A Lodge in the Deer Park
Sheffield Manor Lodge stands in the middle of the great deer park of the Lords of Hallamshire which extended over the whole of the Park Hill from Heeley to Darnall and Handsworth to the River Don. Covering an area of nearly 2,500 acres, with a boundary fence about eight miles long, this was one of the largest parks in England.
Although most deer parks were created by Royal Licence during the 1200s this one was far older. Its origins are unknown but it seems likely to have been in existence even before the Norman Conquest. Indeed, the Saxon Earl Waltheof who held the lordship at that time may well have hunted over this land. The right to hunt and later to farm and mine this valuable resource was jealously guarded by subsequent Lords of the Manor for hundreds of years, right through to the twentieth century.
The park was a larder. It provided meat and skins from the deer, sheep and cattle kept there, as well as the rabbits and wildfowl and the fish in the ponds on the Sheaf. It also provided wood and timber for building and fuel as well as building stone, coal and ironstone.
The little town of Sheffield gradually grew under the shadow of the lords’ great stone castle at the corner of their park, and the Medieval and Tudor residents would only have to look towards the hillside stretching to the east, with its great trees and grazing herds of fallow deer to be reminded of their lowly position. The medieval park demonstrated the wealth, power and status of its lordly owners. It was not until the early nineteenth century that any significant development of the town extended across the Sheaf and encroached onto the lower slopes of Park Hill.
A Hunting Lodge
At this highest point within the Medieval deer park some sort of lodge was built, probably in the 12th century. Its prominent position, commanding a fine prospect of most of the park and much of Hallamshire beyond, would suggest that this was more than simply lodgings for the keeper. Excavations during the 1970s revealed the footings of these early buildings which were regularly extended, for at least six building phases have been identified prior to the early 16th century.
By the end of the 15th century quite an extensive complex of buildings were in existence, no sign of which today exist above ground. The earliest standing walls that survive date from the next building phase when George, the 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, considerably extended and upgraded the buildings with the addition of one of the earliest long galleries in England during the 1520s. Clearly, by this time the hunting lodge had been converted into a far grander manor house, for it was in this precise building that Henry VIIIs disgraced chancellor, Cardinal Wolsley, was lodged during his short stay in 1529. George Cavendish accompanied Wolsey on visit in 1530 and gives some description of the gallery-
‘a faire gallery, where was in the further end thereof a goodlie tower, with lodgings where my lorde was lodged. There was also in the midste of the same gallery, a travers of sarcenette drawne, so that the one end thereof was preserved for my Lorde and the other for the Earle. And everie daye my Lorde of Shrewsburey wouyld repaire unto him, and common with him him sitting on a benche in the great windowe in the gallery,’
The Deer Hunt
The deer in Sheffield Park were carefully farmed. We know that as late as 1637 it still held a herd of a thousand fallow deer, of which 200 were ‘deere of antler’ or bucks. The killing of park deer for venison was principally carried out by the Lord’s servant. On occasions such as the funeral of the 5th Earl in 1560, when a great dinner was held at the castle, 50 fallow and 29 red deer were cooked. The fallow deer would have come from the park and the red deer from Rivelin Chase. In Sheffield deer park there was also an unusual tradition whereby once a year some 200 deer were corralled into an area near the town and the ‘apron men’ or artisans invited to come in and kill them for meat.
There is no actual documentary evidence of hunting in Sheffield deer park. In the form that most people think of medieval hunting, whereby a single animal was chased for a long way until exhausted, red deer were pursued across the wilds of Rivelin and Loxley Chase. Within parks like Sheffield deer park, however, a more ritualised form of hunting, called ‘bow and stable’ was generally adopted whereby fallow deer were driven towards carefully positioned nets by highly trained hunting dogs, to be finally dispatched by the lord or lady by bow and arrow.
The use of hunting dogs was an integral part of this form of hunting, and there is a fascinating link here for the family name of the Earls of Shrewsbury was Talbot, coincidentally the name of a breed of large white hunting dog, now extinct. This was a powerful animal which was said to be able to bring a stag to its knees. Talbot dogs appear on the coat of arms of the Earls. Look out for them in the plaster ceiling of the Turret House.