Hillsborough House, later called Hillsborough Hall is a large stone built mansion

Mansion

A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...

 built in the Adam style

Adam style

The Adam style is an 18th century neoclassical style of interior design and architecture, as practiced by the three Adam brothers from Scotland; of whom Robert Adam and James Adam were the most widely known.The Adam brothers were the first to advocate an integrated style for architecture and...

 in the latter part of the 18th century. It stands 2½ miles NW of the centre of Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

 at grid reference in the suburb of Hillsborough

Hillsborough, South Yorkshire

Hillsborough is an electoral ward which includes the districts of Malin Bridge, Owlerton, Wadsley and Wisewood. It is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the northwestern part of the city and covers an area of 4.6 km2...

 within Hillsborough Park

Hillsborough Park

Hillsborough Park is a large parkland area in Hillsborough, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The park was created in 1897 by the Dixon Family, who built Hillsborough Hall. It is now owned by Sheffield City Council and the hall is used as a library....

, a council owned public recreational area. For 124 years the house was a private dwelling, however since 1906 it has housed the Hillsborough branch library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

. It is a Grade Two listed building.

Private dwelling

Hillsborough House was built in 1779 as a dwelling for Thomas Steade (1728-1793) and his wife Meliscent, who had been living in nearby Burrowlee House

Burrowlee House

Burrowlee House is a Georgian style building situated at grid reference on Broughton Road in the Owlerton district of Sheffield, some four km NW of the city centre. It is the oldest building in the Owlerton and Hillsborough area and was one of the first houses constructed wholly from brick in...

, which is situated just 250 yards to the east. The Steades were a family of local of landowners whose history went back to at least the 14th century. At the time of construction the house stood in rural countryside well outside the Sheffield boundary. Steade named his new residence in honour of Wills Hill

Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire

Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire PC , known as the Viscount Hillsborough from 1742 to 1751 and as the Earl of Hillsborough from 1751 to 1789, was a British politician of the Georgian era...

 who at the time was known as the Earl of Hillsborough

Hillsborough, County Down

Hillsborough is a village and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland, situated from the city of Belfast. It is within the Lisburn City Council area....

, an eminent politician of the period and a patron of the Steades.

Stead acquired more land and the grounds eventually had an area of 103 acre (0.41682658 km²), they were much more extensive than the present Hillsborough Park, stretching north to the current junction of Leppings Lane

Leppings Lane

Leppings Lane is a street in Hillsborough, Sheffield. It provides a link between the A61 Penistone Road and the A6102 Middlewood Road. It has a Supertram stop, and gives its name to the away supporters' stand at Hillsborough Stadium, the home of Sheffield Wednesday....

 and Penistone Road, and included the site on which Hillsborough Stadium

Hillsborough Stadium

Hillsborough Stadium is the home of Sheffield Wednesday football club, Sheffield, England. Football has been played at the ground since it was opened on 2 September 1899, when Wednesday moved from their original ground at Olive Grove. Today it is a 39,812 capacity all-seater stadium, making it the...

 now stands. It 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, which provided fresh produce for the house’s kitchens.

Broughton Steade inherited the house upon his father's death in 1793 but sold it in 1801 to John Rimington Wilson of the Broomhead Hall family. In 1838 it was sold again to John Rodgers, the owner of a well known local cutlery firm. Rodgers renamed his residence Hillsborough Hall as he thought this better reflected the significance of the property. Between 1852 and 1860 the Hall was occupied by the family of Edward Bury (1794-1858), the pioneer locomotive builder and part founder of the Sheffield steel firm of Bedford, Burys & Co. A plaque by the front door of the present day building commemorates the residency of Bury and his family. In 1860 the Hall was sold to Ernest Benzon, a German born financial advisor.

In 1865 Benzon sold the house to James Willis Dixon, son of the founder of the well known Sheffield firm of James Dixon & Sons, silver and metal smiths. Dixon made considerable alterations and redecorated the property. Archives record that at that time there were six servants' bedrooms with a nursery on the second floor and five family bedrooms on the first floor. On the death of James Willis Dixon in 1876 his extensive library over 1,000 books was sold off, his art collection which included works by Rembrandt, Rubens and Watteau

Antoine Watteau

Jean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement...

 were also auctioned.

The death of J.W. Dixon junior in 1890 caused the hall and its grounds to be divided into 14 lots and auctioned off. Sheffield Corporation (now Sheffield City Council

Sheffield City Council

Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors...

) bought Lot 1 which included the hall and the surrounding 50 acres (202,343 m²) of land. A northern section of the estate on the far side of the River Don was sold to Sheffield Wednesday Football Club

Sheffield Wednesday F.C.

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are currently competing in the Football League One in the 2011-12 season, in England. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and the fourth oldest in the...

 who needed a new home ground as the lease on their Olive Grove ground had run out. Lands on the western side of the estate were sold to build Hillsborough Trinity Methodist Church

Hillsborough Trinity Methodist Church

Hillsborough Trinity Methodist Church is situated in the Hillsborough area of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It stands four km north west of the city centre on Middlewood Road across from Hillsborough Park at grid reference ....

 and to accommodate new housing as the city of Sheffield expanded. The streets that these new houses were built on were named Dixon, Wynyard, Willis, Lennox and Shepperson, all names connected to the Dixon family.

Hillsborough Library

In 1906 the house opened as Hillsborough library, although there were suggestions that it could be an art gallery and museum. The surrounding 50 acres (202,343 m²) of land purchased by the council became Hillsborough Park. Hillsborough’s first librarian was Henry A. Valantine who received a salary of £111. In 1929 a single storey extension was added to accommodate a new junior library. In the 1940s and 1950s a maternity and child welfare clinic was located on the first floor. In 1978 the building was found to have dry and wet rot and was closed for a period for repairs. The rooms on the library’s upper floors are used by local councillors and Members of Parliament for surgeries. Former politician Roy Hattersley

Roy Hattersley

Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley is a British Labour politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.-Early life:...

who was brought up in Hillsborough had this to say in his autobiography A Yorkshire Boyhood, “The library remained our constant joy. It was part of our lives, a home from home housed in what had once been a mansion owned by a local worthy”.