Background
Sheffield castle was located at the confluence of the River Sheaf and the River Don (53°23′5″N 1°27′48″W / 53.38472°N 1.46333°W / 53.38472; -1.46333), on the western bank of the Sheaf and the southern bank of the Don. The rivers provided defence to the north and east and there was a moat on the south and western sides of the castle. This site is now largely covered by the castle market.
The site of the castle is the place where the earliest settlement at Sheffield was founded sometime in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. The Domesday Book of 1086 states that, prior to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, Waltheof II, Earl of Northumbria had an aula (hall) in the manor of Hallam. In the same entry, it is reported that the manor of Sheffield—which had previously been part of Hallam—was under the Lordship of Sweyn at the time of the conquest. It has been speculated that Waltheof's aula or Sweyn's stronghold may have been at this site, and excavations between 1927 and 1930 were claimed to have uncovered evidence of a Saxon structure.
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