IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Catley Road, SHEFFIELD, S9 5JF

This site was previously a massive post-war bus depot for Sheffield Transport, then Mainline. First Group had no need for it and B & Q moved onto the site. In less than 10 years the site has proved to be too ambitious. The car park is rarely anywhere near full, and the floor space within the store is being drastically reduced.

A craft factory visited as part of Heritage Open Days. Although the exterior is a bit bland the interior was fascinating with everything from small rolling mills to computerised engraving via metal spinning, hand casting and hand soldering. This is the sort of things that Heritage Open Days excels at but it is becoming all too rare amongst all the churches and civic buildings.

This shows the casting of hollow handles. The molten pewter is poured into the mould and almost immediately the excess is poured out leaving a hollow coating in the mould. The mould is then opened pneumatically and the handle extracted. We were allowed to handle the warm handle. The handles are then polished in a barrel polisher before being hand soldered to their receptacle. This was part of a Heritage Open Days visit and was a great opportunity to see a traditional craft industry. We weren't sure how good it would be but we weren't disappointed. I wish there were more heritage visits to traditional factories.

One of the processes in manufacturing items from pewter sheet is to use a metal spinning lathe to shape a disc into various circular forms. This is done manually and is a skilled job. Like all the tasks we saw it was done at considerable pace. It was the first time I had seen this and it was fascinating. The works was open for guided tours as part of heritage open days and I was really pleased to see a traditional craft industry going strong.

Lots of wild flowers, probably initially sown, but now managing itself. A pleasant spot, despite the copious litter behind me, overlooking the city to the west. The hills of the Peak District on the far horizon.

Seemingly constructed largely from shipping containers.

It's not clear what this was halfway to, but it's a very depressing sight. The owners seem to have lost all interest and as long ago as 2006 the City Council had to put up fencing to stop a serious fly-tipping problem. At one time it was a very popular pub with a beer garden and crown green bowling. Today, looking from the outside, you can see huge holes in the roof, so the inside must be in a very poor state. On a Sheffield forum someone says it is about to be pulled down which, given the number of pubs in Darnall which are closed but in better condition, does seem very plausible. What a great pity.