Hillsborough Hall Hillsborough Hall was built in 1779 in the Adam style as the home of Thomas Steade. It was thus called as a mark of respect for Lord Downside of Hillsborough, County Down. Hillsborough subsequently became the name of a Sheffield suburb and a world famous football club ground. Nineteenth century occupants of the hall included three celebrated manufacturers; the Rodgers family of cutlers, the locomotive designer and engineer Edward Bury, and James Willis Dixon and his son of the same name who were silversmiths. It was James Willis Dixon jnr. who in 1899 released the ten acre site north of the hall which was to become Hillsborough football ground. He eventually gifted the hall to the people of Sheffield and it took on a new role as a public library in 1906.