Can Sheffield finally become the Home of Football?

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to our Monday briefing.

Being the home of football is some claim to fame. That a sport which is now watched by 3.5 billion people worldwide was born on what is now the Queen’s Road B&Q car park is pretty astonishing. There has long been a feeling that the city has failed to capitalise on this sporting heritage, but could that be about to change? Sheffield FC, the world’s oldest football club, plan to build a new £20 million stadium and football museum that would see them move back to the city for the first time in more than 20 years. Can the new ground bring football home?

As well as that we have a dream home in Bolsterstone, more money for Levelling Up, and Eddie Izzard returns to Sheffield (but not to stand for election this time).

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Catch up and coming up

Our weekend read was a beautiful piece by David Bocking about the secret histories and ecological importance of one of our most treasured parks. You can read that piece here.

Last week we sent out two great newsletters to our 1,778 paying members. The first was another one of our popular writer’s editions from our data and policy guru Daniel Timms’ in which he crunched the numbers on baby names and asked readers about purple carrots. And the second was a piece by Dan about whether Sheffield city centre can recover from the “zoomshock” of office staff working from home. An extract from that second piece is below.

But even if some office workers were persuaded back to the city centre, it’s still difficult to see things returning to where they were before. So what can replace them? Nick Simmonite says he thinks having more people living centrally is a good idea. When he started working in pubs in Sheffield in the 80s, he used to be able to name everyone who lived in the centre; now, there are 27,000 residents, with the number growing all the time. Whether that is enough to sustain the number of clubs, bars, restaurants, shops and cafés is a big question.

This week we’ll send out two more including one about amateur dramatics in crisis, and another about a major update on the future of the Old Town Hall. To help fund a new way of doing journalism based on subscriptions rather than clickbait, please subscribe using the button below. It costs just £1.34 a week or 23p a day if you pay for 12 months up front (£70).

Editor’s note: We’re now just a few days away from our first members’ event, and so far more than 70 of you have signed up. As well as receiving all our journalism, members can also comment on all our stories and get invited to our regular events as well. It’s clear that we are beginning to put together a real community at The Tribune. Please join them today.

Go local this Black Friday with La Biblioteka

From today’s sponsor: Support a Sheffield independent this Christmas by shopping at La Biblioteka. La Biblioteka is a local bookshop that curates a selection of books and magazines, spanning literary fiction, essays, politics and current affairs, nature writing, design and art, fashion, sport and children’s books. The common thread is books that are well-written and make you think, guaranteed to delight the reader in your life (or make a lovely present to yourself). You can pop into their gorgeous bookshop in the city centre (map) and peruse their shelves of unusual titles, with the team on hand to give you advice. Or you can head to their website and browse titles online — just click here.

The big picture: Festive fun 🎡 

Huge thanks to top Instagram photographer Anita Kucma for letting us use this brilliant shot of the Big Wheel, Christmas markets and Alpine Bar on The Moor looking very festive last week. The Christmas markets are open daily from now until Christmas Eve. To see more of Anita’s great pictures click here.

This week’s weather 🌦

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say low pressure systems to the north keep cloud amounts on the high side. Not loads of sun, not loads of rain either. Mild at first, colder by the end of the week.

Monday 🌦 Both sun and rain are likely to be half-hearted, with the cloudy middle-ground the favoured option. Mild and meek overall, with highs of 12°C.

Tuesday 🌥 Slight risk of a light shower, otherwise plenty of cloud and a few brighter glimmers developing. Mainly light winds and cooler with highs of 10°C.

Wednesday ☁ Breezier from the west with a good deal of cloud around. The risk of rain is low, but sun will be infrequent, too. Highs of 11°C.

Thursday 🌦 A windy day with a shower risk later on or overnight. Brighter spells too, and a milder feel with highs of 12°C. Cooler overnight as a cold front moves south.

Friday ⛅️ A colder day as winds switch to the NW. Chance of a shower, but some good sunshine on offer. Highs of 8°C with a frost possible overnight.

Outlook: Colder air will attempt to make inroads from the north, along with wintry showers 🌬 Question marks over how far south the chill will get, however!

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

The big story: Can Sheffield finally become the Home of Football?

Top line: The world’s oldest football club has unveiled plans to build a new £20 million stadium in the city of its birth. With “the world’s first” coming back to Sheffield, can the city finally capitalise on its status as the home of football?

Founded in October 1857, Sheffield FC are acknowledged by FIFA as the oldest football club in the world. They were formed out of a local cricket club and initially played games at a site off East Bank Road in Norfolk Park (now the Queen’s Road B&Q car park).

• Since then the club has endured a nomadic existence, playing games at Bramall Lane, Ecclesall Road, Owlerton, Wadsley Bridge and the Abbeydale Park ground in Dore, where they would stay for more than 60 years.
• The club also played for a time at the erstwhile Don Valley Stadium in Attercliffe, but since 2001 have played at the Tuffnells Home of Football Ground at the Coach and Horses pub in Dronfield, North East Derbyshire.

The club’s new 5,000 seater stadium will be built at the former Sheffield Transport Sports Club site in Meadowhead. The new stadium, which will be ready for the start of the 2025/26 season, will be shared with the Sheffield Eagles rugby league team and will also include a cricket ground, a football museum and an indoor community sports hall. Sheffield FC Chairman Richard Tims said the stadium would be a place where “football's three billion fans can make a pilgrimage and pay homage to the city which gave the world the beautiful game as well as a venue for the local community to utilise and enjoy a variety of sports”.

Sheffield FC is just one part of the story, however. A 2022 University of Sheffield study found the city was the definitive home of football, having the oldest clubs, grounds, trophies and writing many of the rules which govern the game today. The Sheffield Home of Football campaign hopes to cement that heritage by establishing Sheffield’s first football museum.

• As well as the oldest football club in the world, Sheffield is also home to the world’s oldest football ground, Hallam FC’s Sandygate.
• Sheffield FC and Hallam FC played the world’s first derby in 1860 and the city also saw the first football tournament — the Youdan Cup — in 1867.
• Sheffield Wednesday are the second oldest professional club in the world while Bramall Lane is the oldest professional ground in the world.

Nick Partridge, the new chief executive of Sheffield Home of Football, told The Tribune: “We’ve always been very supportive of Sheffield‘s FC’s plans and ambitions to bring their ground back into the Sheffield boundary. We understand this is a £20m project for the Meadowhead sports ground. Our ambition is for a city centre museum spanning the whole of Sheffield’s footballing history of which Sheffield FC is a crucial part.”

Our take: That Sheffield doesn’t make enough of its historic status as the home of football is one of the most perennial gripes you hear in the city — and for once the complaints seem to be justified. Bringing Sheffield FC back within the city boundaries is great news for both the club and Sheffield itself, but it should be just the start. The new Sheffield Home of Football campaign has done great work, but greater involvement and investment from the city council and combined authority could really help turn the city into a global football destination.

Home of the week 🏡

In Home of the Week we tend to go for value properties rather than dream homes, but this one is just too good. This stunning three-bedroom Bolsterstone grand design is up for sale for the first time since it was built in 2016. It is on the market for £950,000 (we can dream).

Tribune Tips: If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please email editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.

Our media picks 🎧

Never-before-seen photos shine a light on post-punk Sheffield 📸 Now Then report on a new book which reveals 1980s Sheffield as a place brimming with creative energy and political rebellion. Revolution: Punk & Post-Punk Images by Marcus Featherby documents a time when the city’s music became famous around the world and includes photos of luminaries including Cabaret Voltaire. Featherby was also a promoter and once brought Nico to the city.

My Life in the Mosh of Ghosts  🎸 Sheffield musician Roger Quail’s mission to chronicle every gig he’s ever been to continues with his band The Box in the Netherlands in 1983, and feeling like they are beginning to get somewhere. Booked at a festival where the legendary Siouxsie & The Banshees are headlining, they go down a storm. After the triumphant show Roger returns to the band’s hotel to hang out with Robert Smith of The Cure and Nick Cave.

The house of Joan 🏖️ Sheffield-born novelist (and Tribune contributor) Rachel Genn revisits the topic of her aunty Joan in this piece for the Wellcome Collection. Long-term readers may remember Joan from Rachel’s story for us about an unfortunate incident at the Castle Market. This new story finds the Arbourthorne native on holiday, where she transforms into a style icon in self-made clothes. For fans of Rachel’s writing, it’s a real treat.

More Levelling Up money…but will we be able to spend it?

Sheffield City Council has just announced that the city has won £19 million from the Levelling Up Fund to create a new country park at Parkwood Springs. The vast north Sheffield site is about the same size as Central Park in New York City but has been underutilised since the Ski Village burned down in 2012. The money will be used to clear the site, improve access and invest in trails and wayfinding. However, as we found out earlier this month in reference to Castlegate, spending large sums of money without a mechanism for doing so isn’t as easy as you would think. For our piece about Parkwood Springs, click here.

Things to do 📆

Music 🎸 On Tuesday, Scottish singer-songwriter Brooke Combe comes to The Leadmill on her latest tour. The Edinburgh-born artist has recently impressed crowds supporting the likes of Blossoms and Miles Kane, and earlier this year her debut mixtape Black Is The New Gold  was nominated for Scottish album of the year. Now, she’s bringing her “succulent soul infused indie pop” to Sheffield for a headline show. Doors open at 7.30pm. Tickets are £12.

Comedy 🎤 Legendary comedian Eddie Izzard returns to Sheffield City Hall on Wednesday on her latest tour The Remix. Encompassing 35 years of sell-out comedy shows from The Ambassadors in 1993 to Wunderbar in 2019, the show will remix and re-imagine some of Izzard’s personal comedy highlights. If you ever wondered what became of the “le singe est dans l’arbre” (the monkey in the tree), this show is for you. Doors open at 7pm. Tickets £41.

Talk 🪦 On Thursday, uncover the stories of the artists who are buried in Sheffield General Cemetery with volunteer researchers from Sheffield Libraries. In addition to artists such as Thomas Hofland, Young Mitchell, Jean Saltfleet and Austin Winterbottom, the free talk will also consider the important legacy of the clubs, societies and colleges the artists established to bring their work to a wider public. The one-hour talk begins at 11am at the Central Library.