Heeley City Farm is working
with Tinsley Junior School, Wessex Archaeology and Sheffield Local Studies
Library and Archives to investigate the history of the Tinsley manor house,
possibly buried underneath the school field. The project is based at Tinsley Junior School
where the whole school is working with professional archaeologists to discover
and interpret the history of the manor house..jpg.jpg)
The manor house was built
in the 11th or 12th century; it was the residence of the local lords and
surrounded by a park and woods covering 413 acres. The manor was rebuilt in the
14th or 15th century, possibly by the de Tyneslaw family. Tinsley was an important part of the 18th and
19th century industrialisation of Sheffield. As a result the area became heavily populated
and soon needed more public services. In
the early 1960s the old manor house, which by this time had become a farm, was
demolished to enable the construction of Tinsley Junior School. Nothing of the manor house survives above
ground so the project but through archival research and geophysical surveys, it
will be possible to map the underground remains in preparation for excavation.
The pupils have been
busy undertaking their archival research this week including the deciphering of
names on a Tinsley rent roll from 1667 (pictured above).
Pictured top right: Manor House Farm, Tinsley
(also known as Needham's Farm), No 150, Bawtry Road, Tinsley (Picture Sheffield:
s06421).