16/08/2026
What a privilege to work on this amazing project . I know it’s a long read but please take time to read the history behind the Summer House in Totley
The Summer House in Totley is one of the last surviving features of the former Totley Grange, a substantial Victorian country house and estate that once stood on what is now the Totley Grange housing estate in southwest Sheffield.
Here's its story:
Origins: Totley Grange
In the 1880s, local businessman Thomas Earnshaw, a Sheffield fish and game dealer, assembled land around Totley and built Totley Grange as his country residence. The house was surrounded by landscaped gardens, ornamental grounds, and several estate buildings, including the decorative summer house.
The summer house was built as a garden retreat—a fashionable feature of Victorian estates where owners and guests could sit and enjoy views across the gardens and countryside.
Wartime service
During the Second World War, Totley Grange took on a very different role. Rather than remaining a private residence, it was requisitioned by J. G. Graves Ltd., the Sheffield company famous for mail-order retailing, which converted parts of the estate into a production depot. Workers assembled electrical wiring harnesses for military aircraft, including Lancaster and Wellington bombers.
Demolition
After the war, the Grange was divided into flats, but by the 1960s the building and much of the estate had become uneconomic to maintain.
In 1965, developer George Wimpey demolished Totley Grange, its lodge and most of the landscaped grounds to build the modern Totley Grange housing estate.
Why the Summer House survived
Although almost everything else disappeared, the summer house was left standing. Today it sits behind houses on Totley Grange Road, hidden within the modern estate.
According to the Totley History Group, it is one of only a handful of visible reminders of the former Grange, alongside fragments of the estate walls and an old gate pier.
Today
The summer house is:
One of the few surviving architectural elements of the Victorian estate.
A reminder of Totley's transition from rural Derbyshire village to Sheffield suburb.
A local landmark valued by residents and local historians, although it is tucked away and not generally open to the public.
Its survival is significant because almost all evidence of Totley Grange itself has vanished, making this modest garden structure one of the estate's last tangible links to the area's Victorian past.
