Back in the late 1990s, Robert Hallam who lived in British Columbia contacted me. He had been researching the knotty problem of Waltheof’s Aula. Some writers had suggested it was located at Burnt Stones, others that it was on the site of the Castle by the river Don. Hallam thought he had found eveidence that the location was on the site of the present day Hallam School.
Our conversations, including at a restuarant when he visited Sheffield, got me intrigued and I spent a few hours at the Local Studies Library looking through printed transcripts of the Court Rolls. From these I wrote up my findings which were duly filed in the attic where they lay for about a quarter of a century.
A few weeks ago, I came across the paper and research notes which were all paper based. I have scanned the document and corrected any OCR errors I’ve found. I have not carried out further research apart from looking at the registers of Sheffield Cathedral which are online and adding dates of birth, marriage and death for the few people in the trees that I am reasonably confident are the same as those named in the register.
I hope that those who know far more about the period (approximately 1550 – 1650) will post comments adding further details and, of course, highlight errors in the original paper.
The paper does confirm that Stumperlowe has been inhabited and farmed for many centuries and the names of the families living in the Tudor and Jacobean periods are still existent today.
The paper is here: Tudor Stumpelowe
Hi Keith
The Machins certainly owned considerable land in Fulwood. I have annexed a couple of Court Roll entries. The reference to ‘tail’ is just a way of ensuring that the property remains in the family by passing to the eldest son or other heir if there were no sons.
The family tree shows you the Robert from your mortgage and one of the entries show how he benefited himself and his two sons. The gift to his son-in-law and his daughter Emmot is also recorded elsewhere, so the Machins were certainly considerable landowners. The fact that they had rights of grazing for horses in Hallam Fields confirms substantial local landholdings as that is how you became entitled to those rights.
I think there was a Thomas Dale senior and his son Thomas Dale, as a third Thomas Dale, the son of Thomas Dale Junior, was buried on 22nd October 1580.
The Dales certainly owned a lot of land. Robert Machin made a gift to them in 1566, and two furher gifts in 1577 which amounted to more than 7 acres, at least some was in the Gold Green area.
I think there was a Thomas Dale senior and his son Thomas Dale, as a third Thomas Dale, the son of Thomas Dale Junior, was buried on 22nd October 1580.
The Dales certainly owned a lot of land. Robert Machin made a gift to them in 1566, and two further gifts in 1577 which amounted to more than 7 acres, at least some was in the Gold Green area.
Intriguing indeed. ‘Hallam thought he had found evidence that the location was on the site of the present day Hallam School.’ I wonder what this evidence was? I was talking to some local historians about the Aula yesterday, and it was suggested that although the castle could have been Waltheof’s main seat, he could have had a hall up at ‘Hallun’ too. A nice theory. And thank you, Keith for sharing this research and Alan for adding information.