The name of Roe Wood may possibly[clarification needed] be derived from the old Norse word ra meaning rowan tree.

[citation needed]In the 12th century, a local lord of the manor founded a hospital in the area, called St Leonards.

In the 13th century, a Norman family called De Mounteney were prominent in the area and owned land around Shirecliffe and Grimesthorpe.

Looking back from the top of Pitsmoor at that time, you would have seen rolling hills and farmland leading down to Lady's Bridge where a cluster of shops and houses had developed around the market place next to Sheffield Castle.

Industry in the area was mostly in the form of small workshops, attached to farm buildings, producing knives and tools for a local market.

The arrival of heavy steel and engineering industries, concentrated in the Don Valley, created jobs for migrant workers from all over England and as far away as Ireland.

In the 1870s the writer Alfred Gatty described the view from Osgathorpe down into the Don Valley: “….there stands, as it were, Dante's city of Dis…masses of buildings, from the tops of which issue fire, and smoke, and steam, which cloud the whole scene, however bright the sunshine.” A drawing from 1879 of John Sorbys Spital Hill steel works captures this atmosphere completely.

[citation needed] Despite this grim picture of development, the higher part of Burngreave was far enough away from the noise and pollution to remain popular with Sheffield's industrialists and professional classes.

Originally called Pitsmoor Abbey, it first belonged to William Pass, the owner of a local colliery, then the house was bought by a solicitor, Bernard Wake, who turned it into the family home.

In the early 20th century Abbeyfield House was occupied by the Greenwood family and then into the possession of the Sheffield Parks Department Training Centre.

[citation needed] In 1861 Burngreave cemetery was laid out to accommodate the overflow from local church yards as these were full.

[citation needed] By this time, Burngreave was a suburb of Sheffield, still prosperous and considered a pleasant place to live.

Occasional declines in the fortunes of the cutlery trade resulted in periods of unemployment and great hardship for many poorer families in the area.

A cartoon from a newspaper in 1879 shows a soup kitchen operating from the Vestry Hall, turning away barefoot and hungry children.

Slum clearance started in earnest and whole neighbourhoods were decanted to other parts of the city whilst the old substandard housing was demolished.

In the years immediately after the Second World War, there was a desperate need for labour in Sheffield to rebuild the city and its industries.

In Burngreave cemetery there is a grave of an Indian man killed in a colliery accident in Beighton in 1923, called Sultan Mohomed.

In late 2011, a Tesco Extra opened on Saville Street, a couple of hundred yards from Spital Hill, the traditional shopping hotspot of the area.