Top of Broomhall Street Scene: 1901 and 2014

 

View of Broomhall St by photographer J W Mottershaw. 1901

Photo: Broomhall Centre

 

Broomhall Street with St Silas Church, 2014

Photo: OUR Broomhall

1901

This photo to the right shows a 1901 scene of the top of Broomhall Street and has been on the wall of the Broomhall Centre on Broomspring Lane for a number of years, originally bought at an auction for the costly sum of five pounds!  When we started our project we decided we needed to try to find out the photographer as at that point the picture showed no name at the bottom. We carefully took it out of the frame and in so doing revealed the words ‘Broomhall Street JWM’. Who was this mysterious JWM? After delving more we learnt that it stood for John William Mottershaw, a leading Sheffield photographer at the time and a member of the famous Mottershaw family.

2014

Some of our volunteers went out and about to take a picture of the same scene today. St  Silas still stands as the main focal point of the picture, albeit now derelict. They did need to take the picture a little further down the road than the original as now in 2014 there was a well-grown tree in the way of the view!

Read more about other Mottershaw links to Broomhall