Attercliffe

The name Attercliffe can be traced back as far as an entry in the Domesday Book of 1086 - Ateclive – meaning “at the cliff”, a small escarpment that lay alongside the River Don.

Three years later, it was taken over by the nonconformist minister Timothy Jollie, who educated students including John Bowes, Nicholas Saunderson and Thomas Secker.

[3] Secker, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was frustrated by Jollie's poor teaching, famously remarking that he lost his knowledge of languages and that 'only the old Philosophy of the Schools was taught there: and that neither ably nor diligently.

New Hall was later converted into pleasure gardens, with a cricket ground, racecourse, bowling green, maze, lake and depictions of famous cities.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a frequent proposal to widen this to form a Sheffield Ship Canal, to terminate in a basin at Attercliffe.

The area declined after the Second World War as Victorian housing was cleared and not replaced, causing schools to close, followed by most of Attercliffe's shops.

Don Valley Stadium was demolished in 2013, but other entertainment venues bring visitors to the area, including Hollywood Bowl & Cineworld.

Christ Church from across the River Don in 1826. The "cliff" can be seen in front of the church.
The former John Banner department store
The former Adelphi Cinema