The White Poplar can reach a height of 30 metres and is a very fast growing tree, capable of adding a metre a year to its height. Spreading by suckers as well as seed it can become invasive. It thrives in poor soils including those that are salty and sandy. This has also made it a popular tree to grow under difficult conditions. It was introduced into the UK as a decorative tree for parks and gardens, probably from Holland during the 16th Century. It is native over a vast area, from the Atlas Mountains, through southern Europe to Central Asia. A shallow-rooted tree, when young the bark is smooth and silvery grey but as it ages it develops a characteristic pattern of dark, diamond-shaped pores.

The Beech, the third most common tree of British woodlands, grows to over 40 metres and can live well over 300 years, or up to 500 years if pollarded. It is truly native in South East England and South Wales, colonising as the ice retreated after the last ice age. It has naturalised and been planted elsewhere in the UK. Mature beech woods can form a cathedral-like high-arched canopy. Beech are shallow-rooted and many old trees were lost during the hurricane of 1987.

Some Parkwood Springs Beeches are multistemmed and may be survivors of older trees which were cut for firewood by impoverished local people during the 1930’s Depression. Beech is a favourite decorative hedge having beautiful foliage and leaves that linger on well into winter. These act as shelter for birds and small mammals.

The Horse Chestnut was introduced to England in the 16th century from Türkiye and became very popular for avenues and specimen trees in Stately Homes and urban parks from the 17th century. It was especially valued for its decorative flowers, commonly known as ‘candles’. The fruits have long been popular with children playing the game ‘conkers’. There are nearly half a million in Great Britain and Capability Brown planted 4,800 on just one estate in Wiltshire. Horse Chestnut trees can grow to a height of 40 metres and live for 300 years. The tree grows rapidly and in a range of soils. There is a decorative pink flowered cultivar often grown in parks.

Apple trees are not native to Britain. Domestication of Apples probably started around 10,000 years ago and they are now grown world-wide, with many thousands of varieties. DNA analysis shows the earliest form of Apple is native to the mountains of Kazakhstan where it is still flourishing. No Apple variety comes true from seed. All cooking, eating and cider Apples have been developed from selective cross-breeding over thousands of years. The only reliable propagation of any variety is from clone-grafting.

The Goat Willow is more commonly known as the Pussy Willow because of the furry, silver-grey male catkins that appear (before the leaves) in late February and March. It is one of several species of willow native to the UK. There are over 300 species of Willow worldwide but many hybridise with each other so it isn’t always easy to tell one willow species from another.

Because it tolerates dry, poor soils as well as damper conditions the Goat Willow is the Willow that appears in several parts of Parkwood Springs.

Goat Willow, growing up to 10 metres, can live for 300 years. It is a ‘pioneer species’ and can be found in open ground, woodland scrub and along water-courses.

Gorse and Broom are both members of the pea family. These bushes can survive and spread quickly on poor soils aided, as with all members of the pea family, by their ability to fix nitrogen in the soil. Growing 2-3 metres high and forming dense thickets if left, they are important parts of a mosaic of different ecosystems but, if not managed, can spread to invade other valuable habitats. On Parkwood Springs we have an important inner city heathland, mixed stands of woodland, meadow and grassland. To maintain a balance we control the spread of Gorse and Broom through our conservation sessions. Volunteers are always welcome to join us doing this or other conservation work.

In October 2023 Ian Rotherham (Emeritus Professor at Sheffield Hallam University) at Graves Park gave a talk about mediaeval deer parks in Sheffield. It prompted a closer look at Parkwood Springs, which had been a deer park in mediaeval times.
 
Why were deer parks established?
 
Early days
 
John Fletcher (Landscape Archaeology and Ecology, September 2007), a vet working in a Scottish deer park, has written about the ways in which early humans throughout Europe and Asia hunted deer in groups, setting a cultural tradition which seems to have lasted for centuries. Deer roamed wild over wide geographical areas. They were relatively difficult to hunt to provide sufficient food to feed a tribe, therefore, probably since prehistoric times, communities would come together to herd deer by encircling them over a wide area and driving the animals into an enclosure.

Archaeologists studying the Mesolithic era have discovered the use of deer antlers both as tools, but also possibly worn on the head for ceremonial purposes. Deer hunting was therefore prevalent, valued and revered in very early times. There are still some traditional dances currently performed using a head dress of deer antlers.

Archers on horseback, are thought to have demonstrated their prowess with a bow by riding through enclosed deer herds often engaging in a frenzy of mass slaughter. Apart from effecting a cull of the larger animals and providing food to feed a tribe through the winter, such a enormous collaborative event probably also served to promote community coherence - people hunting and feasting together. There may also have been a ceremonial function.

Such an event would have celebrated the power and status of the leader of the tribe and the strength and accomplishment of participating individuals. The more competent marksmen would be better fed, therefore fitter and stronger and ranking higher in their society - although by herding deer, the deer would have provided less of a challenge.

Archaeologists in Orkney have discovered the remains of large numbers of an ancient breed of cattle which they consider were all slaughtered at the same time and must have provided meat far in excess of the needs of the local population. The animal bones were found close to a religious site of considerable proportions, which suggests that Neolithic people from far and wide must have travelled to events or ceremonies where large numbers of animals were slaughtered.
 
Anglo Saxon Britain
 
Fletcher describes how in Anglo-Saxon times, deer were driven by beaters and dogs into areas enclosed by thickets or hedges of impenetrable shrubs such as holly – known as hags or holly hags (haiaes) or Hollins. Many of these still persist in place names, such as Hagg Lane, Hagg Hill and Holly Haggs at Crosspool in Sheffield.

Roe deer, which were indigenous to Britain and most common in Yorkshire, were smaller than red or fallow deer, did not roam in larger herds, therefore were harder to corral. They mainly fed by browsing in woodland rather than grazing open grassland, so were less in evidence although they were still able to be herded by beaters and killed by skilled hunters. Herding the deer provided a much easier target for the hunters. Some used canvas fencing to channel the deer into the hags as deer would run along clear pathways. In Scotland deer would follow streams or rivers when frightened, therefore they could be channelled through river valleys.

Following the ancient cultural tradition, the herded deer would be sorted and culled, younger deer over-wintered, meat hung to provide food for the Lord of the Manor’s table or to be given as gifts to ensure the allegiance of local nobility or the clergy.

Venison was a high status meat – the preserve of the wealthy. There were strict laws to protect deer from poachers. People who could keep deer on their land were able to use the activity of hunting, and the venison produced, both as a status symbol and as a means of maintaining power in their community.

There seemed to have been problems of ownership if wild deer wandered or were enticed from one estate to another, therefore Anglo-Saxon noble families began to fence off areas to keep deer on their estates - and villagers out. It clearly became fashionable for wealthy families to have an enclosed area of land as a deer park.

Typically a deer park would consist of an area of open grassland with mature trees and copses of trees and bushes where deer could browse and graze often alongside cattle. There would also be the areas of holly hags to feed the deer and cattle in winter.
 
Normans in South Yorkshire
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After the Norman Conquest and the audit of land recorded in the Domesday Book, large estates were gifted by King William 1 to Norman noblemen who had fought with him. The de Louvetots were such a family who came to own vast areas of what is now South Yorkshire displacing Anglo-Saxon nobility and taking over their estates.

William de Louvetot was an Anglo-Norman from Huntingdonshire who inherited the Yorkshire estates. From early in the 12th Century – a relatively short time after the Norman conquest during the reign of Henry 1st – he already owned: Hallam, Attercliffe, Sheffield, Grimesthorpe, Greaseborough and Worksop and had interests in Handsworth, Treeton and Whiston.

As the Norman incomer, he would have needed to ingratiate himself with the displaced local Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and protect himself and his family from attack. He would also have needed to seek the support of the church, who held considerable political power. Building Sheffield castle gave him prestige, status and protection against attack. Building religious centres and civic amenities would have promoted his reputation with the community and the church.

His achievements included founding the priory at Worksop, building St. Mary’s Church at Handsworth, the parish church in Sheffield (now the cathedral), Sheffield castle, St. Leonard’s hospital outside the castle, which gave its name to Spital Hill. He built a mill on the river Don and Lady’s Bridge, where there had been little more than a river crossing previously.

He established Sheffield as the main town in Hallamshire and has a stained glass window in Sheffield Cathedral dedicated to his memory. He is considered the founder of Sheffield as the most prominent town in the area.

In the same way that William the Conqueror gave land and assets to his Barons to establish and maintain power and superiority in the country, so William de Louvetot also gifted estates to his relatives to ensure support in the area.

Cowley Estate in Chapeltown, which would have already been established as an estate in Anglo Saxon times was owned by the de Louvetots. They gifted the estate to relatives, the De Mounteney family. The De Mounteneys lived at Cowley Manor – ‘a large castellated manor house’. (Hunter’s Hallamshire) The Cowley estate held lands stretching from Chapeltown through Ecclesfield and along the east side of the river Don as far as Sheffield.

The family were influential in the Ecclesfield area where they worshipped at Ecclesfield Church, the oldest and most influential church in the diocese which was effectively the Cathedral of the South Yorkshire region. It predated Sheffield parish church which only later became Sheffield Cathedral.

The De Mounteneys have a chapel area in Ecclesfield church where their name and a dedication is carved into a wainscoting close to pews dated 1564. The ancient mediaeval stained glass windows were replaced many years ago, but one window has been reconstructed with a collage made from fragments of the mediaeval glass. A fragment of the glass contains a portrait thought to be of the last female heir to the estate. Because she was a woman she was unable to inherit and there followed disputes over subsequent ownership, the estate returning to the ownership of the family, but ultimately to the wealthiest landowners in Sheffield, the Shrewsburys and the Dukes of Norfolk.

De Mounteney relics in Ecclesfield Church.

The de Mounteneys - Mediaeval Landowners at Shirecliffe

Shirecliffe - and Parkwood Springs as we know it today – was a sub-manor of the Cowley Estate. From the end of the 15th Century some de Mounteneys were described as coming from Shiercliffe (Shirecliffe).

William de Mounteney of Cowley Manor applied for license to establish a deer park at Shirecliffe. The licence was granted by Richard II in 1392 and a deer park was established with Shirecliffe Hall, the ‘hunting lodge’ or sub-manor house, on the park.

Although the senior family lived at Cowley Manor, it appears that some members of the family were based at Shirecliffe. According to their family history, William’s son was named ‘Nicholas Mounteney of Shiercliffe’ (died in 1499), succeeded by his son, Robert Mounteney of Shiercliffe and subsequently by his grandson, ‘John Mounteney of Shiercliffe’ who is mentioned in Hunter’s Hallamshire.
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John, married to Joan, had two daughters, Dorothy (1527 – 1552) and Barbara (1530 – 1585). Barbara married Thomas Thwaites, who later contested the inheritance of the Shirecliffe estate, whilst ‘John de Mounteney of Creswick in Ecclesfield’ (1513 – 1573) – presumably from a different branch of the family - had a son Nicholas who married Ellen Burroughs, daughter of Richard Burroughs, a later tenant at Shirecliffe Hall.

The estate of Shirecliffe was therefore very much kept within branches of the de Mounteney family and their descendants for centuries.

Mediaeval deer hunting and the fashion for deer parks

From the 12th century landowners could be granted the ‘right to free warren’ :

‘Hunting certain animals: pheasant, partridge, hare, rabbit, badger, polecat and pinemarten within a prescribed area. This was often the forerunner to the fencing of demesne land to create a deer park.… more than 80 grants of free warren were given in South Yorkshire and in nearly a third of these a deer park was subsequently created.’ Mel Jones

Herding deer into enclosed areas was the prerogative of the wealthy and demonstrated their power and status within their community. Some wealthy families had already begun to enclose areas for deer to graze. Norman landowners wishing to prevent their deer from escaping onto neighbouring properties began to enclose, in some cases, vast areas of their parkland. They dug ditches and fenced with palings woodland and open farmland to create ‘parks’. Because of the difficulty of ditching and fencing corners, the shape of parks was typically rectangular with rounded corners.

The Normans continued to enforce strict laws governing access to land and hunting rights. Villagers were heavily punished if they were found to have hunted - all but badgers - on land owned by the gentry. Badger meat didn’t taste good therefore was left for the peasantry. Wild deer were deemed to be the property of the King and landed estates within a short distance of a Royal Forest needed a licence to enclose land - without the right to entice the King’s deer onto it. (Mel Jones 1996).

Families who had already established a deer park were able to retain their park without a licence from the king. Royal forests at Conisbrough, Sherwood and later, Kiverton Park, were close to Sheffield, therefore landowners in the Sheffield area were required to apply for a licence.

Robin Hood is purported to have fallen foul of the law by killing one of the king’s deer – i.e. a wild deer on a Royal estate.​
 
Mediaeval Shirecliffe
 
As opposed to the deer we see today elegantly grazing the grounds of stately homes such as Chatsworth, mediaeval deer parks were often established at a distance from the manor house of an estate probably to keep deer and farm animals away from the country house. In 1392, when Sir Thomas de Mounteney was granted a licence to create the deer park at Shirecliffe, it was towards the later years for applications. Shirecliffe was a substantial distance from the family’s main residence of Cowley Hall.
         
According to Hunter’s Hallamshire:
 
‘Sir John Mounteney had a license from the Crown to inclose 200 acres of land, 300 acres of wood and 20 acres of his demesne land in Shirecliffe and to make a park of the same.’ They had ‘great woods and abundance of redd deare, and a stately castle-like house moated about.’ (Dodsworth).
 
The stately house would have been Cowley Hall, Chapeltown.

By the 15th century most country houses in the Sheffield area had enclosed a deer park. Sheffield Park, home to the Earls of Shrewsbury, stretched from Sheffield Castle out to the east of the town centre with a circumference of 8 miles. Sheffield manor was situated on part of the land enclosed by the park, which was the largest in the area covering 2,462 acres. (Mel Jones).

The Shirecliffe estate, then, already had red deer on their land. The indigenous roe deer were more numerous. They were less profitable than the larger breeds, therefore by the 12th century the Normans had brought fallow deer to Britain. Red deer were more commonly bought in to augment the herds with the most profitable breed.

The Normans had introduced rabbits to their wealthy estates as an additional food source. There are still wild rabbits and rabbit warrens on Parkwood Springs.

Cattle, sheep, pigs, game birds and other animals were frequently also kept in deer parks, which
were not primarily created for hunting although hunting did take place in the larger parks. Most were
deer farms to provide food for the table. (Mel Jones).

Wharncliffe ‘Chase’ for example would have been a park where hunting took place.

The old Shirecliffe Hall which would have stood approximately across the junction of Cooks Wood Road and Shirecliffe Lane may have been the home of the de Mounteneys of Shiercliffe, although it was also said to have been a hunting lodge. There is no painting or description of the hall. It may have had a tower to view both the estate deer and to take in the views we see today of the Don and Loxley valleys and hills as far as Derwent Edge. The family at Cowley may have entertained guests and hunting parties at Shirecliffe Hall, although it is not clear whether hunting took place here.

As was typical of deer parks, the shape of Parkwood Springs is more or less rectangular - with rounded corners at Scraith wood in the north and following a curve in the river Don to the south. The original park was larger than Parkwood Springs today, as the area from 1637 to the present day is about 300 acres compared with 520 acres enclosed by licence in 1392. However the shape is still recognisably the same as it was in the 1600s.

The bank and ditch close to the car park at Shirecliffe Road might be part of an enclosure fence, perhaps to keep the deer away from the hall.

Boundary fences were originally intended to keep deer in and intruders out, but as deer parks developed and evolved over the years, they were also used to divide sections of the woodland.

Whilst initially the deer park was fenced only round the perimeter, both cattle and deer preferred to browse in woodland rather than grazing on grass. Whole areas of woodland could be decimated by the animals. To protect young shoots and the foliage of the older trees areas of woodland would be fenced off to allow young trees and shrubs to grow and older trees to be protected for their timber. Holly hags would be allowed to grow to provide winter fodder. On the map of 1637 a number of separate areas of woodland were demarcated. ‘Scraith Banke, Shirtcliffe Park Wood, The Lords Wood, Oaken Banke Wood and Cooke Wood.’ Each area might be designated to a different function.

Coppicing – cutting trees to the ground to allow new multiple stems to grow - was a way of increasing the yield. The new shoots from the base of the coppiced tree would be left for 10 years to grow tall, straight new trunks before being cropped again. By coppicing areas of woodland in rotation, a constant supply of wood could be achieved. ‘Spring woods’ or coppiced woods were created in some of the fenced woodland. Increasing use of coppicing gave the name to Parkwood Springs. However, not all of Parkwood Springs contained spring woods – at least in earlier times. Old Park Wood appeared to be mainly left for deer to graze where there were ancient standard trees growing on areas of open grassland.

The mature trees became valuable for their timber. Sticks for kindling and dead wood were used to keep fires in the Hall and Manor burning for heat and cooking. Coppicing produced wood suitable for fence posts and tool handles etc. Therefore the land was productive and increasingly used as a source of wealth as well as self sufficiency of food, building materials and fuel production.

To the northern end of the current site lies the pond at Oxspring bank fed by a stream which flows into the Don. The pond may have been developed as a fishing lake – a purpose it currently serves. These were common in other deer parks to provide fish for times when meat was not to be eaten for religious reasons.

In winter the deer would be taken to lower grassland – a lawn, ‘laund’ or ‘lound’ – as in Chapeltown’s Loundside – to graze and be fed with cut holly and hay grown for winter fodder. Holly was grown in the ‘hags’ or ‘Hollins’ which may have been used both for herding the deer into the dense, prickly lower holly thickets and for cutting the higher smooth leaves for fodder. It was probable that deer from Parkwood Springs would be herded, culled for meat and younger deer taken to the ‘Lound’ at Chapeltown for overwintering, closer to the stately home.

Ian Rotherham showed an engraving of Queen Elizabeth 1st engaged in shooting deer by standing on a raised platform in front of which deer were driven to provide her with an easy a target – proving that by the 1600s deer hunting was still an aristocratic sport - made easier by herding. At that time, however, changes were taking place which signalled the beginning of the end for deer parks.

It is interesting to note that the boundary plan of Parkwood Springs as it appeared on the map of 1637 is not dissimilar to the area of Parkwood Springs seen today. The estate has therefore remained more or less intact through the centuries, the outer boundary and the boundaries of the smaller areas of woodland firmly demarcated.

17th Century Changes in Land Use

In mediaeval times and pre-industrial ages wealth had been generated for the landowner by the use of their estate land and by enclosing land for the sole use of the wealthy families who lived on their estates. It is said that more land was enclosed in mediaeval times than as a result of the 18th century enclosure acts.
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Livestock and woodland provided food, fuel and timber which were profitable. They maintained the high status of the landowner by demonstrating his power and wealth. Gifts of high status meat or timber to other nobles assured their allegiance and enhanced the landowner’s position with the church when gifts were given to charity or to the clergy. The gifts were probably necessary for Norman incomers to be able to integrate into the Anglo-Saxon nobility and for wider reasons during mediaeval times of political and religious turbulence.

The De Mounteneys lived at Cowley and Shirecliffe throughout the mediaeval period as the deer park gradually changed and evolved. The last member of the family to reside there was John de Mounteney who in 1536 was assaulted in the porch of the Parish church in Sheffield (Sheffield cathedral) and died from his injuries.

The estate was sold in 1572 as ‘a very valuable acquisition’ to the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury who took it into the manor of Sheffield, but was not resident as landowner. Before 1616 an undated document written for the 7th Earl of Shrewsbury listed:

‘Oken Bank Springe’, ‘Shercliffe Parke’ containing 80 acres of coppice and ‘Skreathe Wood.’ (Mel Jones).

This document suggested a transition to greater areas of parkland becoming devoted to coppicing rather than grazing, but describing the land as a valuable asset. The de Mounteney heirs contested the sale regaining the property and land, but leasing it to tenant occupants. It appears that the land at Shirecliffe was separated from Cowley Manor and leased as a separate entity, some of which was divided into smaller fields and areas of woodland.
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The map of 1637 shows sections at Neepsend which were leased to local people such as the Rawsons, who managed Rawson Spring Wood. ‘Great Ox Close’ and ‘Ox Dell’ are also marked, presumably fields for cattle. Many deer parks by that time were beginning to be divided into fields and some let as local farms.

Social changes meant that wealthy landowners rarely lived in their country residences, and those who did were beginning to gain income from other sources. The fashion was to develop parks close to their country houses where the gentry could ride out for pleasure and view their estate when they visited their country mansions from their town houses.

Mining ironstone and coal was providing income which meant the landowners were less dependent on agriculture. Business and financial interests – mainly investments abroad - for example trading in slavery, tobacco, tea etc were extremely lucrative, replacing the need for farming. Business interests brought the gentry to build fine houses in towns where they could enjoy greater and advantageous business and social contact. Iron smelting was also paving the way for monumental industrial change leaving more of the countryside spoiled by greater industrial use.

Mel Jones noted that by the end of the 16th Century the land at Parkwood Springs had been formally ‘disparked’ and mainly turned into large coppiced woods, although during the 1600s deer were still present.
 
By 1637 when John Harrison completed his survey of the Manor of Sheffield, Shirtcliffe Parke Wood (Old Park Wood) was recorded as coppiced wood covering 143 acres.
 
The hall – ‘Shirtcliffe Hall farme’ -  was tenanted by Richard Burrowes/ or Brough, a ‘gentleman’  (meaning he had a private income) at a rent of 8 Marks per year to be paid at ‘the Feast of Pentecost ‘(Whitsun) ‘and St. Martin in winter’ (November) – so in six monthly instalments. The property was described as:
 
‘a dwelling house, and ancient Chappell , one Barne, one Oxhouse, one Orchard and yard ‘’containing 1 a (acre), 3r (roods) 14p (perches)’.
 
For information: A football pitch is 2 acres – 2 ½ acres or a football pitch with the surrounding green space makes up a hectare. A rood is a quarter of an acre and there are 40 perches to a rood – so a perch is 25 square metres.
 
The land leased to Richard Burrowes was listed:
 
‘Ye Peare tree field (pasture) and next (to) a wood called Shirtcliffe Parke and great field north and containing11a 3r 23 p.
 
The Pond Mead (pasture and arable) lying betweene the last piece north (Pear Tree Field) and Cooke Wood south, and next (to) Kitching greave east,and a wood called Oaken Banke west and containing 16a. 2r. 32p.
 
A spring wood called Crooke Wood, wherein they get Punchwood for the use of the coalpits, some part thereof is above 32 years’ growth and some part newly cut downe, and every year cut as occasion serveth. This wood lyeth next unto the last piece in part and Charles Clayton in part south-east, and Oaken banke west, and containing 33a. 1r. 15 2-5p.
 
A spring wood of 25 yeares growth called Oaken banke, lying between the last two pieces and the Lord’s wood in part west, and abutting upon Shirtcliffe Parke north, and the Lord’s lands in the use of Christopher Capper south and containing 24a. 0r. 27 3-5p.
 
Pease field (arable) lying next the last piece west and Crooke Wood north and containing 0a. 2r. 27 3-5p.’
 
Presumably Charles Clayton and Christopher Capper were renting the lower parts of the original estate.
 
In 1638 the lease expired on Shirecliffe Hall (Shirtcliffe Hall Farm). The tenancy of the Hall taken by Mr. Rowland Hancock - a former vicar of Ecclesfield Church (where the de Monteney family worshipped). He set up an independent church with a few neighbours but was banished to Penistone under the Act of Uniformity. The Act enforced the use of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and anyone refusing to adhere to that form of church service was banished from the County. When the law was relaxed in 1672, Mr. Hancock returned to Shirecliffe and continued his church ‘on the independent model’ – presumably using the ‘ancient chappell’ on the estate. It may have been Rowland Hancock who in 1675 was granted the right to hunt deer in the park.
 
Rowland Hancock’s daughter married a Sheffield lawyer named Joseph Banks and they remained at Shirecliffe Hall until they retired to Lincolnshire. Their grandson, Joseph Banks, was the scientist and botanist who set sail from Whitby in 1768 on the ship, the Endeavour, with Captain James Cook to survey the transit of Venus from Tahiti. They also mapped the coast of Australia and named Botany Bay where Joseph Banks collected many plant specimens. He ultimately became President of the Royal Society in London.
 
Around 1800 detailed botanical records of Parkwood Springs were made by Jonathan Salt, a local table knife manufacturer of Wardsend (now in Weston Park Museum). We can only speculate as to whether Joseph Banks (Sr) had been interested in botany at Parkwood Springs and left information or passed his interest to his grandson.
 
From the late 1600s there was evidence of charcoal burning in Parkwood. This may have been the ‘coalpits’ mentioned in Harrison’s survey. Wood was laid into a pit and covered with soil or turves leaving a space for lighting a fire under the wood. It had to be carefully watched to restrict the amount of air entering the pit so that the wood did not burn quickly but slowly charred. Sweet chestnut wood was often used as it did not burn easily. There are a lot of sweet chestnut trees at Parkwood Springs. Charcoal burners built their conical shaped huts close to the pits so that they could keep watch night and day. They used branches of trees built into a wigwam shape and covered with turves. In our History leaflet there is a reproduced photograph taken at Parkwood Springs in the 19th century of a charcoal burner standing beside his hut. Jason Thomson used the image in his sculpture ‘The Spirit of Parkwood’.
 
18th Century Parkwood Springs
 
Whilst originally estate owners lived and worked on their estates, more landowners moved into their town houses, only visiting their country estates from time to time. Although deer grazing on the open parkland outside their stately homes gave an air of tranquil country living and prosperity,  absentee landowners were keen to maximise the profitability of their land. They were less interested in the area or local communities, employing estate managers to manage the work on the estate, employ a local work force and collect rents from tenants. Deer were gradually abandoned in favour of more functional use of the land and its assets.
 
Therefore by the 18th century, as industry began to demand timber for building, stone from quarrying and charcoal for steel making, the woodland at Parkwood Springs became more diversified to profit from use in industrial development along the Don valley. The Dukes of Norfolk, who eventually took ownership of the land, would have expected maximum returns on their investment whilst having little personal interest in the area.
 
Land and properties owned by the Dukes of Norfolk were managed by an agent who lived at ‘The Farm’ - a grand house on the lower edge of Norfolk Park – now the site occupied by Granville College. The Dukes of Norfolk, whose stately home is Arundel Castle in Sussex,  were obliged to stay at the Farm for a time annually. During the time of Henry Fitzalan Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk and Sheffield’s first Lord Mayor, over half of the £100,000 gross income from Sheffield came from rents, mineral rights and markets.
 
Profits to be made from areas such as Parkwood Springs benefited the wealthy landowner who was based elsewhere and were not used to maintain or improve the area locally. In many rural areas people complained of wealth being created locally whilst the landowners impoverished the countryside and its people by taking its wealth to the cities.
 
Like other disparked deer parks some of the land at Parkwood Springs was divided into smaller areas and let to tenant farmers. By the end of the 18th Century the Lords Wood was completely divided into fields. Old Park Wood remained as managed woodland whilst Oaken Bank Wood was mined and quarried for clay for making bricks and for ganister for use as fire clay for the furnaces.
 
Rawson Dam was recorded in 1783 as ‘the pond on a tributary of the river Don’. It had been marked on the 1637 map to the north of Scraith Wood. A water powered mill, known as Rawson’s Mill or Bark Mill, was used by the company of Rawson and Oxpring for their tanning business, which used bark stripped from oak trees to produce tannic acid for tanning leather. Rawson Spring Wood, a section at the northern end of Old Park Wood, would have produced a sustainable supply of oak trees from which bark could be taken. By stripping vertical strips of bark from a living tree the bark would repair for further use, or by stripping and felling coppiced trees, new areas of growth would also provide a constant supply.
 
The tanning process
 
Oak Bark: The solution used for tanning was traditionally made from oak bark.
L A Clarkson has estimated that 90% of all leather was tanned with oak bark. The best bark came from the young trees of twenty years growth, cultivated in coppices.
Stripping was mainly done in the spring when the sap was rising. The bark was levered off, and then stacked in the dry before being ground at a local mill.
 
Sawyers, Carpenters and Peelers were hired to fell and remove the bark. The easiest way of peeling was to take the bark from trees that were still standing. The peelers used an iron ‘spud’, consisting of a rod about two feet long, with a handle at one end and a point shaped like the ace of spades at the other.
Strips of bark were propped up to dry in the sun and the wind. Drying was usually complete in about a fortnight then carted to the tan-yard.
The bark was ground into pieces, two to three inches long, and packed into sacks.
Barkgrinding mills were introduced in the eighteenth century. The grindstone had a toothed rim.
In their simplest form the grindstone was propelled by horse power around a circular trough.
 
Oak bark was highly prized by tanners because of its high tannin content. Much of it was grown in the traditional iron-making districts, where it was used for manufacturing charcoal. The combination of the tannic acid of the oak bark with the gelatine of the hide slowly tanned the hide. J T Kelsey soaked his hides in oak bark solution for up to two years. (The Weald Community Group).
 
To produce supplies of wood for timber, bark for tanning and wood and bark for charcoal burning, the woodland on Parkwood Springs was increasingly coppiced to increase the yield, and areas of woodland felled for timber. The boundary fences, instead of keep deer inside the park, would then have been used to keep deer out to protect the trees.
 
Mel Jones suggests that through the 18th Century in some areas of Old Park Wood were reduced to a few standard trees, whilst most other areas of woodland were coppiced. The Lords Wood was completely cleared and divided into fields rented as farmland.
 
Ganister mining and some coal mining took place into the steep escarpment of Parkwood Springs. Ganister dust, moreso than coal dust, in the confined space of the mines was lethal when breathed in by miners. Life expectancy for the workers - as for steel workers - was extremely poor.
 
The 1790 Map shows Shirecliffe Hall on Shirecliffe Lane, Little Pear Tree field, Great Pear Tree Field, Cook Wood, Oaken Bank Wood, Mire Acre Hill, Savage Spring, The Old Park and Scraith Wood – the only remaining area of ancient woodland.
 
​Field plans included Far Field, which may have given its name to the old public house near to Hillfoot bridge, which was originally part of a larger country house.
 
A corn mill and rolling mill on the river Don were signs that industry was using water power along the Don Valley requiring timber to build water wheels, coal and wood for the furnaces.

Through the 18th Century Shirecliffe Hall was let to a succession of tenants until it cameinto the possession of the Watson family in 1775. The family remained at Shirecliffe for over 100 years.
 
19th Century
 
In 1803 The Watson family demolished the old Shirecliffe Hall and built ‘a good modern house near the site’. It was probable that the Watsons may have held a ‘copy lease’ where the landowner retained the freehold on the land, but the tenant retained rights on the property. This was a system that began in mediaeval times and continued until the 1920s.
 
The Watson’s would have needed planning permission from the Duke of Norfolk’s Estates, but were at liberty to build a new house, which was on the site of the car park at the Shirecliffe Road entrance to Parkwood Springs.
 
The site of the ‘Kitchings’ or kitchen gardens for the old hall is still evident as ‘Shirecliffe Grove’ on Shirecliffe Lane. The drive to the new hall crossed the top of what is now Cooks Wood Road from the gates and Lodge which are still on Shirecliffe Lane.
 
The 19th Century saw heavy industrialisation of the Upper Don Valley, requiring ganister, charcoal and timber from Parkwood Springs and sandstone for building quarried from Old Park Wood.
 
The fields of the Lords Wood were bought by one of the first Freehold Land Societies for building houses for the ‘40 shilling landowners’. This was an early form of building society where people contributed their 40 shillings for the right to vote as a landowner, and to have the opportunity to build a house on the land.

The larger houses built under this scheme were soon accompanied by rows of terraces and back to back houses built for steel and railway workers. This created Parkwood Springs Village, housing an isolated but close knit community, finally demolished in clearances of the 1970s. People still remember as children playing and picnicking on the hills which were covered in orchards and they valued having lived in Parkwood Springs Village. The bowling green was the envy of the city.
 
By 1845 the Duke of Norfolk’s Estates had sold land on the lower parts of Old Park Wood for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. Neepsend station was built below the village, which was reached only under a narrow railway bridge (See our History Trail article and Barbara Warsop’s book for details of Parkwood Springs Village).
 
Wardsend cemetery, the cemetery for St. Phillip’s Church at Neepsend, was developed alongside the River Don also on part of Old Park Wood. The Friends of Wardsend Cemetery have a wealth of historical information from the cemetery and lead walks and information days for visitors.

The name ‘Wardsend’ originated from ‘Worlds End’ - the ancient boundary between Sheffield and Ecclesfield. In the cemetery, memorials can be found to soldiers who were based at Hillsborough Barracks. Their gravestones can be seen alongside victims of the Sheffield Flood of 1864, when Dale Dyke Dam burst, flooding the Loxley and Don Valleys.

Scandal was recorded at Wardsend Cemetery during the nineteenth century, when the Sexton at the cemetery was accused with the curate of robbing graves to sell bodies to the Infirmary (on Infirmary Road). The practice was discovered by a workman employed by the Oxspring family (at Oxspring Bank) who found lodgings for his family in the upper rooms of a barn at the cemetery. Hearing noises in the night, he found a knot hole in the floor through which he observed the sexton and curate removing bodies from coffins.

Many of the bodies were of children or young people. Their families were distraught and angry because they had scrimped and saved for a headstone for their child, only to find that there was no grave. A mob tried to lynch the guilty parties, but forewarned they escaped. The sexton was found guilty in court, but served a relatively short sentence. The curate was moved from the area.

Carol Schofield – Friends of Parkwood Springs History Trail

By the end of the 19th Century Shirecliffe Hall was occupied by H.E. Watson JP, ‘who worthily upholds the historic character of his mansion.’

Pitsmoor was developing as a suburb of wealthy professionals – doctors, lawyers, mill owners and managers. Therefore rather than Shirecliffe Hall being firmly in command of Parkwood Springs, it was now focused more upon Pitsmoor Village. One of the Watsons found the drive in his carriage too steep coming up Shirecliffe Lane, therefore he had a more gentle route created across Parkwood Springs to Herries Road and into the city from there.

During the 18th and 19th centuries life expectancy was short for children and industrial workers; file makers, grinders, cutlery workers, miners, who worked for low wages and lived in poverty. In the late 19th century Pitsmoor Church Parish magazine described the philanthropy of the local gentry – rather than landowners - who held church ‘teas’ for the poor of the parish. Sir Henry Watson donated gifts of half a pound of tea to the aged poor who attended the ‘teas’.

‘Mr. Watson is the Chairman of the Borough Conservative and Constitutional Association, a Justice of the Peace for the West Riding, a Town Trustee, a Church Burgess, a director of Chas. Cammell and Co. Limited, and to put it shortly one of the most prominent and popular of local gentlemen.’ (Dodsworth).
 
20th Century
 
The 20th Century saw the most devastating changes to the Shirecliffe Estate and the grounds of Parkwood Springs reducing it to a blot on the landscape for Sheffield.

The 1926 General Strike and the 1947 exceptionally cold winter saw the final trees in the woodland felled completely by impoverished local people for firewood.

In the 1930s/40s the area was used as a military base to protect the Don Valley and ammunition stores at Oughtibridge from enemy aircraft. Disaster struck with the bombing of much of Parkwood Springs Village and Shirecliffe Hall when enemy aircraft dropped fire bombs in a circle to target the city centre. Both the entire village and the hall were demolished by the 1970s.

The Duke of Rutland sold land for quarrying, mining and subsequently for the landfill site, and areas for gas holders and the electricity power station with cooling towers alongside the river Don.

By the 1950s ownership of much of the original woodland reverted to the City Council and by the 1960s the whole area appeared to be devastated as one huge industrial site. Landfill and industrial works reduced the area to a bare hillside with little natural growth, whilst the only surviving area of ancient woodland remained - and still remains - at Scraith Wood.

The connection of Shirecliffe Lane with Rutland Road was completed by the 1950s with the building of Cooks Wood Road - through Cooks Wood. The upper part of Shirecliffe Lane was renamed as Shirecliffe Road.

In the 1970s a youth job creation scheme replanted trees and restored footpaths installing the stone edging to the paths. They built the platform at the viewpoint which held a brass direction plaque. But the area was mainly deserted. People feared antisocial behaviour if they set foot onto the site, which was subject to vandalism, the direction plaque was stolen. and the whole area regarded as a rubbish tip. Young men were known to collect the brightly coloured clinker deposited from the furnaces to give to their girlfriends as ‘jewels’.

During the 1980s, while the ski village flourished on the steep terrain leased from the Council, local people protested about the landfill site which brought plagues of rats and flies to people’s homes and filled the air with noxious odours and red dust. A Landfill Action Group was formed by local people anxious to have the landfill site closed. They focused on the negative health effects of the site. Eventually some members of the group accepted compensation from the waste management company, Viridor, for the detriment they had suffered.

Nevertheless, as others pressed for improvements, nature flourished in areas outside the landfill site and gradually wildlife returned re-vegetating with acid grassland, woodland and heather moorland. Through neglect over half a century, areas were beginning to recover the natural beauty they had once been.

The paths installed in the 1970s had eroded and the viewpoint vandalised, but there was much to appreciate and aim to restore. Skiers who had enjoyed cheap access to the ski slopes did well in Olympic Games and many school children and beginners learned to ski there. The ski village became a clearly recognisable Sheffield landmark and secured a positive image of Parkwood Springs in the hearts and minds of many Sheffielders.
 
21st Century - From Deer Park to Country Park
 
In 2002 the City Council began a community consultation and project to look positively at Parkwood Springs and promote responsible community use.

The Council’s Parks and Countryside Department, led by Jon Dallow, began to restore the area – a wild space for local people to enjoy, where they could come to see wild life and take exercise. Footpaths were repaired, fences and gates installed to deter fly tippers and motor vehicles, low key management put in place and the area regularly cleared of the worst of the litter. Ecological and archaeological surveys were carried out by the City Council.

By 2005 Little Pear Tree Field – an area named on an early map – was developed as an educational resource. The community planted snowdrops, wild daffodils, primroses and four small pear trees. The Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife trust took over management for a limited period and the Council Ranger Service worked with school groups. Sessile oak trees were growing there, but it was an open field of brambles and rosebay willow herb. More native trees were planted and in less than 20 years the field has reverted to woodland.

In 2008 the ‘Bird and the Boy’ sculpture by Jason Thomson was installed at the Rutland Road entrance, followed in 2011 by the ‘Spirit of Parkwood’ sculpture, also by Jason, at the Shirecliffe / Cooks Wood Road entrance marking the two main entrances. These aimed to encourage people to regard Parkwood Springs as a valuable community space to be visited and explored.

Following the 2007 river Don flood, the Beacons Project brought children and families to walk the paths and see the views in an exciting event, with the aim of changing people’s perception of the area to that of a safe and interesting place to bring children to play.

In 2009 the Forest Garden was developed on a former allotment site as a self- sustaining community fruit garden. It still needs much attention and is maintained by the Friends of Parkwood Springs, a group which began as a formally constituted Community Group in 2010 attracting funding for small scale improvements, meeting for conservation work and leading walks.

Jon Dallow has been instrumental in managing the work at Parkwood Springs throughout, and has successfully attracted large scale funding which installed the Mountain bike trail in 2012, updated the track and made way for the Places to Ride developments for 2024 which have extended the tracks through the north of the site. The Council attracted further ‘Levelling Up’ funding to clear and access the land vacated by the Ski Village in order to be able to offer a lease for new development - in keeping with the Country Park - to bring a regular income to Parkwood Springs for ongoing maintenance and provide employment for local people.

Following the closure and restoration of the landfill site in 2016, the restored site has become accessible with the installation of the new cycle / walking trails, extending the scope of the whole site for wider public use. Skylarks are now nesting in grassland on the old landfill site and roe deer have been seen roaming there.

In 2015 after the Tour de Yorkshire/France passed Parkwood Springs, the annual Beacons Festival was replaced by the Lantern Festival, which has grown to attract around 1,000 visitors who come to experience the woodland illuminations and enjoy the views lit up by the sunset and the lights of the many varied lanterns in the procession.

2015 saw Watercliffe Meadow School host the Primary Schools Cross Country Event at Parkwood Springs attracting school teams from across the city. The event is now held annually at Parkwood Springs. The first Mountain biking festival, Nutcracker, attracted mountain bikers from across the country.

The 2020 Covid pandemic brought many more people to Parkwood Springs for exercise and fresh air during the lockdowns, which made Parkwood Springs inclusive to many more cultural groups who now feel comfortable to enjoy the benefit of the outdoors on their doorstep.

In 2023 the Places to Ride project installed additional cycle routes along with services for toilets and a cafe kiosk to be opened in 2024. The car park at Shirecliffe Road was extended and resurfaced and close by a young children’s riding area completed.

From the deer park fenced to keep deer in and locals out, from an area stigmatised by industrial use and a wasteland of waste, Parkwood Springs has returned to a vibrant wild life reserve of woodland, heath and heather moor - but now well used by cyclists, walkers, runners, people who live nearby and open to the City as a City-wide resource.

The area and boundaries of the original estate are still intact. Encroachment on the site has been discouraged and contested by the City Council who own most of it. Use has been made of the steep terrain by leasing areas for extreme sports, and will possibly be used this way again.

In the past the deer park evolved gradually over the years, but it excluded the local community. Whilst it was the landowner’s aim for the land to provide a productive and lucrative asset for himself and his wealthy family, industrial use eventually destroyed the natural asset of the area for local people. We now have the opportunity for Parkwood Springs to be of benefit to people’s health and wellbeing by providing a natural environment with a wealth of wild life for the whole community. Instead of damaging people’s health through the effects of industrialisation, pollution and poverty, there are now health enhancing opportunities freely available by using again the land as the asset, managed to promote wildlife for people to see and a tranquil, wild open space for exercise, reflection and renewal.

Trees have restored the woodland, but may now need some management to ensure a true diversity of habitats to recreate a balanced environment and provide suitable habitats for rare and depleted species. Many of the trees currently found in the woodland are non-native species planted in the 1970s to quickly reforest the space. Some have been planted in circles creating small glades, but not large enough to allow a gradation of foliage and border areas so necessary to pollinators, small mammals and birds. However, in addition to those planted trees, there are many multi-stemmed trees growing. We suggest these may be trees that were felled firstly in 1926 for firewood, but then grew as coppiced stems to be cut again in 1947. We wonder if these were original trees from the woodland of the deer park: sweet chestnut, oak, holly, alder which have survived in coppiced form. It would be reassuring to think that the deer park has resurrected itself – especially now that the deer have returned.

A ‘Tree of the Month’ project includes interesting information about the trees found on site, their uses, their history and folklore. The aim is to develop a tree trail which will take paths through the woodland marking specific trees with a code to reach details for each tree. Look out for this as it comes on stream. Several new indigenous ‘species trees’ have been planted on the heliport field to complement the urban wild life area on the hillside where the grass has been left unmown. These will provide shade and add interest to the area.

Bird life and small mammals are regularly monitored through the RSPB dawn chorus walk in early May and the small mammal live trapping exercise by the Sorby Natural History Society. The Friends Group has established wild flower meadows which are spreading along the ridge in the area of the top viewpoint. In addition to heritage walks, the Friends Group leads interesting wild flower walks explaining historical and medicinal uses for the wealth of wild flowers and plants we may not otherwise notice. Many insects, butterflies and moths rely on such plants for shelter and a food source.

There are tadpoles to see in the ponds and in some of the new water features along the new tracks, while birds of prey, resident and migrant birds nest and fly overhead. The fungi walk has discovered a wide range of fungi growing over the meadows and woodland including some rare species and delightful ‘Scarlet Elf Cups.’

From waste land to the rich natural environment it is today, Parkwood Springs has come full circle. This time it can be the province of the community and not just the reserve for the privileged and wealthy.

But it is now the responsibility of the whole community to ensure that as a Country Park it meets the needs of the community and can be protected to provide a welcoming green space so close to the city centre, conserving wildlife for everyone to enjoy - encouraging people to value and be proud of ‘Our Country Park in the City.’
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Whether people walk, cycle or run, use prams or wheel chairs, come for guided walks, picnics or a coffee, we hope Parkwood Springs will work the magic of centuries to inspire and refresh, restore, reinvigorate and offer a sense of wellbeing and good health to all who visit.

But please take your litter home, refrain from barbecues and lighting fires and leave only your footsteps!
 
Carol Schofield
Updated September 2024
Friends of Parkwood Springs