The Craft of Besom Brush Making

The Brush Makers of Dore

During the 1800s Dore residents, especially those who lived up at Stoney Ridge, utilised the plentiful supply of heather branches from the surrounding moorland to fashion besom brushes. Women were employed to do the gathering of materials ready for the binding process.

Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland

Henry Peat: Broom Maker

In the 1841 Census Henry and his family are recorded as living at Stoney Ridge, in Stone Cottage. By 1851 they had moved to Piper House, close to Stoney Ridge. (It was demolished in the 1930s.) Both Henry and his wife Jane are recorded as broom makers. They were still living at what is now referred to as Piper Houses in 1861. Henry was born in Brampton in 1790 and his wife, Jane, came from Leicestershire. Of their children none seemed to continue as broom makers. The most interesting son, Edward, became a Gamekeeper ultimately becoming, according to the 1891 Census, Head Gamekeeper at Longshaw.

George Peat: Besom Brush Manufacturer

Born in 1827 in Barlow, George and his large family of eight children lived at the former Toll Cottage. Before moving into the now defunct Toll house, they lived at Broom Cottage. Both George Senior and Junior were besom brush makers. In the 1891 Census they appeared to live in adjacent households. George Junior continued his craft from David Lane in Fulwood when the Toll House was demolished in 1919. The Peat children attended Dore School, walking from an early age, across moorland each day to reach Dore village school – a distance of about two miles each way in all weathers.

Sam Kay: Toll Collector and Besom Brush Manufacturer

You can read about Sam Kay in the post about the Stoney Ridge Toll Bar (June 2026). In the 1860s he combined his job at the Toll Bar with besom brush making, selling locally and to Manchester and Liverpool Corporations.

Mrs Hannah Drewery: Besom Brush Maker

In 1841 Hannah was living in Dore with her husband William and six chidren. By 1851 Hannah, sometimes called Ann, was head of the household living with her son John and youngest child Leah, aged 12, and working as a Besom Brush maker. It is possible she did outsource work for the besom brush makers at Stoney Ridge.

Born Ann (Hannah) Vernon in 1795 she had married William Drury of Hathersage in 1822. By 1861 Hannah was widowed and still living with her son John on Drewry Lane in the centre of the village of Dore. Spelling of their surname varies between Drury, Drewey, Druery depending on which Census is recording them.

How are Besom Brushes made?

Besom brushes are made using both heather or ling and birch twigs both of which are found in easy reach of our broom makers.

Selected material needs to have several years growth from any previous cutting or burning, in the case of heather. They are cut using a special curved blade. Birch twigs are cut between November and January.

Both the heather and birch materials are left to dry and season. Heather would be ready between 18 months and two years. Birch takes longer to season – three to five years to guarantee hardness and durability.

Once properly seasoned the next step is to take the feathery strands of heather and arrange them neatly around the long dry birch twigs. Then using a tool not unlike iron tongs to hold the bundle firmly, split cane is used to bind the twigs using a woven technique in and out of the twigs. After that at the butt end where the handle will be affixed the uneven strands are trimmed and levelled.

The three-foot-long straight handle of hazel or ash is then secured in place by pegging. All this process will have taken a matter of a few minutes. Besom brushes or ‘witches broom sticks’ were widely used in the home, garden and estates as well as having industrial usage. All types of brush and broom are required from the humble clothes brush to the carpet industry for brushing off the unnecessary fibres after pile trimming.

Stoney Ridge Toll Bar and its Collectors

Long gone and marked only by a small roadside stone, stood Stoney Ridge Toll Bar on the main Sheffield to Hathersage turnpike road. It had a colourful back story and equally colourful families living and working in the cottage which doubled as the toll booth. Only open until 1884 as a toll booth it then was just a simple dwelling house. The last resident left in 1914 and the house was demolished in 1919.

Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland

From the DART archives there is only one photograph of Stoney Ridge Cottage. It has the Reverend Gibson of Christ Church, Dore, and his wife on a promenade using William Wint's carriage service. Hiring a pony and trap for a drive into Derbyshire was a common practice until the advent of the motor care.

The large stone posts or stoops from Stoney Ridge, which would have held the gateposts across the turnpike road, are now to be found at Whitelow New Farm on Whitelow Lane. They would have been erected at the Toll Bar in 1812 when the realigned road was opened. The original line of the turnpike road closely followed what is known today as the Houndkirk Road, complete with milestones still in place. Toll collection only ended in 1884.

Stoney Ridge Toll House

Look carefully over the wall and the foundations of the cottage can still be seen in outline. All that remains is a stone on the roadside Site of Stoney Ridge Toll Bar. Closed 1884.

Stoney Ridge Toll Collectors

John Knowles

John was the first Toll Keeper. Previously he had worked on the enclosure roads of 1818 and 1819 but didn't have a hand in constructing the turnpike road.

Thomas Graham

Recorded in the 1841 census as being the Toll Collector at Stoney Ridge along with his wife, Elizabeth, and son Joseph. Thomas was born in 1789 in Kirkheaton. What this demonstrates is the somewhat peripatetic nature of a Toll Collectors job. Thomas died in 1848 whilst in post as the Toll collector at Churwell Toll Bar, Leeds. He is buried in Kirkheaton. His son, Joseph married an Eyam girl and stayed in this area working as a joiner and then became a police officer.

John Wragg (1811 - 1896)

John Wragg was the Toll Collector at Slatepit Dale before moving to Stoney as a bachelor. He found Stoney Ridge to be a desolate and lonely place amidst the moors so decided to marry. He courted and married Mary Muscroft at Dore church in 1844 and took his new bride back to the Toll House. What she found in her new home was half a cart wheel as a fireside fender, and very little furniture. In John’s favour what there was, was scrupulously clean. John was the Toll Collector between 1843 to 1852.

Tommy Mottram of Strawberry Lee Farm

Tommy Mottram – a local character!

Thus was Thomas Mottram described in contemporary accounts by the likes of G H B Ward of the Clarion Ramblers. For example, Ward remembers as a child on New Year’s Day being taken by his father to Tommy’s farm (Strawberry Lee Farm high on Blacka Moor) along with a ‘young men’s class’. As an aside such classes were common in this period as a means to educate and inform. In Dore there was such a class held in the Gymnasium on Townhead Road, which was close to the present Church Hall.

Shepherd and Knitter

What is more interesting is what is known about Tommy apart from his job as a shepherd. He was famous for his knitting prowess, especially of stockings, and even taught one of the daughters from nearby Stoney Ridge Toll House (probably one of the Peat girls). He also, like many of that time, made rugs for in front of the open hearth where sparks would pop out. Small scraps of old fabric in strips are pushed through a canvas base. In this area they are called peg rugs and elsewhere they are often referred to as rag rugs, clip rugs, proggy mats, peggy rugs.

As the Head Shepherd for the Duke of Rutland at the Longshaw Estate, Tommy would regularly travel to Scotland and back to buy in good Scottish sheep. To do this Tommy favoured travelling along the ancient by-ways and bridle-ways. As the crow flies from Grindleford to the Scottish Border alone is 165 miles. Tommy travelled, presumably on foot, there and back only losing a few sheep on the way. However Tommy had one disadvantage when working with a flock. He had extremely bowed legs so that many a sheep escaped by diving through his legs. No wonder he had very skilled sheep dogs.

Tommy and the Totley Tunnel Navvies

Dave Torr, in his excellent blog on Wordpress about the Eastern Moors, has written about Tommy which paints a somewhat different character to the homely knitter and rug maker. He says this about an incident involving Tommy and the Navvies working on the Railway Tunnel between Totley and Grindleford.

During the tunnelling of the Totley to Grindleford tunnel, the many Navvies employed upon the mighty task, caused the locals quite some concern and Tommy was always on watch. On one occasion the Woodsman from the Beauchief estate was sent to spend a few days with Tommy to help him guard against any thieving from these rough workers. Tommy bought in a small barrel of Berry’s ”Strike-me-Stiff” beer) to keep the two men company.

On the second night a commotion could be heard coming from the hen roost. On investigation two Navvies were seen to be helping themselves to Tommy’s hens. During the ensuing scuffle, the slightly inebriated Tommy, let the Navvies slip away. But Tommy had a small pin-pistol which he let rip into the second Navvies backside as he climbed over the backyard gate.

A couple of weeks later Tommy was in the Cricket pub, having a few jars until well after closing time. On walking back up the lane (probably Moss Lane) towards home and through the gate onto the open moor, a burly figure stepped out of the shadows. It was the Navvy Tommy had previously shot.

The Navvy was determined to get his own back and threatened to 'do him in' for shooting him. Ward again recorded in the Clarion Ramblers Handbook of 1937/38 what happened next:

Well ah may no moor to do but ah crack’d him o’er t’ heead with mi ashplant, an’ ah down’d ‘im an’ left ‘im. Ah went dahn t’next mornin’ ter see if ‘e wer still theer. Oh ‘e’d gone reight enuff but ther’ wer plenty o’ blood abaht.

As an aside the beer brewed by Thomas Berry & Co Ltd at Moorhead Brewery in Sheffield city centre was renowned for its strength.

Smallpox Outbreak

During construction of the Totley Tunnel which began in 1888 the Duke of Rutland, the ‘Grouse King’, decreed that there should be only one ventilation shaft on his land, and that all construction work on his land stopped between August to October. The Navvies lived and worked in horrific conditions. The filth and damp were a perfect breeding ground for diseases like Typhoid, Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever and Smallpox as witnessed by the smallpox graves in the graveyard of Christ Church, Dore. Old Tommy is believed to have caught smallpox in 1902 or thereabouts. At this point the blog piece (January 2026) and the Graveyard Histories (see menu above) about his housekeeper, Catherine Murphy or Kitty is worth referencing. Catherine died in 1897 seeking help for her sick employer and as a consequence died in a deep snow drift on her way back to Strawberry Lee Farm.

Sheepdog Trials

Insuring Against Sickness in Victorian Dore

Benefit or friendly societies were associations formed to save their members from destitution during sickness and ensure a payment to relatives in case of death. We know from the gravestone of John Ward in Dore churchyard that Dore had two by 1840, but whether both left further footprints on the sands of time is unclear. A separate third one, we think, came about much later.

How Dore’s Friendly Society Got its Funds

Friendly societies’ principal sources of income were members’ fees of two kinds, initiation and regular contributions. From the 1840s they were recommended to adopt a system of premiums (monthly contributions) rising with age.

According to its 1864 Rules the Dore and Totley Society charged graduated initiation fees instead: 5s for young men aged 18 increasing in stages to £6 for men of 39, the maximum entry age and as such typical.

Meanwhile the premiums to be paid each lodge night (monthly meetings) were fixed at 1s 4d for everyone, slightly higher than the usual shilling.
£1 (20s) in 1864 would buy about £135 worth of goods today.

Raising Extra Income

Small additional sums were levied on members. The most significant was probably the monthly twopence charge towards ‘expenses of management’, probably covering room rent and possibly hospitality. It wasn’t unusual among friendly societies to buy an agreed amount of ‘lodge liquor’ as rent in kind.

Incurring Fines

Drunkenness at the Dore meetings incurred fines: a penny for betting, 3d for swearing, indecent remarks, calling political toasts or disobeying the W.P. (Worshipful President?) or vice-president. More serious offences were quarrelling (2s 6d) and assault and fighting (5s). Various misdemeanours when supposedly ill incurred forfeiture of sick pay and also a fine of 10s on the first occasion, £1 on the second and expulsion on a third.

How Dore’s Friendly Society Made Its Gifts

As a condition for benefits the ‘Sick Society’ required members to ‘be well attached to the Queen and Government’. This was ambiguous: convicted criminals could expect ejection and seditious people were more likely to break their bones and become a liability to the society, but similar thinking led to the expulsion of members who became professional soldiers. The ‘sick gift’ (sickness benefit) was 8s per week for the first 24 weeks, then 4s per week for the rest of the illness.

No types of new illness were ineligible except venereal diseases and injuries sustained through drunkenness or fighting; this was more generous than many societies who excluded mental disorders, blindness and age-related disabilities. Conversely the Sick Society provided no specific additional cover for medical attendance, thus lagging behind many others. The claims procedure involved sick visitors, forms and after a fortnight a doctor’s note. Infirm members capable of a limited amount of paid work could be allowed a reduced weekly grant of 2s 6d. The ‘burial money’ (death grant) was £5 after one year’s membership or £10 after two.

A Club for the Ladies

Finally, what about the women? We seize upon two golden nuggets. A small news item from 1889 records the annual feast of the Dore and Totley Ladies’ Sick Club. Meeting at the Hare, members followed the band to the Fleur-de-Lis at Totley where a dinner-dance was held.

In 1909 members of the men’s society made a presentation to Joseph Marshall, 69, surveyor of the highways, their president for 41 years. The reporter commented: Until its dissolution some few years ago, Mr Marshall had acted as secretary of the Ladies Club for Dore and Totley. The fact that the same person was long-term president of the men’s club and secretary of the ladies’ suggests a close link between the two. It is thought the Ladies Club began in the 1870s and ended in the early 1900s.

Society Celebrations

Let’s take a last look at the Dore and Totley Sick and Funeral Society at its 1872 anniversary through the window of the Derbyshire Times. As usual, members foregathered at the Hare and Hounds, formed a procession and led by the Dore and Ecclesall Brass Band marched to Totley, Totley Bents and back to Christ Church. A most impressive sermon was preached by the Rev J.T.F. Aldred, vicar of Dore. After the service the procession reformed and marched to the Clubroom where a splendid dinner was provided by the Host and Hostess Parkin.

How Friendly Societies Came to Dore

First Reception of TV in Dore in 1938

The BBC started transmission of television programmes from Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally) in 1936. In the same year the J G Graves wireless department in Sheffield started experimenting.

Picture Sheffield Reference s12672

After deciding somewhere away from electrical interference was needed J G Graves set up an experimental station on Newfield Lane in Dore away from trams and roads.

As shown in this photograph from Picture Sheffield (reference s12671) the Radio equipment and TV Experimentation Masts and Station were installed.

Two masts of nearly eighty feet in height were constructed in the field next to the house on Newfield Lane.

In this, unfortunately rather poor photograph (Picture Sheffield reference s12670), the aerial atop one of the completed masts can be seen.

The shed contained over one thousand pounds-worth of equipment including shortwave transmitters and ultra shortwave receivers.

The First Television Programmes in the North

In 1938 a reporter from the Daily Independent was shown around the site by George William Bagshaw, chief engineer and manager of the wireless department of J G Graves radio factory. In the war George Bagshaw had served in France in the Wireless Section of the Royal Engineers. He was one of the best-known wireless engineers of the day.

A report of the visit appeared in the newspaper on the 1st of September. The Dore station had been receiving almost perfect pictures for the previous few days but on the day the reporter visited it was unfortunately thundery and the conditions were not suitable for television transmission.

Mr Bagshaw was assisted by Mr K Hopkinson of Crosspool and Mr G Thompson, both of whom were radio enthusiasts employed at J G Graves.

The reporter was told that they are only able to receive broadcasts from London, which is 150 miles away, using expensive specialised equipment. He thought it was unlikely that Sheffield would get a transmitter due to the cost.

George Bagshaw attended many meetings and gave speeches and interviews urging the public to apply pressure to provide television services to Sheffield.

However, war intervened. The BBC's television service was shut down on 1st September 1939, because it was said that the signal transmitted from Alexandra Palace might be an aid to enemy aircraft. While it was not being used for television services, the Alexandra Palace mast was used to jam Luftwaffe navigation signals during the Blitz.

Sheffield Radio Experts Prepare for War