Manor Lodge Project

Interactive 3D reconstructions of the the medieval and sixteenth-century hunting lodge of Sheffield.

In June and July 2011, the Department of Archaeology offered fieldwork training at the Scheduled Ancient Monument at Manor Lodge, Sheffield. The focus was on the location of the medieval and sixteenth-century hunting lodge of Sheffield. The hunting lodge sat amidst medieval parkland, and was only subsumed within the urban sprawl from the 1930s.header-manorlodge

Additionally, a 3D model of the Manor Lodge was developed by Marcus Abbott (ArcHeritage Ltd), showing the main phases of occupation and delivered online by The Digital Humanities Institute at The Digital Humanities Institute.

One of the most well-known events in the history of Sheffield Manor Lodge was the period in the late sixteenth century when Mary Queen of Scots spent part of her captivity there. She was in the custody of George Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife, known popularly as Bess of Hardwick. The excavations sought to illuminate this period of Sheffield´s history, when the Manor Lodge was at the centre of events of national and international significance. Once the property passed into the hands of the Dukes of Norfolk the lodge fell into a ruinous state, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a pottery kiln was constructed at the site, coal mining occurred and workers´ cottages were built amidst the ruins. All traces of this industrial activity were stripped away in the early twentieth century, and one of our aims is to throw light on this aspect of the site´s history.

Website

Duration: 13th June 2011 – 15th July 2011

Project Team

  • Prof. Dawn Hadley (Project Lead, University of Sheffield)
  • Marcus Abbott (3D visualisation, ArcHeritage Ltd)
  • Michael Pidd (The Digital Humanities Institute)