Whitley Hall

The small hamlet of Whitley lies in the countryside between the suburbs of Grenoside, Chapeltown and Ecclesfield some 7.5 km (4.7 mi) north of the city centre.

Launder House was also known as Launderhouse, Lownderhouse and Loundhouse over the years, in 1487 it passed into the hands of Thomas Parker who held the property in Copyhold from the Lord of the Manor of Sheffield in return for ploughing and harvesting the land.

Thomas’ son William is believed to have finished the rebuilding as a carving over one of the new doors reads,”Willm Parker : Made this Worke 1584”.

A local legend states that Mary, Queen of Scots, spent a night at Whitley Hall in the 1580s while in captivity at Sheffield Castle.

Fowler noted of his time at Whitley Hall later in life: “I was fairly quick in elementary scholarship, and in mental arithmetic was decidedly beyond the average of boys and men a gift which was of great convenience and value in after life.”[1] The exact time that the Hall remained a school is not known but by 1841 it was lived in by William Charlesworth who leased it from the Bingley family who had become the owners in 1816.