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So does Sheffield have any History.

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Of note prior to the Industrial revolution ?

We became a City on the back of Coal, steel and manufacturing round about the beginning of the twentieth century , but previous to that we seem to be a place that history past by.

Yes we had a castle but it apparently took very little if any part in this country's history in fact the only time it came under siege appears to be in the Civil war and the defenders ran off !! It's also said to have been quite large but no one knows for sure how large or what it looked like.

I remember being proudly told that Mary Queen of Scots was kept prisoner here but it's news to the Scots and I've never seen it mentioned in any major work on her life story.

So stainless steel, early football association rules and the founding of the Yorkshire cricket club, all after the industrial revolution, before that, a quiet back water ?...

Edited by grinder

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...all after the industrial revolution, before that, a quiet back water ?...
A quiet backwater that made knives, at least as far back as the 14th century. From Chaucer's description of a miller in "The Reve's Tale": A Shefeld thwytel bare he in his hose (a 'thwytel' or 'thwittle' being a knife).

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Of note prior to the Industrial revolution ?

We became a City on the back of Coal, steel and manufacturing round about the beginning of the twentieth century , but previous to that we seem to be a place that history past by.

Yes we had a castle but it apparently took very little if any part in this country's history in fact the only time it came under siege appears to be in the Civil war and the defenders ran off !! It's also said to have been quite large but no one know for sure how large or what it looked like.

I remember being proudly told that Mary Queen of Scots was kept prisoner here but it's news to the Scots and I've never seen it mentioned in any major work on her life story.

So stainless steel, early football association rules and the founding of the Yorkshire cricket club, all after the industrial revolution, before that, a quiet back water ?...

 

Apparently it was an attraction to foreigners, the Romans found it a place that had something of interest to offer, and they just didn't pass through and , let us never forget, much later so did the Luftwaffe.

Edited by stpetre
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Of note prior to the Industrial revolution ?

We became a City on the back of Coal, steel and manufacturing round about the beginning of the twentieth century , but previous to that we seem to be a place that history past by.

Yes we had a castle but it apparently took very little if any part in this country's history in fact the only time it came under siege appears to be in the Civil war and the defenders ran off !! It's also said to have been quite large but no one know for sure how large or what it looked like.

I remember being proudly told that Mary Queen of Scots was kept prisoner here but it's news to the Scots and I've never seen it mentioned in any major work on her life story.

So stainless steel, early football association rules and the founding of the Yorkshire cricket club, all after the industrial revolution, before that, a quiet back water ?...

Well the Sheffield [Hallamshire] historians keep passing round paintings, drawings and detailed info as to what the Castle looked like , where its walls are and that lots of it is still under the ex Market area;)

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Is the fact that Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here in Sheffield for 14 or so of her twenty-odd years of imprisonment inconsequential?

 

What about the civil war? Sheffield castle was "one of the ruins Cromwell knocked about a bit."

 

In Roman times, there was a fortress on wincobank hill...

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Like I said if Mary queen of Scots stayed here for 14 years it must have been incognito because if you can find anything other than a passing reference to her stay here any where outside Sheffield your a good un..

Back in the 14th century knives would have been just a cottage industry, why not you had all the things you need right on your door step and that's probably the only reference you'll find about Sheffield until the back end of the 19th, so what the hell happened to the 500 yrs in between ?

As for the Castle, I think you'll find most of our knowledge about it came from a dig in the 1920s and like the Wincobank fort it was probably built to guard a ford across the Don and I believe was built to replace a wooden one ? it looks as if both apparently turned out to be a waste of time and effort..

And Cromwell didn't literally knock it down it was an act of Parliament to get rid of places they didn't want but didn't want anyone else to use either..

Edited by grinder

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...Back in the 14th century knives would have been just a cottage industry...
As was just about every other kind of industry in the 14th century. It was the growing use of water power in the 15th century that improved productivity to the point at which, by the early 1600s, Sheffield had overtaken other provincial centres of the cutlery trade, and in this area was rivalled only by London. The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire was formed as early as 1624. Edge tools were also made in Sheffield, in particular agricultural tools such as sickles and scythes. All this development took place before the Industrial Revolution.
...so what the hell happened to the 500 yrs in between..
Apart from cutlery and tools, quite a lot was happening in Sheffield - the wool and other trades, weekly markets and annual fairs from the end of the 13th century. See here for example: http://www.localhistories.org/sheffield.html. In regard to its economic importance, obviously Sheffield in the Middle Ages never rivalled the main centres of population and human activity (London, York, Norwich, Bristol etc.) but there was plenty going on in this little market town..:)

Edited by beechnut

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Every time a chap goes for a pee in a urinal odds on that trough will be of Stainless Steel invented , patented and made in Sheffield.

So we get peed on World wide by all the big nobs or Knobs.

That is history.

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Like I said if Mary queen of Scots stayed here for 14 years it must have been incognito because if you can find anything other than a passing reference to her stay here any where outside Sheffield your a good un..

Back in the 14th century knives would have been just a cottage industry, why not you had all the things you need right on your door step and that's probably the only reference you'll find about Sheffield until the back end of the 19th, so what the hell happened to the 500 yrs in between ?

As for the Castle, I think you'll find most of our knowledge about it came from a dig in the 1920s and like the Wincobank fort it was probably built to guard a ford across the Don and I believe was built to replace a wooden one ? it looks as if both apparently turned out to be a waste of time and effort..

And Cromwell didn't literally knock it down it was an act of Parliament to get rid of places they didn't want but didn't want anyone else to use either..

.

 

George Talbot, MQoS gaoler, was the husband of Bess of Hardwick. She was he second richest woman in Elizabethan England (Liz being the richest).

Norfolk Park was the deer park where she hunted. Bess was married three times, and was linked with many notable lines,including the Talbot/ Shrewsburys, the Devonshires (I believe her money built the original Chatsworth, before this one, the seat of the Devonshires). And aswell as Hardwick and Chatsworth she was linked to a castle in Leicestershire ( I forget the name) and Haddon Hall, ( I may be wrong in thinking she was linked to Thoresby)

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The biggest problem for Sheffield in past centuries was that prior to canals and railways Sheffield was very difficult access so goods had to be transported with considerable difficulty.

This is one of the reasons that Sheffield made high quality steel in lesser quantities than lower quality mass produced products from other places.

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The biggest problem for Sheffield in past centuries was that prior to canals and railways Sheffield was very difficult access so goods had to be transported with considerable difficulty...
Quite right - it was a case of waggons on the main roads and packhorses over the hills. Some idea of the slowness of communications in the 18th century can be gained from this scan which is taken from Gales & Martin's directory of 1787. At that time it would have taken a consignment of cutlery, scythes etc. four or five days to reach Birmingham or Cambridge, and it would have been very difficult to move anything much heavier. To give two examples of trades (other than the cutlery and edge tool trades) that were practised in Sheffield in the 1780s, the directory lists 28 manufacturers of buttons (metal and horn) and 6 of inkpots (leather and brass).:)

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Sheffield has lots of history.

 

But, in a history rich nation, it just did not get that much attention. From Iron Age forts, caves, stone circles, Roman roads, through Danish settlements (all the "thorpes") to the relatively common castle. As kids we discovered these places for ourselves.

 

It was always "bypassed". By the politicians in London, , the BBC, by the Digging for Britain crew, and Time team. Even by the original M1 :)

 

And at the merciless rate of "modernization" it even lost it's central common greens, it's relatively recent, beautiful main shopping avenue, The Moor.

 

Despite ill advised attempts to "modernize" it, the Town Hall is about the only thing left of historical value.

 

"Knock it down" should be Sheffield's motto!

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