'Thy Turrets and thy Towers are all Gone': Medieval Legacies in a 21st-Century City

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Medieval to Modern Transitions and Historical Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

While not known for its medieval heritage, the northern English city of Sheffield continues to be profoundly shaped by the fate of its medieval castle, hunting lodge and deer park. The castle was demolished during the Civil War of the mid-C17th, creating a rapid - almost catastrophic - disjuncture between the medieval and early modern. For over 350 years the site was appropriated for industry and trade, but now stands derelict. The slower dismantling of the deer park restricted the urban sprawl until the C20th after which the open spaces lent themselves to an ambitious programme of social housing, but this ultimately fell victim to post-industrial decline and unemployment in the 1980s. This paper explores why the elite landscape of the medieval period continues to loom large in a modern city, both hampering its prosperity and simultaneously holding the key to successful regeneration.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Medieval to Modern Transitions and Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 914