James Parker Barnes of Sheffield

James Parker Barnes was born at 186 Slinn Street, Sheffield in 1886 [1] .  He was the son of Thomas Hammerton Barnes and Elizabeth Parker. He picked up his mother’s maiden name as a middle name and which follows a pattern seen in the Parker family and possibly in the Barnes family as well. The son also picked up the best part of his grandfather’s name, Elizabeth’s father, who was called James Parker. James Parker Barnes was born on the 5th March 1886; just nine months after his parents were married [2] .

James Parker Barnes was born at 186, Slinn Street, Walkley. The house is far more impressive that the address would suggest and it still stood in 2009 - a large, stone-built, double-fronted detached house. In 1885, it would have been a recent or new construction with extensive surrounding gardens and an entrance on the corner with Western Road. Fairly recently, two modern houses have been built in what would have been the gardens to either side of the house which is now called Steel Bank House after the immediate area, known as Steel Bank. Apparently, it has also been known as Arundel House.

James's father Thomas Hammerton Barnes was a Steel and File Maker and General Merchants’ based at the Slack Steel Works in Sheffield. His company Barnes, and Co. was well known in Sheffield and praised for 'their strict integrity and business habits, and there can be no doubt of the influential place their house holds in this line' [3] .

Living as a Rich Boy

By the time James Parker Barnes was only a toddler his parent had moved from their impressive semi-detached house in Walkley into Rivelin House, in Stannington. Rivelin House was very secluded and set on a good site in over 13 acres of land and included various cottages as well as a coach house and extensive gardens. The line of terraced cottages facing the road was known as 'Rivelin Cottages' or possibly ‘The Cabin’. These cottages were also part of the estate. The house itself had servants' quarters and it is known that Thomas and Elizabeth had two female servants called Ellen and Anne and a third servant or gardner/handyman named Samuel Wooding [4] . There may have been a third female servant, Susannah, living in the cottages. Samuel Wooding lived with his wife Adelaide in ‘The Cabin’ (possibly ‘Rivelin Cottages’) which was also occupied by sixteen other persons and the men were all employed as either general labourers or as farm labourers. Photograph taken by Robinson, Walton and Co - Sheffield, probably late 1880s.

James Parker Barnes must have really enjoyed growing up and playing in these extensive gardens. For the first four years of his life he was an only child and would have been indulged by his newly prosperous parents. He may also have been spoilt by his two grandmother's, Elizabeth Barnes and Mary Parker who also lived with his parents in the grand mansion at Rivelin.His every wish would have been catered for.

When James Parker was only four years old he was joined by his young sister Mary Isabel. She was born on the 6th September 1890 at Rivelin Glen [5] . James may have welcomed a new playmate, someone nearer in age to him than the adults of the household, or he may have resented this new claim on his parents attention. His father had created a business almost from scratch and probably worked long hours, or was involved in other social duties. It is highly probable that James saw little of his father and may have found a new addition to the family hard to deal with. However, Isabel Mary died at the age of seven months on the 4th April 1891 from bronchitis [6] . Whatever James felt for his new sibling, he was now an only child. His mother, Elizabeth, was present at the death which occurred at the family home, Rivelin House, and it is highly probable that James was also present. He must have found it difficult to understand why his sister had vanished from his life, and his mother must have been distraught. Photograph taken by Robinson Walton and Co, Sheffield.

James Parker was only just five years old in 1891 and yet even he must have sensed the tension at home as his father was wrestling with huge debts of between £1.5 and £2 million, and a business that was on the edge of bankruptcy. By the 8th February 1892 James' s father Thomas was forced to file a petition for bankruptcy. This had a very 'depressing' effect on Thomas, and he became very ill. It is possible that Thomas had been ill for at least three years as when a County Councilor in 1889, he had already stated his intention of not standing for re-election on the grounds of failing health. If so, James's young childhood may have been less than happy.

James's world was about to be turned upside down by the events of 1892. On 8th February, his father Thomas suffered what was said to be a 'complete collapse of the mental system' and for the next eight days, he lost the power of speech, stayed in bed and was effectively unconscious. Dr. Dawson Kite attended to Thomas but this was to no avail and Thomas died during the night of Tuesday, 16th February 1892 [7] . James Parker Barnes was one month off being six years old, and must have found it very difficult to understand. Photograph taken by G. V. Yates of Sheffield, possibly 1890.

James would have watched his father being buried in the St Nicholas graveyard, High Bradfield, on Saturday, 20th February 1892. The funeral cortege left Rivelin Glen at 1.00pm for the long and often steep drive to High Bradfield and the mourners included a deputation from the Handsworth Division of the West Riding County Council as well as family and friends. James may have found solace in the affection of his mother or his two grandmothers. However, a day after Thomas Barnes' death a writ of bankruptcy was made against his firm. James and his family seemed to have lost everything. By July 1892 the family home at Rivelin Glen had been sold and James and his mother had to make their own way.

Making a Living

James's mother Elizabeth, may have been a distressed gentlewoman but this may be far from the truth. She may have managed to retain her half share of the value of Rivelin House in addition to any other capital she owned independently from Thomas, her deceased and bankrupt husband. This would have been easier after the Married Woman's Property Act of 1882, when women were allowed for the first time to own real property such as land and shares, rather than only jewellery and personal effects, as well as men. However, the shame of bankruptcy in Victorian Britain may have crippled her socially. James may have found that the family did not have as many social invitations as they used to.

In 1894, when James was eight years old his grandmother, Mary Parker, died on the 12th September aged 75 [8] . Mary Parker died of what was termed ‘General Decay’. Following the trauma that had probably occurred at Rivelin House [9] ., Mary Parker had moved to 26 Greenhow Street, just up the road from her son and his family. It is highly probable that Elizabeth and James also lived with her whilst James's mother, Elizabeth, tried to put her life back together again. Both James and his mother must have found Mary's death to be a great blow. Mary Parker is buried with her husband James Parker in St. Nicholas Parish Church, Bradfield [10] .

Elizabeth Barnes nee Parker had been a Stationer when she had met and married Thomas Hammerton Barnes, and was no stranger to work. It is also possible that her mother, and later her brother, helped her financially after her husbands death. By 1894 she must have begun to turn her life around, and with James Parker approaching eight years old and more able to look after himself life may have become a bit easier. On 4 May 1896, James Parker Barnes was admitted to Bole Hill School, Bole Hill Road, Walkley when he was ten years old [10a] . . This may have been a secondary school as his previous school had been Burgoyne Road School, which today is St Mary's Church of England Primary School in Cundy Street. James Parker Barnes remained at the school in Bole Hill until 11 December 1899 when aged thirteen he left, presumably to work in his mothers drapers business. At this time James and his mother were living with his grandmother Mary Parker at 26, Greenhowe Street. After her death in September 1896 James and his mother may have had to fend for themselves. Elizabeth Barnes worked as a draper and lived at 294, South Road, Walkley from 1896 through to 1908. This was a rather genteel business and very suited to a lady who had been used to better things. Elizabeth probably ran her own business as she is listed as a draper in Whites Directories of Sheffield in 1901 and 1905. It is not certain where she found the capital to buy stocks of material, or the rent for her business, but it certainly seemed to support both her and her son.

Elizabeth and James probably lived above the shop at 294, South Road, as this is the address listed in both the business directories of Sheffield and the 1901 census James Parker Barnes, aged fifteen, initially worked as a ‘Draper’s Assistant’ in his mother’s shop [11] . The occupation and the location both suggest a modest existence but it is possible that some funds were available from the former prosperous lifestyle at Rivelin House. The address on South Road is adjacent to Greenhow Street so she had moved very close to the Parker family represented her brother and initially at least by her mother.

Both Elizabeth Barnes and the Parker family had very easy access to Ebenezer Chapel, a typically grim Methodist chapel, and it seems very likely that this chapel had figured large in their lives and possibly also that of Thomas Hammerton Barnes when he lived in the area. The Parker family had some major involvement with this chapel and they played host over many years to Nathan Haigh a Primitive Methodist minister [12] .

There are a number of commemorative stones in the base of this chapel which are dedicated to various individuals including Mr John Parker (with the date 22nd August 1904), Mr H. B. Howe and Mrs J.S. Parker.

As a boy, James Parker Barnes may also have been subjected to the delights of the Ebenezer Chapel. John H. Parker, James’s maternal uncle, was probably some kind of an authority figure in James’s life but perhaps with only limited success. There is a family story, from James's descendants, that he was 'horsewhipped by an uncle', and it may have been John H. Parker who played this part. In 1905, James applied for a job as a chauffeur/mechanic. He would have been nineteen at the time and his uncle, John H. Parker, provided him with a brief character reference. By this time, J. Parker & Sons were still based at Silver Street Head, with a branch depot at 2, Langsett Road and with mortar mills at 38 Langsett Road and Corporation Street [13] .

John H. Parker would have been about 59 years of age in 1905. He had sired three sons, John, James and Henry; and three daughters, Emma, Meriam and Ellen. John H. Parker and his family lived at 38 Greenhow Street, Sheffield and they had a resident domestic servant, Hannah Wilson [14] . It looks as though this branch of the family continued to prosper in the early part of the twentieth century.

Married Life

James Parker Barnes went on to marry Amelia Oldale. Amelia Oldale was the youngest of six siblings and her parents were Henry Albert Oldale and Charlotte Perkinton. Henry Albert Oldale was identified as an ‘Engineer’ at this time and Amelia was living with her parents at 30, Slinn Street, opposite the Princess Royal pub and just down the road from where James had lived as a young child. Prior to his marriage, James was still with his mother at 294, South Road. Their marriage took place on the 8th May 1907 at St. Thomas Church, Crookes and James identified himself at this time as a ‘Motor Driver’ [15] .

The witnesses were Henry Albert Oldale, Amelia’s father and Lily Oldale, her sister. Perhaps of some relevance, the family of James did not act as witnesses. Initially, James and Amelia probably lived at 7 Toftwood Road, Crookes and certainly in 1911, they were at 25 Tavistock Road, Sharrow but in 1912 and thereafter, they lived nearby at 63, Wath Road, Sharrow. Their first child arrived in 1907 when both Thomas and Amelia were 21 years of age [16] .

This child was christened Elizabeth Barnes, whose full name was Elizabeth Parker Barnes and who was generally known as Bessie. Thomas Hammerton Barnes therefore had a mother, a wife and a granddaughter who were all called Elizabeth Barnes. Bessie’s date of birth was the 5th June 1907 and a little simple arithmetic identifies Amelia Oldale as being some 8 months pregnant when she married James Parker Barnes. Further difficult times were shortly to follow with the death of Elizabeth Barnes, James’s mother, on the 2nd January 1908 when she was aged 52. She died of ‘Cerebral Apoplexy’ which can be translated as a cerebral haemorrhage, or stroke. Elizabeth was identified as the ‘Widow of Thomas Hamilton (sic) Barnes, Steel Manufacturer’. The informant was James Parker Barnes who gave his address as 7, Toftwood Road which presumably is where he was living with his wife Amelia and their daughter Elizabeth Parker Barnes who by that time would have been some six months old [17] . 

Following the arrival of Bessie, it was an interval of only 11 months to the birth in 1908 of their second child, Albert Reginald Barnes and then a couple of years to the next child Edith Winifred in 1910. For reasons unknown but they could include a couple of tired parents, Elizabeth Parker Barnes was with her grandparents Henry and Charlotte Oldale for the night of the 1911 census when James Parker Barnes and Amelia were with their son Albert Reginald and their second daughter Edith Winifred [18] . Amelia’s parents did not have long to go in 1911. Henry Oldale died age 61 on 20th December 1911 and his wife Charlotte died almost exactly two years later, age 69, on 19th December 1913 [19] .

In all, James and Amelia had eight children over the period 1907-1924, a fairly steady output equal to one child every two years. It is not known if James Parker Barnes was called up for military service during the First World War but he managed to sire Amy Mildred Barnes, born in 1914 [20] and then Stanley Cyril Barnes in 1917 [21] . On the basis of old photographs, it seems that during the war he was involved as a driver with the ‘SVF’ – presumably ‘Sheffield Volunteer Force’ – and that this was some kind of alternative to military service.

Amelia Barnes, Widow

James, who sometimes referred to himself as ‘Parker’, apparently remained a chauffeur or ‘motor mechanic’ all his working life. As such, he would have had a modest income but how steady his employment and what personal extravagances he might have had are not known. Certainly, any working class family of this period would have found it hard to bring up eight children. Whatever the prosperity enjoyed briefly by his parents some 30 years earlier, the family of James Parker Barnes was locked into an impoverished working class existence that was common to so many Sheffield families at this time. Judging from old photographs, James Parker Barnes, like his father, also appeared to age very quickly and he died on the 17th December 1929 [22] . James died of a ‘cerebral haemorrhage’ which presumably was a similar cause of death to that of both his father and his mother. The death certificate includes the comment that no post mortem was undertaken. He was 43 years of age when he died his youngest daughter, Kathleen Doreen Barnes [23] was only five years old - thus continuing the sad tradition of children with no father figure in three generations of this bloodline. James Parker Barnes is buried in Crookes Cemetery with his son Stanley Cyril Barnes [24] .

Of the eight children, Stanley Cyril Barnes was the first to meet his Maker on the 9th April 1933 at the early age of 15. Stanley had been working as a butcher’s errand boy when he contracted tuberculosis [25] . The death of Stanley must have been a further demoralising blow to Amelia Oldale who, at that time, had buried her husband only four year earlier and still had two children under the age of ten to support – Maisie and Kathleen [27] .

A year later Amelia may have felt that she had lost another son, as Albert Reginald Barnes married Barbara Wright in Sheffield in 1934 [28] . However, two of her eldest daughters, Edith Winnifred and Margaret Irene had left home to work in Skipton in the early 1930s. Both sisters worked in Skipton General Hospital, and whilst there they met two young men who were best friends, Alan Stephenson and John Edward Slaven. Needless to say, romance blossomed and on 1 December 1934 Margaret Irene married Alan Stephenson in Skipton [29] . A year later, in 1935 Edith Winnifred and her beau John Edward Slaven married in St. Stephen's Catholic Church in Skipton [30] .

Amelia Barnes, still had four girls at home to care for two adults and two teenagers, and may have found it difficult to ‘keep the home together’. In the mid 1930s Amelia moved to Skipton and worked as a cook, probably in Skipton General Hospital. Whether Elizabeth Parker and Amy Mildred moved to Skipton or not with their mother is unclear, but the two youngest girls Beryl Maisie and Kathleen Doreen certainly spent much time in Skipton during the 1930s.

By 1940 Amelia Barnes had moved back to Sheffield but the reason for the return is not known. Perhaps she returned to be present at her daughter Amy Mildred's marriage to George Wilson in 1937 [31] . Amelia lived at 103, South View Crescent in Sheffield with her remaining daughters Elizabeth Parker, Beryl Maisie and Kathleen Doreen. This house is very similar in appearance to 63 Wath Road, a mile or so distant. This ‘two-up, two-down’ terrace house effectively became the ‘family home’ for some 20 years. In 1940 the household was reduced to Amelia and her two youngest daughters as Elizabeth Parker Barnes married William Clifton Finlay in that year [32] . 

Amelia Barnes remained in Sheffield during the Second World war, but sent her two youngest daughters to Skipton to stay with Edith Winnifred and her family for a while. The two girls worked on the land as land army girls, but eventually returned to Sheffield where Kathleen Doreen worked as a telephonist and switchboard operator. Beryl Maisie was the first of the two to marry in 1943 to Harold Burgin [33] . Kathleen Doreen moved to London during the Blitz and met her future husband Kenneth Graham Tonks there whom she married in 1945 [34] .

Amelia Barnes continued live at 103 South View Crescent until about 1964 when she moved to a small council flat at 19 Low Edges Crescent, Sheffield. Amelia Barnes died aged 80 on the 19th October 1966 at Wharncliffe Hospital, Bradfield [26] . Having donated her body for medical research, Amelia was buried at Tinsley Park cemetery on the 18th October 1967.