Hillsborough Library

Story

Hillsborough House, later called Hillsborough Hall, is a large, stone-built mansion constructed in the Adam style in the latter part of the 18th century. It stands 2½ miles north-west of the centre of Sheffield at grid reference in the suburb of Hillsborough within Hillsborough Park, a council-owned public recreational area. For 124 years the house was a private dwelling, but since 1906 it has housed the Hillsborough branch library. It is a Grade II listed building as are the coach house and stables which stand 20m north west of the main house.Private dwellingHillsborough House was built in 1779 as a dwelling for Thomas Steade and his wife Meliscent, who had been living 250 yards to the east in Burrowlee House. The Steades were a family of local of landowners whose history went back to at least the 14th century. When built, the house stood in rural countryside well outside the Sheffield boundary. Steade named his new residence in honour of Wills Hill who at the time was known as the Earl of Hillsborough, an eminent politician of the period and a patron of the Steades.Stead acquired more land and the grounds eventually had an area of 103acre. The grounds were much more extensive than the present Hillsborough Park, stretching north to the current junction of Leppings Lane and Penistone Road, and included the site on which Hillsborough Stadium now stands. They extended further south encompassing the site now occupied by the Hillsborough Arena. The grounds had areas given over to agriculture but there was also extensive parkland featuring a lake, two lodges, and a tree-lined avenue. There was also a walled garden, which still exists today, that provided fresh produce for the house’s kitchens.