Hunter’s Sheffield

• Start: Start in front of the Town Hall and turn to your right down Surrey Street.
• Distance: 1.5 miles, 2.5km
• Time: 1 hour
• Access: The whole trail avoids steps.

Download trail PDF

Explore the Sheffield of Joseph Hunter, the city’s first historian, with this self-guided walk around the town centre.

• Follow in Hunter’s footsteps as he tours Sheffield at the end of the 1700s.
• Discover the lost places and hidden histories of the city’s streets.
• Visit Sheffield’s Paradise Square, see the city’s first non-conformist chapel, and the sites of the old town hall and its first coffee house.

This trail has been produced by the Hunter Archaeological Society in partnership with inHeritage.co.uk to celebrate the centenary of the Society in 2012. It is based on a guided tour created and led by Honorary Secretary Ruth Morgan, in May 2012.

This trail is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

All B&W archive photographs are © Picture Sheffield.

1. Hunter’s Birthplace

Joseph Hunter was born on 6 February, 1783 on the north side of New Church Street, the son of Michael Hunter and Elizabeth Girdler. His mother died when he was 4.

The family home was demolished to build the Town Hall in 1897. Look for the plaque on the Surrey Street wall, erected by the Society in 2000 to mark Hunter’s birthplace.

Keep on walking down Surrey Street, then turn left down Norfolk Street for a short distance until you reach some railings. Turn into the forecourt to stand in front of the Chapel.

2. Upper Chapel

This Unitarian church was the first non-conformist chapel in Sheffield when it was built in 1700. The brick chapel faced onto Fargate until it was turned round in 1847 and the Neoclassical façade, with its four Ionic columns, was added.

Joseph was given into the care of Rev Joseph & Susannah Evans of Upper Chapel when he was four to receive a good education. He attended Mr Sorby’s school in Attercliffe.

In 1852, Joseph gave £100 to preserve the family grave where his parents and grandparents are buried at the back of the Chapel. Inside the Chapel (it is open midday Wednesdays) on the right hand wall, look for the marble plaque to Joseph Hunter’s grandfather, father, half brother and nephew (all called Michael).

Facing the Chapel turn to your right through the gate onto Norfolk Row, turn left till you reach Fargate and right down to Church Street at the bottom. Cross the tram tracks and the Cathedral is facing you.

3. Cathedral Square

The Cathedral tower is Sheffield’s oldest building, dating from 1430 AD. Church Lane, as it was known when Hunter visited here in 1799, had been widened 10 years previously, disturbing burials around the Cathedral, which until 1913 was known as Trinity Church. Sheffield’s citizens, incensed by this and by the enclosures of commons, rioted in 1791 and damaged Broom Hall.

The young Hunter was not impressed by the brick Town Hall built in 1700 which stood at the top of High Street, with ‘lobbies’ beneath to lock up offenders. He wrote in Perambulation “when the street was widened it was expected this building would have been taken down, yet it still stands a disgrace to Sheffield.”

Turn towards your left and walk up to the top of the square, near to the fine Victorian pillar box. On your left opposite the Cathedral stands the Cutlers’ Hall.

4. Cutlers’ Hall

The present Cutlers’ Hall started to be built over 30 years after Hunter’s visit. Joseph was unimpressed by the previous hall of 1725, “The Cutlers’ Hall …contains the arms of the Cutlers Company carved and painted in the centre, but is not at all remarkable for its beauty.”

Yet, his family had many connections with the Cutlers’ Company. Three generations of his brother Michael’s family were Master Cutlers. His family owned the Talbot cutlery Works on Savile Street, with their “Horn and Bull” trademark.

Joseph was apprenticed as a cutler to William Hadfield at the age of 14, a year before writing Perambulation. His apprentice’s indenture of 1797 is on show inside the Cutlers’ Hall. He was admitted to the Freedom of the Cutlers’ Company in 1804, but he turned his back on what he called a “distasteful occupation”.

Continue up Church Street until you reach Leopold Street on the left and Townhead Street, where you turn right.

5. Townhead

Hunter recorded much about Townhead that has since disappeared, such as the market cross. He wrote “this is one of the oldest parts of the town…it is chiefly inhabited by the poorer ranks of society.” The Free Grammar School was found where Campo Lane meets Townhead. “Lower down on the same croft stands a writing school, erected in 1721, where 60 poor boys are taught writing and accompaniments gratis.”

Turn right down Campo Lane and continue until you reach Paradise Street on your left, turn down the hill into the square.

6. Paradise Square

Paradise Square was a recent development when Joseph visited in 1798. The east side dates to 1736, but the remaining buildings were built between 1770 and 1790. The square’s name may derive from the ancient use of Paradise or Parvis as the name for a garden close to a church.

Public assemblies were held here, the first when the Methodist John Wesley preached here in 1779. The city’s pot market was moved here from the High Street in 1808, and traders could refresh themselves in one of a number of pubs around the Square.

John Wesley, © National Portrait Gallery, London

Turn right up the High Street.

7. Angel Street

Hunter wrote in Perambulation, “We enter Angel Street, so called from the sign of the angel at one of the principal inns.” The first coach left this inn for the thirty-one hour journey to London in 1760 and Sheffield’s first coffee house was opened five years later. Sadly, the inn came to an explosive end during the Sheffield Blitz of 1940.

Turn to face down King Street – this was the meat market or Shambles owned by the Duke of Norfolk until he sold the rights to the Council in 1900. Below the market once stood the Castle.

Continue down Paradise Street and turn right along Bank Street until you reach the traffic lights, turn right up Angel Street and continue until you almost reach the tram stop.

8. High Street

Today, High Street is still a major shopping area – “High Street is occupied entirely by the retail dealers, and here there are no public buildings. I do not know the reason of this street being called High Street, but it is remarkable that there is in almost every large town a street so called, and it is generally, as it is in Sheffield, the principal street.”

Continue up the High Street and turn left onto George Street. Turn right onto Norfolk Street then left onto Tudor Square in front of the Crucible and Lyceum theatres. Head towards the right onto Surrey Street and turn left, to stand in front of the fine 1934 Central Library.

9. Local Studies Library

Hunter died aged 78 in 1861 and is buried at St Mary’s churchyard, Ecclesfield, home of his great-great grandfather William. He wrote to the vicar Rev Alfred Gatty in 1859 “I have of late sometimes thought that I should like to lie under the shadow of the trees which skirt the north-east corner of the burial ground.”

The centenary of Joseph’s death was celebrated in 1961 with a bronze plaque, designed by Hunter Archaeological Society president J.B. Himsworth, for the Local Studies Library. The plaque welcomes visitors as they enter the library on the first floor.

Turn towards your left and walk up to the top of the square, near to the fine Victorian pillar box. On your left opposite the Cathedral stands the Cutlers’ Hall.