AN £800,000 lottery bid is being prepared to fire up Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet as a visitor attraction. Funds are being sought to improve the educational facilities, bring the waterwheels back into action and to make the 18th century complex more accessible for schools, community groups and disabled people. Another aim is to provide space for an updated equivalent of the ‘little mesters’ – the craftsmen who helped to forge Sheffield industrial reputation. The ‘modern mesters’ would work in jewellery or art, for example.
In general Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust is looking to make the hamlet more of a destination for visitors and trying to showcase the city’s industrial heritage by encouraging combined visits to Kelham Island Industrial Museum and the Shepherd Wheel in the Porter Valley. It is hoped to make a £800,000 submission to the Heritage Lottery Fund in June, councillors were told this week. “We want to make Abbeydale more accessible, particularly to schools and community groups,” said Alex Pettifer, who chairs the trust.
A new single-storey glass dominated building is envisaged that is in keeping with the historic surroundings – a place where regular exhibitions could also be held. “Ideally we want to create an education space, and we want to look at the commercial potential of a ‘modern mesters’’ facility,” added Mr Pettifer. “We would look to have artists in residence working there, maybe selling jewellery or artwork.”
The hamlet, off Abbeydale Road South, is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It was one of the largest water-powered sites on the River Sheaf, making agricultural scythes and other tools such as grass hooks and hay knives. Opening at Easter and running through the summer, it highlights Sheffield’s industrial past, with waterwheels, tilt hammers, a grinding hull and the only surviving intact crucible steel furnace in the world.
Living history days, steam rallies and other events are held every year but the trust wants to step up the gears, albeit against a background of less money from the council. The grant to Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, as with other council-financed culture and sports trusts, is being cut this year. The latest SIMT grant is £579,700 and it suffered a blow last month when the Victorian Christmas Market was called off because of snow and ice, resulting in a hole of nearly £50,000 in the budget. This year the trust is due to look after the Shepherd Wheel, once the renovation and the dam repairs have been completed as a result of a fundraising campaign led by the Friends of the Porter Valley. It means the reopening of another industrial gem and is prompting consideration of how it can become part of a more closely connected industrial and archaeological portfolio.
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