Next steps to creating city centre park to show off ruins of Sheffield Castle
Works to help protect the remains of Sheffield Castle are being planned so that an access road can be built through the new park that will celebrate the city’s birthplace.
Sheffield City Council is seeking planning permission for the preparatory works at Castle Park in the Castlegate area of the city centre. The park is set to open late this year.
The park will display the remains of the Norman castle that have been uncovered by an archaeological investigation of the land that was once covered by Castle Market.
The city grew up around the 11th-century castle, which was built close to the point where the Rivers Sheaf and Don meet. It was also the spot for where a royal charter was granted in 1296 to hold a market that was key to establishing Sheffield.
Specialist work is planned in order to protect the remains excavated two years ago. They include gatehouse towers, a 12.5m-deep well with water still in it, a drawbridge structure and part of the moat.
The Wessex Archaeology team also found part of a 19th-century steelworks, complete with remains of cementation furnaces, built directly into the old castle walls and a Victorian cobbled gennel that followed the line of the castle boundary.
The River Sheaf running through the park will be uncovered for the first time since 1912.
The extent of the finds, which were much larger than originally expected, meant that the park had to be redesigned to accommodate all the ruins being opened up to public view for the first time in centuries.