Last of the “Forty Shilling Freeholders”

On Highton Street, just up from Walkley’s bustling South Road, set back from the road in a big garden stands a little cottage. Its humble appearance belies the grand scheme it stands for: votes for working men.

These modest dwellings are sometimes called “garden houses”, and over time they have disappeared. It is believed that No. 29 Highton Street is the sole survivor of this specific type in Sheffield – certainly it is the only one discovered in Walkley.

This unique historic building is now threatened with demolition.

The owner already has permission for 3 houses, but now wants something potentially more lucrative – 9 small apartments crammed on to the same site. We hope that getting this latest proposal refused will prompt a re-think of both schemes, but for that we need your help.

The loss of heritage is bad enough, but there are multiple other ways in which this scheme is unacceptable:

• Many houses in Walkley have generous gardens, a legacy of their Freehold Land origins. This proposal is mostly hardstanding for car parking, completely out of character with the neighbourhood;
• The little bit of green space remaining is totally inadequate shared between nine apartments;
• Instead of traditional natural slate the roofs will be made of fibre cement;
• Nine homes on this site is more than double the density recommended in Council policy;
• An unsightly phalanx of bins will stand in full view along the front of the property, with more along the drive.

Read the full objection submitted by HHB.

Please object to this proposal for a chance of saving a little-known piece of Sheffield’s unique heritage in the distinctive Victorian suburb of Walkley.

How to register your objection

• Click here to see the application where you can create a login and object

OR

• Email planningapps@sheffield.gov.uk quoting application reference 25/00046/FUL

The history

In the mid-nineteenth century voting was still restricted to well-to-do men (there were no votes for women), but an ancient statute of Henry VI allowed those who owned property for which the annual rent would be £2 or more – the “Forty Shilling Freeholders” – to vote. It wasn’t much – even a back-to-back cost about £6 to rent – but meant owning property, beyond the means of most workers.

Freehold Land Societies were the answer. They bought tracts of land and allowed their members to buy them on weekly instalments. Highton Street lay on land of the Freedom Hill Land Society. Formed in 1851, it bought 21 acres of farmland and created 130 allotments each of 600 square yards, and by 1858 all its members had paid for their plots. Many chose to use them as allotments, selling them later for others to build the terraced houses we see today, but the proud owner of No. 29 built a little house near the middle of his plot.