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| Artist's impression of Sheffield Castle in 1060 |
Students in the School of English at the University of Sheffield are provided with the opportunity of taking a work placement as part of their degree programme. This year Mollie Littlewood is working with us at Sheffield City Archives and Local Studies Library. She is writing a series of blog posts highlighting the city’s fascinating archival treasures. This week she took a walk down to Castlegate to try and better understand a document she found in the archives...
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| Map data copyright 2017 Google |
On the site next to Wilkinson's, Castle Market stood from
1965 to 2015; it was named after the building that was once in its place.
Over 900 years ago on this same spot next to the River Don, the first earth and
timber castle was constructed by William De Lovetot. This wooden castle, along
with most of the town was destroyed by John de Eyvill’s forces in 1266. King Henry
III granted permission for it to be rebuilt in stone in 1270, and this stone
castle formed the centre of the structure which survived until the 17th
century.
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| Plan of Sheffield Castle about 1700 (drawn in the 1930s) |
Sheffield Archives holds a document dated 16th
November 1586 which details the inventory of armour held at the castle at that
time. According to the document the castle held various weapons and pieces of
armour. These included pistols, firearms, muskets and haldberds (a combination
of spear and battleaxe). The castle stored armour for the horsemen and footmen
which included ‘Jacks and plat coattes’ which were a sleeveless coat or tunic
worn by foot soldiers and coats of plate armour, a kind of light armour first
used in Germany called ‘Almann Revett’. There were also pieces of armour for
protecting specific parts of the body;
Gorget - a piece of armour for the throat
Curiass of proof - a piece of armour
consisting of breast and back plate made of tested metalMorryan - a kind of helmet without beaver or visor
Poldrens’ - shoulder plates
Scules’ - skull caps made of metal
Splents’ - overlapping pieces of steel in armour often used for the knee and elbow to give flexibility
Vambracis’ - a piece of armour protecting
the forearm from the elbow to the wrist.
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| Sheffield Castle excavations recorded by J.B. Himsworth. Shoe found in Castle Moat. |
Western Park Museum exhibits items from the Sheffield Castle
including fragments of jugs, cooking pans and plates that would have been used
by ordinary people. The museum also has items that would have been found in the
castle armoury including stone and iron cannonballs, a lead musket ball and an
iron spur that would have been worn by the horsemen.
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| Inventory of armour at Sheffield Castle dating from 1586 (Sheffield Archives) |
Despite the Castle’s vast armoury, this did not prevent it
being severely damaged in a parliamentary siege during the English Civil War in
August 1644. The castle was able to withstand the siege for several days
because of its 18 feet deep moat and walls that were two yards thick. However, two
larger cannons were brought in and caused major damage to the castle walls.
Two years later on 30th April 1648 the House of
Commons resolved that Sheffield Castle should be made untenable. The order was
carried out that same year and the stone and various effects were sold to local
people for building material, meaning that the body of Sheffield Castle is
perhaps still standing in fragments and spread across the city.
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| Stones from Sheffield Castle |
The document detailing the inventory of armour at Sheffield
Castle is also fascinating in itself. It is now over 400 years old. There is evidence
of where the edges have at one time been folded and pieces have been ripped
away. However the ink has not faded and the writing is still clear, although
the style of handwriting is difficult to read.
The handwriting used in this document is a specific style of
handwriting that was developed in the 16th century because of the
new diversity of uses for writing. What was demanded was ‘a universally acceptable style -
one which could be written quickly and read everywhere without difficulty - a
handwriting for the ordinary man.’ Of course this handwriting is now
practically illegible to the 21st century lay person, however at the time it
was introduced to create a standard handwriting that did not represent an
individual, as handwriting normally does, but that looked consistent whoever
was writing it. This type of handwriting was called ‘Secretary’. There were
three types of Secretary handwriting; engrossing, upright and sloped. Sloped
style had no consistency between the different letters and it was influenced by
the consistent slope of italic hand. Engrossing secretary, or ceremonious hand,
had regularity in design, a consistent uprightness, absence of linking strokes
between the letters and a contrast between different strength of strokes.
Read today some of the letters can be mistaken for a
different letter, for example the e
and the c in upright secretary look
very similar. The letter h bears no
resemblance to the way we write the letter h
today, but looks closer to the letter g or
S as it begins with a loop and is
finished off with a deep curving swirl underneath. The letter p is written in one continuous action
and often looks like an x. The
letters a, c, and g are sometimes begun with ‘a long
straight stroke, inclined to the right and rising high above the line of
writing’. The letters can be difficult to distinguish from one another making
the handwriting difficult to read.
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| Coloured reconstruction of the castle (from Brightside and Carbrook Co-operative Society Annual Report 1968) |
Mollie Littlewood
The Inventory of armour in Sheffield Castle, 1586 is available to view at Sheffield Archives upon request. Please quote the reference number: JC/919. A transcript is available on the Archives catalogue: http://www.calmview.eu/SheffieldArchives/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=JC%2f14%2f19&pos=2
For more information on the Sheffield Castle site see: http://friendsofsheffieldcastle.org.uk/For a full list of sources at Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library relating to Sheffield Castle, see our comprehensive Study Guide: http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/home/libraries-archives/access-archives-local-studies-library/research-guides/castle
