Brightside-Bierlow

BRIGHTSIDE-BIERLOW, a township, in the parish and union of Sheffield, N. division of the wapentake of Strafforth and Tickhill, W. riding of York, 3 miles (N. E.) from Sheffield; containing 10,089 inhabitants. This populous and very extensive township, parts of which form suburbs to the borough of Sheffield, partakes in the manufactures of the surrounding district. Several large steel-works, foundries, and ironforges have been established; and the manufacture of table-knives and cutlery of various kinds, and of scythes and agricultural implements, is carried on to a great extent: there are also quarries of excellent buildingstone. The village of Brightside is situated on the river Don, and in the immediate vicinity are several pleasing villas, and some richly varied scenery; Wincobank hill is about 300 feet above the river, and commands a prospect unusually fine and extensive. Here is a station on the Sheffield and Rotherham railway; and a new road to Barnsley has been constructed, leading through the romantic dell of Burngreave to Pitsmoor, and avoiding the precipitous hill of Pye Bank. Three ecclesiastical districts, called Brightside, Pitsmoor, and Wicker, respectively, were constituted in August, 1845, under the act 6th and 7th of Victoria, cap. 37: each living is in the gift of the Crown and the Archbishop of York alternately. The district of Brightside extends from the east-northeast suburbs of Sheffield, in the direction of Rotherham, its middle and greatest breadth being about a mile; Wicker is an immediate suburb of Sheffield, and more to the north lies Pitsmoor. There are several places of worship for dissenters. At Wincobank are remains of Roman fortifications and embankments.