Five on Friday

It's Friday again!  I'm joining Amy's Five on Friday and thank you Amy for continuing to organise the link-up.

It's been another busy week with different activities and family commitments.  Grandchildren have been coming in and out of the house or staying over as usual.  Our granddaughter has a few hours off from college lectures once a week.  I meet her and usually walk through the park and go to the library at the same time before we have lunch and an afternoon together.

Thank goodness for the better weather and a few days of sunshine, although writing this today the weather has changed again and it's dull and cloudy!  Anyway, it's good to get out walking, which this week has been mainly in our neighbourhood and around different areas of the city. Yesterday I went for a walk in Sheffield's Botanical Gardens and I'll write about that next time. We're fortunate to have so many green spaces, parks and gardens here and everywhere masses of crocuses and daffodils are beginning to bloom. Here are some photos (plus collages) showing some of the sights I've seen on my times out-and-about this week.

    

 

Crocuses and daffodils in the local park

                                                      Planters in Tudor Square

On one corner of Tudor Square is a small monument in memory of Thomas Boulsover (1705-1788), Sheffield cutler and the inventor of Sheffield Plate.  Boulsover completed his apprenticeship as a cutler in 1726 and around 1740 set up his own workshop on the corner of Tudor Street and Surrey Street.  It was at these premises that he discovered that silver could be fused with copper and that by hammering and rolling these two materials in a layered "sandwich" the finished product would become one material yet maintain the appearance of silver. This material became to be known as Sheffield Plate. Boulsover began to make buttons, buckles, spurs and small boxes of the material and later his apprentice craftsmen continued making artistic other items such as dishes, trays and coffee pots.

I've been taking photos of other places around the city where Sheffield's heritage in the metal working industry is remembered and celebrated and I'll continue to write about this from time-time.

Wishing you a good day and weekend.

Kelham Island Museum, Sheffield

Over the primary school years our two local grandchildren have had several school visits to Kelham Island Museum to learn about Sheffield's industrial history and last Wednesday I went there myself for the first time with a friend. We met when we did a family history research course and we both have an interest in local history.

The museum has many interesting displays, reconstructions of different types of workshop and working machines. The largest of the machines is the River Don Engine which was used for hot rolling steel armour plate and is housed in its own huge space and fired up for several minutes on certain days.  It was an amazing sight to see the pistons moving up and down, steam rising and the huge wheel turning. The groups of schoolchildren and other visitors were impressed by the movement and the noise.

                                                           The River Don Engine

  I'm sure the school children learnt a lot thanks to this presenter's lively talk.

It's possible to spend a number of hours looking around the museum and learning about the development of the metal industry through the ages.

A boneshaker bicycle made in the mid 1880s

and tools made from the end of the 19th century.

                                                       A Victorian cast iron fireplace

'Staybrite items' for domestic and decorative use

As the welcome plaque in the entrance says: -  'You can discover how a small village grew into a city.  Find out why the words 'made in Sheffield' are a mark of quality all around the world.'

The story of workers, rivers, steam, trade, war, cutlery, steel, inventors, machines, wealth and poverty.

Personally, it was the story of the inventors and their experimental work on metal processes, the silversmiths and their skills in making fine items and the work of the men and women workers in the heavy and light metal-working industry that impressed me the most...

such as the strenuous labour that had to be undertaken to pick up the crucible of molten metal and pour it into the mould.  The men had to protect their lips from blistering by putting rags into their mouths.

The 'buffer girls and women' stood for up to 12 hours at a time.  'Buffing' or smoothing and polishing was the final stage in making decorative objects like spoons, tankards and teapots.  The girls needed a keen eye and nimble fingers, but their hands would often get scratched and burnt by hot resin.

There could be accidents and serious injuries if fast rotating buffer wheels flew off . 

We also had a look at the new Harry Brearley exhibition which was set up to commemorate the 100 years since the invention of stainless steel which was a break-through in the manufacture of  rustless steel.

Meeting my friend at the museum I walked through an area of the city which still retains many of the  old mills and workshops by the River Don.  I took photos to record a changing urban landscape as the bulldozers move in to demolish some of these interesting former industrial sites. 

In the city there's a new mural of Harry Brearley on the side of the Howard Pub near the Sheffield Train Station and the Sheffield Hallamshire University. 

Industrial heritage

Exploring areas of our towns and cities is a fascinating experience if you have an interest in history and old buildings.

Unfortunately, many of our historic buildings in our inner cities have been demolished to make way for offices, apartments and transport systems and the tangible evidence of our heritage, especially in the traditional industries, has been lost.  Places for small businesses and artisans' studios are difficult to find and opportunities to learn traditional skills are few. One Grade II listed building complex of historical merit in Sheffield city centre that was threatened with redevelopment with a view to converting it into apartments is Portland Works.

It was here that Robert Fead Mosley first manufactured stainless steel knives.  He already had an established business making cutlery, scissors, pen and pocket knives and his workshops employed

200+ workers in the 1880s.  Later, Mosley saw the potential of Harry Brearley's process for making stainless steel and allowed experimentation at his workshops to develop the manufacture of stainless steel knives.

As one of the earliest integrated workshops in Sheffield, Portland Works is an important historical site

and when the plan to convert it into flats was put forward a campaign was launched to preserve and manage it for community use as well as providing facilities for training, educational work and the

promotion of the city's metalworking heritage. The project is an on-going one, but today a community of over 20 small businesses, including workers in light metal, woodworkers, crafts people, artists and musicians are based on the site.

You can read more about this on the Portland Works website.

Last Sunday, Portland Works hosted an open day and in the afternoon my husband and I found the guided tour very informative, especially as we were able to talk to supporters of the project,

learn more about the buildings and manufacture of metal items and see some of the workshops and studios. Here are some collages giving an impression of our particular visit.  (Click on them to enlarge).

We were shown around by a guide whose parents had worked there as the trade, under the Mosley family, was still active, although less prominent, until the late 1940s. Many of the supporters of the project have personal links with the metal working industry and their stories make our recent history come to life.

In the old workshops a new generation of skilled artisans are at work. Stuart Mitchell showed us some of the processes in making handcrafted knives with handles made from natural materials.

We climbed up to the some of the first floor areas that would have been the grinding and buffer (polishing) shops that are now being used as artists' studios by Nuala Price, Christine Kennedy and other equally talented people.  It was explained that the floors were very robustly constructed to house the heavy machinery.  The cast-iron metal poles held up the roof and the original stove is still in place.  Being a Grade II listed building, any conservation work has to be approved,  architecture preserved and replacement windows etc. have to be sympathetically restored to the original design and material. 

We were pleased to have had the opportunity to visit Portland Works on an open day and there will be similar events in the coming months so its a project well worth supporting with a visit in an interesting area of the city.

Local industry

Detail on the lift in the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield 

There has been a metal working industry in the Sheffield area since at least the 14th century.

The proximity of iron ore, suitable grinding stones and fast-flowing streams for power led to the development of steel manufacture and the specialisation of the making of cutlery.

In my own village cutlery making as a cottage industry went on from the 16th century up to the 1920s and there were over 100 cutler's workshops.  The industry declined as these small enterprises lost business to the large cutlery works in Sheffield and the cottages and workshops that formed the original heart of the village have been demolished.

Improvements in the process of steel making continued through the 18th and 19th century due to the expertise of local inventors experimenting with different metals and better smelting techniques.

This year, 2013, will mark 100 years since stainless steel was discovered by Harry Brearley, the son of a Sheffield steel smelter. Harry had left school at the age of 12 and went to work in the city's steelworks, but then started to study metallurgy in evening classes. In his 30s he was chosen to run a new research facility funded by two of the largest steel companies where his discovery of a way to make corrosion-resistant steel transformed the industry in Sheffield.

There are reminders of metal working every, particularly in the city centre.  As a newcomer to the area I've been discovering them and making a record of them through photography.

A set of bells displayed in the Millennium Gallery Museum.

These cast steel bells are from Bassaleg Parish Church in South Wales and are a rare survival of a little known aspect of Sheffield's metal working industry.  In the second half of the 19th century Vickers of Sheffield cast over 7000 bells as a temporary alternative to the more expensive bronze bells.
  

In one of the city squares the artisan cutlery maker
 and knife grinder and'the buffer girl' polishing them
appear from behind the shutters as the clock strikes the hour.

A steel worker, Sheffield.

I've also been looking through my cutlery drawer and sorting out the ones manufactured in Sheffield for, of course, other countries produce stainless steel and will also be celebrating the 100th anniversary of its invention with special events.

Boxed sets of cutlery. The large set was given to my parents
as a wedding present.