Fossil Trees found at Brightside, Sheffield, 1896

The following cuttings relate to a number of fossil trees that were unearthed during excavations at Brightside Station, in Sheffield, in 1896.  One of the examples is currently on show in the 'What on Earth' Gallery at Weston Park Museum in Sheffield, and photographs of a couple of the finds are on 'Picture Sheffield'. 

Another example of fossil trees was found at Wadsley in 1933, and may well be the subject of a later posting.

"Survey of the Manor of Sheffield" by John Harrison - 1637

"An exact and perfect survey and view of the Manor of Sheffield with other lands" was compiled by John Harrison for the Earl of Arundel and his family at the time they inherited the manor, via his wife Alethea, on the extinction of the male line of the Earls of Shrewsbury.  It was transcibed by James George Ronksley in 1908 and published privately.  These notes are taken from that edition (available at Sheffield Libraries).

I have only transcribed the Introduction (by R E Leader) and Harrison's Preamble and Description of the Manor - I leave the remaining 400 or so pages of details of land holdings and rents to someone else!  My main interest was to place into context a couple of quotes relating to the birds and fish found within the manor - these can be found towards the end of the description.

While I have tidied up the text to some extent, the spellings and punctuation (and capitalisation!) used in Harrison's text are as they were transcribed by Ronksley.  I may get round to rendering these sections into modern english at some time and adding some further annotation!  (If someone else did that in the meantime, I would gladly add their offering to the site, with due acknowledgement.)  Ronksley's footnotes have been included within the text (in [ ] as are other notes).

(Having done this work, and when about to press 'Publish', I have found that a previous transcription of the Description had appeared in the 'Sheffield History Chat Forum' in 2008 (see link) - apologies to 'Bayleaf', I had no intention of treading on his toes, and can asure him that, other than a meaning for 'Hearnshewes', I have not copied his work.)

The writing of "The Tour of the Don" by John Holland

The following extract is taken from the "Life of John Holland of Sheffield Park : from numerous letters and other documents furnished by his nephew and executor, John Holland Brammall" by William Hudson (available on Internet Archive).  It describes the writing of "The Tour" and gives insights into the character of its author.

"Tour of the Don" by John Holland, 1837

"The Tour of the Don" was published weekly through 1836 as a series of articles in the Sheffield Mercury newspaper.  They were brought together as two volumes and re-published in 1837 with the subtitle "A series of extempore sketches made during a pedestrian ramble along the banks of that river, and its principal tributaries".

Hail Storm - Sheffield - 5th July 1843

This post describes the Hail Storm on the 5th July 1843 which did a great deal of damage in Shefield and surrounding areas, including breaking 5700 panes of glass in the Botanical Garden greenhouses.

It is rather a long piece of text from the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent for 8th July 1843, which I have included in its entirety, plus some follow-up articles from the same newspaper, and an account of a further storm in August of the same year.

The Great Snow Of 1614-15 - from Youlgreave Parish Register

The following notes are extracted from Notes and Queries, 4th Series, Vol 3, No 53, Jan 2, 1869 - p16. (cleaned up from OCR text from Google Books).  They were included, with many other historic weather references, in a recent book which I co-authered entitled "Sheffield's Weather" - available from the Sorby Natural History Society.  What follows adds a bit of context to the extract.

"The Vital Statistics of Sheffield" by G.Calvert Holland, 1843

The volume of "Vital Statistics" was produced at the suggestion  of The Town Trustees of Sheffield, who also paid for some of the work.  The work was undertaken by Dr Calvert Holland who is described as "Physician Extraordinary to the Sheffield General Infirmary".

Fish around Sheffield in 1843

Extract from "The Vital Statistics of Sheffield" by G.Calvert Holland, Esq., M.D. 1843

Animals around Sheffield in 1843

Extract from "The Vital Statistics of Sheffield" by G.Calvert Holland, Esq., M.D. 1843

Birds around Sheffield in 1843

Extract from "The Vital Statistics of Sheffield" by G.Calvert Holland, Esq., M.D. 1843

Flora around Sheffield in 1843

Extract from Chapter 1 of "The Vital Statistics of Sheffield" by G.Calvert Holland, Esq., M.D. 1843.