AdminHistory | This collection of Pegge-Burnell family papers were stored in Beauchief Hall and passed into the possession of Mr Frank Crawshaw when he bought the Abbey and the estate in 1923. In 1932 the Abbey Chapel, etc was transferred to Sheffield City Council by a deed of gift.
Beauchief Abbey was founded c. 1175 for Premonstratensian or White Canons by Robert FitzRanulph. The abbey land amounted to approx. 800 acres with the Abbey set in a park of 200 acres with several fish ponds fed by a small stream. It was a small house of twelve to fifteen canons and their abbot and a small number of lay brethren.
Beauchief was surrendered as part of the dissolution of the monasteries, and in 1537 granted by Henry VIII to Sir Nicholas Strelley for the sum of £223. The property granted included gardens, orchards, ponds and parks.
The estate descended, through marriage, to Edward Pegge who in 1671 built a new mansion, today's Beauchief Hall, on a site to the south west of the Abbey which is thought to be the site of the Grange where the monks formerly made their butter and cheese.
Stone from the Abbey, ruinous by the 17th century, was used not only for the new mansion but also for the construction of a church incorporated into the Abbey's west tower. After the death of Edward Pegge in 1679 the estate remained in the ownership of the family, by direct descent, until the death of Edward's great grandson Peter in 1836. Peter Pegge's sister's son, Broughton Benjamin Steade, assumed the surname Pegge-Burnell on inheriting the estate in 1836 and completed the building of Beauchief Hall.
Beauchief Abbey was bought by Mr. Frank Crawshaw in 1923. In 1931 he presented the abbey buildings with the adjoining cottages to the City of Sheffield (see pages 349 and 418 of Sheffield City Council minutes, 1930-1931 (CA-MIN/69)). The remains of the former abbey, the Church of St Thomas a Beckett and nearby farm and cottages form the focus of the Beauchief Abbey Conservation Area.
Beauchief Hall and environs was purchased by the Wilson family of Sheffield, manufacturers who had been leasing the Hall since the mid 19th century. |
Description | Summary description: Deeds and papers of the Pegge-Burnells, direct inheritors of the Abbey estates from the Strelleys (BM/1-109). Note that BFM/1-3 were probably originally the property of canons of Beauchief.
Deeds and papers of the Steades of Onesacre [Oughtibridge, Sheffield], afterwards of Burrow Lee and Hillsborough, one of whom inherited the estate from his maternal uncle and took the name of Pegge-Burnell. They included deeds of the Creswicks (BM/363-394), with whom they were allied by marriage, and from whom they acquired Burrow Lee House (BM/110-445).
Deeds and papers of the Smith family of Dunston [Derbyshire, Sheffield and Norwich], one of whom married the daughter of Broughton Benjamin Pegge-Burnell. They include papers of the family of Mower (BM/664-684) and Milnes (BM/685-942); the Milnes, after their alliance with the Mowers, took the united estates to the Smiths by marriage (BM/446-943).
Unidentified and miscellaneous material (BM/943-992)
Photocopies of Beauchief leases from the Smith-Milnes collection at Nottinghamshire Archives, 1461-1534 (BM/993-999)
Photocopies of Pegge correspondence, etc., in the possession of the depositor (BM/1000-1001)
Many of the deeds in this collection are calendared in detail in the 'Catalogue West Riding Deeds' binders. The calendar entries are arranged by place and then chronologically. They cover several different collections, so Pegge-Burnell / Beauchief entries may be consecutive or separated by entries from other collections. These binders are stored in the strongroom. Please ask duty staff for further guidance. |
CustodialHistory | The bulk of these papers were donated to Sheffield City Libraries in October 1945 by Mrs Crawshaw (accession numbers 27400-28398). A further 13 items (BM/1000-1012) were donated by the Crawshaws in March 1964. Sheffield Archives acquired photocopies of items from Nottinghamshire Record Office (BM/993-999 and BM/1013-1014) in January 1963 and February 1971 respectively.
Note: when Sheffield Archives moved out of the Central Library to new premises in 1989 two items from this collection were retained in the Local Studies Library collections:
"Plan, section and book of reference to so much of Sheffield, Bakewell and the West Midland Railway as relates to the extra-parochial place of Beauchief Abbey...", 1845 (ref. S17 2LB) (formerly BM/68)
and
"Manchester, Sheffield and Midland Junction Railway, with several branches therefrom", 1845 - 1846 (ref. S17 LB) (formerly BM/70) |