Exploring the Political Potential of the Local State: Building a Dialogue with Sheffield in the 1980s

This article explores the political potential of the local state through an engagement with the case of Sheffield City Council in the 1980s. The new municipalism movement has generated renewed interest in the “local” and “urban” as transformative projects. The local state holds a pivotal if problematic role in these debates, often seen as the decisive force facilitating or impeding transformation. In building a dialogue with 1980s Sheffield, we provide a less certain account of the local state's potential. Sheffield occupies an ambiguous position within and beyond traditional municipal labourism and therefore provides a potent example to explore tensions within municipalism between state and autonomist visions of politics. In Sheffield, radical intent turned into a more cautious governmental programme in the city, notwithstanding glimpses of political alternatives. The experience of those years provides insights on the contingencies of bringing movements and state politics together in what was then called “local socialism”.     

Sheffield Castle and The Aftermath of The English Civil War

The demolition of castles following the English Civil War is often seen as an inevitable consequence of the conflict, with their slighting often being ascribed to a need to prevent further bloodshed and punish the ruling elite. However, recent studies have demonstrated that the destruction of elite buildings during this period was far from straightforward, and this complexity is reflected in the methodology employed to damage them. At Sheffield, so extensive was this damage that, less than a century later, not a trace remained of what had once been one of the largest castles in South Yorkshire. Whilst little remains of the building itself, the rare survival of a set of demolition accounts, alongside a large number of other sources including personal correspondence, estate rentals and town records, means it is possible to explore in great detail the circumstances of the castle’s slighting. Through these a far more nuanced picture of civil conflict emerges with the castle’s destruction taking place within a complicated dialogue between the Lord of the Manor, Parliament’s officials and the inhabitants of Sheffield themselves.     

Lathom House: The Northern Court

Abstract

Thomas Stanley is credited with the creation of a fine new house at Lathom when he was made earl of Derby in 1485. This house, according to the poets and writers if the 16th and 17th centuries, was a sumptuous and well-defended place surrounded by moats and with as marry as eighteen towers. Indeed, it was claimed that Henry VII, stepson if the first earl if Derby, based his design for Richmond Palace on Lathom. After the house had fallen to the Parliamentarians it is usually accepted that the place was razed to the ground and, since the latter years of the 18th century, there has been considerable debate regarding its location. Recent archaeological work at the site if a later house, designed by Giacomo Leoni, is now providing evidence to show that Leoni's building probably lay on the site of the earlier structure and that some if the medieval masonry was incorporated into the rubble fill if the 18th-century walls. This study now examines the evidence for the first earl of Derby's house and argues that Lathom should be considered amongst the most important late 15th-century houses in England and Wales.     

The excavation of 19th-century back-to-back housing and courts and the Kenyon Cutlery Works at the site of the Stephenson Blake-Type Foundry,Upper Allen Street,Kenyon Alley and Edward Street,Sheffield

SUMMARY: Between 2004 and 2007, ARCUS undertook a programme of archaeological work at the site of the Stephenson Blake-Type Foundry, Sheffield, in advance of redevelopment. This article will focus on the results of the below-ground investigations. The archaeological work provided information on the domestic character of the site, with examples of the houses and courts revealed, and the industrial character of the site relating to the former Kenyon Cutlery Works. Excavation informed on how the site was developed, and on the material culture relating to everyday occupation and manufacturing on site, and highlighted the close relationship between housing and works.     

The Studland Bay wreck, Dorset, UK: hull analysis

Upon the discovery and protection of a presumed 16th-century wreck off Poole Harbour, one of the largest underwater excavations in England was carried out between 1984 and 1992. In 1997–8 the author examined the archive and recovered objects with the aim of publishing the present report on the hull remains. The paper demonstrates how much can be learned about construction and design from in-situ recording. The similarities and differences between this vessel and other vessels of the so-called Iberian-Atlantic building tradition are analysed, and rigging modifications suggested. The vessel has never been scientifically dated, but a typological date bracket is based on onboard artefacts.     

Building and tanning in the 18th and 19th centuries: an analysis of cattle horncores from Greenwich High Road (London)

SUMMARY: The assemblage from Greenwich High Road has interesting implications for our understanding of 18th- and early 19th-century tanneries and also of the use of bones as building material. The study of the age at death of the animals revealed that the horncores are mostly from fully adult individuals, probably culled draught animals. This hypothesis is supported by biometrical analysis. The comparison of the Greenwich horncores with modern data and archaeological evidence suggests that the Greenwich assemblage is predominantly composed of oxen. The horncores were used to line a drain on the site and are likely to represent waste material resulting from the activities that took place in the nearby tannery. Skins and horns were removed for craft purposes, while the bony cores, with no economic value, were simply used as cheap and ready material to help the construction of the drain.     

Transitions to Work: Masculine identities,youth inequality and labour market change

In this article, the initial transitions of white working-class male post-compulsory school leavers in two British cities are investigated. In the context of economic restructuring, the decline of manufacturing employment, and the rise in young women's educational achievements, it has been argued that poorly educated young men are increasingly disadvantaged in the labour market. Indeed, this may be the first generation of young men in the post-war period that will experience downward mobility compared to their fathers. In an earlier article, the author explored the labour market aspirations of white working-class boys living on peripheral local authority estates in Cambridge and Sheffield and in their final year at school. Despite the decline of manufacturing employment, they hoped to enter typically 'male' jobs in, for example, the car industry in both cities and in the steel industry in Sheffield. In this article, the author explores their labour market experiences in the year since they left school and their sense of themselves as masculine workers in the context of debates emphasising a growing 'crisis' of masculinity.     

General Meeting,March 9th, 1849

Abstract

Salisbury Cathedral's cloister has received less scholarly attention than it merits. An important and outstanding issue is that of the structure's date. This has never been securely established, and there is no scholarly consensus on the matter. With reference to documentary and archaeological evidence, this article establishes unequivocally a documented start-date of after 15 June 1263 for the second stage of the project. In so doing it confirms the opinion of Pamela Blum, and corrects mistakes in her article of 1991 on the sequence of the 13th-century building campaigns at Salisbury.     

Local Childcare Cultures: Moral geographies of mothering and the social organisation of pre-school education

Child-rearing has not been a major focus of research in geography despite the fact that its organisation is both spatially and temporally variable. Geographical work on pre-school childcare provision in the 1970s and 1980s tended to focus on the implementation and implications of government policy; more recently there has been a growth of feminist work on child-rearing which has employed a diversity of approaches. These studies have made a valuable contribution to our understanding of how mothers organise the care of their children, often whilst undertaking paid employment; nevertheless they can not always explain how a wide range of mothers negotiate specific aspects of 'maternal responsibility'. This article draws on an empirical investigation of pre-school childcare cultures in two areas of Sheffield, UK, in order to analyse the ways in which mothers' attitudes to their children's educational development and their strategies for accessing non-parental educational care are jointly shaped within the context of different local childcare cultures. The importance of two key components of these local childcare cultures, the moral geographies of mothering and the local social organisation of non-parental educational care, is emphasised.     

Integrated Investigation,Assessment, Intervention Design,and Implementation as a Model for Conservation Practice

Abstract

The Bibi Jawandi Monument Complex is a site of 15th-century partially collapsed glazed masonry tomb structures located in the ancient city of Uch Sharif, in Pakistan. Conservation of the striking monuments has involved an integrated approach comprising investigations of building materials, structural stability, geotechnical characteristics, as well as management capacity and infrastructural considerations of the site and surrounding city. A primary assessment of the site’s aesthetic, artistic, historical, social, and scientific significance guided the development of interventions and conservation priorities. The holistic approach to the protection of the site, in relation to the surrounding historic town, is one of the first such integrated conservation projects to be undertaken in Pakistan and posed numerous conservation challenges. Work is ongoing and continues, relying on intermittent funding, but the project and site serve as a model in the region for thorough assessment informing conservation decision-making.     

Excavations in the Outer Precinct of Tintern Abbey

EXCAVATION REVEALED an aisled guest-hall, possibly of 13th-century date, which parallels structures at Kirkstall and Waverley abbeys. This was replaced in the 15th or early 16th century by a new guest range with indications of differing provision for high-status guests. A smithy and non-ferrous industrial activity, notably cupellation and bell founding, are also described.     

Characterization of bricks and tiles from the 17th-century brick Chapel,St. Mary's City,Maryland

The brick Chapel at St. Mary's City, Maryland, built around 1667, would have been an impressive structure on a colonial frontier where all the other buildings were built only of wood. While the building is no longer extant, the bricks remaining in the buried foundations hold information about the technologies and materials used by brickmakers in the 17th-century Chesapeake region. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and petrographic analysis of thin sections were used to compare the Chapel bricks and other 17th-century bricks and tiles from several Chesapeake contexts to locally available clay sources. While the composition of the Chapel bricks is generally consistent with that of clays available in southern Maryland, these historic materials could not be linked to any one deposit, and may reflect the mixing of clays from multiple sources. In contrast, building materials from other 17th-century buildings at St. Mary's City could be more precisely “matched” to specific local clay deposits. This paper reports on our initial investigations toward understanding the technology of the Chapel bricks and their relationship to other bricks from St. Mary's City.     

Percival,Vickers & Co. Ltd: The Archaeology of a 19th-Century Manchester Flint Glass Works

Abstract

The Percival, Vickers & Co. Ltd glass works was amongst the largest glass manufactories in Manchester, and formed one of a regionally significant group of 19th-century glass works in the Ancoats district of the city. All of these works have since been demolished, and the paucity of surviving physical and documentary evidence is in stark contrast to the former importance of the city's glass-making industry. The Percival, Vickers site was recently subjected to a detailed archaeological investigation ahead of redevelopment, providing a unique opportunity to study the buried remains of a 19th-century glass works. In particular, variation in the design of the furnaces provided evidence for the technological development of the later 19th century, which has not otherwise been documented. Additionally, some 110kg of glass fragments recovered from the site furnished important evidence for the composition of 19th-century glass, although the results are beyond the scope of the present paper, which focuses on the documented history, structural, and technological elements of the site.     

Italian cultural geography,or the history of a prolific absence

This article focuses on a group of buildings that form the site for a Steiner school in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. It examines the ways in which an environmentally friendly, ‘ecological’ structure was (and is) constructed such that the building and its accompanying practices might be seen as ‘performed art’. By more critically examining the school's geographies through ethnographic material, the paper moves away from the buildings' symbolic meanings to demonstrate how art and nature intersect in various ways, in the school's life. Art and nature were crucial to the type of education there, the physical process of building the school, and daily uses of the buildings. The paper also explores how the art-nature intersection is involved in the construction of ethical discourses and practices constitutive of ‘childhood’ and ‘education’.     

The role of research and education in site management at the Lemba Experimental Village,Cyprus

Abstract

The project developed at the Lemba Experimental Village in Cyprus seeks to explain some aspects of the workings of archaeology through the medium of an ongoing and dynamic research project. The Lemba Experimental Village was established in 1988 with a view to understanding site formation processes through the construction of full-scale experimental buildings of the Chalcolithic period (3500–2800 BC). Experiments have been carried out with mud construction, lime plaster making and building construction. Monitoring and recording of construction and erosion processes provides a long-term history of events on the site which can be related to the deposits and features encountered when excavation is undertaken. Comparative information has been obtained from the structural analysis and excavation of buildings abandoned 25–30 years ago in the village of Souskiou, where similar deposits are encountered. The results of the work at Lemba and Souskiou are used as a comparative database for understanding deposits on prehistoric archaeological sites. The juxtaposition of the experimental building constructions with completed excavations at Lemba has led to the emergence of a policy of site presentation in which the methods of a particular form of archaeological research – experimental archaeology – constitute the main focus of interest on the site. This has been encouraged in the development of the site as a visitor centre, with an annually changing programme of new buildings being constructed and older ones being destroyed.     

Mapping of the Buried Yarmouth Roads Wreck, Isle of Wight, UK, using a Chirp Sub-Bottom Profiler

Remains of the 16th-century Yarmouth Roads wreck, buried in sediments, were imaged using high-resolution geophysical techniques. The remains appear as strong reflectors underlain by an acoustic blanking zone, which was used to create maps of the wreck material. Close survey line-spacing allowed the construction of contour maps and hull sections, which revealed that the bow and stern sections are tilted to port at different angles, implying that they are detached. The seismic data have enhanced our understanding of the site beyond what was known from conventional archaeological investigations and confirms that this wreck was once a large carrack.
© 2007 The Authors     

Manufacturing in the 18th Century

The putting-out spinning of flax for merchants and weaving of kersey in house-manufactories for export are examples of new elements in wool production and manufacturing in late 18th-century Iceland. The import of luxuries also increased, and a broader group of inhabitants acquired these items from the monopoly-trade merchants. The article analyses how these elements can be understood in light of Iceland’s pre-industrial society. How did these changes become visible and have an impact on the country? Did changes in wool production and consumption signify new trends in 18th-century society, or should one interpret them as extensions of structures that already existed within what can be called the ‘Old Society’?     

Aberglasney: the theory,history and archaeology of a post-medieval landscape

Abstract

Printed and documentary sources, archaeological excavation, dendrochronology and geophysical survey are employed to investigate the history of Aberglasney, a small country house near Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire (SN 5815 2213). Traditions about its garden layout, parapet walkway, a gatehouse and a yew ‘tunnel’ are examined. Circa 1600, Bishop Anthony Rudd (1549–1614) probably built a ‘cwrt’ enclosure aligned north-south. The gatehouse belonged to this or a later house. In 1770 or later, the Dyer family rebuilt the house, probably redesigned and rewalled the entire estate layout, when an earlier farm building was converted into the parapet walkway and stock pens, in an area later known as the ‘cloistered court’. In Victorian times this feature, originally a farmyard, became a pleasure garden, part of a typical Georgian-Victorian complex including a kitchen garden, glasshouses, orchards and fishpond. A yew grove was established, most likely c. 1805, when the Philipps family began planting in a Picturesque style. Abandoned c. 1950, house and garden became dilapidated. The site is now the object of a radical development programme, involving inter alia the stabilization of all buildings fabric, and imposing 16th-/17th-century style formal gardens over the 18th-/19th-century kitchen garden and orchard.     

Excavation at Aguas Buenas,Robinson Crusoe Island,Chile, of a gunpowder magazine and the supposed campsite of Alexander Selkirk,together with an account of early navigational dividers

Abstract

Excavations were undertaken of a ruined building at Aguas Buenas, identified as an 18th-century Spanish gunpowder magazine. Evidence was also found for the campsite of an early European occupant of the island. A case is made that this was Alexander Selkirk, a castaway here from 1704 to 1709. Selkirk was the model for Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. A detailed discussion is given of a fragment of copper alloy identified as being from a pair of navigational dividers.     

A mansion for the mad: an archaeology of Brooke House,Hackney

Abstract

Socio-cultural perceptions towards madness in the 18th century maintained the madhouse as private and isolated. This contributes to the relative absence of historical records that would allow a thorough scrutiny of the 18th-century madhouse as a social, political and psychological residence. Yet, the surviving collection of material culture retained from Brooke House offers a unique opportunity to reveal contemporary ideologies regarding madness in the 18th century. Utilizing archaeological approaches in the analysis of the building and its interiors, this paper seeks to explore this unique building and its impact on residents, revealing experiences of the confined in 18th-century England.