A Sheffield Timeline

[mickjj]

Pre-Norman invasion

Iron Age: Brigantes constructed forts at Wincobank and Carl Wark, and the Roman Rig dyke.

c55: A Roman fort was constructed at Templeborough.

Early 9th century: The Sheffield Cross, an Anglo-Saxon cross was made. It is thought that this was erected on the (future) site of Sheffield Cathedral.

829: According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Egbert of Wessex received the submission of King Eanred of Northumbria to at the hamlet of Dore (now a suburb of Sheffield).

942: Edmund I of England re-conquered the Midlands, as far as Dore.

1000–1099

1046: A chapel was built on Carter Knowle at Ecclesall.

1069/70: Any settlements in the Sheffield area were likely destroyed in the harrying of the North.

1076: Waltheof, 1st Earl of Northampton and Lord of the manor of Hallam, was executed.

1100–1199

c1100: William de Lovetot founded a church on the (future) site of Sheffield Cathedral.

c1150: William de Lovetot built a castle in Sheffield. He also had the first Lady's Bridge built, established a corn mill and hospital in the town, and founded St Mary's church at nearby Handsworth (now a suburb of the city).

1176 (or 1183): Beauchief Abbey was established 4 miles southwest of the town of Sheffield in Beauchief.

1200–1299

c1200: Metalworking began at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet.

1266: A party of barons, led by John de Eyvill, marching from north Lincolnshire to Derbyshire passed through Sheffield and destroyed the town, burning the church and castle.

c1250: Church House at Handsworth (now the Cross Keys public house) was built.

c1270: A large stone castle was built to replace the wooden castle destroyed in 1266.

c1280: A new church was consecrated by William II Wickwane the Archbishop of York.

1296: Sheffield was granted a royal charter to hold a weekly market and an annual fair. The first reference to Sheffield's Town Mill appears.

1297: "Robert the Cutler" is recorded in a tax return, the earliest surviving reference to the manufacture of cutlery in Sheffield.

1300–1399

c1387: Geoffrey Chaucer in The Reeve’s Tale from his book The Canterbury Tales gave an early reference to Sheffield and the metal industry for which the town would become famous.

1400–1499

1430: The 1280 parish church was pulled down and replaced with a new building, the core of the present cathedral.

c1434: "Barker's Pool", Sheffield's first reservoir, was constructed. Once a month the reservoir gates were opened allowing water to wash the filth from the towns streets (with open sewers along their centres) into the River Don.

c1480: The "The hawle at the Poandes" (now the Old Queen's Head public house) was built.

1485: Lady's Bridge was replaced with a new stone-built bridge, still in existence.

1500–1599

c1500: Bishops' House was built.

c1510: The fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, George Talbot built the Manor Lodge outside the town.

1520: The Shrewsbury Chapel was added to Sheffield Parish Church.

1530: Cardinal Wolsey, following his arrest, was detained at the Manor Lodge for 18 days.

1537: Beauchief Abbey was dissolved, the estate becoming the property of Sir Nicholas Strelley.

1570: Mary Queen of Scots began her 14-year imprisonment at Sheffield Castle and the Manor Lodge, under the guard of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury

1584: Shepherd Wheel was passed to the sons of William Beighton in his will.

1600–1699

1621: Carbrook Hall was built.

1624: The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire was formed to oversee the cutlery trade in the town.

1630: Attercliffe Chapel was built.

1638: The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire erect the first Cutlers' Hall.

1642–1651: The English Civil Wars:

1642: The people of Sheffield seized Sheffield Castle for the Parliamentarians

1643: The castle was taken by Royalist forces.

1648: After a long siege the castle was once again taken by Parliamentarian forces, and an Act of Parliament passed for its demolition.

1700–1799

1700: Upper Chapel, the first non-conformist chapel in the city, was built.

1721: St Paul's Church is built as a chapel-of-ease to the parish church.

1736: The first buildings in Paradise Square are constructed.

1740s: Benjamin Huntsman, a clock maker in Handsworth invented a form of the crucible steel process for making a better quality of steel than had previously been available.

1743: Thomas Boulsover, working in Sheffield, invented "Sheffield plate".

1751: River Don Navigation extended to Tinsley.

1756: An Act of Parliament undertakes to turnpike the road south from Sheffield, to Chesterfield and London.

c1769: Britannia metal was invented in Sheffield, originally being known as "Vickers white metal".

1771: Paradise Square is completed.

1773: Sheffield was given a silver assay office.

c1775: The Duke of Norfolk commissioned plans for a new quarter, to be constructed on Alsop Fields.

1779: John Wesley preached in Paradise Square on 15 July.

1797: Sheffield Royal Infirmary opened.

1800–1899

1805: A new nave was added to the parish church.

1808: The small town hall that had stood near the parish church was replaced with a new building at the corner of Waingate and Castle Street.

1819: Sheffield Canal opened.

1832: A cholera epidemic claimed 402 lives in the town, later commemorated by the Cholera Monument.

1832: Sheffield gained representation in the House of Commons as a Parliamentary Borough

1836: Sheffield Botanical Gardens and Sheffield General Cemetery opened.

1838: A new Cutlers' Hall was built, forming the core of the current building.

1838: The first railway station in Sheffield, Sheffield Wicker station, opened on 31 October as the southern terminus of the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway.

1843: Sheffield was incorporated as a municipal borough.

1848: The Roman Catholic Church of St Marie (later a cathedral) was completed.

1848: The Wicker Arches were constructed.

1848: The parish of Sheffield was subdivided into smaller parishes.

1851: Sheffield Victoria Station opened on 15 September.

1855: Bramall Lane opened as a cricket ground.

1857: Sheffield F.C., the oldest football club in the world among those that have played, or do play, Association football (soccer), was founded.

1858: Sheffield Trades and Labour Council founded as the "Sheffield Association of Organised Trades".

1860: Hallam F.C. was founded.

1864: The Great Sheffield flood devastated large parts of the town, killing 270 people.

1864: By-laws were passed prohibiting the construction of back-to-back housing in the town.

1866: The United Kingdom Alliance of Organised Trades, a forerunner of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), was founded in Sheffield .

1867: The Sheffield Football Association founded

1867: Sheffield Wednesday F.C. was founded.

1870: Midland Main Line extension from Chesterfield to Sheffield opened, with the new terminus at Sheffield Midland station.

1873: The first trams ran in Sheffield.

1878: The first ever floodlit football match was played at Bramall Lane on 14 October.

1885: The Mappin Art Gallery opened.

1889: Sheffield United F.C. was founded.

1893: A Royal Charter granted the municipal borough of Sheffield the style and title of "city".

1897: The University of Sheffield was established.

1897: A new town hall was opened on Pinstone Street, the old building subsequently being used as the county court.

1897: The Lyceum Theatre opened.

1899: Hillsborough Stadium opened.

1900–1999

1913: Stainless steel was invented by Harry Brearley whilst working at the Brown Firth Laboratories in Sheffield.

1914: Sheffield became a diocese of the Church of England, and the parish church became a cathedral.

1919: Sheffield City Council began building council houses, mostly to the north and east of the city centre.

1926: The Labour Party first took control of the city council.

1934: Sheffield City Hall completed.

1934/35: Districts formerly in Derbyshire including Beauchief, Dore, Totley, Norton, and Woodseats were annexed by Sheffield.

1938: St Paul's Church was demolished to make way for an extension to the Town Hall. The extension was never built, and the site subsequently became the Peace Gardens.

1940: The "Sheffield Blitz"—heavy bombing over the nights of 12 December and 15 December led to the loss of over 660 lives, and the destruction of numerous buildings.

1955–1961: Park Hill flats were built.

1955–1962: The Gleadless Valley estate was built.

1965 The University of Sheffield Arts Tower was completed.

1971: The Crucible Theatre opened.

1974: The Local Government Act of 1972 led to the formation of the Metropolitan borough of Sheffield.

1974: Sheffield Parkway was opened.

1977: The "eggbox" extension to the Town Hall was built.

1979: The Royal Hallamshire Hospital opened.

1980: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hallam was created with the Church of St Marie as its Cathedral.

1988: The Sheffield Development Corporation was established.

1989: The Hillsborough disaster—96 Liverpool F.C. fans were crushed to death at Hillsborough Stadium.

1990: The Meadowhall shopping centre opened.

1990: The Don Valley Stadium opened.

1991: Sheffield Arena and Ponds Forge opened.

1991: Sheffield hosted the World Student Games.

1994: The first section of the Sheffield Supertram network was opened.

1997: The Gatecrasher nightclub moved to Sheffield.

1997: The film The Full Monty (set in Sheffield) was released.

2000–present

2001: The Millennium Galleries opened.

2003: The Winter Gardens opened on the site of the 1977 Town Hall extension.

[Sheffield History]

Excellent - some good information there dating back past 'when I were a lad'

:D

[JohnEBoy]

Fascinating!

Let's not forget the year 937 when a colossal pitched battle was fought "between Sheffield and Catcliffe, by Tinsley Forest" (Michael Wood).

Much fierce debate rages today about where the battle was actually fought- Merseyside, Northumbria, Scotland, Yorkshire etc, but I think logically it was near us- the then border between N.Mercia (under the Wessex king's control) and 'viking' domain.

Vikings had a long tradition of sailing to York (Jorvik) via the north Scottish coastline - or into the Firth of Forth, then hauling their fleet over land (not unknown- using logs and fish oils to 'grease' their smooth hauling) land at the thinnest point on the British island via the modern Forth & Clyde canal (level ground) then using the Carron and Kelvin rivers some of the way to the E.Coast

During what was simply called 'the Great War' of 937, King Athelstan of Wessex (Alfred the Great's grandson) amassed a huge army of 12-18,000 Wessex, Mercians, E.Anglians, some vikings and Welshmen to face an equal-sized coalition of Scots, Strathclyde Britons, Norsemen, Northumbrians and Dublin Norse under King Constantine of Scotland and Olaf Guthrithsson, who had landed in the Humber and raided northern England to provoke the king into battle.

The two met in a bone-crushing apocalypse lasting a whole day, shieldwall against shieldwall, in which no prisoners were apparently taken. After a long and bloody battle of attrition, the Scot-Norse broke, and a dreadful rout began.

Heroic Athelstan was now feared by the shattered Scots and Vikings, celebrated in poems and his title 'Emperor' was heralded even in Ireland, Wales and the continent.

Could we also include the Derwent Dam reservoir, 1943, RAF Bomber Command's Lancasters of the elite, hand-picked 617sqn practising what was then a top secret low-level night campaign in preparation for the heroic but costly Dambuster raid over the similar German dams, in May 1943?