Millhouses Park

Millhouses Park
The boating lake at Millhouses Park
Type	Urban park
Location	Millhouses, Sheffield
Coordinates	53°20′32″N 1°30′3″W / 53.34222°N 1.50083°W / 53.34222; -1.50083Coordinates: 53°20′32″N 1°30′3″W / 53.34222°N 1.50083°W / 53.34222; -1.50083
Area	12.87 hectares (31.8 acres)
Created	1859
Operated by	Sheffield City Council
Status	Open all year

Millhouses Park is a public urban park located in the Millhouses neighbourhood in south of Sheffield, England. It is a 12.87-hectare (31.8-acre) park stretching approximately 0.75 miles (1.2 km) along the floor of the valley of the River Sheaf, sandwiched between Abbeydale Road South (A621) and the railway tracks of the Midland Main Line.

Before the park was created, the area had been used for farmland and small industrial sites, which had been built to take advantage of the power provided by the river. The Ecclesall corn mill—remnants of which can be seen at the north of the park—is recorded as early as 1299, when it was given by Robert de Ecclesall to the monks of Beauchief Abbey. The Skargell or Bartin wheel was located on the site of the present-day boating lake. It was a cutlers wheel that was constructed in the first half of seventeenth century and remained in use into the mid-nineteenth century.

In the late eighteenth century land at Millhouses, known as the Grange Ville Estate, was purchased by Peter Wigfall. He died in 1828 and the land passed to Thomas Whitehead under the terms of a will dated 1812. In 1837 William Speck filed a court case claiming that the will of 1812 was a forgery, and that he, as the closest living relative of Peter Wigfall should inherit the land. This case was dismissed, but in 1855 Joseph Oldale also claimed ownership of the land and took forcible possession of property at Millhouses, a siege ensued and eventually Oldale was removed. Legal proceedings followed, and in 1858 Oldale was charged with having fraudulently altered the parish records to bolster his claims. Whitehead sold the property to William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 6th Earl Fitzwilliam, but in 1875 Oldale's son William reasserted the family's claim to the land and forcibly took possession of property in Millhouses, including farmland that was leased by the miller of the corn mill and the inn keeper at the Waggon and Horses Inn (the future site of Millhouses Park). Once again the claim was unsuccessful and the land returned to Earl Fitzwilliam.

In 1907 William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam gave some of his land in Millhouses to the City of Sheffield. The City Council bought more land and laid out a public park. By the 1930s facilities at the park included a boating lake, an open-air swimming pool, paddling pools, a cricket pitch, bowling greens, and tennis courts. By the 1960s the park could attract up to 50,000 visitors on summer weekends.