Handsworth, Sheffield, England in the 1650s

Work

Fields and blades

Handsworth itself was still a parish village, since the factory expansion came much later². But its working world lay inside Hallamshire, where the Cutlers’ Company governed knives, blades, scissors, shears, sickles and other iron-and-steel wares⁷.

Faith

Old church, unsettled worship

The fixed landmark was St Mary the Virgin^1,2, with parish registers from 1558^1,4. The words and authority of worship were unsettled because the old prayer-book order was disrupted in the 1650s.

Law & power

Parish, manor, Commonwealth

Handsworth belonged to the old Hallamshire frame with Sheffield, Bradfield and Ecclesfield⁶. Everyday authority also ran through parish officers, poor relief, church rates, justices and quarter sessions, while national rule was Commonwealth and Protectorate government.

In the air

The war still mattered

The argument of the decade was not abstract here: Sheffield Castle had surrendered to Parliament in 1644^12,13, and the castle was destroyed¹². People lived with the victory of Parliament close by.

What people feared

War, poverty, sickness

Recent danger had been military, with Sheffield Castle’s surrender in 1644^12,13 only a few miles away. Ordinary danger also meant local poverty, since parish officers managed poor relief.

Home & table

Recorded at the font

The safest evidence for family life is institutional: baptisms, marriages and burials were recorded at St Mary’s from 1558^1,4. But no street-by-street description of Handsworth houses in the 1650s was found online.

Money

No local prices survive

The most honest answer is a gap: no local price list for bread, ale, rent or wages in Handsworth in the 1650s was found online. Trade money nearby passed through regulated craft structures, since the Cutlers’ Company enrolled apprentices and admitted freemen^8,11.

Roads & news

Sheffield was near

Handsworth was not isolated: it stood about three and a half miles east of Sheffield³. News and strangers could also come along routes between Woodhouse, Tinsley, Attercliffe, Rotherham, Orgreave, Treeton and Whiston⁵.

Year by year

1. 1649Charles I was executed and England became a republic, a national shock that framed the next decade. the country
2. 1650Commonwealth rule continued without a king, under Parliamentarian authority felt through county and parish government. the country
3. 1651The Battle of Worcester ended the main Civil War fighting in England and drove Charles Stuart into exile. the country
4. 1653Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, replacing Commonwealth experiments with the Protectorate. the country
5. 1655England was divided into Major-General districts, extending military-backed moral and political oversight across the country. the country
6. 1658Oliver Cromwell died, and uncertainty over the Protectorate would have been news even in a village parish. the country
7. 1660Charles II was restored to the throne, ending the Commonwealth and Protectorate settlement that had governed the 1650s. the country

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• St Mary the Virgin was Handsworth’s parish church in this decade, and Christian worship there is recorded from at least about 1200. inferred^1,2
• St Katherine’s Chapel at St Mary’s had been added about 1225, probably for the Furnival family’s memorial and devotional purposes. from the sources^2,3
• Handsworth St Mary’s parish registers for baptisms, marriages and burials survive from 1558, so the parish had written life-cycle records before and through the 1650s. from the sources^1,4
• Handsworth lay about three and a half miles east of the centre of Sheffield. from the sources³
• Places within a few miles of Handsworth included Woodhouse, Tinsley, Attercliffe, Rotherham, Orgreave, Treeton and Whiston. from the sources⁵
• Medieval and early-modern Hallamshire included Sheffield, Bradfield, Ecclesfield and Handsworth. from the sources⁶
• Handsworth was a parish and township rather than an industrial town in the 1650s; the later factory expansion belonged chiefly to the nineteenth century. inferred²
• The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire was incorporated in 1624, a generation before the 1650s. from the sources^7,8
• The Cutlers’ Company’s original jurisdiction covered makers of knives, blades, scissors, shears, sickles, cutlery wares and other iron-and-steel wares in Hallamshire and within six miles of it. from the sources⁷
• The Cutlers’ Company had one Master, two Wardens, six Searchers and twenty-four Assistants, giving the local metal trades a formal hierarchy. from the sources⁸
• The first Cutlers’ Hall in Sheffield was built in 1638 on Church Street, before the 1650s. from the sources^9,10
• As across Hallamshire, cutlers were enrolled as apprentices and admitted as freemen through the Company, which also regulated trade marks and quality. from the sources^8,11
• Sheffield Castle, a few miles west of Handsworth, surrendered to Parliamentarian forces in 1644 during the Civil War. from the sources^12,13
• The siege and surrender of Sheffield in 1644 led to the destruction of Sheffield Castle. from the sources¹²
• The 1650s fell under the English Commonwealth and Protectorate, after the execution of Charles I in 1649 and before the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. inferred
• Parish officers in a place like Handsworth were responsible for poor relief and local church rates, while county authority worked through justices of the peace and quarter sessions. inferred
• The Church of England’s old prayer-book order was disrupted in the 1650s, when Parliamentarian and Puritan religious settlement shaped parish worship across England. inferred
• No online source found in this search gives a street-by-street description of Handsworth’s houses in the 1650s. not known
• No local price list for bread, ale, rent or wages in Handsworth in the 1650s was found online in this search. not known
• A 1672 Hearth Tax study covers Handsworth parish, but it is later than the 1650s and cannot by itself describe households in this decade. from the sources¹⁴

Sources

1. History – St Mary's Church. St Mary's Church, Handsworth
2. History of the Parish of St Andrew. St Andrew's Church, Handsworth
3. Church of St Mary and Attached Chest Tombs. Historic England
4. Parish Registers in the Archdeaconry of Sheffield and Rotherham. Sheffield City Council, 2021
5. The History of Handsworth, Yorkshire. Aubrey Research
6. Hallamshire: The History and Topography of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York. Wikisource edition of Joseph Hunter, 1819
7. Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire. Wikipedia
8. Cutlers. Yorkshire Historical Dictionary, University of York
9. The Cutlers’ Hall. The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire
10. History of the Hall – The Cutlers’ Company in Hallamshire. Sheffield and District Law Society, 2015
11. master cutler. Yorkshire Historical Dictionary, University of York
12. Civil War 1642 to 1651 research guide. Sheffield City Council
13. Sheffield Castle: Archaeology, Archives, Regeneration, 1927–2018. White Rose University Press, 2018
14. The Hallamshire Cutlery Trades in the Late 17th Century. White Rose eTheses Online, 2003