Cole Brothers, was it built on a cemetary?

[duffman]

I was told today that John lewis (Cole Brothers in old money) was built on an old cemetary and church ground. Now as far as i'm aware Coles did not open on a Monday because it was their training day and they changed all the displays in the store, plus it was a family run operation and the staff didn't want to work monday. Now i'm not sure on the reliability of this but I was told that it was a condition not to open monday when it was built because of this.

 

Can anybody tell me if there is any truth in this, did anyone work for Coles years back?

[Strix]

It used to be that only Oxford St opened on a monday. It was to give the employees a proper weekend off. (display staff worked a mon-fri 5 day week).

 

Most of the staff were full time, unlike other retailers, so six day working was unreasonable. It is easier to ensure you have expert staff, and a customer can deal with just one staff member if most of the staff are at work during all of the opening hours.

 

Dunno about the cemetary. Was this actually with reference to Cole's original site - where HSBC now is - opposite the cathedral?

[duffman]

Originally posted by Strix

It used to be that only Oxford St opened on a monday. It was to give the employees a proper weekend off. (display staff worked a mon-fri 5 day week).

 

Most of the staff were full time, unlike other retailers, so six day working was unreasonable. It is easier to ensure you have expert staff, and a customer can deal with just one staff member if most of the staff are at work during all of the opening hours.

 

Dunno about the cemetary. Was this actually with reference to Cole's original site - where HSBC now is - opposite the cathedral?

 

Cheers strix, that's a good question about which Coles site it was. I assumed they were on about the Barkers pool building but I can probably see that the now HSBC bank site being quite close to the Cathedral could have been built on one.

[Strix]

This was what I was looking for earlier

 

It doesn't answer the question, but it makes interesting reading

 

another pic

 

This may be of interest too

[docmel]

It is true that the cathedreal yard extended a lot further out towards the old Coles Corner.

 

I remember when I was a kid there some hooh hah that some workmen who were digging in Church Street near Coles Corner came across quite a few human remains. I am sure that there were large screens erected to keep out the public while the bodies wee exhumed properley and reburied.

 

This would probably answer the question about the graveyard and would have been after Coles move to Barkers Pool. I cannot remember the exact year but think it would have been the late 60's - I am sure there will be some one reading this who had a far better memory then I do.

[Strix]

I found this too

[Don_Kiddick]

With a history dating back pre Roman

 

http://www.thenortheast.fsnet.co.uk/SouthYorkshire.htm

 

There's probably bodies buried allover Sheffield from historic period or another

[Strix]

I've found a 1903 map

Does that help?

[algy]

I've a copy of a 1775 map, which shows the Cathedral grounds, Church Street and Fargate just as they are now, so unless the grounds were extended later, which is doubtful given the street plan is still the same, then Coles Corner has been outside the burial ground for over 200 years. However, since there has been a church on the site of the Cathedral since Saxon times, if not earlier, it's possible some very early burials could have taken place there.

[Greybeard]

Algy, I have a 1736 map and on that Church Street is shown as Church Lane...certainly a lot narrower than it is today. But the present building line was probably dictated by the present Cutlers Hall which was built around 1832/33. This replaced an earlier Cutlers Hall built in 1725, so it seems likely that Church Lane was widened into Church Street at the same time.

 

On this map many of the streets have different names to what we know them as today, - eg High Street was then known as Prior Gate, and West Street is Red Lane.

 

If you'd like a copy pm me your email address.