BORDER DISPUTE BETWEEN HATHERSAGE AND BRADFIELD

On the western edge of Sheffield lies a moorland landscape rich in archaeological evidence from prehistoric times to the twentieth century. The moors that stretch down the eastern side of the River Derwent to the southern edge of the Chatsworth Estate rank with Bodmin Moor, Dartmoor, Stanton Moor and the North York Moors in the extent and quality of their remains from the Bronze Age.
On Hallam Moors, when the heather has been burnt by gamekeepers or in an accidental fire, the rambler near the Headstone stumbles across dozens of burial cairns and clearance cairns and occasionally reaches a larger monument such as the barrow at Crow Chin on the Stanage escarpment. The remains of three Bronze Age barrows near Lodge Moor Hospital have been excavated. They date from a time when this moorland landscape was very different in character, with much more wood and far less peat, and with a milder climate.

Bronze Age people shaped the local environment in a significant way, but the survival of so much evidence of their activities is due to deliberate decisions in later times to use the moors for particular activities. In the case of the Hallam or Stanage Moors the present character of the landscape was largely determined by the fashion for hunting deer in the Middle Ages and the enclosure of the moors for grouse shooting at the end of the eighteenth century.
The age and purpose of archaeological features on the moors are often difficult to determine. A deep trench might have been dug as an ancient boundary or simply to assist drainage. Some were cut through the peat in the nineteenth century to stop the spread of fire. What appears to be a trench in dry weather is often more convincing as a natural watercourse in wet. Other trenches peter out because of the drift of silt and the deposit of sand and gravel in storms. A trench that descends northwards from Crow Chin Rocks and is well-marked in the peat as it heads towards Moscar disappears in this way. It is the most intriguing trench on the moor, for it appears to have served as a boundary between the lordship of Hallamshire and the manor of Hathersage and between the counties of Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

The old county boundary had certain fixed points such as Stanedge Pole and Moscar Cross, and it incorporated natural features such as Dovestone Tor on the skyline high above Derwent Edge, but before large-scale maps were available the exact line between these points was often disputed even after a trench had been dug. The trench between Crow Chin Rocks and Moscar was not fully accepted as the boundary between the lordship of Hallamshire and the manor of Hathersage until 1724.

In a confirmation charter of the late thirteenth century Thomas de Furnival, lord of Hallamshire, granted to Ellys of Ughill and all the men of Ughill, Nether Bradfield, Thornsett and Hawkesworth:
"the Herbage as it lies in length and breadth between Ugghill Brook, Eventrevick, and the way leading from Hope to Sheffield, Bradrake, Seven Stones in Horderon, Weanston, to the Water of Agden, for the depasturing and agisting of their own proper Cattle, to be taken Yearly, without any hindrance of me or my Heirs, as they have held the same to Farm at the Will of my Ancestors at a yearly rent of four marks of silver."

The area so defined is that which was known as Hawkesworth Firth within the chapelry of Bradfield. Eventrevick cannot be identified but the way from Hope to Sheffield came along, the ridge via Crawshaw Head and is known now as Long Lane. The boundary then veered south up Oaking Brook and went across the moor to Crow Chin (on the same line as the present parliamentary constituency boundary marked on the Ordnance Survey Map) before turning north along Broad Rake towards Moscar Cross.

Our trench was not named but was on the line of this thirteen-century boundary. The Seven Stones have gone but, as we shall see, 'Weanston' was an alternative name for the Wheelstones, the eye-catching rocks on the horizon.
Our trench may have been dug to mark the medieval boundary but we cannot be sure that it is as old as that. It was certainly in existence by 1559 when the manor court of Francis, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury, settled a dispute over grazing rights between the tenants of Rivelin and Hawkesworth Firths. Part of the agreed boundary followed 'the ditch that parteth Sheffield and Bradfield parish unto the north end of Stanage'.

The trench starts near Stanage End and runs parallel with the present county boundary, which is only a few yards away to the west, in a northerly direction. As we shall see, however, the inhabitants of Hathersage (rightly) denied that it parted Sheffield from Bradfield, claiming that their territory extended up to it and that the rights claimed by Bradfield men were fictitious.
A perambulation of the bounds of Hallamshire in 1574 went "from the Broad Rake straight downwards to a place where certaine stones are sett upon the ends and haveing markes upon them called the Seavenstones ... straight over the broke or sicke there, to a place called the Wainstones, being distant by estimation three quarters of a mile.

Further perambulations of the boundary between Hallamshire and Hathersage in 1574 and 1656 also proceeded along Stanage and the Broad Rake to the Seven Stones, across the brook, and on to the 'Wayne Stones or Wheele Stones'. Coming the other way, a perambulation of the Hathersage boundary, also taken in 1656, went via Moscar Cross (at that time called Humble Stone Cross or Hambleton Cross) 'following the Top of the Hill to a place called Broadrake, and so following the Torr top to a place called Crow Chin'.

Broad Rake therefore appears to have been the name given to the broad path along the escarpment from Stanage End to Crow Chin. The dispute between Bradfield and Hathersage in 1724 was settled by an arbitrator, William Jessop of Broom Hall, who accepted the line followed by the Hathersage men, the same line as that of the present county boundary. On the map attached to the Enclosure Award of 1805 for the Manor of Sheffield our trench was marked as 'Ancient Ditch'. It formed the north-western boundary of the 'Black Moors' that lay within Stannington township in the chapelry of Bradfield. The manor of Hathersage lay immediately beyond. Just how ancient the ditch is we cannot say, but it has served as a boundary line for well over 400 hundred years and is possibly much older.
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