Gleadless is a suburb and parish within the City of Sheffield, it lies five km (three miles) south east of the city centre. It is bordered by the adjoining suburbs of Gleadless Valley (in whose ward the population falls) to the west, Frecheville to the east and Intake to the north. The land to the south is the rural area of North East Derbyshire district which is outside the city boundary. Gleadless was formerly a country hamlet, then village before becoming part of the expanding city of Sheffield in 1921. The word Gleadless comes from the Old English language and means either “forest clearings haunted by a kite” () or “bright clearing” (). History The first written mention of Gleadless dates from 1307 when it was referred to as “Gladeleys in the parish of Handesworth” in a land transaction between Jociamus le Scrop and Henry de Wodetorp. John Speed’s map of 1610 calls the area "Gledles" and shows it on the edge of the fenced enclosure called “The Maner”. The Maner also known as Sheffield Park was owned by the Duke of Norfolk and had abundant forests upon it. By the end of the 17th century much of the woodland in the park had been cut down with the land being turned over to farming and small scale coal mining. Because of the geology of the district, coal mining would become an important occupation for the area with much of the coal near the surface in shallow seams. A manorial licence shows that coal was dug in the Gleadless area as early as 1579. 18th century agriculture in the area was based on the open field system with common rights on what is today Gleadless Common. The 1851 census gave Gleadless village a population of only 740, however by 1881 the population had increased to 2,306 with the increased demand for coal drawing many coal miners to the area, especially after the sinking of Birley East Colliery in 1887. The coming of free education in the 1890s saw the opening of, what is today, Gleadless Primary School on 18 April 1898. As with many outlying villages of Sheffield, the coming of the Sheffield Tramway in the early 20th century brought big changes to Gleadless. The south eastern arm of the network reached as far as Intake, just to the north of Gleadless and had a major impact on the end