Illustrated Guide to Sheffield
Pawson & Brailsford - 1862

THE SHEFFIELD GUIDE.

ALTHOUGH Sheffield is of course in its manufacturing parts not more I clean or less smoky than other similar centres of industry, there is perhaps no large town in the kingdom situated in the midst of so charming and picturesque a district. In whatever direction we go beyond the outskirts of the town, a beautiful view is sure to meet the eye; and if the walk is extended four or five miles, delightful combinations of hill and valley, wood and stream, will be found, not to be surpassed except by the most lovely spots of Derbyshire or Cumberland. The town of Sheffield is situated in a natural amphitheatre of hills, the site of the town itself being also of a very undulating character, to such an extent that some of the streets are even precipitous. This characteristic makes the town healthy, and supplies an almost natural system of drainage. It used to be a sort of boast that there was no street in the town from which the country could not be seen; and though this is no longer literally true, there are still few localities from which glimpses of the hillsides may not be observed between the tall chimneys and above the spacious manufactories. The very spot on which Sheffield stands must originally have been one of the most lovely of the whole of this very beautiful district; and some of the names of thoroughfares which remain are highly suggestive of those primitive days when the birds warbled and the wild flowers grew on what are now the most densely populated parts of the town. " Barker's-pool," " Bower-spring," and " Balm-green," are significant in this way, but hardly so much as " Daisy-walk" and " Pea-croft," -twin localities where neither pea nor croft flourishes, and where there are about as many daisies as in the streets of Manchester. There are some other names which are suggestive, though in a different view. " Lady's bridge" carries with it a pleasant smack of the olden days, and " Spital-hill" has distinct reminiscences connected with it, the latest of which date as far back as Henry VIII. " Figtree-lane," " Sheffieldmoor," and "Castlegreen," also strike the ear with a suggestive sound. All these localities still exist; but there are some which are no longer to be found by their ancient titles. "Lady's-walk" is now not a promenade for ladies either in fact or in name. " True Lover's Gutter" no longer runs; and " Pudding-lane" is changed into the more euphonic and ambitious King-street. "Bull-stake" has altogether disappeared, along with the brutal sport which obviously gave birth to the title.

Sheffield is situated in the south of the West Riding of Yorkshire, on the borders of Derbyshire, and i8 about equidistant from the eastern and western coasts. It is on the eastern side of the range of hills running southward fromWestmoreland into Staffordshire. The town is intersected by rivers, which add greatly to the natural beauty of the place, and also assisted in its early development as the great seat of the cutlery manufacture. There are five rivers, which unite at the town -the Porter, the Rivelin, the Loxley, the Don, and the Sheaf. From this last it is generally supposed the town derives its name, though other and more recondite sourGes of origin have been suggested. None of these rivers are large. The most considerable is the Don, over which the traveller crosses by means of Lady's-bridge, when entering the town from the present station of the Midland Railway.

HALLAMSHIRE.

The town of Sheffield is the great centre of a locality the name of which has no doubt puzzled the stranger, as furnishing a " shire" unknown to his early geographical studies. " Hallamshire" is the title of a dis*ict the exact limits of which are not defined. Originally, it comprehended the parishes of Sheffield, Ecclesfield, and Handsworth; but it must now be taken as embracing the wholc of the neighbouring villages in which cutlery work is carried on. In the Cutlers' Company's Act of James I., the ancient confines of Hallamshire are extended by a compass of six miles, so as to include the whole cutlery district. It is a name to which are attached associations derived from a remote antiquity. It is still commonly used in Sheffield, and is very popular, as is strikingly shown by the fact that the " Hallamshire Volunteer Riiles" is the title of the first of the Volunteer bodies established in Sheffield in connection with the recent movement. It is believed that there was once the hall of a Saxon thane, and perhaps a city, which gave its name to the district; but of neither is there the slightest trace remaining. There is, however, a tradition which very distinctly asserts that on the sloping banks of the Rivelin -one of the most lovely of the many charming walks around the town -there was in the time of the Saxons a flourishing and populous city of Hallam, which was one of those razed to the ground by the Norman William. Some colour was given to the legend by the discovery, in the neighbourhood of the Rivelin, of two plates of copper bearing an inscription supposed to signify the manumission of three Roman soldiers. It is conjectured that these plates were given to the soldiers as a token of their admission into Roman citizenship, and (in pursuance of the known policy of some of the Emperors) to induce them to settle in the colonytheyhadhelpedtoconquer; thattheybetookthemselves to the rising community which afterwards became the city of Hallam; and that the plates, which had of course been carefully preserved, were eventually buried in the ruins of the destroyed buildings. These are mere conjectures; but, combined with the tradition, they are not without a show of probability.

The title Hallamshire is by some connected with a popular distict in a way which, though not very apparent at first sight, gives a distinct meaning to a saying otherwise not very intelligible. Hull, Hallamshire, and Halifax were, it is said, three of the districts which during the middle ages existed in this country as small independent States, something like the petty duchies of Germany in the present day. The lords, who had arbitrary control in these districts, were some of them very rapacious and cruel -in Hull, Hallam, and Halifaxpeculiarly so, if we are to believe the interpretation put upon the " Hull, Hell (Hallam), and Halifax," from which people pray to be " delivered."

EARLY HISTORY OF SHEFFIELD.

There are in the immediate neighbourhood of Sheffield distinct remains of an encampment which is supposed to have been formed by the Brigantes, one of the native tribes which opposed the Romans in their invasion of Britain. The remains of the camp are thus described by Mr. S. Mitchell :* -" There is a third and most important barrier of defence, which displays the great skill and strategetical talent of the warlike Brigantes, more than any other which I can ascribe to that people, and which seems to have been constructed on a sudden emergency and on an occasion of urgent necessity. I allude to the fine camp on the summit of Wincobank, and the fortified earthworks which are connected with it both eastward and westward. This British fortress occupies the crown of a beautifully wooded hill, about two miles east from Sheffield, commanding most extensive views of the country on all sides, and being itself a most prominent object from every quarter. It has evidently been raised by the great throw or fault which here occurs in the coal formation. The form of the camp is nearly circular, enclosing, with its immense vallum and ditch, with internal covered way, an area of several acres. On its north-west side, where the ground descends very abruptly, the vallum is imperfectly raised. Prooeeding from this point to the eastward runs an immense bank, partly natural from the coal throw already named, of which the British have taken advantage, and artificial wherever the works required additional strength. An outward ditch of considerable depth has been excavated on the south side of this immensevallum. The antiquity ofthis rampart may be partially gathered from its being the boundary of the two parishes of Sheffield and Ecclesfield for about a mile, till it crosses the Blackburn, where it enters the parish of Rotherham. Its course is then prominently visible to Kimberworth, Greasbro', the Upper Haugh (in Rawmarsh), Swinton Potteries, and across the Dearne and Dove Canal and the Midland Railway to Mexbrough, where it terminates in some rude earthworks, or loses itself in the marshes, which eighteen hundred years ago would extend thence to the foot of Conisbro' Cliffs. It is now traceable at intervals the whole of the distance of five or six miles, but in many parts of its course, especially in the meadow lands, the plough has so far obliterated it that an eye unpractised in such matters would fail to discover its site. Its continuity for five or six miles cannot, however, be doubted. To the westward of the Winco-camp a similar rampart is visible, after the almost precipitous declivity to Grimesthorpe; it is prominent to the westward of the small brook which runs through Grimesthorpe, ascending the hill to a wood now called ' Wilkinson Spring,' where the vallum and ditch are almost as perfect as when they were first formed. At the back of a house called Woodside, the fortified bank takes a sharp turn towards Sheffield (still adopting the line of the coal throw), and crowning the hill, having the military advantage of the most perfect view of the whole valley of the Don from Sheffield to Rotherham. The line of defence then follows the present course of the well-known Occupation-road [in the suburbs of Sheffield,] which is in fact the ditch of the rampart; while the fields to the rear of the barrier yet show (despite of ploughing) that they have been excavated with the double purpose of elevating the already sharp natural ridge, and to form a sort of Covered way in the interior of the defensive earthworks. These works would follow the course of the present road, behind Hall Carr, across the Burngreave-road, along Tomcross-lane, to the ford at Bridgehouses, where it crossed the Don, to and by the Millsands to Sheffield Castle."

Mr. Mitchell gives the following ingenious hypothesis to account for the origin of these ancient works (which have been attributed by various antiquarians to several different sources): -" About the year 60, when the southern part of our island had been subdued, and pretty comfortably settled into the form of a Roman province, under the name of Flavia Caesariensis, the resolute Italians resolved to penetrate the land till they attained the ' Ultima Thule.' The territory of the Brigantes stretched from sea to sea. They must be subjugated. They were quite aware of the fate of their southern compatriots, with whom they were yet in constant warlike broils. The Romans approach: they are determined to make the most vigorous stand, not aware that skill and discipline will always conquer reckless, disunited, though determined valour. They see their enemy on the southern banks of the Don, ready to cross at the only favourable point. To stem this inroad they fortify the northern banks, taking all the advantages which the geological character of the country, and the woods and morasses (such as the Red Marsh or the Raw Marsh) presented to them, to impede their southern enemies; for it is a matter of the greatest importance to observe that all these works indicate incontestibly that it was against a southern foe only that they were intended, or could be at all made operative- These works were no doubt provided for the retreat of the native Brigantes, who were appointed to dispute the fords of Templebrough and Mexbrough, from which they were at last dislodged by the Roman invincibles, ' the Legio Sexta Virtrix,' who for three centuries afterwards had their head-quarters at York. This was the last great contest for their original freedom which the Brigantes attempted."

Traces of another encampment, upon a smaller scale, exist in the Great Roe Wood, between Wincobank and Wilkinson Spring. There are also some ven interesting remains of a fortress (probably Saxon) at Bradfield, a village about seven miles from Sheffield.

There is a tradition that there was once a Roman camp on the site of the present graveyard of the Sheffield Parish Church. Some colour is given to the legend by the fact that Roman funeral remains have been dug up in Bank-street, a spot close at hand, and also by the circumstance that one of the thoroughfares immediately adjoining the graveyard is still called " Campo-lane." But there is no means of deciding the truth of this tradition.

Even when we descend to later times, the history of the locality is still to a large extent merely legendary. There were, however, without doubt, a manor of Hallam and a series of Saxon lords of it, the last of whom, Earl Waltheof, was a man of great note in his day. Some interest attaches to him as the son of the Siward who commanded the English army sent to Scotland against Macbeth. He headed a conspiracy against William the Conqueror, and was defeated and executed. In Doomsday Book the district is found to be in the possession of Roger de Busli; but by the time of Henry I. it had changed to the De Lovetots. The Lovetots were a powerful family, and their arms are now in the Parish Church as amongst the early patrons of that edifice. From the De Lovetots the estates of Hallamshire were transmitted to the noble family of Furnival; and there is a tradition that during the life of Gerard de Furnival King John once visited him at Sheffield Castle. This seems not unlikely to be true, as King John was at war with his nobles, and Gerard was one of his most powerful friends. The date assigned to thig visit is 1215. A tradition which asserts that a subsequent visit was paid by the King to Sheffield itself seems less likely. On this gecond occasion, it is stated, John merely stayed a night in passing through the town on his way to York; but it is said that he wag so pleased with his entertainment that he granted various privileges to the inhabitantg. Though no date is handed down, tradition is extremely precise on the subject, the very house in which John ig gaid to have lodged in High-street having been pointed out, till it was pulled down not many years since. It is only right to say that this legend is quite contrary to probability, and not borne out by the records which exist of the journeys of the King.

The last of the male Furnivals died in 1406, and the estates passed by marriage to the Shrewsburys, one of the most powerful amongst all our sncient noble families. From this time forward for a lengthened period the early history of Sheffield is intimately connected with that of the house of Talbot. It would be out of plsce here to give even sn outline of the genersl history of the Earls of Shrewsbury, seven of whom enjoyed the Hsllamshire eststes. There are, however, some fscts connected with them which are especially interesting in regard to this locality.

John, the first Earl of Shrewsbury, was killed with his son gallantly fighting in the French wars in 1453. There is a very interesting legend connecting Sheffield with these wars. It is said that a large part of the Earl's army was composed of Hallamshire men, and that " so greatly did they suffer while fighting round the Earl as he lay bleeding on the field of battle, that there was not a family nor a house in all Hallamshire that did not lose either a father, or a brother, or a husband, or a son, on that fatal day."

George, the fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, was for a short time the custodian of the great Cardinal Wolsey in his disgrace, the Earl entertaining him with great courtesy at Sheffield Manor. Wolsey's gentleman usher, Cavendish, has left us very minute details of his master's last days, from which we extract the following account of the sojourn at Sheffield, merely modernizing the spelling for the reader's convenience: -" And the next day we removed and rode to Sheffield Park, where my Lord of Shrewsbury lay within the Lodge [the Manor], the people all the way thitherward lamenting him. And when we came into the Park of Sheffield, nigh to the Lodge, my Lord of Shrewsbury, with my Lady of Shrewsbury, and a *ain of gentlewomen, and all other his gentlemen and servants, stood without the gates to attend my Lord's coming to receive him. At whose alighting the Earl received him with much honour, and embraced my Lord, saying these words, 'My Lord,' quoth he, 'your grace is most heartily welcome unto me, and I am glad to see you here in my poor Lodge, where I have long desired to see you, and much more gladder if ye had come after another sort.' ' Ah, my gentle Lord of Shrewsbury,' quoth my Lord, ' I heartily thank you. And although I have cause to lament, yet as a faithful heart may, I do rejoice that my chance is to come into the austody of so noble a person, whose approved honour and wisdom hath always been right well known to all noble estates. And, sir, howsoever my accusers have used their accusations against me, this I know, and so before your Lordship and all the world I do protest, that my demeanour and proceeding have always been both just and loyal towards my sovereign and liege lord, and of whose usage in his grace's affairs your Lordship hath had good experience. And even according to my truth, so I beseech God help me.' ' I doubt not,' quoth my Lord of Shrewsbury, ' of your truth; therefore my Lord be of good cheer and fear not, for I am nothing sorry, but yet I have not wherewith to entertain you according to my good will and to your honour; but such as I have you shall be welcome to it, for I will not receive you as a prisoner but as my good Lord, and the King's true and faithful subject. And, sir, here is my wife come to salute you;' whom my Lord kissed with his cap in his hand, bare headed, and all the other gentlewomen, and took the Earl's servants by the hand, as well gentlemen as yeomen. This done these two Lords went into the Lodge arm in arm, and so conduoted my Lord to a fair gallery, where was in the further end thereof a goodly tower with lodging where my Lord was lodged. There was also in the midst of the same gallery a travers of sarcenet drawn, so that the one end thereof was preservcd for my Lord and the other for the Earl. Then departed from my Lord all the great number of gentlemen and others that conducted him thither. Ld my Lord being thus with my Lord of Shrewsbury continued there eighteen days after, upon whom my Lord of Shrewsbury appointed divers worthy gentlemen to attend continually to foresee that he should lack nothing that he should desire, being served in his own chamber at dinner and supper as honourably and with as many dainty dishes as he had in his own house commonly, being at liberty. And once every day my Lord of Shrewsbury would repair in to him, and commune with him, sitting upon a bench in a great window in the gallery. And although that my said Earl of Shrewsbury would right heartily comfort him, yet would he lament so piteously that it would make my Lord of Shrewsbury to be very heavy for his grief."

Wolsey remained at Sheffield Manor eighteen days. Shortly before he left a very severe attack of dysentery set in, which the physician said would be fatal; but he was hurried away on a mule to undergo his trial. On the third night after his departure from Sheffield he reached Leicester Abbey, to the abbot of which he exclaimed, " Father Abbot, I come hither to leave my bones among you." Two days afterwards he died.

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AT SHEFFIELD.

We now come to the most interesting event in the ancient history of Sheffield, that of the imprisonment of the beautiful but ill-fated Mary Queen of Scots in the Castle here. Mary must have been very familiar with the beautiful natural scenery which was at this time visible all through the neighbourhood, for she was imprisoned at Sheffield no less than twelve years out of the nineteen which she altogether passed in England. It was to George, the sixth Earl of Shre vsbury, that the custody of the unfortunate Queen was confided at Sheffield. Mary escaped from Lochleven, and landed at Workington, Cumberland, in May, 1568, throwing herself with generous confidence on the protection of Elizabeth. The English Queen repaid the confidence by placing her in confinement, first entrusting her to Lord Scrope, and afterwards to the Earl of Shrewsbury. The Shrewsburys were immensely rich, and had several residences in various parts of the kingdom; but Sheffield, from its great natural beauty, seems always to have been the favourite one. It was to one of the other of these mansions -Tutbury Castle, in Staffordshire -that Mary was first taken upon being received into the care of the Earl of Shrewsbury. From Tutbury Queen Mary was removed to Coventry, on account of an attempt which was being organized by her friends to rescue her; but she only remained there a short time, and was taken back to Tutbury. In the summer of 1570 she was removed to Chatsworth, and before Christmas of that year she had entered the walls at Sheffield which were destined to form the scene of her longest and most dreary confinement.

The task of guarding the Scottish Queen seems to have been an irksome one to the Earl from the very outset; but the imperious will of Elizabeth left him no alternative. The unpleasantness inseparable from such a duty was increased by the severity with which Elizabeth required it to be carried out. To this policy of the English Queen, Shrewsbury seems, however, eventually to have very fully lent himself. Nor can this be much wondered at. The Earl, when once entered on the task, would naturally incline to strictness, because he was responsible for the safe-keeping of his captive; and there were continual plots for her rescue. Mary's own personal attendants when she entered Sheffield Castle numbered thirty. The Earl selected forty of the most trusty of his dependants to form a guard over her; and these men watched the Castle day and night. The following regulations issued by the Earl for the management of his household during the imprisonment of the Queen show the extreme rigour with which she was guarded, and furnish incidentally a graphic picture of the times: -
" To the Master of the Scotts Queenes household, Mr. Beton.
" First, -That all your people which appertayneth to the Quene shall depart from the Queen's chamber or chambers to their own lodging at IX. of the clock at night, winter and summer, whatsoever he or she; either to their lodging within the house or without in the towne, and there to remain till the next day at vi of the clock.
" Item, -That none of the Queen's people shall at no time wear his sword neither within the house, nor when her Grace rydeth or goeth abroade: unless the Master of the Household himself to weare a sword and no more without my special license.
" Item, -That there shall none of the Queen's people carry any bow or shaftes, at no tyme, neither to the field nor to the butts, unless it be foure or fyve, and no more being in the Queen's companye.
" Item, -That none of the Queen's people shall ryde or go at no tyme abroad out of the house or towne without my special license; and if he or they so doth, they or he shall come no more in at the gates, neither in the towne, whatsoever he or she or they be."
" Item, -That you or some of the Queen's chamber, when her Grace will walke abroad, shall advertyse the officiar of my warde, who shall declare the messuage to me one houer before she goeth forth.
" Item, -That none of the Queen's people, whatsoever he or they be, not onee offer at no tyme to come forth of their chamber or lodging when anie alarum is given by night or daie, whether they be in the Queen's ehamber or in their chambers within the house or without in the towne. And yf he or they keepe not their chambers or lodgings wheresoever that be, he or they shall shnde at their perill for deathe.
" At Shefeild the 26th daie of April 1571, per me" SHREWSBURIE.

A letter written by the Earl of Shrewsbury to Lord Burghley, in December, 1571, also shows how strict was the seclusion in which the unhappy Mary was kept. In this document the Earl states that Mary has complained of sickness, but that he thinks it is only a trick to get liberty to go outside the gates, which he is determined not to consent to, as he sees " no small peril therein." And he adds, complacently, " I do suffer her to walk upon the leads here in open ayre and in my large dining chamber, and also in this court yard, so as both I myself or my wife be alwaies in her company, for avoiding all others talk either to her self or any of hers." The temper of the Earl, whose harshness seems to have grown with the duration of his office and to have degenerated into sheer brutality, is further shown by a letter of his to Queen Elizabeth, intended to assure her Majesty that none of the plots which were ailoat could succeed. In this letter he in fact announces his intention to kill his captive rather than let her escape. " I have hur sure inoughe," he writes, " and shall keep hur forthe comyng at your Majesty's commandment, ether quyke or ded, what soever she or anny for hur inventes for the contrary; and as I have no doute at all of hur stelynge away from me, so if any forsabull attempts be gyven for hur, the gretest perell is sure to be hur's.

We cannot wonder that poor Mary, accustomed as she had been to all the gaieties of a French court, should suffer both in mind and body during such an imprisonment. Accordingly we find the Earl, who, it is evident, was not likely to exaggerate the distress of his royal prisoner, writing thus of her: -" She is within a few dayes become more malincholy than of long before, and complenes of hur wronges and imprisonments. I am sure hur malyncholy and grefe is grattar than she in words uttars; and yett, rather than contynew this imprisonment, she styckeg not to saye she wyll gyve hur boddy, hur sonne and cuntry for lyberty."

At the time thege last two letters were written, the severity with which Mary was watched had very greatly increased, owing in the first instance to the newg of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, which created a sort of panic throughout the Protestant countries of Europe, and caused Shrewgbury to add thirty soldiers to the guard which watched his castle. The neighbouring woods, and every place where lt was possible for friends of the captive Queen to be secreted, were Vigilantly searched. In the autumn of 1572, the Earl had intended to remove Mary for a few days to the Manor, in order to have the Castle cleansed. The news of the massacre put an end to this project for a time; but in the spring of the following year she was taken to the Manor, where she remained a few days. During this change of residence there were rumours of a plot to rescue her from the Manor; but, though there is a tradition connected with the building that she actually escaped from one of the windows, there does not seem to have been any attempt made either by herself or her friends. Indeed it would have been a most difficult task to rescue her, looking at the manner in which she was watched, as we incidentally gather from a letter written by one of the sons of the Earl of Shrewsbury.
The letter states: -" Good numbers of men, continually armed, watched hir day and nyght, and both under hir windows, over hir chamber, and of every syde hir; so that, unless she could transform hirself to a flee or a mouse, it was impossible she should scape."

The health of the royal prisoner at length gave way, and in the autumn of 1578, by the mediation of the French ambassador with the English Queen, Mary was permitted to pay a visit to Buxton, in Derbyshire, which was as celebrated for its medicinal waters at that distant time as it is now. The same precautions were taken as at Sheffield for Mary's safe keeping, and no strangers were allowed to be at Buxton during her stay there. After leaving Buxton she spent a short time at Chatsworth, and returned to Sheffield Castle in November.

So matters went on till 1575, without anything locally interesting in the history of the captive Queen. On the 26th of February in that year, the walls of the Castle were severely shaken by an earthquake. It was more particularly felt in the chamber occupied by Mary, so much so that Shrewsbury says, quaintly, " I doubted more hur faleng than hur goinge." According to the Earl, her room was "sunke" by the shock. Mary was greatly alarmed, of course; and the Earl writes, " God be thanked, she is forth cumyng, and grante it may be a forwarnyng unto hur." The friends of Mary, on the contrary, considered it a judgment upon him. In the same year there were transactions of national importance at the Castle which seem a sad mockery, considering the abject state of captivity in which the Queen was kept. Commissiouers waited upon her from the French Court, and with them she negociated an exchange of the Duchy of Touraine, which belonged to her, for the county of Vermandaise and some other territories. In a letter dated from Sheffield Castle in August of the same year, and addressed to a dignitary of the Romish Church, she expresses her firm determination to restore the Catholie - religion in England, if it ever should be in her power. It was about this time that a friend of Cousin, the Jesuit, had interviews with Mary at the Sheffleld Castle, and was so carried away by her beauty and fascinating manners that he declared it was " impossible to see this excellent Queen without rapture and celestial joy."

During the ensuing years Mary was kept in still greater seclusion. Even the members of Lord Shrewsbury's family were not allowed access to her. She 8pent her time principally upon needlework. Another short period was passed at Buxton, in the spring of 1576. A will of Queen Mary's is dated at Sheffield Manor, August, 1577. another visit to Buxton, in 1580, was unfortunate for Mary, as in mounting her horse she fell and injured her back. During the year 1581 Mary suffered much from sickness. She had been so weakened by want of fresh air and exercise, that she had to be carried from one room to another. In November of this year, she had to transact business in bed, and she touchingly exclaimed that " though she was not old in years she found herself old-in body, that her hair was turned gray, and that she should soon have another husband." The unfortunate Queen, at this time only thirty-eight, found her anticipated " husband" at the hand of the executioner, perhaps sooner than she anticipated; but there must have been something of relief, considering the extreme wretchedness of her condition, even in the terrible fate she had to endure.

After temporary sojourns, at intervals, at Buxton, Worksop, &., the Queen was, at the earnest entreaty of the Earl of Shrewsbury, removed from his custody; and on the 8rd September, 1584, she left Sheffield Castle, never to re-enter its walls. She was placed under the care of Sir Ralph Sadler and Sir John Somers, and was taken to Winfield. The ill-fated Queen, after being removed to one or two other places, met her fate at Fotheringay, where she was executed on the 8th of February, 1587.

THE CIVIL WARS

There is nothing more of local interest until we come to the time of those commotions in the seventeenth century which have left their destructive traces in so many parts of the country. The Earls of Shrewsbury, it is true, took a prominent part in several events which have become historical; but none of these are directly connected with Sheffield like the history of Queen Mary. The male branch of the Talbot family becoming extinct, the Sheffield estates were absorbed by marriage in the property of the noble house of Howard. In their possession these estates still remain, the Duke of Norfolk being now the owner of them; and owing to the demand for land for the purposes of trade, they have become enormously enhanced in value. The first dist;nct movement at Sheffield in connection with the great conflict between Charles I. and his people was in 1642. There seems to have been a g*ong Parliamentarian party in Sheffield; and in the summer of the above year they co-operated with Sir John Gell, who was in command of a force in the neighbourhood, and obtained possession of the Castle, which they garrisoned. They threw entrenchments round both the Castle and town, which at that time was not so large as to present much difficulty in the way of such an undertaking. The Earl of Newcastle, who had the command of the King's forces in the North, entered Yorkshire in the ensuing autumn with about 8,000 men. He found the people generally so much opposed to the Eing that most of the Royalists had retired for safety to York. Leeds and Wakefield surrendered to the Earl, who advanced with a large party of his troops to reduce Rotherham and Sheffield. This took place in April, 1643. The Rotherham people proved stout-hearted. The place was garrisoned and for- tified, and they refused to surrender. After a cannonade the Earl entered the town by storm. In the course of two or three days he followed up his success by marching to Sheffield. The Earl's prowess at Rotherham had struck a panic into the undisciplined forces at Sheffleld Castle; and when they heard of Newcastle's approach they fled into Derbyshire and left the town to the mercy of the Earl. He thoroughly fortified the Castle, put a garrison in it, and left it under the command of Sir William Saville. Newcastle, moreover, made use of the iron and steel works which he found in the neighbourhood, by causing their proprietors to construct for his army cannon and other munitions of war. Sir William was shortly afterwards put in a higher command, and was replaced by Major Beaumont.

The Castle was attacked by the Parliamentarians on the 4th August, 1644. The commander of the attacking party, Major General Crawford, announced his intentions in the following courteous missive: -" Sir, I am sent by the Earl of Manchester to reduce this place you hold, and therefore send you yet a summons, though my trumpett was shott att, against the lawes of armes, the other day. You may easily per- ceive I de,ire not the effusion of blood, otherwise I should have spared myself this labour. If you think good to surrender it, you may expect all fair respects befitting a gentleman and souldiers: otherwise you must expect those extremities which they have that refuse mercy. I desire your answere within one houre, and rest your servant, L. CBAWFORD . "

What answer the Royalist commander, Major Beaumont, sent, is not recorded; but he did not yield without a struggle. The shooting at the " trumpett," referred to by General Crawford, seems to have been rather a barbarous proceeding. Upon first coming up to the Castle, Crawford fired three shots into it, and then sent a trumpeter to sound a parley with the inmates. The defenders, irritated at the attack, instead of consenting to a parley, fired three times at the trumpeter, " two of which came very neer, and barely missed him," says the chronicler; " and they, flourishing their swords, cried out, ' they would have no other parley.' " The attacking party consisted of a regiment of cavalry and about twelve hundred foot soldiers. In the Castle there were only about two hundred infantry and a troop of horse. It was, however, pretty strongly fortified. There was around it a broad trench filled with water eighteen feet deep, a strong pallisaded breastwork, and a wall two yards thick. It also contained eight pieces of ordnance and two mortars.

Finding no chance of a surrender, Crawford proceeded to offensive operations. He constructed two batteries sixty yards from the outworks of the Castle, and from these he battered the walls with such guns as he possessed. He had but three, however, and these not large. After plying them for about tventy-four hours, he sent to Lord Fairfax for the " Queen's pocket pistoll, and a whole culverin." When this ordnance arrived, a practicable breach was soon made in the Castle walls, and the General prepared to enter by storm. Eowever, he first tried the efficacy of another summons to surrender, and this time it was successful. It was agreed that the garrison should march out with all the honours of war, and without any of them becoming prisoners. A special provision was made for the protection of Lady Saville, widow of the former governor of the Castle. This lady, who was in the Castle during the siege, behaved with great heroism. Though the attacking party refused to allow a midwife, whom she had sent for, to pass into the Castle, she was far from begging the commander to surrender on her account. On the contrary, she de- clared she would rather perish than be the cause of the Castle being given up. It is said, however, that the soldiers, moved with pity for her, mutinied and compelled the governor to surrender. This noble- minded lady, in the midst of her sorrow and peril, had a child born to her the night after the Castle was given up.

The Parliamentarians took possession of the munitions of war in the Castle, comprising the cannon already mentioned, four hundred small arms, twelve barrels of powder, and twenty tons of iron shot. The estates surrounding the Castle were confiscated by Parliament; but in 1648 they were restored to their former owner, the Earl of Arundel, on his paying �6,000.

SHEFFIELD CASTLE AND MANOR, &c

. We have no longer any incidents worth describing in the history of Sheffleld, except such as are connected with its rise as a manufacturing community; and before proceeding to these we will give some par- ticulars of the Castle and Manor around which such a romantic halo is cast by their connection with Queen Mary.

Without entering into the question as to where the hall of the Saxon lords of the manor was located, and whether it was taken possession of and adapted to the wants of the Norman conquerors who overran the country, it is quite clear that a Castle existed at a very remote period. Mr. Mitchell, in his erudite little " History of the Burgery of Sheffleld,"" conjectures with considerable show of probability that a Castle existed anterior to the time of Henry III. That monarch, in the 54th year of his reign, granted a charter to Thomas de Furnival, to construct and embattle a Castle at Sheffield. There seems little question that dnring the wars of that period, Sheffield was burnt to the ground by John D'Eyvill, a leader of the barons. The charter granted by King Henry was about six years subsequent to this act of violence. Mr. Mitchell conjectures that the castle was burnt with the town, and that the permission granted by the King was to reconstruct it and make it more powerful. At all events, there can be no doubt that from the period of Henry III. there was a very strong Castle at Sheffield, and that it was the head of the barony held by the De Furnivals. It is said that at the demolition of the Castle in the time of Cromwell, a large flat stone was found, attesting the building of the structure in the following quaint rhyme: - " ~ ~Eot~ ~n~al, b~ IB ~ Btlc 3iall, 21n~ ~n~t~ in t~ ~omb flJas m~ b~ al."

The building must have been a. large ona, Not even a ruin now remains; but an idea of its actual site may easily be obtained. The course of the Don and Sheaf at their confiuence near Waingate would, from the natural protection they afforded, obviously form the boundary on that side; while it probably filled up the whole space between Waingate and Dixon-lane on the other. After the Castle was taken by the Parliamentarians in the Civil Wars, it was decided to destroy it, and in 1648 the work of demolition was carried out. When the estates were restored to the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, he began to rebuild it; but the work was never prosecuted with vigour, and was soon abandoned.

The Manor was comparatively a modern edifice, having been built by the fourth Earl of Shrewsbury and completed early in the reign of Henry VIII. It was about two miles from the Castle, and was intended as a country residence. It must have been a very handsome building, and have formed a mansion worthy of the noble house by whom it was raised. It continued to be habitable for some fifty years after the Castle was destroyed. It was dismantled in 1706. It was in the centre of Sheffield Park. The Park remains, but in name only, a large portion of the district still so called being a densely popu- lated part of the town. Of the Manor House itself little now exists; and what there is, is fast crumbling away before the hand of time.

One of the outer walls of the mansion remains, with the stone framework of two fine old windows and a handsome chimney; but this wall is now used to form part of some hovels in which labouring people dwell. Part of the external walls which surrounded the grounds also remain, close without one of which may be heard the hiss of the engine which works a coalpit. Yet even with all these unromantic adjuncts, it is impossible to survey the spot without having the mind carried back to the times when the ambitious Wolsey, stricken down with disappointment and pain, took counsel of the lord of the Manor within its piGtUresqUe walls, and when the beautiful Mary, pale and worn with captivity, sat listless at her embroidery and looked out with moistened eyes over the green hills which still beautify the neighbourhood.

There is one very interesting relic of the Castle remaining, if it be only genuine. Adjoining the ruins of the Manor there is a stone trough. This trough, it is said, was the coffin in which was buried the founder of the Castle, Thomas de Furnival. It was found at the demolition of the Castle, and on the stone forming the lid of it, it is said, was the inscription already mentioned; but this cover is not now to be found. The trough has all the appearance of having been originally intended for a coffin. Not far from the ruins is the Queen's Tower, a residence built by the late Mr. Samuel Roberts. This building has no connection with the unfortunate Mary, except by name; but on the grounds there is a small structure, styled " Queen Mary's Bower," which is of some interest as being built entirely from the ruins of the Manor.

It would seem as if, since the house of Talbot became dispossessed of the Sheffield estates, this locality, beautiful as it still is, were fated never again to be the favourite residence of a noble family. This continues, in a remarkable way, down to the present moment. When the late Duke of Norfolk died in November, 1860, a hand- some residence had just been finished for the family, and it was the intention of his Grace to spend in it a portion of every year. The untimely death of the Duke, however, prevented his desire from being fulfilled; and the furniture of the mansion, almost immediately after it had been collected, was dispersed by sale.

Lady's-bridge, in the immediate vicinity of the site of the Castle, is a very ancient structure, having been beyond doubt in existence in the time of Henry II. It was, however, rebuilt during the reign of Henry VII. Its name was derived from a small chapel dedicated to " Our Lady," which formerly stood at the west end of the bridge, under the Castle wall.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE TOWN.

The cutlery trade is throughout the whole world associated with the name of Sheffield. The celebrity of the town for these wares is not merely a modern one. Perhaps no town in England can trace its connectiOn with any trade back to so remote a period. There are, indeed traditions that the steel workers at Sheffield manufactured arrows for some of the ancient British tribes who opposed the Roman legions. This is mere legend; but there are authentic records of Sheffield hanng obtained a celebrity for its steel manufactures at a very early penod. The first reliable intimation of the existence of the iron trade in this neighbourhood, is in a grant made by Richard de Builli, in the reign of Henry II., to the monks of Eirkstead, and which included four forges for smelting and working iron. Though this does not apply to Sheffield itself, the Monastery being situated at Kimberworth, some miles distant from the town, it shows that the iron trade was cultivated in the locality at that early period. There can be no reasonable doubt that at the time when this grant was made, the inhabitants of Sheffield were busy with their steel wares. Before the fifteenth century the town had become thoroughly cele- brated for its cutlery manufactures. This is proved from the fact , that the old poet Chaucer writes thus of one of the characters in the " Canterbury Tales" - ;~. " A Shef~ld thw~tel bare he iD his ~ose." The " thwytel" or " whittle" -for which, in the days of Chaucer, it is thus evident, Sheffield had become as noted as it now is for files, saws, and all kinds of cutlery -was a knife formerly carried for pur- poses of defence in place of a sword. It answered precisely, in fact (in everything but shape) to the American bowie knife, which is still largely made here. It is curious, too, that not only the weapon but the former name of it, which have both become nearly obsolete in England, have been revived in America, where "whittling" is quite a national characteristic.

Though this incidental notice by Chaucer fixes a period when Sheffield had without doubt become known throughout the country for its manu- factures, the commencement of its prosperity as a town dates at a much earlier period. It began with the De Lovetots, who became extinct about the period when the grant of Richard de Builli was given to the monks of Kirkstead. The De Lovetots made Sheffield their chief re- sidence, and laboured to promote its prosperity. So much did the importance of Sheffield increase, that the manor of Hallam, formerly the principal one, became merged in that of Sheffield. The De Lovetots seem to have been a family who, in the midst of a rude feudal age, when almost absolute power was possessed by them, exercised their rule mercifully and with justice. They founded a hospital for the sick on a spot the name of which still revives recollections of the ancient charity, though every other trace of it has long been swept away. The De Lovetots' hospital was on the locality still known as Spital Hill. The building itself was destroyed in the reign of Henry VIII. A church was also founded by this munificent family. A mill, and a bridge over the Don, had been added to the convenience of the inhabitants at this period. There is no doubt, therefore, that the community had attained a position qualifying it to be reckoned aH a budding town, though its actual extent and the number of its inhabitants are matters of pure conjecture.

The prosperity of Sheffield continued to grow under the succeeding lords of the manor, the De Furnivals. The chalter for the weekly market, on Tuesdays, was obtained by Thomas de Furnival in 1296; and further privileges were granted to the inhabitants, greatly tending to the growth of its trade. Do vn to the passing of the estates from the Shrewsburys to the house of Howard, Sheffield enjoyed all the advantages which followed from bein'g the favourite residence of a powerful lord. During the feudal ages this was a great benefit; and the protection was not withdrawn until a period when trade had become so vigorous that any such patronage would rather have hin- dered than forwarded its progress.

To recur to the history of the trade itself. There are some incidental historical notices which show that the steel workers of Sheffield pro- gressed with the times, even in the middle ages. In these days of Armstrong guns and Whitworth rifles, it is amusing to read of a great improvement in the arrows made at Sheffield, this weapon being one of the staple manufactures of the town. At the battle of Bosworth, it is said, the Earl of Richmond's men used arrows from Sheffield, of a very superior make, being longer, sharper, better ground, and more highly polished, than those previously manufactured. The town, how- ever, did not retain the arrow trade long after this peliod, as in less than half a century muskets were given to the soldiers; and even the rude fire-arms of that period were found to be far superior to the arrow. In 1575, we find that the Earl of Shrewsbury presented to Lord Burghley a case of Hallamshire whittles, " being such fruictes as his poor country afforded with fame therefrom."

It would seem that the trade of Sheffleld benefited, indirectly, from the cruel persecution of the Netherlanders by the Duke of Alva. Many of the most skilled Dutch artizans left their country, and, very natur- ally, fled for refuge to Protestant England. They were kindly received by Queen Elizabeth, who settled them in valious parts of the country, according to their trades. The workers in iron and steel were sent to Sheffleld, where they were protected by the Earl of Shrewsbury, and greatly assisted in the development of the local trade.

The commercial prosperity of Sheffield does not, however, seem to have made great progress at this period, as is proved by the following curious document: -
" By a survaie of the towne of Sheffield made the second daie of Januarie, 1615, by twenty-four of the most sufflcient inhabitants there, it appeareth that there are in the towne of Sheffleld 2,207 people: of which there are 725 which are not able to live without the charity of their neighbours. These are all begging poore. 100 householders which relieve others. These (though the best sorte) are but poor arti- ficers: among them there is notone which can keep a teame on his own land, and not above tenn who have grounds of their owne that will keep a cow. 160 householders, not able to relieve others. These are such (though they beg not) as are not able to abide the storme of ohne fortnight's sickness, but would be thereby driven to beggary. 1,222 children of the said householders, the greatest part of which are such as live of small wages, and are constrained to worke sore, to provide them necessaries."

One great cause of the small increase in the trade may doubtless be traced to the absurd restrictions which in those days were imposed upon the cutlery workers in common with all other branches of manu- facture. .Juries of cutlers were periodically empanelled to manage the trade and carry out these restrictive regulations, some of which were so strange as to be scarcely credible. One of them, for instance, was that no person engaged in the cutlery manufacture, master, workman, or apprentice, should do any work appertaining to the " said scyence or mystere of cutlers" for twenty-eight days next following after the 8th of August in each year, nor from Christmas to the 23rd of January, under penalty of twenty shillings. A fine of forty shillings was infiicted upon any person allowing work to be done on his premises during the prescribed periods. There was a fine of six and eight- pence for selling knife blades to any person not dwelling within the district. And there were many other regulations equally stringent and absurd. The powers possessed were eventually found to be quite in- adequate to the management of the trade, and an Act of Parliament was obtained incorporating the Cutlers' Company. Of this body we treat elsewhere.

From this time the trade of the town extended more surely, though still not very rapidly. At the commencement of the eighteenth cen- tury, the number of those actually engaged in the cutlery trade is estimated at 6,000; and it is supposed that there were several thousands more in Sheffield and the neighbourhood, employed as smiths, anvil makers, &c. The goods manufactured amounted yearly to about �100,000 in value. But the Spilit of enterprise which has since been so signally manifested in the town, had not yet exhibited itself. Transit was difficult. There were no merchants in the town. Great timidity was felt in extending trade beyond the old and limited chanels. The position of the town at this period is thus described by a writer at the end of the eighteenth century:-

" During a considerable part of this century the Sheffield manufacturers discovered more labour than ingenuity; the workmen durst not exert themselves for fear of being overstocked with goods; their trade was inconsiderable, confined, and precarious. None presumed to ex- tend their limits beyound the bounds of the island. The chief pro- duce of the manufactories was carried weeklyby a few of Mr.Newsom's pack-horses, to the Metropolis, the inhabitants viewing their passage up the Park-hill with much pleasure."

We may add that in 1776, the whole of the manufactured goods which left Sheffield for Birmingham was about two tons a week. At the present time about 1,500 tons leave Sheffield for that town by railway alone.*

These figures do not furnish an exaggerated idea of the general growth of the town. The increase has been enormous during the last century, and the ratio of progress has enlarged rather than diminished up to the date of the latest authentic records. We find from the 1st census-taking, in 1861, that the population of Sheffield had increased at a greater rate than that of any other town in England. The total population of the borough, was 185,157. The only other town of larger population in Yorkshire is Leeds; and Sheffield has so far gained upon Leeds that if the two towns continue to increase in the same proportionate rate for twenty years more, Sheffield will be the larger of the two. The vast increase of population during the last century and a quarter, and especially since the commencement of the present century, is strikingly shown by the following table:-

YEAR	TOTAI, POPULATION.
1736	14,105
1801	45,755
1821	65,275
1841	110,891
1851	185,807
1861	185,157

The wealth of the inhabitants, and the value of the property in the town, have increased in a proportionate degree. In 1849, the rateable property was assessed at �270,816; at the present time, (1862), it is �446,864.

Formerly the great motive power in the manufactories was the water abounding in the numerous streams of the neighbourhood. This power is still fully used; but in addition, it is computed that there are 406 steam engines in use, furnishing 6,286 horse-power. From a mere inland traffic, the trade of Sheffield has become world-wide. Directly, or through the merchants of this and other towns, the pro- ducts of Sheffield are sent to the northern and southern continents of America, to the whole of the nations of Europe, to India, Australia, Afiica, and even to China. The branches of trade cultivated have expanded in a similar degree. Though Sheffield is still popularly kno vn as the world's cutlery mart, the wares by which it has gained this celebrity are now only a considerable part of her staple industries. Of these manufactures we treat in detail in another place

Sheffield is far fiom being an unhealthy town. Although there are of course densely-populated districts where disease is rife, and which increase the general total of mortality in the borough, a comparison with other large towns is favourable to Sheffield. Thus, in Birmingham the average of denths is 26 in the thousand; in Newcastle, 27; in Wolverhampton,27; in Wigan, 28; in Bristol,29; inLeeds,30; ull, 81; in Manchester, 88; in Liverpool,86; and in Sheffield,27.

The town is generally well lighted and paved. The central streets show some very handsome shop fronts. Still more attractive are the villa residences and mansions which have sprung up in the suburbs of the town. Especially in the Broomhall, Broomhill, and Sharrow dis- tricts, the visitor will be struck by the beauty of the dwellings, the attractions of which are greatly enhanced by the natural scenery, and are hardly to be surpassed by the suburbs of any town in the kingdom. Even more pleasing, in a moral point of view, is the spectacle presented at Walkley and other of the out-districts. There are several locali- ties where estates have been purchased and partitioned out by means of the Freehold Land Societies; but Walkley is peculiarly the region for these allotments. The hill sides are dotted in every direction with houses, almost all of them obtained by working men through the instrumentality of Freehold Land or Building Societies. Nothing can furnish a more striking and demonstrative illustration of the thrift of at least a considerable part of the Sheffield artizans.

Sheffield returns two representatives to the House of Commons, under the Reform Act of 1832. The present members are Mr. J. A. Roebuck and Mr. George Hadfield. It was also incorporated under the Municipal Act. The limits of the borough are very large, being more than ten miles in length, while the average breadth is about three miles. It comprises the townships of Sheffield, Ecclesall Bierlow, Nether Hallam, Upper Hallam, Brightside Bierlow, and Attercliffe- cum-Darnall.

This out of copyright material has been transcribed by Eric Youle, who has provided the transcription on condition that any further copying and distribution of the transcription is allowed only for noncommercial purposes, and includes this statement in its entirety.

Any references to, or quotations from, this material should give credit to the original author(s) or editors.

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Last modified on: Saturday, 30 May 1998

Illustrated Guide to Sheffield Pawson & Brailsford - 1862