Sheffield Castle: Medieval Fortress and Civil War Stronghold
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- English
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page11 sections
History
Sheffield Castle stood in Sheffield, United Kingdom, at the confluence of the River Sheaf and the River Don. The site had supported Sheffield’s earliest settlement during the second half of the first millennium AD, before a motte-and-bailey castle was built there in the century after the Norman Conquest, William of Normandy’s invasion and takeover of England in 1066. The early fortress probably helped control the local population after the Harrying of the North, the campaign through northern England that followed the conquest.
Norman foundation and the Furnival inheritance
Construction of the first castle is generally attributed to William de Lovetot, an Anglo-Norman baron from Huntingdonshire who acquired the lordship of Hallamshire, including Sheffield, during the reign of Henry I. A motte-and-bailey combined a raised earth mound with an enclosed defensive yard, and early examples commonly used timber. Sheffield’s first castle was probably built in this form around 1100.
The earliest known documentary reference to a castle at Sheffield appears in a return made around 1188 by Ralph Murdac, sheriff of Derbyshire, concerning the wardship of Maud de Lovetot. Maud married Gerard de Furnival in 1204, transferring Sheffield Castle and the town to the Furnival family. Their grandson, Thomas de Furnival, supported the royalist side during the Second Barons’ War, the civil conflict of 1264 to 1267 between Henry III’s supporters and barons seeking limits on royal authority.
In 1266, anti-monarchical barons led by John de Eyvill passed through Sheffield while marching from northern Lincolnshire towards Derbyshire. They destroyed the town, burned its church, and demolished the first castle. Four years later, Thomas de Furnival received a charter from Henry III authorizing a new stone castle. Thomas died soon after its completion and was buried within it. A report published in 1707 stated that a large inscribed stone found during the castle’s demolition commemorated Lord Furnival as both its builder and burial occupant.
A noble residence and royal imprisonment
The stone castle occupied about 4.2 acres between the River Sheaf, Waingate, the River Don, and Dixon Lane. Its associated park covered approximately 2,461 acres, extending south to Gleadless and east to Handsworth. In 1516, George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, built Sheffield Manor as an alternative residence within the park.
Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic queen of Scotland from 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567, was held intermittently at Sheffield Castle and other Talbot properties between 1570 and 1584. Her imprisonment arose from the dynastic and political claims that kept her in English custody for much of her later life. An escape plan made in February 1571 failed after she was moved from Sheffield Manor to the castle.
During her confinement at Sheffield in December 1571, Mary could walk on the castle’s lead roof, in the large dining room, and in the courtyard. An earthquake on 26 February 1574 damaged the apartment where she was held.
The English Civil War
As the English Civil War approached, Parliamentarian forces under Sir John Gell seized Sheffield and the castle on 11 October 1642. The war consisted of conflicts fought between 1642 and 1651 by supporters of King Charles I, known as Royalists, and forces supporting Parliament.
In April 1643, Royalist forces commanded by William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, approached Sheffield after taking Leeds, Wakefield, and Rotherham. The Parliamentarian defenders withdrew into Derbyshire, allowing the Royalists to occupy the town and castle without a fight. Newcastle installed a garrison under Sir William Savile, who strengthened the defences and ordered nearby ironworks to cast cannon and produce other military equipment. Savile later entrusted the castle to his deputy, Major Thomas Beaumont, who retained command until August 1644.
That month, the Earl of Manchester sent about 1,200 Parliamentarian troops under Major-General Crawford and Colonel Pickering to recapture Sheffield. Their first artillery failed to break through the walls. Lord Fairfax then supplied a demi-cannon, a type of gunpowder weapon used against fortified walls, known as the “Queen’s pocket pistol”, together with a whole culverin, another form of heavy artillery. These guns opened a breach, and Beaumont surrendered on 11 August 1644.
The terms allowed the governor, officers, and soldiers to leave safely with their personal property, while protecting those who laid down their arms. Lady Savile, the pregnant widow of Sir William Savile, was permitted to depart with her family and belongings. She went into labour on the night following the surrender.
Demolition and later redevelopment
After the siege, Colonel John Bright of Carbrook Hall became governor. When Bright was reassigned to govern York, Captain Edward Gill took control of Sheffield. On 30 April 1646, the House of Commons ordered that the castle be made untenable. On 13 July 1647 it ordered the castle’s demolition.
Although extensive demolition had already taken place, the Earl of Arundel repurchased the castle in 1649 with the intention of restoring it. The damage was too severe, however, and restoration never began. The castle was subsequently razed. Its site later became an orchard and a bowling green, and was eventually built over. Some of its stone was reused in the Free Grammar School of King James of England on Townhead Street, built in 1648.
A slaughterhouse occupied the site during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A fish and vegetable market stood there around 1930, followed by Castle Market, which was constructed over the castle between 1959 and 1965. Demolition of the market in 2015 allowed further architectural investigation, and a major archaeological excavation took place in August 2018 through cooperation between Wessex Archaeology and students from the University of Sheffield’s archaeology department.
Remains
Sheffield Castle was built at the meeting of the River Sheaf and the River Don. The western bank of the Sheaf and the southern bank of the Don formed the site’s river boundaries, while the rivers provided natural protection on its north and east sides. A moat defended the southern and western approaches. The stone castle extended from the Sheaf to Waingate and from the Don to Dixon Lane, covering approximately 4.2 acres, or 17,000 square metres.
Early archaeological evidence
The site may have occupied the position of an earlier Anglo-Saxon longhouse, although the identification remains uncertain. Excavations in the 1920s uncovered earlier structures, and Leslie Armstrong’s analysis concluded that timber buildings had been cut down, burned, and cleared to make way for the Lovetot castle, probably around 1100. He identified these remains as structures other than Waltheof’s aula, a principal hall or residence associated with an Anglo-Saxon or medieval lordly estate.
The same excavations produced evidence of activity before the medieval castle, including a Bronze Age flint horseshoe scraper and Roman Samian ware and Silchester pottery. Excavations led by Armstrong in 1927, with investigations continuing through 1930, exposed foundations of the stone castle as well as traces of its earlier structures.
Fortifications and surviving masonry
Gateway bastion
The 1927 excavation uncovered the base of a gateway bastion tower and part of the gateway itself. A bastion tower projected from a fortification, allowing observation and defensive fire along its walls. The exposed remains included part of one gate tower, representing approximately one quarter of the original eastern tower.
Ruins beneath Castle Market
The surviving ruins stood about 10 metres above the River Don and were preserved beneath Castle Market. Before the market was demolished, the remains occupied two rooms below the building. One room was publicly accessible, while the other was enclosed and could be reached only through a manhole in the market’s food court.
Archaeological investigations
Investigations by ARCUS, the University of Sheffield’s archaeological research and consultancy unit, in 1999 and 2001 included drilling in the upper food-court delivery yard. Flagstones were left in place to mark the boundaries of the former castle. The market’s demolition in 2015 exposed further evidence of the castle’s size and arrangement, while the 2018 excavation added to the physical understanding of the buried remains.
The castle ruins are Grade II listed and were preserved beneath the former market. The investigations undertaken since 1927 have shown that the medieval castle was much larger than earlier interpretations had suggested and that it may have been among the largest medieval castles in England. The Friends of Sheffield Castle, a volunteer organization, was formed to research and promote the surviving remains.
