No apology for returning to the subject of the man who gave us Blacka Moor, but I think there are some things I've not said here before.
First he was a business man and obviously made himself a fortune. Mainly in mail order but he did have a cutlery workshop as well. What interests me is that he had a complete commitment to the area he lived in. Not some generalised ideal which could be exercised over areas of the world not fully understood like today's captains of industry who offset some of their tax by charitable donations. The thing about local philanthropy is that it is accountable to people you see and works at the same level as other relationships. I am an unreconstruted localist suspicious of noble deeds done for a generalised cause that can be put on a CV or added to ones Who's Who profile.
When J G Graves gave Blacka Moor to the people of Sheffield he actually knew many of those people. 3,000 of them worked for him.
Whatever your politics, conservative or socialist or some concoction in between, you must respect those who attempt to repay their obligations to those they know. I know there are people who will point to elements in the economy which supported Graves' mail order business which were exploitative in a large way. But I think that's not as much an issue as it would be today.
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I visited Blacka Moor today - not for the first time - and I saw the Dore Society plaque to J.G.Graves. On the face of it, his benevolence was remarkable and his Sheffield legacy lives on. I wonder where he himself lived when his mail order company flourished. Was it in Ecclesfield?
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