Carollers sing the praises of Sheffield’s Tudor home: Volunteers who campaigned to keep open Bishops’ House are keeping up the pressure – and they are in good voice. David Bocking reports...
Carol Singing at Bishops House: Local people and members of the choir tune up beforehand
THE Tudors, it seems, were responsible for brussel sprouts.
The first recipe to include the landmine Christmas dinner vegetable dates to 1587, the singers were informed at the annual Christmas carol singing afternoon at Sheffield’s own Tudor family home, Bishops’ House at Norton Lees.
Seventy singers and local historians were also informed that a Tudor mince pie was designed to match Jesus and disciples by including 13 ingredients, often including mutton among the dried fruit, and the Tudor Christmas pudding tended to be packaged in pig gut.
The carol concert at the former home of the Blythe family has been taking place for 18 years, thanks to members of Sheffield’s Philharmonic Chorus and Bach Choir, who lead carols every Christmas for locals and house enthusiasts under the name of the Friends of Bishops’ House Choir.
This year the singers were joined by their namesakes, members of the new official ‘Friends’ group for Bishops’ House, formed in February.
“We were worried that the museum might be closed at weekends,” said Friends of Bishops’ House member Joyce Bullivant. “So we were formed initially to help keep the place open and there were also concerns about security and vandalism due to local kids having nowhere much to go.”
In fact the Friends of Bishops’ House have now reached 60 members and have recently won a £2,000 ‘You Choose’ grant from the South Community Assembly to fund a ‘Heritage Weekend’ around Bishops’ House at the end of March. The aim will be to involve local people, especially children, in a weekend of archaeological surveys as per Time Team, run by Sheffield University’s Archaeological Department and Heeley City Farm’s Community Heritage Officer.
“There’ll be no digging but they’ll be using new technology to see what’s under the ground,” said Joyce Bulivant. “They’ll also look at the glass in the building to see how old it is.”
One of the main aims of the weekend is to involve the local community. “A lot of people will walk past and not actually come in, so we hope this will get local people in the door.”
The house was actually part of a much larger estate and Joyce hopes the resistance surveys in the soil will reveal the whereabouts of other buildings such as a brew house, a barn and local cottages associated with the Blythes but now hidden under the Meersbrook Park grass.
The Heritage Weekend may also help to lead to further grants for more work on the house and its history.
“From our perspective it’s important that members of the community engage in Bishops’ House,” said Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust Director of Learning and Knowledge Kim Streets.
“The Friends are very passionate about Bishops’ House and bring along different expertise to the group. People feel the house belongs to them and we really welcome that.”
Kim and Joyce both recognise that the funding situation is unclear at present but Kim pointed out that the Trust programme will continue with the popular Restless Times exhibition of British art from 1914 to 1945 continuing into 2011 and the new Sports Lab exhibition put together by Museums Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University at Weston Park will start in January, looking at science involved in sporting activities.
The Ruskin Gallery redevelopment will also be completed by the spring.
Joyce noted that there everyone hopes that Bishops’ House will continue with its weekend public opening and weekday school visits programme but nothing is clear until the cuts programme is announced.
“The carol concert is a proper tradition now,” said Kim Streets. “Local people can walk here on a frosty day and some of them have been coming since 1992. They can sing their heads off in a warm, intimate setting that feels like somebody’s home.”
The Friends will be busy again in 2011. Apart from the Heritage Weekend in March there will be another public meeting in the New Year and a repeat of the recent Ghost Evening hosted by Sheffield’s own horror historian Mr P Dreadful.
The Friends even have a Tudor Facebook page.
“I’d like people to see that Bishops’ House is not just an old house in a park,” said Joyce Bullivant.
“I think it’s an important resource for the city, just like Manor Lodge. I think we need to get people to think of Sheffield differently, as not just a place of steel but a place of heritage, a place with a long history.”
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