An Archaeological Desk-Top Appraisal of Land Adjacent to Carver Lane, Sheffield

ARCUS were commissioned by Sheffield One to undertake an archaeological evaluation of a site between Carver Street and Holly Lane, Sheffield, centre SK 3515 8720. These investigations formed a stage of works, which included an archaeological desk-based appraisal and assessment, and inspection of trial pits. The work was required as a condition of planning consent for redevelopment at the site. The desk based assessment found no evidence for activity on the site prior to the eighteenth century. At this time the site was pasture land on the west edge of the town of Sheffield. The land was gradually encroached upon by buildings as the town expanded. The modern street plan around the site was in place by the early nineteenth century. The site was continuously occupied by a variety of domestic, commercial and manufacturing premises until the late twentieth century. Demolition of buildings has been taking place on the site since the early twentieth century. The site is currently occupied by the NUM Building and a number of business premises fronting West Street. The majority of the site is covered with tarmac and is used for car parking. Archaeological inspection of geotechnical trial pits excavated across the site in September 2003 enabled a revised assessment of archaeological potential to be established. A late eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century ash-filled vaulted cellar was encountered in the south-eastern area of the Carver Street car park. Late nineteenth-century walls and cellarage were located in the vicinity of the former Globe Cutlery works (south-western part of the car park); a knife blade and synthetic knife scale blanks from this area may relate to the output of the cutlery works. Furnace lining material was recovered from the area marked as FURNE on the 1896 Goad plan, although it may not have been in situ. During the subsequent evaluation in March 2005, two areas of were investigated. In the northern part of the site the archaeological evidence suggested sequence of development and piecemeal structural infill between the late eighteenth and early twentieth century. In the southern part of the site late nineteenth-century cellarage was encountered, probably relating at least in part to the Globe Cutlery Works. An infill deposit in one of these cellars contained a significant quantity of material culture relating both to the cutlery trade and to domestic activity. Ground floor deposits were not encountered, the buildings on site having been truncated below floor level during demolition in the later twentieth century.