Maps of Manor Castle Village
Coal had been mined in Sheffield Park since Tudor times. An account book entry for 1579 notes that 1,200 tons were extracted. But during the 18th century the park was transformed by the Duke’s mining operations and turned over almost entirely to that purpose. By 1777 the Manor Colliery was in operation close to the ruins and the Duke of Norfolk appointed mining engineer John Curr to manage his pits. Curr was an important figure in improving mining technology, developing some of the first tramways and wagons, which enabled the collieries to be linked to the Duke’s coal yard in the town. Some of his methods are described in his 1797 book The Coal Viewer, and Engine Builder's Practical Companion. He also built some of the first housing specifically for miners and their families in the country. This enabled a small community to develop on the Manor clustered almost entirely around the colliery and largely unconnected to urban Sheffield while being devoted to industrial tasks.
The gradual growth of this housing around the Manor and the Collierycan be seen in these 1784 maps from the Fairbanks, surveyors who practiced in Sheffield in the late 18th century:
By the time of the decline of mining at the onset of the 20th century the village had grown significantly, as seen in this map from 1890 which illustrates how even at this late stage the village and surrounding areas were largely seperate from urban Sheffield and shaped by their connection to the nearby colliery and the Manor ruins, houses being closely clustered around their place of work. By the 1950s the Manor area had changed drastically due to the urban sprawl of Sheffield:
