Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment of Land at Mary Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

In October 2005, ARCUS were commissioned by Escafeld Design on behalf of Andrew Fantom, to undertake a desk-based assessment on property at Mary Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire (SK 3540 8660). The assessment included a site visit and buildings assessment, along with documentary and cartographic research. Mary Street is located within Sheffields Cultural Industries Quarter and the sites extant structures are deemed by Sheffield City Council to be Significant Buildings that contribute to Area Character. There is no archaeological or historical evidence for the proposal area prior to the sixteenth century. Documentary evidence from 1581 indicates that the site was part of an area called the Pastures. The earliest known development within the proposal area was the goit or artificial channel that crossed the site, carrying water from the Porter Brook to the dam of Cinderhill Wheel, a cutlers workshop first recorded in 1588. The goit remained an open channel until at least 1850 and may have been infilled only when the Cinderhill site was demolished in 1866. Prior to its canalisation and re-alignment during the late eighteenth century, the Porter Brook crossed the north-west part of the proposal area. The sites present-day western boundary was formed by the brooks canalisation during this period. Cartographic evidence indicates that the site was undeveloped land in 1841 but contained several allotments and associated structures by 1850. Mary Street had been developed by 1879 and the site was occupied by the Cyprus Works file manufactory and Hammer Works tool factory in 1890. During the early twentieth century, the proposal areas eastern plot was the site of the Guion Works tool factory, which was extended subsequently and became the Union Works, a machine knife factory. This complex was demolished during the final quarter of the twentieth century. The sites western plot had acquired the name Hawk Works by 1905 and operated as a cutlery and machine knife factory throughout the twentieth century. Several phases of structural redevelopment have taken place during the latter half of that period, with the demolition of nineteenth-century industrial features such as the factory chimney and the remodelling of aspects of the building fabric. The extant buildings, while modified and restructured throughout the twentieth century, do retain a number of features relating to the nineteenth-century complex. Depending on the extent of landscaping works relating to the creation of Mary Street and subsurface disturbance associated with the construction of the nineteenth- century buildings, there could be a high potential for the survival of subsurface archaeological remains associated with the Cinderhill goit. The extent to which the demolition of the Union Works removed associated subsurface features is unclear and the archaeological potential for the survival of remains relating to the nineteenth- century tool manufactory is thus deemed to be moderate to good. Further archaeological work would be required to determine the nature and extent of any such deposits.

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