Christine Handley

A celebration of Sheffield's rich heritage and identity - its special events, achievements, people, industry and landmarks.

The county of South Yorkshire covers Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield districts. Although each are major urban centres with their own range of civic buildings, museums and galleries, the county also ranges from low-lying farmlands in the east to high moorlands on the edge of the Peak District National Park. It has a rich and diverse landscape including ancient woodlands, rivers and wetlands alongside the legacy of its history as an industrial powerhouse built on coal, steel and heavy engineering, including Kelham Island in Sheffield, Wortley Top Forge and Silkstone Tramway in Barnsley, and Clifton Museum in Rotherham. Away from the urban centres there are picturesque market towns and villages, such as Penistone, Tickhill, Bawtry, Bradfield, Thorpe Salvin and Tankersley which still serve rural farming communities, and stunning stately homes and parkland, for example at Wentworth Woodhouse, Canon Hall and Brodsworth Hall. Earlier medieval remains survive at Roche Abbey and Monk Bretton Priory, the castle keep at Conisbrough, the Lady Chapel on the bridge in central Rotherham and Ecclesfield Church, ‘the Minster of the Moors’. There are also examples of the earliest human settlement and activity at Wharncliffe Crags and Wincobank Hill in Sheffield. Other places have associations with historical figures such as the sculptor Francis Chantrey and William Bradford, one of the Pilgrim Fathers. In 50 Gems of South Yorkshire authors Christine Handley and Ian Rotherham explore the many places and their history that make this part of northern England so special, including many lesser known gems.

This illustrated history portrays one of England’s finest cities. It provides a nostalgic look at Sheffield’s past and highlights the special character of some of its most important historic sites. The photographs are taken from the Historic England Archive, a unique collection of over 12 million photographs, drawings, plans and documents covering England’s archaeology, architecture, social and local history. Pictures date from the earliest days of photography to the present and cover subjects from Bronze Age burials and medieval churches to cinemas and seaside resorts. Historic England: Sheffield shows the city as it once was, from its streets and alleyways to its many steel factories. The ‘Steel City’ was once a place of international renown and Sheffield plate and Sheffield cutlery have been marques of the best in the world. The city’s fortunes changed dramatically in the twentieth century. Post-war decline was particularly brutal in Sheffield and by 1980 the city was synonymous with high unemployment and economic decline. Today Sheffield has reinvented itself as a vibrant developing centre of retail, commerce and education. This book will help you discover the rich and colourful history of England’s fourth largest city.

This fascinating selection of photographs and informative text charts the history of some of Sheffield's finest and most notorious pubs, taverns and old alehouses.

Explore Sheffield's secret history through a fascinating selection of stories, facts and photographs.

War & Peat - The remarkable impacts of conflicts on peatlands and of peatlands on conflicts - a military heritage of moors, heaths, bogs and fens. As we approach the centenary of the Great War (WW1), matters of landscape, terrain, resources and strategies become increasingly topical and relevant. The relationships of people and landscapes, of economies and conflicts, and ecology and history, are complex and multi-faceted. For peatlands, including bogs, fens, moors, and heaths, the interactions of people and nature in relation to history and conflicts, are both significant and surprising. The themes of this book were addressed at a major international conference in 2013, and the expanded papers are presented here as chapters. The conference and book are mostly focused on temperate environments, but the interactions of peatlands and conflicts are more global and wetlands have been hugely influential in tropical conflicts to

Trees Beyond the Wood was written for a conference organised to celebrate twenty years of work since the first major conference on the theme of ancient trees and woodlands held in Sheffield, UK. It was held almost ten years after the landmark 2003 Working and Walking in the Footsteps of Ghosts event which started to raise issues and challenge assumptions about what is 'ancient' or 'natural' and what is meant by the terms 'wood' or 'woodland'. Since then on-going work in a range of disciplines across ecology, biology, landscape history, archaeology, forestry and nature conservation has continued the process of research and evaluation across the subject area. The collection of papers by contributors from across Europe reflects this broad range of interests and disciplines.

This short survey guide is an introduction to investigating landscapes, looking for shadow and ghost woodlands. These are often 'lost woods', which do not appear on maps as woodlands, or even have names can be indicators of former land-use over hundreds of years. The guide results from many years investigating wooded landscapes and has developed specifically from a project begun in 2009 by Professor Ian Rotherham and colleagues. In 2012, the project received funding from the Peak District National Park's Sustainable Development Fund to involve volunteers in investigating the local landscape in the eastern Peak District. A version of the survey guide was produced for local volunteers. This publication brings the work together and illustrates wider issues and applications using some of the information from the project to date. There is still much more to do and other areas to investigate. The authors hope that this publication will act as both a guide and catalyst for further work.