Hoyland family - William Hoyland

William Hoyland was born in Sheffield in 1834, the first of seven children of baker, Joseph Hoyland and Lavinia (nee Boler). He was educated at Hebblethwaite's School in Paradise Square, Sheffield for six and a half years although this was before education became compulsory. He married his first wife Ellen Armstrong in 1860 and their daughter Ada was born the following year. Ellen came from Lynn, Norfolk. Her father James was a travelling draper and some time during the 1850s the Armstrong family moved to Sheffield. Sadly, Ellen died of convulsions aged only 20. In 1866 William remarried to Elizabeth Lawton and they had eight more children (the 8th child is shown in the 1911 census statistics for this marriage - 8 children born alive, 6 still living, 2 died).

When he was 15, William's family moved from Sheffield to Ecclesfield and later to Hunshelf, Penistone where his father worked the corn mill. After leaving school, William worked for his father until, at the age of 23, he started work at the well known Samuel Fox's steel works at Stocksbridge. This was 1857 and he earned 18 shillings per week. His occupation in the 1861 census is given as Clerk and in 1871 as Book Keeper and Cashier. The factory's main business was manufacture of rails for the growing railway networks and umbrella frames. Products were exported to America and throughout Europe. During 1871 the business became a limited liability company and William was appointed Company Secretary.

In 1876, William approached Fox with a design for a new style umbrella frame which he called 'flexus'. The flexus design was the idea of colleague, Joseph Hayward. Fox agreed to manufacture it but only as a cheap line. William Hoyland wasn't satisfied with this and left the company to start his own business with this new design, in partnership with Hayward. The split from Fox's seems to have been amicable though with William agreeing to buy his raw materials from Fox's and his Eckland Bridge Works was also rented from Fox. Hayward later left the company and returned to Fox's.

William was actively involved in the business up to the time of his death at the age of 89 when he had about 200 employees. His obituary describes him as 'a figure well known in the community'. He took an interest in public affairs and was elected to the Thurlstone old Local Board in 1877 and served on its successor the Thurlstone Urban Council up to his retirement due to age and deafness. He was vice-chairman of the Council for many years and for a number of years until his death he was overseer of the poor. He was a regular churchman and for a time was warden at Penistone Parish Church.

The respect with which he was held is demonstrated by the list of people who attended his funeral, in addition to family members, friends and colleagues, there were representatives of various public bodies in the district and a large number of his employees. At the next council meeting after his death the Chairman, in giving his condolences, stated:

"Mr Hoyland had used up the last ounce of energy with which nature had endowed him. He had lived a full family life, a full business life and a full public life, and had rendered services in many directions for many years. He was a man of sound judgment, and splendid business capacity. He deserved the very best remembrance from the Thurlstone community for the way in which he had served him both as a business and a public man."
Penistone, Stocksbridge & Hoyland Express Saturday 5th May 1923

Although William had a humble start in life, when he died he left an estate worth £79,166 19s 3d, with an equivalent value today in excess of £2 million.