I find that some of my Sheffield ancestors lived at addresses with "court" in them e.g. 6, 7 Court, Carlisle Street East. I have noticed that sometimes large groups live at these addresses, and sometimes just a couple or family. Can someone please tell me what "court" refers to? Nowadays where I live, it might be the name given a group of flats or home-units.
Thanks, Judy from South Australia

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I was born in a Court in Darnall, Sheffield in the 1950s, the court itself was built in the mid 1850s. Each court were usually a row of houses running at right angles to the main road, usually in more than one row so where you had 6 ct 7 it would mean the 6th court in a row and the 7th house in that court. the court itself would usually be a hard covered yard.It was a way to maximise the number of houses in an area usually in a space that may be unusally shaped.

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Thanks, Jim - that makes sense.

By the way, I have Cutts in my family. My great-great grandmother was Mary Cutts (born 1844 in Sheffield). Her parents were George Cutts (born 1822), grinder of Derbyshire, who came to Sheffield and married Sarah (I think Sarah Hall (born 1822), of Corn Hill Sheffield). George and Sarah and their children lived in Lambert Street and daughter Mary married my great great grandfather who grew up on the same street, Walter Oates (1841). Any connections?

regards, Judy from South Australia

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Hi Judy, In this case it is a terrace house that is dived in to two the one facing the road carrying the house number and to the rear facing into a yard would be 4 0r 5 houses carrying a different number e.g yard 1 house number 3 would be 1 court 3, they were referred to as back to back houses. My grandparents lived in a house of this nature you approached their house via a passage way into a yard with 5 houses, they usually had outside toilets shared by the family at the front and rear. As you will appreciate it is not easy to describe a property of this nature. They were built to get the maximum number of residences most of the ones in Sheffield have been destroyed however I think there are still some in Leeds. I will try to find some pictures on the web and let you have details.
Regards Barry
p.s if you google "back to back houses in sheffield" there are a number of entries.

Judy.

To give you a better idea of the courts go to www.picturesheffield.com and search for "courts" there are numerous pictures of them.

Angela

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Thank you Barry and Angela

I have found some excellent pictures on Picture Sheffield of the streets my ancestors lived in, and of courts generally. Thanks for the advice!

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