Archaeology @ Manor Lodge

3-D visualisations of Sheffield's Manor Lodge (Requires Quicktime plug-in)

Archaeology @ Manor Lodge focuses on the medieval and sixteenth-century hunting lodge of Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The hunting lodge sat amidst medieval parkland that was later, from the 1930s, subsumed within the urban sprawl of the city. One of the most well-known events in the history of Sheffield Manor Lodge was the period in the late sixteenth century when Mary Queen of Scots spent part of her captivity, possibly in the building known as the Turret House. She was in the custody of George Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife who was known popularly as Bess of Hardwick.

Excavations being carried out by the University of Sheffield's Department of Archaeology seek to illuminate this period of the city's history, when the Manor Lodge was at the centre of events of national and international significance. Once the property passed into the hands of the Dukes of Norfolk the lodge fell into a ruinous state. The ruins of the South Range and Long Gallery are part of what once was a great hunting lodge. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the site was used for industrial activities - a pottery kiln and coal mining - while workers' cottages were built amidst the ruins. All traces of this industrial activity were stripped away in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and one of our aims is to throw light on this aspect of the site's history.

Previous excavations at the site of the Scheduled Ancient Monument of Manor Lodge were carried out by Sheffield City Museum Service 1969-80 and later by South Yorkshire Archaeology in 1990 and the University of Sheffield's archaeological consultancy service (ARCUS) in 2007-09. The University's Department of Archaeology has continued the excavations, developing the site as a learning and teaching resource. The courses and field schools at Manor Lodge seek to inform students and the public alike in archaeological techiques and the integration of history and material culture.

Department of Archaeology



How to cite this page: Archaeology @ Manor Lodge, http://manor-lodge.dept.sheffield.ac.uk/, Accessed: 16 May 2012