postcard of the church held in Dore Archives. It dates from between 1881 and 1896. In 1881 major works were carried out (a report of which can be found in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 22nd of May 1881). The photograph shows the church before the chancel was extended in 1896.

Richard Furness: the original plans

Richard Furness wrote very detailed specifications for the church. These are held by Sheffield Archives. The following gives a flavour:

The building should be 48 feet long and 36 feet wide, reaching a ceiling height of 21 feet.
There should be a nave but no chancel.
There should be a tower 48 feet high with a clock.
Building materials should use whatever was serviceable from the old chapel.

To read the full specification click here (opens in a new tab)

Of salvageable building material there cannot have been much, because an inspection visit to the old chapel in 1823 said the chapel had 'cracked and bulging walls and three frightful wooden pillars down the centre, supporting the roof, which were decayed and let in the rain.'

John Leather: civil engineer

The specifications of Richard Furness were translated into workable architects plans by John Leather, a civil engineer of Sheffield. Leather's specification was approved by the Diocese. The plans are held in Lambeth Palace Library. Above you can see the main floor plan. A second plan shows the gallery and lists the names of those allotted pews. To view the plans click here (opens in a new tab).

Work began on the augmented plans under the general direction of Albert Smith as church warden, and the practical supervision of Richard Furness. It was Richard who would oversee the work of the numerous masons, carpenters, slaters, glaziers and plasterers.

There will be several surprises immediately noticeable. The new church is square. There is no choir vestry. The outer door is on the south side. All the windows are diamond leaded lights. There is a substantial gallery. Richard Furness lived long enough to see in 1854 the first stained glass window in the east end of 'his' church be fitted. We can surmise that the vicar at this time, the Reverend Aldred, and Richard would chat about their mutual interest in architecture and antiquities.

Derbyshire Slate

There was one error of judgement involved in the materials suggested by Richard and used on the build. In 1879 to 1881 substantial alterations to the roofing material had to be made. In Richard's original plans he had specified what is known locally as Derbyshire slate to be used. This is a thin layered sandstone still seen on many of the oldest buildings around Dore. However it had proved too heavy for the roof timbers and had to be replaced with lighter slate tiles.

The Disappearing Font

At round about the same time as other alterations were taking place, the font which Richard is believed to have carved, was replaced with the present font.

For a time it stood as a bird bath in the churchyard. Around the year 2000 it mysteriously disappeared!

From 829 to 2029

And now we have the third major alteration to Christ Church nearly in time for its 200th Anniversary in 2029.

This will be an auspicious year in Dore because it will mark 1,200 years since King Egbert of Wessex and King Eanred of Northumbria met in Dore, leading to effectively the creation of England.

King Ecgbert's Head

Why do we mention these events in the same breath as Richard Furness? Richard is purported to have taken stone from the old chapel of ease and carved the head of King Ecgbert as a present for his son, William Furness, as he took up residence in the new Whirlow Hall. And it’s still there today in the top yard at Whirlow Hall Farm!

The Tradition of Maypole Dancing

May Day Celebrations

The first of May was a time of fun and revelry, with its roots going back to Celtic pagan times. It marked a time of fertility after the dark days of Winter. Dore as a farming community would be well aware of seasons and the impact on lives if harvests failed.

So, Dore would crown a May Queen and her consort the May King, to oversee the dancing which would guarantee good fortune. The May Pole would be erected with its coloured ribbons which are woven through dancing into a range of patterns down the pole. At the top is a crown of flowers welcoming the return of Summer.

From the clothing being worn in the photograph the date of this Maypole Dance is probably about 1910. In the background is the Reverend Gibson who first came to Dore in 1895. The Maypole with its garland crown on top has been erected on Dore's cricket pitch better known as Brunsmeer Football Ground now.

Here is another photograph taken at a similar time to the first. The May Queen and May King can be seen in the background, and the traditional 'crown' on the top of the Maypole is visible. Note that the dancers have garlands in their hair.

Beltane and the Importance of Trees

Trees, in particular hawthorne, figure in the celebration of May Day (or Beltane as it was called in pagan times). There would have been a procession towards the Maypole, the selection of the May Queen and the presence of Jack‐in‐the‐Green who was a relic from those days when our ancestors worshipped trees.

Here are two old sayings about trees. One is a weather forcast:

Oak before Ash we are in for a splash,
Ash before Oak we are in for a soak.

The other is useful if you find yourself caught in a thunderstorm since oak and ash trees tend to be the giants of a wooded area whereas the hawthorn is closer to the ground.

Beware the Oak, it draws a stroke,
Avoid the Ash, it courts a flash,
Creep under a thorn, it will save you from harm.

Although the tradition of dancing around the Maypole is fading out in Derbyshire and beyond; in Dore, slightly out of season, we can see Maypole dancing carried out by Dore's Brownies at Dore Gala. Usually there is a 'caller' who directs the turns of the dancers until the ribbons are woven. In the top photograph it would be the lady on the right who may well have been one of the teachers from Dore School. As today the adults in the background are undoubtedly proud parents.

And this being the month of May 'Ne'er cast a clout till May be out'. 'Clout' is dialect for warm clothing and May refers to may blossom on the hawthorn.

Mary Ann Smith - An Extraordinary Life

MARY ANN SMITH (?1852-1914)

Mary Ann Smith’s father, William, was a Northumbrian from Hexham who came south to serve as a trooper in the 1st Life Guards. In 1850 we meet him married to Elizabeth from Hertford and stationed at Windsor where their first child, another Elizabeth, is born. By March 1851 the family including Elizabeth’s young dressmaker sister Mary Ann have moved to 81 Albany Street, opposite Regents Park Barracks. Little Elizabeth is followed by three sisters: our Mary Ann, born in Brompton, then on the western outskirts of London, between 8 April 1852 and 7 April 1853, Fanny Jane two years later and Rosa (Rose) after two more years.

Our next picture of the Smiths is in 1861. Describing himself now as ‘licensed victualler’, William was the landlord of the Black Jack pub at 11 Portsmouth Street on the SW corner of Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The street is still there but not the pub. Black Jacks were leather beer jugs coated with tar. As well as the family the household comprised two servants and seven workmen lodgers.

Where the family were in 1871 is anyone’s guess but in 1881 Mary Ann resurfaces—in Sheffield! Her address is 58 High Street, where she is a draper’s assistant and head of a small household of three younger draper’s assistants, a cook and a housemaid, six of her employer’s 19 female and 5 male staff. Ten years on, across High Street, she heads a list of 22 female employees, which by 1901 has risen to 54. They are working at Walsh’s.

John Walsh Ltd, Sheffield

Walsh’s occupied a large block on what is now the corner of Arundel Gate, opposite the Castle Square tram stop. After spending nine years as a buyer of baby linen and ladies’ clothing at Cockayne’s store, Irishman John Walsh had opened a small shop selling similar goods at no. 39 on the north side of High Street in 1875. Expanding steadily on the other side during Mary Ann’s time, the business became a superior department store and restaurant. It survived partial enforced demolition for street widening in 1895, then in 1897 John Walsh commissioned the well-known architectural practice Flockton and Gibbs to design a new store. Walsh’s became a limited company in 1902. Its trade directory entry for 1903 is shown here.

The Sheffield Blitz

It was wrecked on the first night of the Sheffield blitz, 12 December 1940, but continued in other premises until Harrods took over the company in 1946, cleared the High Street site, rebuilt the store and reopened it in 1953. A further takeover six years later by House of Fraser led to the replacement of Walsh’s name successively by Rackhams and House of Fraser until the store’s closure in 1998.

The firm’s personnel archives were probably destroyed in the war, but public records fill gaps in Mary Ann’s story. What do we have in Dore? Her neglected grave comprises a small headstone and a low all-round kerb. They bear an inscription starting on the headstone and continuing along the kerb sides from left to right: ‘In Loving Memory of Mary Ann Smith who died at Dore 8th January 1914 in her 61st year. Gone but not forgotten’.

The words ‘who died at Dore’ seemed to imply that she was on a visit, but she turned out to be a resident, if only briefly. The Dore burials register added where she died: ‘Mary Ann Smith of Woodland View, Dore, 10 January 1914, aged 61’ (not as on the stone).

Sheffield and Rotherham Licensed Victuallers Association

Woodland View is the picturesque building opposite the station, originally constructed in 1878-79 by the Sheffield and Rotherham Licensed Victuallers Association as sheltered housing for former pub landlords and landladies when its former site in Grimesthorpe became unhealthy. It consists of twelve terraced cottages with a central hall. Along with one of the cottages this was rented by local freemasons for lodge meetings from 1890 until 1951 when they bought the whole premises.

Mary Ann's Burial in Dore

On the morning of the funeral this announcement appeared in the Sheffield Independent: ‘DEATHS … SMITH. – On the 8th January, Mary Ann Smith (late of 64, High Street), at 12, Woodview, Dore. Interment at Dore Church, this day (Saturday), at 3 o’clock’. Despite the faulty address this helps to pinpoint the places where she had recently lived and died. 64 High Street was residential accommodation for Walsh’s staff. 12 Woodland View was at the far end of the range of cottages from Dore Road in both the 1901 and the 1911 censuses (on left, in shadow) but Mary Ann wasn’t yet there. We don’t know how she came to be at no. 12—perhaps her father’s occupation had something to do with it—but right from the start of the LVA in Dore people from backgrounds other than the licensed trade predominated among its residents.

Mary Ann's Death Certificate

Her death was reported two days later to Fred C. Bone, Dore’s schoolmaster and local registrar, by her unmarried elder sister and recent carer Elizabeth. Its certified causes were general debility for six months and a weak heart for four; she had also suffered from dropsy (œdema) for three months. But note Elizabeth’s description of her sister’s occupation.

In 1891 Walsh’s had designated her with her female colleagues as ‘Draper’s Shopwoman’ and in 1901 as ‘Draper’s Assistant’. Her sister, however, wanted to do her justice: ‘Buyer and Saleswoman at Drapery Establishment’. As a buyer she stood out among her colleagues.

Mary Ann's Legacy

The final two documents are Mary Ann’s will and grant of probate. She made bequests to her sister Fanny Dakers and her three nephews in South Africa, her sister Rose Martyn in New Zealand, and several work colleagues and friends, and she set up a residuary trust fund for her sister Elizabeth. The great surprise is the value of her estate, about £2500, worth in purchasing power over £300,000 today. How did she amass all this?

As an early recruit to Walsh’s Mary Ann showed leadership of her women colleagues from the start. Within some 30 years she had achieved a similar degree of expertise as had John Walsh himself when he founded the firm.

This short account of her life has been written for Women’s History Month 2025 in the hope of revitalising that inscription in Dore churchyard: ‘Gone but not forgotten’.

The Dore Knock-Knobbler

Dog Tongs and Wands

The dog tongs shown above can be found in St. Beuno's Church, Clynnog Fawr. (The photograph is from the People's Collection Wales.) The dog tongs would have been used by a knock‐knobbler. The knock‐knobbler, or nobbler, was someone who kept order in church services. His job included keeping children under control, waking up people who were sleeping – usually by knocking their nob (head) – and removing stray dogs from the church. They were more politely known as 'peace keepers' or 'dog whippers' and were generally armed with a stick or large pair of knock-knobbler's dog tongs or a dog whip.

The long sticks, used to keep the parishioners awake and prevent unruly behaviour, were eventually superseded by the wands of the church wardens. The wands were kept to hand in the church warden's pew in case they were needed in the service. This symbol of their office was usually topped with either a mitre or a crown but they retained the traditional long wooden pole.

In the News

The Rev. Gibson of Christ Church, Dore wrote this letter to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph on 29th January 1919.

Twenty four years ago an old parishioner of mine of then over 70 years of age told me that at the old Dore Chapel of Ease, in his early days, was a church officer with a big stick and a scarlet cloak known as a 'knock-nobbler', to 'keep'em wakkened' he said, during the service. He had been nobbled in his day. This be quite in keeping with other odd customs, sayings and events, which happened at the old Dore chapel of Ease in not very remote times. The present church took the place of the chapel in 1826. Yours faithfully, W.R.GIBSON.

This letter was followed up by one from another gentleman, where the practice was expanded upon:

Knock-nobblers were men, usually old, appointed to keep order in churches and chapels, and were provided with sticks or wands, so that they could reach over the heads of the worshippers and tap (or knock) the heads (or nobbles) of those who misbehaved during service, usually, of course, boys from Sunday School. They became practically extinct ninety or one hundred years ago, but their name survived, and it was not uncommon 60 or 70 years ago to hear peace keepers, as the same men were then called, termed knock‐nobblers, although they did not have sticks. In my boyhood I remember an old man who had one of the sticks, and kept order in the north gallery of St Paul’s Church (site is now the Peace Gardens in central Sheffield), but it was reared in the corner, and only used as a sign of office.

Dore was not alone in requiring the services of a knock-knobbler. Dogs and rowdy behaviour seem to have been commonplace. In 1841 the Sheffield Independent published an article stating that seventy years ealier the Parish Church (now Sheffield Cathedral) was the most crowded and filthy place that could be conceived.

The aisles, both above and below, were so crowded with the poorer classes, that pew owners found difficulty in getting to their seats. Children and infants abounding, disturbance was pretty general; the latter often squalling, the former first playing their tricks, and then crying out under the loud correction of the merciless peacekeepers, alias knock‐knobblers.

And, we have all heard the expression 'to nobble' someone: nobble being used to mean to stop or catch someone.

Richard Furness - Teacher, Poet and Healer

Those who follow this blog and know something of the history of Dore will recognise the name Richard Furness (1791-1857), the polymath.

He was in charge of the school at Dore from 1821 to 1848. Amongst his talents he wrote and published poems and acted as a healer somewhat akin to an apothecary.

The Dore Village Society has in its archives some unpublished poems, collected by his son, which give some insight into Richard's skills.

The following poem is taken from the Dore Village Society Collection: uncatalogued book of manuscripts, 'The Unpublished Poems of Richd Furness', compiled by William Furness

Whilst this poem has no title DART members have named it Poor Tommy's Tale. It is written in Derbyshire dialect and although it has questionable merit as a poem, it certainly has us thinking about the important knowledge and skills Richard may have had as a healer.

Poor Tommy's Tale

The story within the poem is translated into plain modern English with help from his son William Furness, who wrote a compiler's introduction, and one of our members who studied the words in dialect. The story goes thus; the poem commemorates one of the most wonderful cures Richard Furness ever performed. The subject of the cure, Tommy Greaves, was a native of Dore of about 20 years of age and a penknife cutler. One of his legs failed; a running, possibly an infection, broke out in his leg; after failure of various persons to effect a cure, he was sent to Sheffield Infirmary as a last resort.

The Infirmary, 1819
Courtesy of Picture Sheffield, reference s07337

The Infirmary's Surgeons

The leg daily became worse, so much so that the leg was declared incurable and the unanimous opinion of the surgical staff was that unless he would consent to the leg being amputated, no treatment however skilful would save his life. Tommy decided to leave the Infirmary and place himself under the care of the Poet.

Hornbook's Cure

Richard Furness refers to himself in the third person as “Hornbook” in this context. Our research shows a hornbook to be a leaf of paper containing alphabet (and often the 10 digits and Lord's Prayer) protected by plate of translucent horn and mounted on wooden tablet with handle; for Richard Furness, the symbol of a teacher.

The story goes on; the result was a complete cure. Tommy’s gratitude was intense, and although he afterwards resided in Sheffield, he always made a point of calling to thank his benefactor twice a year for 25 or 30 years afterwards until Richard Furness's death.

The Poem

The poem gives some clues as to the nature of this cure;

Horn warm'd him with Pestil wi'bottle
That made the poor cutler to roar
Gripe his fists, pull his face, screw his throttle
They might hear him from Totley to Dore.

The bathing with wonderful water
From virulent pus cleared the part
Produced the best cooling matter
And salv'd it ‘according to art.

From this we deduce that Horn prepared for him a heated compound, using pestle and mortar (symbols of the apothecary) with water; it sounds like a very hot poultice. In addition wonderful water is more usually referred to as aqua mirabilis which can be a mixture of spices e.g. cardamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, ginger, cubebs (a hot Javanese spice) and spirits of wine, left to soak and then distilled. This aqua mirabilis cooled and then cleansed the wound. The alcohol base helping fight infection and the wonderful aromas lifting the young man's spirit perhaps.

Horn carries on a defiant mood in the poem;

Tom's well, ye pretenders to science
With your Recipes, Whittles & Saws
Follow nature (Horn bids you defiance)
Follow nature & study her laws.

Boast no more of your classical knowledge
What avail all the drugs on your shelves
He cares not a grain for your College
If you have not the art in yourselves.

College presumably refers to the newly founded (1800) Royal College of Surgeons here and Richard Furness champions the knowledge and skills of the apothecary. There was rivalry between the Royal College of Physicians and the apothecaries which was well documented. The surgeons were descended from The Company of Barber Surgeons, presumably the reference to whittles or small knives and saws describes their tools. Modern General Practice is descended in part from the apothecaries' art and the last verse of the poem would ring true with our present day GPs.