Summit Watches information please.

[Kidorry]

Hi Kidory,Where was the wood yard that caught fire on Nursery St?

It was by the side of Lawrences.There was just a shell of the building left there and we played cricket there.I do not know if it was a wood yard because there was a wood yard beside the place where we played and another opposite on Nursery lane.

[hillsbro]

They were not bombed...

Yes, looking at more directories it seems that Nos. 30 to 40 Nursery Street were demolished between 1924 and 1936, as the 1937 directory doesn’t show them.

...The mortuary was behind, and part of the coroners court and I believe the big wooden doors that were the entrance, could still be there.This entrance was on Wicker lane and around the corner from the mortuary was nursery lane which housed a little mesters workshop and then the OXO building which brought you back onto joiner street and the entrance to the refreshment houses where I went many times to get a meal....

Here is an aerial view of the block, with Summit House indicated (red arrow) and a street-level view added showing the corner of Wicker Lane and Nursery Lane.

 

It would seem that Summit House was built around 1960; this would explain the directory entries and the fact that Kidorry doesn’t remember the building. As the 1965 directory shows only Isaacs and another wholesale jewellers there, perhaps the two companies were associated, with Summit House being purpose-built for them. In this case Pinders would have presumably acquired the freehold when they bought Isaacs, and the building eventually came into the ownership/occupation of the "New Testament Church of God".

 

...it was next to the Court House - wasn't that known as the Juvenile Court in the 1950's?....

I also seem to remember the Juvenile Court being there in the 1950s (not that I ever had any occasion to go there....) but I can’t find any mention of it in directories.

[bullerboY]

It was the juvenile court we used to pass it in the fifties on our way to Corporation St baths also the morgue but i seem to remember Summit house was there then.

[Kidorry]

It was the juvenile court we used to pass it in the fifties on our way to Corporation St baths also the morgue but i seem to remember Summit house was there then.

Yes I agree with you because I seem to remember it being there all the time I was living in the wicker.

[bullerboY]

Nothing to do with Summit but my Grandparents lived on Joiner lane in the early part of last century Kidory can you remember the blacksmiths on Walker lane i spent hours watching him shoe cart horses and can never forget the smell.

[hillsbro]

Yes I agree with you because I seem to remember it being there all the time I was living in the wicker.

But when I gave the location of Summit House as "just past the Coroner's Court, on the corner of Joiner Street" you replied that all you remembered was "the coroners court and the refreshment house where you could get a hot meal, unless it was in the yard in between these 2 places". This led me to think that Summit House was built later, but now my guess is that the former refreshment house became Summit House. At least, the style of building does seem pre-war, the semicircular arch over the door being very 1930s. Anyway we've established that there was no watch factory as such, but I hadn't realised that "Summit" watches were so popular, though my dad and uncle both had one (there are lots being offered on eBay!.). Perhaps Isaacs did so much business with them that they named their HQ after Summit watches. A few years ago I did a little research into German and Polish/Russian watchmakers and jewellers (mostly Jewish) who came to Sheffield. H.L. Brown was among the first, in the 1860s, and other firms were Sermins (formerly of Hartshead, later Sharrow Lane) and Kirners of Shalesmoor. Next time I am pestering the people at the Local Studies Library I'll see what they have on Julius Isaacs and his family!.

[bullerboY]

Yes Hilsboro I think your right it does look 20s-30s style and maybe i t was the British Restaurant building during and just after the war.Isaacs may have used it as a warehouse and distribution depot in the fifties.It would be very interesting to know more on the isaacs,i wonder if they come from Kunzelsau ahahah!

[hillsbro]

It would be very interesting to know more on the isaacs,i wonder if they come from Kunzelsau ahahah!

Yes I wonder! The census returns give the Isaacs' place of birth variously as Poland or Russia, the most specific entry reading "Kishinev, Russia" (now Chișinău in in Moldova, though the Russian Empire included Poland and "Moldavia").

[Kidorry]

The next time I see my brother I will ask him if he can throw any light onto the subject because he is older than me.

[DUFFEMS]

Have you seen this courtesy of Sheffield Indexers:

 

Isaacs, Julius (, Watchmakers' Material Dealer (J.I. & Co.)).

Residing at h. 303 Abbeydale Road, in 1905.

Recorded in: Whites Directory of Sheffield & Rotherham.

 

 

Isaacs, Julius (, watch makers' material dealer (J. I. & Co.)).

Residing at h. 303 Abbeydale Road, in 1911.

Recorded in: Whites Directory of Sheffield & Rotherham - 1911

 

 

ISAACS, Julius (~, Jeweller).

Residing at h.15 Montgomery Road, ~ in 1925.

Recorded in: Sheffield & Rotherham Kelly?s Directory

 

Isaacs, J (, dealers in watch makers' tools & materials( & Co.)).

Residing at 16 York Street, in 1911.

Recorded in: Whites Directory of Sheffield & Rotherham - 1911.