Tracing Lawson Street

[JOGI]

My father's birth certificate states that he was born on Lawson Street (Not Lawson Road) in 1894. I always thought he was born on Alexandra road,Heeley. Would these 2 roads have been close by?. Appreciate any info. Many thanks. JG.

[Plain Talker]

Lawson Road is in Broomhill.

 

I've scoured some old maps of the Heeley area for you,, but, so far, cannot find a Lawson Street anywhere in the locality of Heeley generally, or Alexandra Rd particularly.

[JOGI]

Hi P.T. I appreciate your time in map tracing. I'll make further attempts but not very confident. It's a strange situation, as his on-line school records as a child show him living at 118 Alexandra Rd, close by. I feel I can certainly discount Lawson ROAD. I'll keep you updated. Regards and good health. JG

[hutch]

Lawson Street was in the area where the new [old] Broomhall flats were all now gone my father lived there over 100 years ago. no 24.

 

 

Fitzwilliam st is off the Moor.runs up towards West St.

[Plain Talker]

Lawson Street was in the area where the new [old] Broomhall flats were all now gone my father lived there over 100 years ago. no 24.

 

 

Fitzwilliam st is off the Moor.runs up towards West St.

 

fantastic information, Hutch. thank you.

[Plain Talker]

Hi P.T. I appreciate your time in map tracing. I'll make further attempts but not very confident. It's a strange situation, as his on-line school records as a child show him living at 118 Alexandra Rd, close by. I feel I can certainly discount Lawson ROAD. I'll keep you updated. Regards and good health. JG

 

I did search for Lawson Street, and not Road, but if it was in Broomhall, as Hutch has stated, then looking in Heeley was a mile or two out of our way.

 

Looking on the correct section of map, it's not far from the loop of Hanover Square if you look on google maps, more or less in front of the single block of high-rise flats near the roundabout the dual carriageway through the Broomhall estate. (Now named Exeter Drive)

 

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=53.37549,-1.48092&daddr=&hl=en&geocode=FQJyLgMdKGfp_w&mra=mi&mrsp=0&sz=17&sll=53.376039,-1.479753&sspn=0.004653,0.009066&ie=UTF8&ll=53.374362,-1.480966&spn=0,359.997734&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=53.374216,-1.480811&panoid=_uH6-nwx3QTvCe0BK9cR0A&cbp=12,306.91,,0,5

[Lady Star]

It wouldn't be unusual for someone to be born at another address to where they later lived as a child... He might have been born whilst his mum was living with a relative, or she could have moved to a bigger house after she'd had him... Not everyone lived where they were put, even then...

[Plain Talker]

It wouldn't be unusual for someone to be born at another address to where they later lived as a child... He might have been born whilst his mum was living with a relative, or she could have moved to a bigger house after she'd had him... Not everyone lived where they were put, even then...

 

This is very true, My parents and I lived with my Grandma and Grandpa until I was 2 years old.

 

They only got their own place after four years of Marriage, and their second child being on the way. By the time I started school, I was on my second address.

[JOGI]

Thanks very much for all your replies,these are a great help to me. On my father's birth certificate, it says 'Court 1, Lawson Street'. No house number. Can anyone explain exactly what a Court is? Is this the same as in a terrace block, where you have a passage way, leading to say, 2 houses or more either side in a yard with shared toilet facilities? Thanks again.

[Plain Talker]

Thanks very much for all your replies,these are a great help to me. On my father's birth certificate, it says 'Court 1, Lawson Street'. No house number. Can anyone explain exactly what a Court is? Is this the same as in a terrace block, where you have a passage way, leading to say, 2 houses or more either side in a yard with shared toilet facilities? Thanks again. John Gilpin.

 

A "court" was a cluster of houses, called back-to-backs. (not quite the same as a terrace) back to backs were poorer in quality and environment than terraces. And nothing like the same amount of living space.

 

On a terrace, for each single house, you would find two houses in a BTB. the street side of a house would be one property, (cellar, living-kitchen, bedroom and attic) and the "back-yard" side of the house would be another, with the same layout, clustered round a back-yard.

 

The terrace and B2B's were similar in layout, with passages through to the rear properties, and poky little (shared) lavatories across the back yard.

 

these properties were usually addressed like this:- "1, court 12, any-street" "3 court 5, this Street" (my grandfather's address, before WWII was "6, court 12 Sheffield Road")

 

On this map (which is from the 1950s)

 

http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6707

 

you can see that there were four courts on Lawson St, and some terraces.

 

If you look closely, you can see that there is a dividing line between the front and back of the houses on the right hand side of the street, and "half-and-half", (half terraces,and half B2Bs) on the left hand side.

 

Sadly, unlike a lot of the maps, the individual courts aren't numbered so we can't identify which of the four it was.