Evidence from the Civil War siege of Sheffield Castle

The continuing archaeological investigation of the site of Sheffield Castle has yielded important physical evidence of a tactic to repel besiegers. This is in the form of surviving sharpened stakes which were driven by the Royalist defenders into the moat to  impede the Parliamentarian attackers. Although such stakes are known to have been used re only evidence so far had been soil marks. The Sheffield evidence is the first recorded instance of the stakes actually surviving.

The discovery is described on the website of Wessex Archaeology at Team excavating Sheffield Castle unearth the first surviving examples of 17th-century Civil War abatis in castle moat

There is a shorter article about the excavations from Heritage Daily at Archaeologists uncover rare civil war defences at Sheffield Castle

The discovery is also covered by Archaeology Magazine at  Seventeenth-Century Wooden Stakes Unearthed at Sheffield Castle and at Rare 17th-century Civil War defenses unearthed at Sheffield Castle

The BBC News website has an account of the excavation of the castle at Sheffield's first surviving Civil War stake defences revealed