Sorry for the long silence but I have been laid low with a migraine which decided not to respond to any meds. However, just before it began I had written this post, only I was unable to send it then. So here goes, only five days late!
Its been a very busy week but I stopped on my rounds yesterday to take a few photos to show you a little of the surrounding area.
We’ve had several days of frosty nights, with the result that the next day has been sunny with blue skies. I took these in the old part of the village at the top of the hill:
The buildings are old farm buildings, workers’ cottages and barns from the 1700s and 1800s
This next house is older, dating from the late 1400s
Remains from 3,000 BC have been found along the top of the hills illustrating that this area has been inhabited and cultivated for a long time: farming was the summer activity and metal working of all kinds the winter activity, long before any national industrial revolution. This tradition continued up until the 1970s – when we moved here the previous occupant of our cottage had both fields with livestock and a forge in which he still sharpened scissors and made nails.
In 1761 a farmer ploughing a field uncovered several fragments of a brass plate (now in the British Museum) dating from Roman times, c124 AD. When decyphered, this was shown to confer on the son of Albanus, an area of land for his 25 years of loyal service to the Empire. Incidently this son of Albanus was a foot soldier from a Belgian tribe.
The village is listed in the Domesday book compiled on the orders of William the Conqueror in the late 1000s and a local farm contains interesting features from an 1109 church, including a carved cross which is thought to be of Saxon origin and to date from the C9.
Records show that in the 12th and 13th Centuries this was a thriving farming community, inasmuch as the Black Death and the uncertain climate allowed for any thriving! The whole valley was a Medieval Hunting Forest and local cottagers and farmers were allowed the Rights of Pannage: that is they could drive their pigs down from the village into the forest to root for acorns and get fat for the winter. They could also gather faggots for kindling and dead bracken for feed and bedding. Some of the surviving ancient pollarded trees, cut high to protect them from cattle and deer, bear testament to these woods.
Holly thickets were cultivated for green winter forage for beasts – various areas are still called Hollins after this custom and vestiges of these ancient Holly woods survive today.
Green Birch branches were thrown on to hot metal to cool it down in the metal working industry, and charcoal was used before coal was mined for smelting, hence the ancient woodland still surviving all around the city and the reason we are the most wooded city in Europe: the management of coppice woodland for charcoal making is an art form which is still practiced and ensures that very old trees survive for centuries.
The local geology provides for mineral extraction, special clay for making the bricks to line furnaces and surface coal, all ideal for the cottage industries which later made the city of Sheffield such a well known steel city. The local rivers were peppered with mills using the water power to grind corn, roll out steel, and power forges of all kinds.
A view from the village along the ridge tops each side of the local valley:
hundreds of thousands of years ago, this was a pene-plain, the land being all level with no valleys: the melting snow waters and peri-glacial activity following a couple of ice ages, (how many depends on which literature you believe), carved out the river valleys of this area. Like the tradition for Rome, Sheffield is build on seven hills!
Under the oak tree I have circled in red, very badly, a smudge of smoke on the horizon. (If you click on the photo and enlarge it you will see it). Today is a perfect day for heather burning and patches of heather moorland were being burnt. This is done on a rotational basis to ensure adequate quantities of young shoots for the grouse to eat: burning cannot be carried out after February in case of nesting animals so it has to be done on dry days now. The moorlands landscape ends up as a patchwork comprising one year, two year, three year old heather plants which proved food, nesting areas, and cover for grouse and mountain hares, according to age of plant.
There is a whole ecology and maintenance cycle around such management, first introduced, along with the creatures, for the hunting and pleasure of C19 land owners. If anyone is actually interested, I can post details here. I find such things fascinating, but am careful not to bore family and friends with my academic interests, unless specifically asked to!
I have decided to take another year off from teaching in order to try to finish creating some order in the household and follow some of my other interests. Hence, you may find my lectures creeping in here, just out of habit. Beware! I shall try to spare you.
The old buildings are really beautiful. I for one will enjoy your lectures 🙂
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More of your lectures please Sweff.
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Yes, agreed! More of your lectures please. I found the rotational burning of heather moorlands very interesting. In Borneo, the natives practice similar agricultural methods- burning an area of forest land to prepare for paddy cultivation.
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Lecture away! Love it and the pictures! I want to live there!
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Oh lovely! That last house is very similar to one we wanted to buy down here ( also from the 14th century ), unfortunately it would have meant a 2 hour commute each way to work so it remains in our dreams.
Hope your migrane has gone completely and you’re not too drained from it!
Always happy to read any of your lectures 🙂
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The photos are great, and your stories (lectures?) are fascinating. I love the old part of the village. It seems wonderfully maintained. We have no long history such as this.
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I LOVE the ;lectures, but am so sorry you’ve been unwell . . .
J x
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Lecture away! I suffer from migraines myself. I feel for you…
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I get migraines, too, and loathe them.
What great stone fences – I love how graceful they look.
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Thanks for the reminder of why I loved living in your great country! I just wish I had been possession of a digital camera back then. Love the U.K.!!
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Beautiful pictures and interesting stories. Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about the migraines and glad you’re feeling better.
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Most interesting post – the cottages reminded me of my first trip to England. We stayed with a cousin in the Cotswolds, and I – an imaginative, romantic 14-year-old – was in thrall. Felt like I had stepped into a historical novel.
There are so many place I’d like to go in the UK, but I wouldn’t have put Sheffield on the list until now.
Nice to come across such an informative piece where the reader comes away having learned something new.
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I’m so sorry that you’ve suffered what was obviously a bad migraine. I used to get them too so I know how awful it is. As for your post, it’s absolutely fascinating and the buildings look vaguely familiar. I can’t help thinking that you must live very close to me as I’m on the outskirts of Sheffield too. The 14th century house is just beautiful.
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I seriously can’t stand how good your pictures are! Those are all gorgeous!
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