Grenoside

Location map|Sheffield
align=left
background=white
lat= 53.440755
long=-1.501865
caption=Grenoside shown in Sheffield
float=right
width=300

Grenoside is a suburb of Sheffield.

The name Grenoside is derived from the language of the Anglo-Saxons. In Norman and later documents it is named as "Gravenho" (1199) and "Gravenhowe" (1332). This name is made from the Saxon word elements of "Grave" meaning "to dig" and "How" meaning Hollow. In this sense the meaning of Gravenhowe would be "Quarried Hollows" or "Quarried Hills" and indicates that stone has been quarried in Grenoside from the ninth century up to 1938 when the last quarry on Norfolk Hill closed. (Other spellings of the name are Granenhou (1267), Granow (1450), Graynau (1534), Grenoside (1759), Greenaside (1772) and Grinaside (1831)).

Stone quarrying was a major industry in Grenoside from a very early date until it ceased in 1939. The stone quarried in Grenoside varied in quality and was put to several uses. The finer grained, hard stones were much in demend as grindstones for the cutlery trade and for fine fettling and finishing in iron foundries. Coarse grained stone was used for furnace lining and from these were hewn the stone boxes used in the Cementation process of steelmaking. In 1860 the following are named as quarry owners in Grenoside - Thomas Bever, George Broadhead, George Firth, Thomas Lint, Joseph Swift and Charles Uttley.

By the beginning of the seventeenth century several village people were named in connexion with the making of cutlery. William Smith, a yeoman of Grenoside, who died "of great age" in 1627 had taken out a cutlers mark in 1614. His son, Henry, was a member of the Cutler's Company in 1629. The manufacture of cutlery was restricted to those who had served an apprenticeship in the trade; an apprentice served seven or ten years without pay. The restriction was closely controlled by the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire from 1624. As a result many small nailmaking businesses were set up which was not so tightly controlled. As late as 1860, three nailmakers are listed as living and working in Grenoside.

The Grenoside Sword Dance forms an important mid-winter ritual for the village and can be traced back to the 1750s [http://www.grenosword.f9.co.uk/] . It is traditionally performed on Boxing Day morning in front of large crowds in Main Street.

Grenoside contains many places to worship with three churches within the village, and one just outside. A period of change has taken place in Grenoside, with the Primary School leaving the infant site and moving into a new building on the junior side of the road. The Junior building has been demolished. The community feel is in practice as most of the children that attend the school live in or just outside the village of Grenoside.Grenoside also has a new crematorium built in 1999 and is on skew hill lane, it was formerly a munitions scrap yard but was turned into the crematorium it is very modern and has picturesque surroundings.

The old council offices were demolished in 2006 to make way for a new build project. This was opposed by local residents but still got the go ahead. The car sales pitch on the same road as the old council offices have also applied to build more flats. It is anticipated that the old infant school buildings are likely to be converted into flats. This can only add to the population of what was once a quiet village.

There is an anglican church situated on Main Street, St Mark's Church, Grenoside.

Sheffield Indie band Reverend and the Makers included a line in their song 'What the Milkman Saw', which says "...there's bodies buried underneath the floor, but this isn't murder, it's just Grenoside".