Event - Riverside Heritage Walk (Sheffield)

On Saturday the 22nd September at 1pm and Sunday the 23rd September at 2pm Ron Clayton will be carrying out a ninety minute riverside walk down stream from Kelham Island Industrial Museum as part of their Down By The Riverside Festival. The walk is included in the admission price and the tour will set off from the Bessemer Converter outside the Museum and return to the Museum for the rest of the entertainment on offer. On the way the walk will look at some industrial archaeology, the Great Inundation Of 1864, the infamous Charles Frederick Peace, a pub or two, bits of medieval Sheffield, a privy or two, and explore the ' wattre of Doun, the Sheaf and Poandes'. On sale will be the only book specifically written about a Sheffield river, the River Loxley, written by Ron and beautifully illustrated by Mark Rodgers.

Information on Down By The Riverside from Nikki Connelly. Any enquiries regarding the walk tobigronclayton@sheffieldhistorytours.co.uk or bigronclayton@hotmail.co.uk

Article - Kim’s streets ahead (Museums Sheffield)

IT was in 1990, while working on a project researching the history of Sheffield industry, that Kim Streets met the then curator of Kelham Island Museum.


“I asked if they needed any volunteers,” she says. “I’d loved visiting these kinds of places since I was a kid so it was something I wanted to do.”

Twenty-two years later she has just been appointed the new boss of Museums Sheffield.

It means the young history graduate who walked nervously in through those Kelham Island gates is now responsible for the city’s biggest art and educational attractions including Millennium Gallery, Graves Gallery, Weston Park museum and Bishops House. She gets paid these days, it should be stressed.

“It’s been quite a journey,” she says.

Indeed. And today, it has led the 44-year-old to her new Surrey Street office (spacious, airy, views of Park Hill) where she wants to discuss the future.

Make no mistake, it’s a challenging one.

Museums Sheffield, a charitable trust formed in 1998 to oversee the running of the service, has been hit by huge funding cuts.

A decision by the Arts Council to refuse £4.2 million in grants over three years – instead pouring the money into York and Leeds – means 40 workers are being made redundant and touring exhibitions are being cut.

Kim, who replaced the outgoing Nick Dodd, describes a drop in footfall as inevitable – although by how much is unclear.

But, here is what this Pitsmoor mother-of-three wants to stress: where there are challenges they will be met, where there are problems solutions will be found and, in the long run, Museums Sheffield will be better for adapting.

Oh, and, if she’s allowed to dream, she sees a world where the Graves is sympathetically modernised with more gallery space, brand new IT suite and a roof-top restaurant.

“When I joined permanently in 1991 we had no money, a small team and the prospect of year-on-year cuts,” she says. “We are in a similar position today but then, as now, we managed to do great things with the resources we had.

“What we had back then was a commitment from staff; we had a vision and together with the city we made it happen. Now we must build on that passion, creativity and knowledge again.”

Practically, she says the service will become more efficient, with other funding streams being investigated and a greater emphasis being placed on exhibiting Sheffield’s own collection of more than one million artefacts. A suite of self-guided resources are being created to ease the reduction in staff.

“We need to rediscover our own collections,” she says. “Next year, for example, is the centenary of the invention of stainless steel and that is something we will celebrate using our own collection.”

And for the future?

“Making ourselves more financially resilient is a priority,” says Kim, who is originally from Selby but moved here to study at Sheffield Polytechnic in 1986.

Long term, she has also initiated top-level discussions on making the Graves Gallery more central to what the service offers.

“When it was faced with closure last year, the people of Sheffield showed how much they loved it,” says Kim. “Now we have to prove it was worth their support.

“I would like to see more gallery space attracting more visitors and showing more contemporary art. It’s a fantastic venue. I see no reason why there couldn’t be a top-floor restaurant. We will be ambitious.”

Kim Streets: she’s come a long way from being a volunteer. Now, as the boss, she has a whole new journey ahead of her.

Exceptional exhibitions: What makes Museums Sheffield great

China: Journey to the East (Weston Park, 2011-12): Three thousand years of Chinese culture were packed into Weston Park for this offering run in partnership with the British Museum. It the Museums Sheffield’s most popular exhibition ever.

Artist Rooms: Robert Mapplethorpe (Graves Gallery, 2011-12): Featuring one of the 20th century’s iconic photographers was a coup. Getting a complementary performance by his friend, legendary punk Patti Smith, was perhaps even better.

Restless Times: Art in Britain 1914 - 1945 (Millennium Gallery, 2010-11): Featuring a mix of Sheffield’s own collection and national loans, Restless Times aimed to capture the spirit of the turbulent war and inter-war years.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/kim-s-streets-ahead-1-4502051

News - Pressure is mounting for clean-up of dam and park (Sheffield)

VOLUNTEERS are pressing for political support to spruce up one of the most popular parts of the Porter Valley in Sheffield.

Initial plans centre on desilting Forge Dam and repairing the dam walls, before improving the area around the cafe and improving the playground.

The project is being driven by the Friends of the Porter Valley, who are already steering the reopening of the Shepherd Wheel after a £1m fundraising campaign.

Increasingly, their attention is turning to Forge Dam. “About half a million people a year are going through the park and, according to our surveys, between a fifth and a quarter are from outside the immediate area,” said Ann le Sage, who chairs the Friends.

“It’s a park for Sheffield and at present it’s dreadful.”

Volunteers have spent hundreds of hours clearing scrub and saplings from surrounding woodland, but are looking for council support for the first part of a proposed programme to desilt the dam and to remove tree roots and strengthen the walls. The estimated cost is £360,000.

Ann said she understood the financial pressures on the council, but with the offer of volunteer help and the credibility of the Friends proven at Shepherd Wheel, she had high hopes.

Later it would be a case of securing funds, probably around £1m, from the likes of the Heritage Lottery Fund to carry out the rest of the programme.

Ann added: “There is a lot of thinking to do once we get answers from the council. With goodwill and hard work, we should be able to make it.”

A masterplan, backed by the Friends and the council’s south west community assembly, was drawn up after a public consultation exercise.

The dam was cleaned about 20 years ago and long before that it was used for boating. “When we did the consultation, I lost count of the number of people who said they had been on a boat on the dam. We are not planning to go down that route, although we are not ruling it out.”

Ambitions include trying to prevent further desilting of the dam by working with landowners upstream, and the possibility of a small hydro power scheme, for education purposes as well for generating electricity for the cafe.

The Friends are aiming to have Shepherd Wheel back in action as a visitor attraction this year after raising £500,000 themselves and with £500,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

It will be run by Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, which already operates Kelham Island Industrial Museum and Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet.

From: http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/pressure_is_mounting_for_clean_up_of_dam_and_park_1_4135845

News - Kelham water wheel set to roll again (Sheffield)

A COMMUNITY initiative to generate electricity from a water wheel at Kelham Island looks like moving forward.

Proposals to install a new wheel where an old one used to operate off Alma Street have won the support of council planners, despite anglers’ worries that it could disturb fish in the River Don. Planners say there is likely to be some impact but fish and amphibians should be able to adapt to new water levels.

They will recommend on Monday that councillors approve an application from Sheffield Community Renewables for a micro-hydro system that would generate electricity, either linked to the national grid or directly to businesses such as Kelham Island Industrial Museum or Kelham Island Brewery. Other issues include noise affecting residents of nearby apartments but councillors are being advised that there are no major problems with any aspect of the scheme.

The Government’s Environment Agency is raising no objections on ecological grounds.

A council report says: “The proposal is considered to represent a modern interpretation of a traditional means to generate power that is reminiscent of Kelham Island’s industrial heritage.”

Concerns are being raised by the Angling Trust and the Don Catchment Rivers Trust but local councillor Jillian Creasy says the scheme is in keeping with the traditions of the area.

From: http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/local/kelham_water_wheel_set_to_roll_again_1_4132453

News - Friends present cheque to museum in memory of veteran campaigner (Kelham Island)

FRIENDS of a veteran left-wing political campaigner presented a cheque to Kelham Island Museum in his memory.

Mark ‘Mozaz’ Wallis, an anarchist who was ever-present at Sheffield protests and demonstrations, died of pneumonia in January aged 45.

A group of friends decided to raise a collection in his memory and donated it to Kelham Island in celebration of Mozaz’s passion for South Yorkshire’s industrial heritage.

Friend Jane Murphy said: “Mozaz was passionate about Sheffield’s industrial history, saving historically significant buildings from falling into disrepair and ruin.

“He made himself a right pain at times by campaigning and attempting to pressure owners of buildings to make them safe and bring them back to their former glory.

“We raised £140 between us and then the discussion about what to do with the money ensued.

“We had considered benches and plaques, but then decided on a donation to the museum in Mozaz’s name.

“We hope this is something that he would have been happy with.”

From: http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/friends_present_cheque_to_museum_in_memory_of_veteran_campaigner_1_3460426

Article - Painter showed gritty reality of industry to upper classes (Rotherham)

A PAINTER who spread an awareness of South Yorkshire’s grimy 19th century steelworks with his vivid art works has been included in a prestigious national reference guide.

William Holt Yates Titcomb, who painted steelworkers in Rotherham at the height of South Yorkshire’s steel boom in the 1890s, today enters the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for the first time.

Titcomb, who lived in St Ives in Cornwall, spent several months every year in Wickersley, where he inherited a house from his father, a vicar.

It was there, in his late 30s, that he started exploring local industry in search of scenes and themes that had not been painted before.

Driven by his concern for the plight of the poor and the conditions in which they had to work, in 1895 he sat for three months in a Rotherham factory.

The two works he produced were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1897, bringing an awareness of the grim conditions of South Yorkshire’s steelworks to the upper crust of Victorian society.

The paintings - The Wealth of England: the Bessemer Process of Making Steel, and The Steam Hammer, are today exhibited at Kelham Island Industrial Museum in Sheffield.

Titcomb is one of 103 new biographies added today to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which chronicles the lives of notable British figures who died before 2007.

Also added to the important reference work today is pre-Raphaelite Barnsley painter John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, who was born at Cannon Hall, Cawthorne.

The 19th century artist rose to fame for his work with George Frederic Watts.

Stanhope’s entry describes him as being “crazy on pictures” as a young man.

His depiction of a young woman’s descent into prostitution, Thoughts of the Past, is in London’s Tate Collection.

Although he travelled widely and died in the Italian city of Florence in 1908, Stanhope was always proud of his South Yorkshire roots. When he married Elizabeth King in 1859 he lived in Hill House, a farm cottage in Cawthorne.

His friend Lady Paget, who later knew him in Florence, said: “He looks like what he is, a Yorkshire squire.”

He was consciously a northern artist and regularly put on shows in Liverpool and Manchester, and did important work in churches near Cannon Hall, most notably at St John’s in Hoylandswaine.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/painter_showed_gritty_reality_of_industry_to_upper_classes_1_3416519