Gleadless Valley

Gleadless Valley is a housing estate and electoral ward of the City of Sheffield in England. The population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 21,089. It lies south-southeast of the city centre. Formerly a rural area, Gleadless Valley was developed as a large housing project with around 4000 dwellings by Sheffield City Council between 1955 and 1962. It is an area of undulating land drained by the Meers Brook, which has its source on the high ground in the woodland at Gleadless. Adjacent are Gleadless to the east, Norton to the south-west, Heeley to the west and Arbourthorne to the north.HistoryPrior to the middle of the 19th century Gleadless valley was an area of isolated ancient woodland with some farmland. Buck Wood to the north of the valley is a modern name but in John Harrison’s survey of the manor of Sheffield in 1637 it was known as Berrystorth which is an Old Norse name which implies a wood of great antiquity. Much of the present day woodland has a wide range of ancient woodland indicator species including Bluebell, Dog's mercury, Common wood sorrel and Yellow archangel. Herdings Wood was the main area of trees in the valley in ancient times, this was later subdivided into Leeshall Wood, The Lumb and Rollestone Wood as well as Herdings Wood itself. It was first mentioned in a document dated 1642 which stated that William Chaworth, Lord and Knight of Norton had given permission for John Cotes and John Parker to fell and turn into charcoal a certain amount of trees in Herdyng Wood. Farming took place in the valley before the 17th century and wooded areas which were suitable for agricultural land were gradually felled leaving the woodland on the steep valley sides of the Meers Brook and its tributaries.