This blogging journey I am on has just entered its twentieth year. In the early days, I created a blogpost about the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire - simply to give visitors a sense of where I am blogging from. Now years have passed and the old visitors have gone. Instead, new visitors come here.
Quite possibly, you have little idea what this city is like - especially if you live in a foreign land. I could help you out by writing about Sheffield's rich industrial heritage and how it was built on steel. Just as Pittsburgh is known as America's steel city, so Sheffield is still commonly referred to as England's city of steel. It has a population of well over half a million people.
I could also wax lyrical about our wonderful surrounding countryside and write about the city's key importance in the history of modern football (American: soccer). The two oldest football teams in the world were formed here - Sheffield F.C. and Hallam F.C..
City view from Fulwood Lane, Ringinglow
Nice, I enjoyed the tour in pictures.
ReplyDeleteNow back to my place for tea and cake.
DeleteI like the first photo the most. It is not really a merge of city and country, rather an abrupt planting of a city in a rural area.
ReplyDeleteI stumbled upon that hunk of carved stone by the an old stone trough. I have no idea how it ended up there.
DeleteYou live in a city that has it all, and is surprisingly close to beautiful countryside. The only thing I don't like about Sheffield is that the train station is so far away from the city centre. Not ideal when you arrive with a heavy suitcase and can't just walk across the road to some inner-city accomodation before you continue your journey.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a while since I've visited, but your photos give a good overall impression.
I know what you mean about the location of the railway station Meike but there are historical and geographical reasons for that awkwardness that I don't feel like explaining right now.
DeleteI do know about it, having read up on the matter and also I believe you have explained it on a blog post some time in the past.
DeleteBeneath the railway station there is a river - in a vast tunnel. I have never been down there but I have seen pictures of it.
DeleteI have only been to Sheffield twice but each time I enjoyed it. My daughter applied to study medicine there and didn't get in, but we spent most a day wandering around the town. The other occasion was when we went to a ballet at the Crucible Theatre.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised that a couple of southern lasses got through the security net.
DeleteI've never visited Sheffield. I do know however that Mary, Queen of Scots was held for a time in Sheffield castle. Does it still exist?
ReplyDeleteSadly, very little of the castle remains. As a privileged prisoner, Mary Queen of Scots was moved around the area. Mostly she was housed at Sheffield Manor - see the sixth picture. She had servants and horses - unlike those in Strangeways and Wormwood Scrubs.
DeleteMy father in law was born in Sheffield and lived there until he joined the army in WWII. He didn't go back afterwards in all the years until his death aged 87.
ReplyDeleteIt is a little strange that he never went back.
DeleteApparently it's named after the river Sheaf or Shef. I could hear them in 3 fields: Chesterfield, Sheffield and Huddersfield. I have seen Whitney Houston, Rush and Faith No More at Sheffield Arena but not on the same bill.
ReplyDeleteYes - field by the River Sheaf. I do not like Sheffield Arena for music but I enjoyed "Keane" there. Tom Chaplin's amazing voice rose right up to the rafters. I also saw Blur there with my son when he was eleven.
DeleteLovely photos, I like the Woman of Steel statue very much.
ReplyDeleteIt celebrates the roles that women played in the steel and munitions factories in both world wars.
DeleteMy earliest memories are visiting my grandparents in Sheffield... Iowa that is. If I remember correctly, it was named after a person though and not a city in England.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter visited a Sheffield in Alabama and I have been to one in New Zealand.
DeleteI enjoyed your photos of Sheffield, which prompted me to use google to find your city on the map and to read more about it. I had the general idea in my head where Sheffield was, but I found that I wasn't quite right.
ReplyDeleteGoogle can take us almost anywhere in "the free world". I feel so free I could fly!
DeleteUniversity Arts Tower: the scariest lift in the country.
ReplyDeleteIt is called a paternoster lift. "Paternoster" must mean - to mangle without mercy.
DeleteI do think of Sheffield as an industrial city, but I'm not sure if I ever actually visited there. If I did, that must have been half a century ago anyway, so thanks for the update! ;-)
ReplyDeleteNot too far from Wadsworth but Doncaster would have been your host family's natural magnet.
DeleteThanks for the tour of your city -- looks like a great place!
ReplyDeleteIt is varied Debra. The south west sector is quite affluent and a comfortable place to live but the eastern part of the city is very different. There is significant deprivation over there.
DeleteHappy twentieth, Mr. P. Thanks for all of the pictorial memories. You do your city proud.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mary. It will be the full twenty years in June... if I make it that far!
Delete20 years is a long history, and many more years to come. Thanks for the glimpse into your world.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome. It will be a full twenty years in June.
DeleteHow far is your home from the "downtown" area, Neil? Is it like me in a suburb of Chicago? I'm about 30 minutes to the busy downtown area of Chicago (when traffic is light)...
ReplyDeleteI can walk into our city centre in forty five minutes Ellen.
DeleteLove all of the photos. I'm curious about the cholera monument, I wonder if the city improved sanitation after the epidemic. My favorite photos are the art tower, the railway station and the last photo.
ReplyDeleteYes. Sanitation was improved. I blogged about the monument fifteen years ago. Go here:-
Deletehttps://beefgravy.blogspot.com/2010/05/monument.html
Thank you for opening some windows to your city for those of us who live far, far away. You have the benefits of a large city and the lovely countryside around it to explore.
ReplyDeleteWe know that we are very fortunate to live here.
DeleteA trip down memory lane. I spent many an hour in the Arts Tower. Sheffield is my favourite city and you are fortunate to live there.
ReplyDeleteIn The Arts Tower - still the tallest university building in Britain - did you just spend your days riding up and down on the paternoster lift?
DeleteI really should get up to Sheffield sometime. I've never been there -- nor to Leeds, nor Manchester.
ReplyDeleteAlways sunny in Sheffield!
ReplyDeleteThat's a good tour of Sheffield. the Micro manager's description is a little out of date.
ReplyDelete