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Ancient Sheffield district names


ThemWotDays

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I was thinking the other day of what would be the earliest names of Sheffield districts recorded.

Couldn't think of anything as ancient as roman Danum for Doncaster, though the river Don's name through Sheffield likely predates even Roman times and is Celtic.

Of course there's the Domesday mentions of Hallun (Hallum), though annoyingly the 17 berewicks within are not named, and Escafeld (Scafeld), Aterclive, lost Grimshou, etc, but anything pre 1086.

Well Dore is mentioned twice to my knowledge in AS manuscripts, once as the venue for a peaceful submission of a King of Northumbria to the King of Mercia and once as a description of the C10th border between those two kingdoms - where it is spelt "Dor".

So I looked through some old charters / writs:

From "Inquisitions Post Mortem Richard II, File 26".

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/inquis-post-mortem/vol15/pp307-319#highlight-first

1386 AD

784   William de Furnyvall, knight

YORK

Writ: 19 April, 6 Richard II

Inq. taken at Sheffeld, Monday after SS. Philip and James, 6 Richard II.

 

He held the under-mentioned castle and manor etc. in his demesne as of fee.
Sheffeld. The castle and manor with members (extent given), held of the king in chief, as of the crown, by homage and service of one knight’s fee. The extent includes a park with deer, pastures called 'le Hallefeld' and 'le Lordestorth,' both under the castle, a fulling-mill in the park, a common oven, a view of frankpledge called 'le Semble' held at Sheffeld under the castle on Tuesday in Easter week, a market every Tuesday, a fair on Trinity Sunday, two pastures called 'le Brigfeld' and 'Byrunfeld,' and premises in the following places which are members of the said castle and manor:-


Rychemond. (Richmond) Lands etc. worth 44s. yearly, in the tenure of freemen and tenants at will.
Heghlegh. (Heeley) Lands etc. worth 40s. yearly, in the tenure of tenants at will.
Hallum. (Hallum, village!!*) Lands etc. worth [7/.] yearly, in the tenure of freemen and tenants at will.
Fullewod. (Fulwood) Lands etc. worth 100s. 2d. yearly, in the tenure of tenants at will.
Morewode. (Moorwood**) Lands etc. worth 40s. yearly, in the tenure of freemen and tenants at will.
Stanyngton. (Stannington) Lands etc. worth 6/. 2d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Le Mores (the moors??, or Onesmoor?) and Ryvelyngdene (Rivelin Firth?***). 2 plots of pasture with a wood and deer therein.
Stanyngton. A wood called 'Stanyngton Wode.'
Walkeleye. (Walkley) Lands etc. worth 18s. yearly, in the tenure of tenants at will.
Hoperthorp (Upperthorpe). Lands etc. worth 20s. yearly, in similar tenure, apart from divers lands etc. which are confiscated to the king and have been demised by him by letters patent to William Stevenesson of Hallum (Hallam village*) and others for a fixed farm payable at the Exchequer.
Waddesleye. Lands etc. worth 3s. 1d. yearly, in the tenure of freemen and tenants at will.
Ollerton (Owlerton). Lands etc. worth 16s. yearly, in similar tenure.
Overwhistane (Upper Whiston). Lands etc. worth 20s. yearly, in similar tenure.
Ollerton. A watermill.
Bradfeld.(Bradfield) Lands etc. worth 12d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Birlay. (Birley Carr?****) Lands etc. worth 100s. yearly, in similar tenure.
Wordesend (Wardsend). Lands etc. worth 20s. yearly, in similar tenure.
Southagh (Southey). Lands etc. worth 61s. yearly, in similar tenure.
Wodehous (Woodhouse). Lands etc. worth 36s. 1d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Wynkleye (Wincobank). Lands etc. worth 24s. yearly, in similar tenure.
Stanyngford (Stanniforth). Lands etc. worth 35s. yearly, in similar tenure.
Longlegh (Longley). Lands etc. worth 26s. 4d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Tynslowe (Tinsley). Lands etc. worth 2s. yearly, in the tenure of John Swyft.
Shirecliff. Lands etc. worth 40s. yearly, in the tenure of freemen and tenants at will.
Nepesend (Neepsend). Lands etc. worth 36s. yearly, in similar tenure.
Brighous (Bridgehouses). Lands etc. worth 10s. 6d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Grymesthorp (Grimesthorpe). Lands etc. worth 34s. 2d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Brykserthe (Brightside). Lands etc. worth 61s. 1 1/2d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Kerbroke (Carbrook). Lands etc. worth 6s. 7d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Atterclyff (Attercliffe). Lands etc. worth 54s. 10d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Darnall. Lands etc. worth 13s. 4d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Brykserth. A watermill in ruins.
Wordesend. A watermill in ruins.
Morthumleye (??) in the parish of Ecclesfeld (Ecclesfield). Lands etc. worth 50s. yearly, in the tenure of freemen and tenants at will.
Bernes (apparently a hamlet known as Barnes Manor near Burncross). Lands etc. worth 41s. 3d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Wodesetes (Woodseats). Lands etc. worth 30s. 4d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Byrlay. (Birley Carr?****) Lands etc. worth 54s. 1d. yearly, in similar tenure.
Ecclesfeld. A pasture called 'le Stuthalfeld.' 
Could this be related to Studfield Hill in Loxley?


The aforesaid manor and castle of Sheffeld, with all the aforesaid members thereof, are charged with 43 marks yearly to be paid to Maud sometime the wife of Walter Mungomery, knight, for her life, with the king's licence; and with 40s. yearly to Hugh Ferrour of Sheffeld for a term of years, by indenture, and 2 1/2 marks yearly to the abbot and convent of Beauchief.
Date of death and heir as last above.

 

 

The above was originally scribed in Latin (and bits of Norman French?) in C14th, no doubt in stylistic handwriting, but subsequently copied for preservation and held in national records under the reign of George III in early C19th. All the above was published in typed form in 1970 (and in turn that copy has been scanned from an American University and available as a free 'Google Book' on the web 'Calendarium inquisitionum post mortem sive escaetarum'), but has been more recently digitised "using optical character recognition" (the version I've excerpted from above). So there's plenty of scope for the odd character to be wrong, either from the digitation (I see "c" misrepresented as "e" and "n" as "h", potentially "s" and "f" etc), or from the Georgian copier misreading the ancient script.

The hamlet names in brackets are my guessed translations, though I know from other reading that Brightside was once something like Brekesherth (in C15th) and Wincobank was once Winkley, so it's educated guesswork.

Further, I presume 'Le Semble' to be the Wicker area, as this was once known as Assembly Green, or similar. The fulling mill too was presumably outside the castle walls somewhere on the Don or Sheaf? 

 

Even earlier, 26th year of Edward I:  1298 AD

 

477.  WILLIAM DE BELLO CAMPO, EARL OF WARWICK.

YORK;

HALLAMSHIRE.

Schefeld. A tenement in the manor called 'le Dichall' held of the dower of Maud his wife, of the lands &c. which were of Gerard de Furnivall her first husband; which tenement after her death ought to revert to Thomas de Furnivall, now lord of Hallumschire, as kinsman and heir of the said Gerard.
Guy de Warewyk, his son, aged 23 and more, is his next heir.

 

Is "le Dichall" Dykes Hall?

 

What I find fascinating about these is four things:

  1. There are a great number of districts whose history goes back nearly a thousand years or more with names preserved in similar form today. However, there are also a number of locations which I can't place, such as:  Morthumlay (in parish of Ecclesfield) and the pasture called Byrunfeld.  Wikipedia states there is a map of 1440 showing the area of present-day Burngreave Cemetery (formally the wood 'greave'/'grove') labelled Byron Greve; if Burngreave was Byron Greve then could the pasture mentioned "Byrunfeld" be a field in the same area (on Spital Hill?) outside the wood?  “Byrun(m)-feld” could translate as "at the cow-shed field"?

    EDIT – more digging and Morthumlay is the tiny hamlet of Mortomley in High Green

  2. The whole listing is given under the county of Yorkshire, yet this entry is describing the Manor of Sheffield. It would appear that some places mentioned would have been in Derbyshire. I note that the later town division of Ecclesall Bierlow included places like Norton even when they were still in Derbys. So rather than the modern City of Sheffield Metropolitan Borough encroaching and incorporating villages from historic Derbys only as recently as the C20th it seems that even in the Middle Ages the Manor of Sheffield straddled county lines?

  3. Suggesting that all these places (except the Beauchief mention at the end, where it’s conceivable you’d pay a monastery beyond the manor, in Derbys in this case) were in the Manor of Sheffield in C14th seems to stretch the boundaries further than I thought they were until much more recent years. I suppose Heeley now straddles the Meers Brook so the northern part would have been in the Manor, but what about Woodseats - surely Derbyshire, unless its tiny Wood Seats north of Grenoside? Richmond would be in Handsworth - I understand there is confusion about when Handworth manor become part of the Manor of Sheffield.

  4. *Hallam (Hallum) is mentioned as a village within the Manor, very separately to the description of Sheffield Castle, Vill and Park at the beginning. I know this is 300 years after the Domesday Book, but surely the preservation of a 'vill' of Hallam in name, separate to the immediate surrounds of de Furnival's version of Sheffield Castle, and long before ‘Hallam’ might have been a re-used romanticised term, would surely suggest that, whilst the name of the principal manor may have changed sometime post-Conquest from Hallam to Sheffield (though the Lordship title remained 'Hallamshire' throughout), the vills of Sheffield and Hallam were never the same place. Moreover, whilst the site of the pasture that spawned the name Sheaf-feld originally may, or may not, have been in the Park on east of the Sheaf the site of Sheffield castle on the west could never have been an AS vill called Hallam.

  My footnotes

  1. ** Morewode - I've read somewhere that David Hey once said Moorwood was "a farm west of Stannington and south of Dungworth, overlooking Rivelin Firth" - sounds to me like the area around Upper Tofts (very isolated, but then again so is Bradfield). I wonder though ‘Morewode’ if it might be a misread of Norewode (possibly modern Norwood near Fir Vale)?

  2. *** Ryvelyngdene - clearly some part of the Rivelin Valley – could be extensive as not referring to a village but a deer park and forest. The Georgian copy says Ryvelyngdone which I though could mean -dun (hill) but equally could mean -den / -dene (valley).

  3. ****Birlay / Byrlay - mentioned twice, spelt differently with differing values; are they different places? Not sure whether this is Birley Carr / Woods area (near upper Don for a source of water) or Birley Spa / Birley Moor area on the other side of the city. I suspect the latter would have been in Derbys until very recently though, so more likely Birely Carr?

 

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.....more of same....

Yorkshire Fines

1591 AD:

Edward Cutte   |   Thomas Creswicke and Jane his wife:

Messuage with lands in Hallum and Sheffield

James Carr, George Carr, and Robert Wynter   |   Richard Fenton, gent., and George Anne, gent., and Margaret his wife:

2 messuages with lands in Highstorres als. Skreath, Brigghouses, Sowthay, Brynsforth, and Sheffeld

(Brynsforth is Brinsworth; don't know about Skreath?) 

And 1596:

Richard Roberts, William Newbolt, and Thomas Creswick   |  Richard Beamont and Elizabeth his wife and John Hoyland and Grace his wife:

2 messuages with lands in Hallam and Sheffeld.

 

Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 3

6 May 1670 AD

Report thereon from the Surveyor General of Crown lands. By a letter of Jan. 7 last from some persons of credit inhabiting near Hatfield Chase, co. Yorks…blah, blah…….and in a further letter of Jan. 20 last they further certify as to certain parcels of land lying in Ecclesall parish in the West Riding, viz. Harthill grove, Roehill and Swother moor, containing about 1,000 acres and a moor called the Briots* which they know to be Crown property: and that there are other commissions [sic for commons] containing about 700 acres belonging to the manor of Ecclesall, viz. Bruntcliff Edge, Dobenhils, Little Common, Broad Oak, Greystones. Casterknell** and Little Sheffield moor and a parcel of ground called Crooks moor which lies betwixt Ecclesall, Hallam, Crooks and Sheffield, but none of these places claim any right therein and that they are clearly the right of the Crown

 

This would by my reckoning rule out the later Sheffield 'township' of Nether Hallam as a location for the vill, and definitely rule out the city centre – it looks like it was in later Upper Hallam, between Porter and Rivelin; assuming that by 1670 the name of the hamlet called Hallam still related to the location of the presumed vill associated with Domesday's Manor of Hallam.

 

* Anyone know where the Crown-land moor named "the Briots" would be?  "Bents" perhaps, as in Bents Green?

** "Casterknell" is presumably a misreading of "Carterknoll" (Carterknowle), unless the original name for that area really was "Caster / Ceastre / Castra – knoll ("knoll", later "knowle" being hilltop)……in which case we have strong hints of a Roman settlement in Ecclesall preserved in etymology of its sub-district name!!

 

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There was an early document in 1332 and things are in a pretty sorry state, for although the valuations are good, what they are worth isn't. For example six Water Mills at £51. 6s. 8d yearly. Plus a Fulling Mill, worth 40s yearly. Sheffield Park is worth nothing except 40s. Though it was valued at £6 15s. Due to a shortage of labour to collect rents. The Castle was not worth anything at all. There were also two forges the location being unknown valued at £70 yearly! Worth again nothing as they couldn't find any one to run them. The inquisition was held by the way in Rotherham.

The lay Subsidies of 1297 valued Sheffield at £8 5s 1d. Rotherham £4 4s 4d, Handsworth 29s 10p.

Another inquisition in 1365 says Sheffield was held by Knights fee and the payment was two white Greyhounds yearly to the King of England.

That 1383 inquisition has Sheffield Park valued at £16.  And Sheffield Castle is still worth NOTHING!!

The conclusion to this is that before 1332 some kind of virulent disease hit Sheffield and killed off most of the population. What was left rioted and attacked and destroyed most of the buildings. Even the church was affected. The Black Death also struck in 1347 and as can be seen from the continued low valuation little had been done to improve things.

In fact the Castle, which would have been a wreck. Wasn't rebuilt to John Talbot the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury got hold of the estates in the 1400's.  

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Hi ThemWotDays, interesting reading. I've done a bit of research on old names around my local area, and I agree that some names are 'Spelt Different' several times, I think it depended on 'Who' was writing them, and 'How' they interpreted the name they 'Heard'. I've found that FULWOOD had around 7 different spellings over time, and that you could also find an area name like 'BOLE HILLS' in several different places, making research very confusing. It was also frustrating at the begining of my searches, trying to find somewhere under Sheffield Yorkshire, till I discovered what I was looking for was under Derbyshire, as you have mentioned, you don't realise the extent of the border. A few old local names that I came accross were:- WHITLAIE WODDE = Whiteley Wood, - ANGRAM = Hangram Lane, - CRIMEKER = Crimicar Lane. On investigating Our Local History, once your hooked it's fascinating what you discover, and after all, our past is what's made us who we are today.

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On 27/04/2018 at 17:37, ThemWotDays said:

Suggesting that all these places (except the Beauchief mention at the end, where it’s conceivable you’d pay a monastery beyond the manor, in Derbys in this case) were in the Manor of Sheffield in C14th seems to stretch the boundaries further than I thought they were until much more recent years. I suppose Heeley now straddles the Meers Brook so the northern part would have been in the Manor, but what about Woodseats - surely Derbyshire, unless its tiny Wood Seats north of Grenoside? Richmond would be in Handsworth - I understand there is confusion about when Handworth manor become part of the Manor of Sheffield.

Handsworth didn't become part of Sheffield till 1921. The boundary ran down the Manor Estate. Woodthorpe was part of Handsworth and so was the upper part of Gleadless. When the Manor Estate was planned in 1919 they couldn't put any houses on what is now Woodthorpe, because that still belonged to Handsworth Urban District Council.

Though much of the estates were at one time under the control of the Lord of Sheffield, so as such were part of the Sheffield Manor. Apart from owning Handsworth Hall, most of the land in the Handsworth area came under private land owners. To confuse matters more, Handsworth had it's own religious parish. 

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Just a small point, which has been mentioned earlier....We should not include as an ancient Sheffield name those parts of our City which were originally in Derbyshire...such as Dore, Totley and more recently Mosborough and Beighton

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4 hours ago, lysander said:

Just a small point, which has been mentioned earlier....We should not include as an ancient Sheffield name those parts of our City which were originally in Derbyshire...such as Dore, Totley and more recently Mosborough and Beighton

Good point lysander. We just know and accept the area names we have in the Sheffield district now, without realising it was not always so, due to past ownership of land changing hands over time.

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That’s a real shame, as Beighton got a mention in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ‘Bectun’

There was also a castle here in Beighton, supposedly in the bend of the Rother, behind the Miners Welfare, but as far as I know, no one famous was ever imprisoned there! (sorry, couldn’t resist that!) :)

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On ‎28‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 00:34, History dude said:

There was an early document in 1332 and things are in a pretty sorry state, for although the valuations are good, what they are worth isn't. For example six Water Mills at £51. 6s. 8d yearly. Plus a Fulling Mill, worth 40s yearly. Sheffield Park is worth nothing except 40s. Though it was valued at £6 15s. Due to a shortage of labour to collect rents. The Castle was not worth anything at all. There were also two forges the location being unknown valued at £70 yearly! Worth again nothing as they couldn't find any one to run them. The inquisition was held by the way in Rotherham.

The lay Subsidies of 1297 valued Sheffield at £8 5s 1d. Rotherham £4 4s 4d, Handsworth 29s 10p.

Another inquisition in 1365 says Sheffield was held by Knights fee and the payment was two white Greyhounds yearly to the King of England.

That 1383 inquisition has Sheffield Park valued at £16.  And Sheffield Castle is still worth NOTHING!!

The conclusion to this is that before 1332 some kind of virulent disease hit Sheffield and killed off most of the population. What was left rioted and attacked and destroyed most of the buildings. Even the church was affected. The Black Death also struck in 1347 and as can be seen from the continued low valuation little had been done to improve things.

In fact the Castle, which would have been a wreck. Wasn't rebuilt to John Talbot the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury got hold of the estates in the 1400's.  

Yes, the medieval town certainly suffered its share of misfortune.

Firstly you have to ask why there was such a huge devaluation in the value of the Manor of Hallam recorded at Domesday between its worth in The Confessor's reign and it's worth in 1086 post-Conquest (although devaluation seems widespread across the north)?  Can't be anything to do with the William I's 'harrying' because that didn't kick off until after the Domesday survey, and even then it's questionable whether harrying "betwixt Humbra and Tees" reached as far south as Hallam/Sheffield, even if it was part of former Northumbria at the time.

Secondly when in 1266 John d'Eyvil (apt name) rode into town in the 2nd Barons Revolt and burned down the original Furnival / Lovetot castle, it is recorded that he also destroyed most / all of the town in the process!

But de Furnival was then given permission to rebuild by Henry III to reward his loyalty during that Revolt and a licence to 'crenellate' in 1270, so a fortified stone stronghold was built, which is the version of the C13th castle you say was 'a wreck' by the time of that 1386 writ.  As you say this wreck, plus the low valuation of the Manor's / town's other assets, could suggest some other disaster had occurred in the interim (1270-1386) - a pestilence perhaps?

Then of course there was the WWII Blitz!

However, on this penultimate 'disaster', I had wondered if the state of disrepair of the 'wreck' (I think they probably said "in ruin") was a deliberate attempt to downplay value and reduce death duties / inheritance tax. As you say sometimes writ inquisition hearing would be conducted in somewhere like Rotherham, so the inquisitor wouldn't be able to see the damage for themselves; though the 1386 one is recorded as being at Sheffield. I note that a couple of much later documents in the time of the what you conjecture would have been a Talbot re-build version of the castle (IIRC one was about minor roofing repairs circa C16th/17th and the other was about the post Civil War demolition of the castle), both refer to "the Old Tower" distinct from other towers mentioned, begging thee question was this a feature that had survived intact, or with minor repair, from the original 1270 de Furnival castle, or possibly an even older feature of de Lovetot's presumed motte-and-bailey effort?

What is often also overlooked, is that even when the Parliamentary order was passed to flatten the final castle, the Earl of Arundel & Surrey still attempted to buy back the site (for £30k IIRC; not cheap in those days) in order to rebuild a 'castle' for himself. This suggests to many experts that there was enough castle still left in situ even at the end of C17th to make for a potential renovation job into a nice stately house.       

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This is a map showing Sheffield and surrounds in 1645. Most of the names are recognisable, but ‘Westbury’ in the Don Valley, between Sheffield and Tinsley? That’s a new one on me!....

16DFB169-880A-42C5-928B-5B97BFF7AA0A.jpeg

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29 minutes ago, RLongden said:

That’s a real shame, as Beighton got a mention in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ‘Bectun’

There was also a castle here in Beighton, supposedly in the bend of the Rother, behind the Miners Welfare, but as far as I know, no one famous was ever imprisoned there! (sorry, couldn’t resist that!) :)

The name of Mosborough and Barlborough suggests there were also 'castles' of some sort there; though not definitely as burh / burgh came later to be used for a strong homestead rather than a formal fort or castle. Possibly part of saxon defensive line of burhs built along the Mercian border to protect 'England' from troublesome Northumbria. We know of local castles on this line at Connisborough and Mexborough, and where they were (still are, in a later guise, in the former's case). 

Anyone know where exactly it may have been in Mosborough or Barlborough?

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11 minutes ago, RLongden said:

This is a map showing Sheffield and surrounds in 1645. Most of the names are recognisable, but ‘Westbury’ in the Don Valley, between Sheffield and Tinsley? That’s a new one on me!....

16DFB169-880A-42C5-928B-5B97BFF7AA0A.jpeg

The Washford bridge in Attercliffe - which for centuries seemed to be the way to cross the Don to access Sheffield from the east (along Wicker and Lady's Bridge), was also sometimes known as / written as Westford / Westforth bridge. The names imply that before a bridge there was a ford over the Don there. Given the picture of a bridge on that map next to "Westbury" I wonder if Westbury gave the name to Westford bridge, a now forgotten sub-district of Attercliffe, or if the cartographer was mistaken and hearing of a well-known landmark called Westford bridge wrongly assumed the settlement adjacent was called Westbury.  You do get these odd things on C17th and C81th maps.  One I saw called Attercliffe "Attercup"!  

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There seems to be several sources that would have ‘Moresburgh’ (the fort on the moor) as the site of the current Mosborough Hall Hotel. This is interesting though, as it appears that 2/3 of the ‘dwellings’ of Mosborough were given as a wedding gift?

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/97529817-8ef6-4c49-96d6-ff0cd15adadd

Lots of place names in the paragraph as ‘de’ generally meant ‘of’ or ‘from’.

Pity the document is at Nottingham, but my boy’s there at Uni’, so may be trip down for lunch with him and a diversion on the way home in the offing?! :)

Isnt there also a Balborough Hall, which is a grand building one can see from the M1? Maybe this was once a fortified building?

693B2C94-4871-4E09-A93E-2348D74A489B.jpeg

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^^ good find RL. That looks like 1318 AD given the ref to 11 Edward ii.

 

Not only is Mosborough mentioned, but as you say the Norman fashion of using 'de' indicating 'of' in personal names reveals in turn the name of other Derbys districts of the time.

Hacunthorp - Hackenthorpe

Kynwaldmers  - Killamarsh  (Domesday's Chinewoldemaresc)

Brymyngton - Brimington near Chesterfield

 

 

Indeed, if we're allowed to 'do Derbyshire' on here, then another writ goes as follows:

750.

WALTER DE GOUSHULL.

(Writ missing)

Derby (county)

Inq. Monday after St. [Luke?] the Evangelist, 20 Edward II. (defective.)  (i.e. 1327

Barleburgh. The manor (extent given), with its members in Cressewell, Whitewell, and Coumbes, held of Nicholas de Langeford by service of a knight’s fee.
Kynwaldmers. A moiety of a water-mill, 18a. meadow, and 107s. 8d. rent, held of the said Nicholas by service of 1d.
Barleburgh. Certain lands &c., held jointly with Margery his wife, to them and the heirs of the said Walter, of Nicholas de Langeford, viz.—certain lands held by the grant of John son of Robert de Wodethorp, by service of 1d. yearly; a bovate of land, held by the gift of Richard de Goushull, by service of a rose; 2 plots of land and wood called Ryddyng and Horscroftgrene, held by the gift of William son of Roger de Hotto, service unknown; 17 1/2d. yearly rent, held by the gift of William de Hotto, service unknown; and 3a. land, held by the gift of Roger son of William Godhous, service unknown; and pleas &c., of the court.
Barleburgh Wodhous. 6s. 8d. rent similarly held by the grant of Robert son of John Gryme, by service of 1/2d. yearly.
Barleburgh and Wodhous. A toft and 3a. land similarly held, by the gift of Walter de Blida, service unknown.
Rouley and Barleburgh. Two plots of arable land similarly held by the gift of William son of William de Newbolt, service unknown.
Whitewell. Certain lands &c., similarly held, by the gift of Thomas Doilly, service unknown.
Barleburgh. A toft and a bovate of land.
Cressewell. Nine messuages and 9 bovates of land.
Whitewell. 6s. 1d. and a pair of gloves yearly rent, and a toft and 1/2 bovate of land.
All similarly held, by the gift of Adam de Gredelyng, by service of 3d. yearly.
Whitewell. A park similarly held, by the gift of Andrew Luterell, service unknown.
Heir as above.

 

"Coumbes" is an odd one. Given it's context here next to Whitwell, Creswell and Barlborough, it would suggest it's Clowne!  But I don't see how Coumbs could ever evolve to Clowne, plus the Clowne Wikipedia entry says Clowne manor was mentioned in the will of Wulfric Spot in 1002 and in the Domesday book it's given as "Clune" - so why would it be closer to current pronunciation in C11th than in C14th? Hence I think Coumbes is somewhere else.

And "Whitewell" is Whitwell, but we know that name is ancient because it mentioned in an early C10th  Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry as part of the Mercian board with Northumbria "hwittan wylles geat" I think it was spelt - i.e. Gap of Whitwell; indeed in much later times a three 'Shire Oak' was known to stand by Whitwell Wood at the meeting point of later Derbys / Notts / Yorks - a reused boundary probably.

I do wonder though whether the Hwittan Wylles Gap, which quoted in the ASC like this I presume was a well known landmark to travellers at the time, was in Whitwell village itself (a gap in the woods as some presume) or rather whether it was to the west (near Whitwell Common), closer to present day Clowne, as there seemed to be an ancient south-north (i.e. Roman or even British) road/way coming up through Clowne church area, following the magnesian limestone ridge, then (I understand) running onward into Northumbria through Thorpe Salvin and possibly Kiverton Park station area?    

 

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One theory I have heard is that Mosborough gets its name from being a "fortified place on the (river) Moss." Certainly, the prominence on which Mosborough Hall is situate commands an excellent view to the south and east . Mosborough has had a number of spellings with the current one being settled following the visit of a Bishop ( I seem to think it was of Southwell )in the early part of the last century....and Mosborough was, until boundary changes of 1967 ,and the acquiescence of the Parochial Parish Council to the transfer, once the most northerly parish in the see of Canterbury. Interestingly, near neighbour( and Mosborough was once a part of its Parish) Eckington has a "Castle Hill" but so far as I know there are no signs of a castle.

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3 hours ago, lysander said:

Eckington has a "Castle Hill" but so far as I know there are no signs of a castle.

Maybe it was something to do with the Roman Camp, as shown on the 1898 map here? I realise that a ‘castle’ may have been of a later era than Roman (medieval possibly?) so ‘Castle Hill’ May refer to a structure other than the camp? 

46D86418-4D09-4735-96F2-10F253780048.png

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Interesting...the Roman connection ...by the side of the old "Penny Engine Railway line ...I must have walked past it dozens of times and remained ignorant...Add to this the Roman coins recently unearthed near Windmill Greenway and we see a Roman presence

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23 hours ago, RLongden said:

.... that would be Packman Lane?

Yes, or rather a section of Packman Lane would appear to follow an alignment which would seem to fit with this rumoured ancient way.  I should have mentioned a big piece of evidence is that Thorpe Salvin (the "Salvin" suffix being a later Norman lord's name) is recorded as Rykenild Thorpe in at least two C13th documents, suggesting the villagers of the time believed a section of ancient Hicknield / Icknield / Ricknield St* to have run through their settlement.

If you follow a straightish line down on a modern satellite image (I haven't checked against old maps), after crossing the brook, this alignment gets picked up again a little further south on what's called Gipsiehill Lane, which in turn (interestingly), when on the other side of the A619 road, becomes known as GAPsick Lane - to my simplistic mind indicating this was an old route to the 'Whitwell Gap' (possibly the same as the AD942 ASC mention of Hwitan Wylles Geat).

 

On a more general note it amazes me how little is know about Roman roads in the corridor immediately east of Sheffield, not that I'm claiming this potential 'old way' through Whitwell Common and Thorpe Salvin is definitely one. 

It's probably fair to say that there was no major Roman roads running through Sheffield itself, not the type you'd march an army along, though there is likely to have been at least one minor east-west route through the city to access the lead of the Peak and/or the salt of Cheshire beyond. I know on that front that old folklore has it that the Old Causey of Redmires Road was part of it (though what you see on the surface of the moor at Stanedge Pole is the more recent packhorse track flags), but that equally some learned modern scholars think it took a different route over Ringinglow way. 

However, to the east of the city all the web images of the Roman road network will only show the two known north-south routes from Lincoln to York (the Ermine St furthest east, sticking east of the Trent, and relying on fording the Humber) or the 'winter Humber-bypass route' through Donny (bearing in mind that the land between those two would especially west of the Isle of Axholme would have been impenetrable marsh and mere, virtually cutting off Lindsey from the rest of northern England).  Yes, the odd diagram will attempt to plot a route of a section of SW-NE Icknield / Rycknild Street through S Yorks (not to be confused with the older still Icknield Way in southern England/East Anglia - a British ridge path), which ran from the Fosse Way in Gloucestershire to Templebrorough fortlet, but they don't know exactly where it ran once the obvious traces are left behind at Little Chester between Derby and Chesterfield; plus some seem to assume that the road must have run on beyond Templeborough to join 'Bypass Ermine St' north of Donny near Skelbrooke, involving a Don crossing en-route. Indeed a section of this SW-NE Icknield St was supposedly discovered by respected local archaeologists (was it Dorothy Greene?) when the railway chord was built through Beighton, crossing at an oblique angle near the station, yet nobody seems to have done any archaeology since to trace the route beyond.

Then there's this potential N-S route I talked of above through the Thorpe Salvin area.

*What's confusing is that use of "Rykenild" in the village sounds like (almost certainly is) the same word in SW-NE Ryknild / Icknield Street, yet a straightish road from Chesterfield to Beighton to Templeborough area cannot be the same road as one through Thorpe Salvin.  As nobody knows what the Romans called their roads it was left to the Saxons to apply meaningless names, then indeed for even later generations to perhaps generify the use of a few such terms such as 'Watling Street' and 'Rykenild Street' and apply them to any potentially Roman or pre-Roman scraps of road.  But we know that in the time of Edward the Confessor four of the old Roman Roads were still being maintained by Saxons and enjoying royal protection as crucial English national infrastructure - "Ermine Street", "the Fosse Way", "Watling St" and "Hickenild (Icknield) Street"; so which version of Ermine Street were they referring to (the Humber ford or Donny) and which Icknield Street the one through Beighton (sounds most logical as wouldn't be duplicating Ermine St) or the old through Thorpe Salvin?

What's more I'm sure I read some local history guys said they'd found traces of a N-S Roman Rd to the west of this Thorpe Salvin / Whitwell Gap hypothesis, at Harthill (or was it Woodall). And I definitely saw an web article from the Rotherham Advertiser of just a few years ago reporting on an old chap who feared going to the grave without anyone unearthing what he was convinced was a Roman fort or vicus at Morthen. He said Time Team were scheduled to do a dig but RMBC persuaded them to investigate some industrial archaeology elsewhere in their borough instead and the bloke dreams were shattered. He'd 'calculated' there was a fort in a Morthern field on the basis of an unidentified place name on a Roman itinerary (one which all serious scholars have denounced as a fake) combined with his understanding of multiple Roman roads in the area and where they must converge. So, even if the fort doesn't exist, he was a local into his history who took it as a given that there were roman roads in the area, and the N-S road he proposed ran through his believed fort at Morthern would seem to corroborate what I thought I'd read about years before of a road in Harthill - they align.

I also seem to recall that in one of the great Sheffield history books of Hunter or Gatty or Addy, that there is mention of traces of a Roman road in their day at one of the Wentworth estates (can't remember whether that was Woodhouse through the lake, or at the Castle near Stainborough)

 

My greater points here are that:

  • SW-NE Icknield St must run through the edge of Sheffield and has never been traced, other than, allegedly, at Beighton Station,
  • It seems highly likely that the known fortlet (short-lived as it seems to have been) at Templeborough must have been connected not just to Icknield St but also to a N-S axis road(s)
  • The topography of western South Yorks means the wider Rother Valley and / or slightly farther east the limestone ridge (above the marsh) on which Bolsover sits would make natural corridors through which to route a heavy-duty N-S military-grade ancient road (even today the M1 and HS2 both route this way), so talk of roads through Thorpe Salvin and  / or Harthill are plausible, especially if amateur historians / archaeologists report finding things.  
  • NOBODY WITH ANY AUTHORITY SEEMS TO CARE TUPPENCE ABOUT ANY OF IT - they don't seem vaguely interested! I'm not a historian or archaeologist myself, but surely with modern access to techniques such as geo-phys and even desktop 5cm-definition lidar map studies, you could probably discern a lot without any intrusive digging, then just rely on the odd bit of spot-digging here and there to confirm findings?

   

 

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