The area around Harland Works was known as Little Sheffield - and in fact, is still called the Little Sheffield Conservation Area in a Sheffield City Council report. A concentration of steel works grew up in this area.
The report describes development of the steel works round here:
“Prior to the mid-late-nineteenth century, the St Mary’s area mainly consisted of fields associated with the hamlet of Little Sheffield. The development of the area took place between the 1820s to the 1870s, with back-to-back and terrace housing, interspersed with industrial works, being the general pattern of development, as had become standard in Sheffield during the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. Steel and cutlery works were the predominant industries in the area. Works tended to be purpose built structures, with less of the incorporation of earlier structures into the complexes as was found in the Furnace Hill and Well Meadow areas.”
We have plans dated from the early 1900s for Harland Works displayed in the building. More on the history of Little Mesters is covered in an interesting blog post on the Portland Works website.
