Heritage Open Days 2023: Tours of Kelham Island, Neepsend and Yellow Arch Studios

This year’s Heritage Open Days will see Kelham Island Walks running two walking tours and offering a chance to see inside recording and music venue Yellow Arch Studios. The tours on offer include not only the regular Kelham Island Walk, but a chance to try out a brand new walking tour around Neepsend. Tickets are free, but limited, and must be booked online in advance. Tickets will be available from 5pm on 24 August 2023.

Tues 12 September, 6pm - Kelham Island Walking Tour

This is the regular walking tour of Kelham Island that is available throughout the year. The walk brings to life one of Sheffield’s first industrial districts. You’ll discover its buildings, stories about its history, the successes and the tragedies of the people who made it what it is, and an insight into the place today.

Further details and how to book your place here

Thurs 14 September, 6pm - Neepsend Walking Tour

This is a brand new walk that has been in the makings for about 18 months. This walk brings to life the story of how Neepsend grew from a small hamlet by the river to a thriving working class community. Today it is still a vibrant part of Sheffield, but its past is still there to see if you know where to look.

Further details and how to book your place here

Sun 17 September, 10.45am, 12.45pm and 2.15pm - Yellow Arch Studios tours

Working with Yellow Arch Studios, Kelham Island Walks is offering the opportunity to visit this hub of Sheffield’s music scene guided by one of its founders Andy Cook. Yellow Arch Studios is now one of Sheffield's top live music and recording venues, but the building dates back to the 1870s when it was a part of Sheffield's industry. Three separate tours will be run on the day which will tell the story of its industrial past and its music present.

Further details and how to book your place here

Discover Heritage Open Days

Heritage Open Days is an annual event where every September, thousands of events are organised by volunteers giving people a chance to see more of our history and culture. This year’s its on from 8th to 17th September. As well as countless walking tours, there are lots of buildings that only open to the public this one time of the year. You can see a full list of what’s on in Sheffield on the Heritage Open Days website.

The first Kelham Island walking tour that was open for anyone to book and come along was held as part of Heritage Open Days in 2019, and that event was key in raising the profile and success of Kelham Island Walks. Also available in the area is a lunchtime Lowlights at Kelham Island Museum tour, Meet the Little Mester also at Kelham Island Museum, a Kelham Island Pub Heritage Walk, a Sheffield Home of Football talk, beer and cellar tour at the Gardener’s Rest pub in Neepsend, a tour of Sheffield Street Art in Neepsend and Kelham Island, as well as many others in, around and connected to the area.

Portillo visits Kelham Island and 'the city's looking good'

In May 2022 I was taking a family group on a private walking tour of Kelham Island when on leaving Globe Works we spotted TV cameras set up on the other side of the road. And who should they be filming but Michael Portillo walking along the pavement past the grand frontage of Globe Works that faces Penistone Road. I assumed it would be for his popular TV series Great British Railway Journeys, and finally the footage has appeared in episode three of his latest series.

It’s a bit of a case of blink and you’ll miss it, but in between visits to Samuel Staniforth, a knife manufacturer based in Halfway, and the Cutlers’ Hall in the city centre, you see a clip of Portillo striding past Globe Works. Me and the tour I’m leading are just out of shot to the right.

I’ve long been a fan of the series that gives you a glimpse into the fascinating history of cities, towns and villages across the country. But this episode is a good opportunity to learn a bit more about Sheffield’s cutlery industry, and the companies still manufacturing today. The episode of the programme finishes by the water cascades in front of Sheffield Station where Portillo talks about how much things have changed but declares confidently that ‘the city’s looking good’.

The programme can be viewed here on BBC iPlayer for at least the next 11 months.

Launch of Kelham Island and Neepsend art and studios tour

I’m really pleased to launch a brand new walking tour that will highlight the artistic side of Kelham Island and Neepsend.

The walk will be lead by local artist and director of the Kelham Island Arts Collective (KIAC) Simon Wigglesworth-Baker, and will not only highlight the amazing art that can be seen around the area, but it will also give a chance to see inside some of the artist studios. It will show a completely different side to the local area from the focus on history on the original Kelham Island Walking Tour.

We’ve been planning this walk for a while, and with the increased interest in the art scene in the area, it’s great to be finally launching it. The first walk will be on 5 August, with them then taking place on regular dates afterwards.

You can read more about the walk here, and bookings are available as usual via Eventbrite.

Sheffield Heritage Open Days 2021

If you're interested in history and seeing little known parts of the city then Sheffield Heritage Open Days is the event for you. It's on from 10 to 19 September and is entirely free. It includes free guided walks, tours of fascinating buildings from the grand to the ordinary, online talks, and special events at places that may be more familiar. You can see a full list of what's on in at Sheffield Heritage Open Days online and free booklets will also be available around the city. Heritage Open Days runs across England (largely excepting London which has its own Open House London event on 4-12 September) and so there’s plenty of other places to visit too.

Here are some of the places you can visit in and near Kelham Island and Neepsend. Whilst many are on a 'just turn up' basis there are others that need booking, and they can get booked up fast.

Aizlewood's Mill, Nursery Street

Friday 10 and Tuesday 14 September

Guided tours of this Victorian flour mill that dominates the surrounding area. Bookings by email.

Gardeners Rest, Neepsend Lane, Sheffield. Photo: Anders Hanson

Brewery talk and tasting, Gardener's Rest, Neepsend Lane

Tuesday 14 September

Learn about traditional brewing and get to taste some of the wares too. Bookings by Eventbrite.

Cutlery for afternoon tea

Wednesday 15 September

An online talk that goes through a range of over 50 unusual objects made in Sheffield and sent all around the world to adorn dining tables. Booking to be announced

Gardener's Rest Festival of Food and Drink, Neepsend Lane

Throughout

During the Heritage Open Days festival, the Gardeners Rest will be paying homage to Sheffield's traditional, locally-produced food and drink to mark this year's Edible England theme. Just turn up.

Industrial Collection Store Tour, Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street

Wednesday 15 September

This tour gives you the rare chance to visit the collection stores at Kelham Island Museum and get a little bit closer to the fascinating objects that aren’t currently on display.

Holy Trinity Church, Nursery Street

Throughout

Grade 2 listed building erected in 1848 for Wicker district parish. During the flood of 2007, the church was extensively damaged. The congregation is refurbishing to its former glory. Just turn up

Pub Heritage Walk: Kelham Island

Friday 17 September

This event is a short walking tour in the Kelham Island area of Sheffield. It encompasses both aspects of the industrial heritage of the area and of the ‘Beer Capital’ status owned by the City of Sheffield. Bookings by Eventbrite.

Tales of City Centre Music Halls of West Bar

Tuesday 14 and Thursday 16 September

Linear walk exploring the ‘Shaftesbury Avenue’ of Sheffield and the history of local music hall. A walk round the West Bar area, visiting the sites of long gone music halls, circuses and pub singing rooms, with tales of the managers, artistes and clientele of these establishments. Bookings by Eventbrite.

The history of the Gardener's Rest talk with cellar tour, Neepsend Lane

Wednesday 15 September

A chance to learn about the fascinating history of this Victorian pub, plus a rare opportunity to visit the cellars and learn about how real ale is kept. Bookings by Eventbrite.

Zion Graveyard, Attercliffe, Sheffield. Resting place of Mary Anne Rawson. Photo: Anders Hanson

Wardsend Cemetery, Livesey Street, Hillsborough

Sunday 12 and Tuesday 14 September

Join us for " A Wardsend Wander" in our Cemetery next to the River Don. You will hear about producers of agricultural tools and silverware manufacture through market gardening, livestock rearing and brewing, to a world of competitive sports’ achievements. Bookings by Eventbrite.

Zion Graveyard, Lawrence Street/Zion Lane, Attercliffe

Sunday 12 September

Explore a unique historic burial ground and find out about key members of Georgian Attercliffe. You will also see the grave of Kelham Island's very own Mary Anne Rawson. Just turn up.

Kelham Island Walks update - July 2021

With Covid restrictions lifting and walking tours finally getting underway on 17th July, it felt like a good time for an update on some of the things that Kelham Island Walks has been doing over the last year.

The first walk dates were unveiled in April. As with any new enterprise it can take a while to get established and so I gave it a few months from the first lifting of Covid restrictions before the first walk just to be sure that things were opening up as planned and to give them a chance to be publicised properly. The first of these dates are already fully booked (thanks to a brilliant and unexpected boost from Sheffield City Council who included Kelham Island Walks in its SheffNews email newsletter) and some of the other walks only have a few spaces left. If you haven't booked a slot yet, then you need to get in quick. It'll be great to finally be able to take people round Kelham Island and show it off to visitors.

Anders Hanson, founder of Kelham Island Walks, appears on BBC Look North

Kelham Island Walks also had an unexpected appearance in a few other places. Last year ago I was invited on to BBC Look North to talk about Mary Anne Rawson, a great anti-slavery campaigner and philanthropist who was born on Green Lane and is one of the local heroes included in the walks. The appearance on the BBC coincided with the unveiling of a mural by local artist Katy Sett on the wall of Cutlery Works to commemorate the time when Mary Anne Rawson met former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass at her home in Wincobank. Sheffield's community magazine Steelmekker also included a feature on Kelham Island Walks in its April 2021 edition, and I loved participating in the Help Sheffield podcast who wanted to know more about the walks and are really enthusiastic themselves about showing off all that is great about the city.

Kelham Island almshouses, Alma Street (formerly part of the cotton mill and then workhouse)

Kelham Island had its very own heritage month in April. This was organised by the Kelham Island and Neepsend Neighbourhood Forum (KINNF) which was set up to develop a neighbourhood plan that will shape the way the area develops in the future. It's a really good way for a community to influence planning decisions instead of simply leaving it to council or government policies. Kelham Heritage Month asked people to suggest their favourite buildings in the area (you can see the submissions on KINNF's website) and mine was the building known as 'the almshouses' or 'the cottages' on Alma Street. They're not the most obvious building to pick, but they're the oldest buildings still standing in the area and started life as part of a cotton mill in the 1800s and later formed part of the workhouse. Thanks are also due to the owners of Perry Glossop & Co who have run their traditional silversmith business from the building for the past 20 years and as a result of my nomination gave me a chance to have a nosy inside their premises so can I tell people on the walk more about how its used today.

Katie leading one of the excellent Look Up London walking tours

Finally, it probably won't be any surprise to discover that as the founder of walking tours in Sheffield, I also love going on them myself. Seeing other people's tours is what made me want to lead my own. On a short break to London I went on my first tour from Look Up London around The City of London and it was brilliant. I highly recommend them. The guide Katie is incredibly engaging and always has some new little known facts and bits of history that are worth hearing about. She was also very enthusiastic about me running my own tours. If you're not going to be in London anytime soon though, both her blog and her YouTube channel are definitely worth a look.

Anders Hanson
Founder, Kelham Island Walks

P.S. Don't forget that Kelham Island Museum is now free entry which means it’s even easier to see more of Sheffield's industrial heritage!

Three books about Sheffield for World Book Day #WorldBookDay

Today is World Book Day and so it seems appropriate to pick out some books that are worth a read if you want to know more about the history of Kelham Island and Neepsend, and of Sheffield as a whole. As you can imagine, anyone who takes walking tours has a lot of local history on their shelves, and so for this post I’ve picked just three.

A History of Sheffield by David Hey

The first is David Hey’s A History of Sheffield. There’s a few books that are considered classics on Sheffield history and this is one of them. Although published in 1998 it is a great read for anyone who wants a concise, readable but informative history of the city from the earliest settlers up to (almost) the present day. David Hey was a hugely respected historian and the one time president of the British Association for Local History. He sadly died five years ago but his legacy and contribution to studying Sheffield’s history is huge.

Made in Sheffield: The Story of James Dixon & Sons Silversmiths by Pauline Cooper Bell

Cornish Place is one of the most famous landmarks in Kelham Island, and the firm of James Dixon & Sons who owned it are one of the most significant in Sheffield manufacturing. This short book Made in Sheffield by Pauline Cooper Bell takes you through the development of the company, stories about the Dixon family itself, the highs and the lows and changes at Cornish Place itself. It’s a great book written by someone whose family worked in the factory and has been really helpful background reading for Kelham Island Walks and contains far more than the walks ever can. If you want to get a feel for how a Sheffield family-owned silversmiths grew, became a world leader and then declined this is a good pick.

Sheffield Public Houses by Michael Liversidge

No post about Kelham Island would be complete without mentioning pubs and this book Sheffield’s Public Houses by Michael Liversidge is from one of the city’s experts on the subject. It’s is another pick from the late 1990s and so some pubs have closed or changed their name since, but it’s still a fascinating read. Not only is it a comprehensive list of all pubs in Sheffield past and present with potted histories of many of them, it also includes some fascinating stories about pubs with connections to the Sheffield Flood, crime, ghosts, and the city’s music and sporting history.

So that’s three books about Sheffield history, but there could have been many more. One thing that Sheffield does really well is local history books and so we can’t wait for the bookshops to reopen. This of course includes Kelham Island’s very own Kelham Island Books and Music that has a section dedicated to local history. You’ll also sometimes find some interesting reads in the antique shops that have opened in Neepsend such as The Kelham Flea and The Blind Mole.

Art and industry on Green Lane

Kelham Island has developed a bit of a reputation over the last few years for its street art, but it also has some lovely much older art if you know where to look. One of my favourites are the two bronze plaques mounted on the facade of the archway of the former Green Lane Works just next to the restaurant Stew & Oyster which now forms one of the entrances to the Little Kelham development.

Green Lane Works archway and clock tower, Sheffield

This is probably one of Kelham Island’s most distinctive landmarks and was restored fairly recently after years of neglect. There’s more to say about this archway, not least how it came to be there in the first place, but that’s a subject for another post. But high up on both sides of the top of the arch you’ll see two bronze plaques. These have been there since the arch was built back in 1860 and are thought to have been designed by sculptor Alfred Stevens who worked at Green Lane Works before going off to seek his fortune in London. These plaques include two figures of Greek gods - Hephaestus and Athena.

The Greek god Hephaestus on the archway of Green Lane Works, Sheffield

The plaque on the left is Hephaestus, better known in Sheffield under his Roman name Vulcan - the same figure whose statue can be seen on the top of the tower of Sheffield Town Hall. Hephaestus was the Greek God of blacksmiths hence the anvil and the fire in the sculpture, but became a general symbol of industry hence his association with Sheffield.

The Greek god Athena on the archway of Green Lane Works, Sheffield

The plaque on the right is Athena, who is a symbol of art as can be seen from her holding a brush and an artist’s palette. The palette gives away who commissioned this work, the reason why, and its age, as it includes the words ‘Henry E. Hoole. Mayor. 1860’.

The combination of both of these figures on the archway gives a clue to the attitude of Hoole and many other industrialists in the city who saw the work they were doing as both industry and art. Hoole himself also employed students from the Sheffield Institute of Arts, now a part of Sheffield Hallam University, in his factory to help develop the artistic designs of the ornamental grates, fenders and stoves that were made there. This helped build the reputation of Hoole & Company to become one of the most prestigious firms in the city.

Although it isn’t known for certain whether the design was by Alfred Stevens, it is widely thought that it is. Stevens’ best known work is the memorial to the Duke of Wellington in St Paul’s Cathedral in London. And certainly if you look at the bronze figures that flank that memorial you get a similar feel to the figures at Green Lane Works which was started around the same time as Wellington’s Memorial.

Welcome to Kelham Island Walks from its founder Anders

From quite a young age I wanted to be a tour guide. As I am naturally quite a shy person that seems surprising, but I’ve always loved learning bits of trivia and unusual and surprising facts and then sharing them with other people. But I’ve also always been fascinated by history, not the dates (I still need to think hard to remember them) but the stories that bring a place to life. And so wherever I’ve lived I’ve sought them out and wanted to really understand what makes a place tick and how it ended up the way it is today. I guess I’ve always been a bit geeky about history, maps and geography.

So when I moved to Kelham Island in the middle of 2012 I wanted to know more about the place I’d come to live in. Not finding any suitable books other than general histories I started doing my own research finding out all sorts from books, maps, photographs, historic documents, old newspaper articles, internet searches, and just through chatting to people. I then started sharing some of with my neighbours and friends around Kelham Island and Neepsend. That led to me being asked one day by the chair of the local community group to help with a tour he was doing as part of a study visit for a conference at Sheffield University.

Anders leading a walking tour of Kelham Island and Neepsend for the Mistra Urban Futures Annual International Conference held at the University of Sheffield in 2019. Picture: Alex Payling

The reaction to that initial walk snowballed and some great feedback led to me to decide to get organised and the result is Kelham Island Walks. Whilst my regular walk is just around Kelham Island itself, I consider Neepsend also part of my patch. I also know a fair bit about West Bar and Sheffield city centre too. So I’m hoping that one day Kelham Island Walks becomes much more than just my local patch. But being my local patch, Kelham Island and Neepsend is where my heart is and I know it inside out. At the moment this is also part-time with me still needing to hold down my main job.

Sadly, just as I had got organised coronavirus appeared and put a hold on everything, but that’ll only be temporary. I hope if anything our daily exercise during lockdown has made us all more curious about the places around us and afterwards it will make us all want to get out and explore a bit more in the fresh air.

Finally, and at the risk of this sounding like a poor man’s Oscars ceremony I want to thank a few people who have helped me get Kelham Island Walks to where it is now… Ben McGarry and Simon Wigglesworth-Baker, the Chair and Vice-Chair respectively of Kelham Island & Neepsend Community Alliance (KINCA) who got me in to doing my first walk and gave me lots of encouragement; all my other friends and neighbours around the area (AKA the Sundowners) who’ve really encouraged me to do this but also despaired when I’ve spent ages agonising over what to call it and how to set up a website and design a logo; Robin Widdowson an experienced tour leader who I’ve worked with on the KIN walking programme through which we aim to get local residents exploring places within easy reach of Kelham Island and which we kicked off with a trial run of my walk; Liz Godfrey from Sheffield Heritage Open Days who enthused about my walk and persuaded me to put it on as part of their annual programme of events; Sophie Barber of Kelham Island Food Tours who met with me and gave some great advice on how to get organised and raise my profile; Chris Keady and Brooke Shipley from Kelham Island Museum who have been keen to work with me from the start and given me access to the museum’s resources to do more research; and last but not least David Tucker from London Walks who despite not having met me before was another enthusiast for my tours and was prepared to give the endorsement of London’s oldest walking tours company whose own walks partly inspired me to be a tour guide in the first place.

Anders Hanson
Founder, owner, guide, creator, web-designer, marketeer, and everything else for Kelham Island Walks