This timeline of Sheffield history summarises key events in the history of Sheffield, a city in England. The origins of the city can be traced back to the founding of a settlement in a clearing beside the River Sheaf in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. The area had seen human occupation since at least the last ice age, but significant growth in the settlements that are now incorporated into the city did not occur until the Industrial Revolution.
1st or 2nd century: Romans built a rural estate centre, or ‘villa’ on what is believed to be a pre-existing Brigantian farmstead at Whirlow Hall Farm. Roman auxiliaries of the Sunuci tribe were granted land in the Stannington area of Sheffield in AD 124. Other evidence of Roman occupation near to Stannington comes from finds on Walkley Bank Road.
9th century: The Sheffield area was part of the Danelaw. Evidence of Viking occupation comes from the roots of place names in and around Sheffield such as Lescar, Carbrook, Carsick Hill, Hooks Carr Sick, the Hurkling stone, Grimesthorpe, Upperthorpe, Netherthorpe and many more.[6][7][8][9][10]
c. 1130: William de Lovetot founded a church on the (future) site of Sheffield Cathedral.[17] Around this time, Sheffield becomes a parish, having previously been part of the parish of Ecclesfield.[16]
c. 1150: 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).
c. 1250: Church House at Handsworth (now the Cross Keys public house) was built.
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.
1279–81: In the Quo Warranto enquiries, Thomas de Furnival claims the right to hold a market in Sheffield, to hunt, and to enforce the death penalty.[16]
1293–94: In further Quo Warranto enquiries, Thomas de Furnival claims the right to hold a Sunday market and a fair on the eve and day of Holy Trinity.[16]
1296: On 12 November, Sheffield is granted a royal charter to hold a weekly market and a three-day annual fair around Holy Trinity.[16] 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.
Thomas de Furnival grants a charter to the people of Sheffield establishing the Burgery of Sheffield.[20]
1430: The 1280 parish church was pulled down and replaced with a new building, the core of the present cathedral.[17]
1434: "Barker of Balme" is mentioned in a deed dated this year. He is thought to have constructed "Barker's Pool", Sheffield's first reservoir.[22] Once a month the reservoir gates were opened allowing water to wash the filth from the town's streets (with open sewers along their centres) into the River Don.
1643: The castle was taken by Royalist forces.[30]
1648: After a long siege the castle was once again taken by Parliamentarian forces, and an Act of Parliament passed for its demolition (slighting).[31]
1700–1799
1700: Upper Chapel, the first non-conformist chapel in the city, was built.[32]
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.
1789: 769 Sheffield metalworkers submit a petition to Parliament advocating the abolition of slavery.[37]
1792: The body of Spence Broughton, convicted for robbing the Sheffield and Rotherham mail, was hung in a gibbet on Attercliffe Common. It remained there for the next 36 years.[38]
1793: A petition against slavery with 8,000 names is submitted from Sheffield to Parliament.[37]
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 and 15 December led to the loss of over 660 lives, and the destruction of numerous buildings.
1981: The film Looks and Smiles, which depicts the economic depression of the city, wins Best Contemporary Screenplay prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
1984:
The television film Threads, which simulates the effect of a nuclear attack on Sheffield, becomes the subject of debate in the British media.
^Wood, Michael (2001). "Chapter 11. Tinsley Wood". In Search of England: Journeys into the English Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 212. ISBN0-520-23218-6.
^"History". Sheffield Cathedral website. Archived from the original on 13 October 2006. Retrieved 28 February 2008.
^There is an error of two years in most entries from 754 to 845. Thus, this entry is dated 827 in the chronicle. See Swanton, Michael (1996). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. New York: Routledge. pp. 46, note 6. ISBN0-415-92129-5.
^According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 'Here Edmund King, ruler of Angles, protector of clansmen, Mercia obtained, dear deed-doer, as Dor divideth: gate of the white well, and Humber's river, broad sea stream.' See "The Geographical or Ethnological Position of Sheffield as regards Dialect" in Addy A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield, pp. xxviii–xxxiv and Beaven, Murray L. R. (January 1918). "King Edmund I and the Danes of York". The English Historical Review. 33 (129): 1–9. doi:10.1093/ehr/XXXIII.CXXIX.1.
^According to an agreement from 1485 quoted in Hunter, Hallamshire, pp.193–194 the Vicar of Sheffield, Sir John Plesaunce, and William Hill, who was a master mason, both agreed to build a bridge of stone "over the watyr of Dune neghe the castell of Sheffeld"
^ abcClyde Binfield et al., The History of the City of Sheffield 1843–1993: Volume I: Politics
^ abcBinfield, Clyde; Hey, David (1997). Mesters to Masters: A History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-828997-9.
^Hunter, Hallamshire, "Chapter VII: The Removal of the Lords of the Manor—The Civil Wars"
^Taylor, Illustrated Guide to Sheffield, "The Civil Wars".
^Kaufman, Paul (1967). "The Community Library: A Chapter in English Social History". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 57 (7): 1–67. doi:10.2307/1006043. JSTOR1006043.
^Edwards, Edward (1869). Free town libraries, their formation, management, and history in Britain, France, Germany & America. New York: J. Wiley. OCLC1385548. OL6921178M.
Addy, Sidney Oldall (1888). A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield. Including a Selection of Local Names, and Some Notices of Folk-Lore, Games, and Customs. London: Trubner & Co. for the English Dialect Society. (wikisource)
Batty, Stephen R. (2005). Rail Centres: Sheffield. Nottingham: Booklaw Publications. ISBN1-901945-21-9.
Harman, R.; Minnis, J. (2004). Pevsner City Guides: Sheffield. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ISBN0-300-10585-1.
Hey, David (2003). Medieval South Yorkshire. Landmark Publishing Limited. ISBN1-84306-080-9.
Hunter, Joseph (1819). Hallamshire. The History and Topography of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York. London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mayor & Jones. (wikisource)
