Putting the Sheaf back into Sheffield

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to our Monday briefing.

We all know the old joke about Sheffield city centre. That it’ll be great once it’s finished. Well, in just a few days time another piece of that puzzle will begin to fall into place. Work will soon begin on deculverting the River Sheaf in Castlegate, bringing a part of the city centre that’s been hidden for over 100 years back into the daylight. Opening up the river that gives Sheffield its name will be a crucial part of the creation of the new public park, and many hope it will act as a catalyst for a long-neglected area. That’s our big story today.

As well as that, we have a stunning eight bedroom house in Rotherham, and an array of amazing animals come to Sheffield Plate.

Catch up

For our weekend read, Holly Williams looked back over four years to the beginning of the Covid pandemic. The Sheffield Community Contact Tracers were a group of volunteers and health experts who tried to map the virus’ spread longer than the government, and say countless lives could have been saved if the authorities had done the same. You can read that piece here.

Last week we sent out two great newsletters to our 2,278 paying members. In the first, one of Victoria’s popular writer’s editions, she covered everything from dancefloor design, northern video games, and disappointing breakfasts at Forge Bakehouse. And in the second, Dan delved into the job cuts at the University of Sheffield’s Nuclear AMRC and found evidence of an organisation in disarray with allegations senior leaders had been “bullying, incompetent and grossly unprofessional” and poor morale among the staff. An extract from that piece is below.

After speaking to around half a dozen well-placed insiders, The Tribune has managed to put together a reasonably good picture of what has been happening inside the Nuclear AMRC in the last few years. While they don't all agree on the causes, the insiders we spoke to paint a picture of an organisation in disarray; of poor management and missed financial targets, a governance structure ill-suited to the demands of the civil nuclear industry in the UK — and, in the University of Sheffield, a parent organisation that seems to have lost belief in the centre’s original mission.

Editor’s note: As our editor Sophie wrote yesterday, The Tribune’s model is a compromise. Of course we want our journalism to be widely read so we send two editions out to our 25,000 free subscribers every week. But we also need to generate money, so send two editions to our 2,278 paying members only — the heroes who are the only reason the Tribune continues to exist. Likes and retweets are all well and good, but they aren’t going to pay our bills. It isn’t cheap to run a high-quality paper, and if insufficient readers pay for us, we probably won’t be around forever. If you’re financially able to, please consider joining The Tribune today.

The World Cup of Tennis comes to Manchester

From today’s sponsor: Great Britain’s best tennis stars will go head to head against Canada, Argentina and Finland at The Davis Cup in September. Being hosted at the AO arena in Manchester, just a short hop over the Peak District. Big names, including Cameron Norrie and Milos Raonic will be taking to the court. Tickets are selling for as little as £10, with premium options and hospitality packages available.

To book your tickets, click here.

If you’d like to sponsor a briefing, get in touch with us at daniel@millmediaco.uk 

The big picture: Here comes the sun 🌻

Just 30 minutes from Sheffield, Barlow Sunflowers has been described as “one of the most Instagrammable locations” in our region. Five acres of the beautiful Derbyshire countryside have been filled with thousands of sunflowers and wildflowers, which you can pick for yourself. Open from 10am until sunset every day, it costs £3 to get in (kids under 12 are free) plus £1 per stem. Many thanks to Wesley Kristopher Photography on Instagram for letting us use this brilliant shot.

The big story: Putting the Sheaf back into Sheffield

Top line: Work is to begin next week on deculverting — or “daylighting” — the River Sheaf in Castlegate. The work will open up the River Sheaf at its confluence with the River Don for the first time in over a century. The deculverted river will flow along the side of a new park, which will also feature remains of Sheffield’s 1000-year history, including its castle and later industrial, commercial and residential buildings on the city’s founding site.

History: The concrete culvert was built in 1917 by the Sheffield Corporation after the site was acquired to build a new market and to create Castlegate as a new street. At the time the River Sheaf was a heavily polluted and insanitary open sewer, which received daily disposal of the effluent from town slaughterhouses on its banks. Understandably there was little or no opposition.

• Much of the Sheaf had already been culverted to allow construction of other markets, tramlines and Midland Station, and remains largely invisible in the inner city.
• However, parts of the reinforced concrete structure built in 1917 have deteriorated and are at risk of collapse, potentially blocking the river and creating flood risk.

Daylighting: The idea of bringing buried rivers back is increasingly popular — with cities like Seoul and Auckland leading the way. Opened up rivers can improve urban environments and help manage flood risk much more effectively than culverted rivers. See our piece from last year here.

The return of the river: Since the 1980s all five of Sheffield’s rivers have made a spectacular recovery and are now recognised as essential for biodiversity and access to green-blue space for the fast growing inner city residential population. The daylighting process will allow for the “re-naturalisation” of the river channel, and a new “rock ramp” fish pass over the 1.5 metre Castle Orchard Weir will be built to restore the biodiversity of the Lower Sheaf. Despite this positive step, most of the Sheaf will remain underground in the city centre. It flows under the train station and the A61, so a much bigger redesign would be needed to open the full stretch up.

Further delays: The work was actually meant to start today but has been delayed by eight days after contractors said that a further pre-demolition survey of the protected bat colony in the culvert is required by English Nature before demolition begins. Next Monday is a bank holiday so you’ll be able to watch the work begin on Exchange Street on Tuesday, 27 August.

But when the Sheaf has been hidden for over 100 years, another eight days isn’t too long to wait. Simon Ogden, the chair of the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust and member of the Castlegate Area Board, said:

This project represents one of the major ambitions behind the establishment of the trust five years ago and represents a landmark in reclaiming the river after whom Sheffield is named. It will greatly enhance the park and kickstart the restoration of the river as a natural habitat.

Watch the work: Demolition will require careful work by contractors to avoid debris blocking the river channel or causing undue disturbance to the bat colony in the adjoining chamber known as the “Megatron”. Concrete slabs will be cut up into smaller blocks and craned out followed by supporting beams over several months in two phases. Other than by visiting yourself, the best way to follow the progress is to visit the Culvertcam page on the Sheaf and Porter Trust website.

Our take: Major developments, from Heart of the City to Fargate, always seem to take forever in Sheffield. But we’re now just days away from seeing the start of what will be a major change to the historic birthplace of our city. Huge credit goes to the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust, who have been campaigning for this for half a decade. But Sheffield City Council must also get recognition, first for winning the money from the government and then their work to bring the plan to fruition. We can’t wait to see the river fully opened up and the park completed in Spring 2026.

The weekly Whitworth ✍️

Cartoonist James Whitworth with his own take on this week’s big story.

Coming up

This week, our members will receive two more exclusive editions of The Tribune, covering a new internet focused art exhibition and two recent tragedies on our streets. In Tuesday’s piece, first-time Tribune writer Sophie Tolhurst has written a great story about a new exhibition at Site Gallery all about the utopia of early internet cafes. And in the second Dan will be looking into the strange and tragic tales of the two homeless men who died on our streets recently. If you want to read those, become a full-fledged Tribune subscriber today — it costs just £1.71 a week or a mere 24p a day (about one sip’s worth of a decent coffee) if you pay for 12 months up front.

This week’s weather 🌦️

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say this week will be unsettled and often windy with rain or showers at times amidst occasional respite days.

Monday 🌦️ Dry start, cloud thickening later with showery rain by late afternoon. Breezy from the SW. 21C.

Tuesday 🌦️ Sunny spells and blustery showers driven in on gusty west to southwest winds. 20C.

Wednesday 🌥️ Staying windy but largely dry with occasional bright spells amongst cloudier periods. 20C.

Thursday 🌧️ Rain likely from the west during the day, along with unseasonably gusty winds. 19C.

Friday 🌦️ Another breezy day, though lighter than Thursday. Sunshine and showers. 20C.

Outlook: Low pressure driven weather expected for the weekend with a mix of sunshine and showers. Average temperatures.

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

Our media picks 🔗

Dramatic increasing in shoplifting 🚨 BBC Radio Sheffield investigate new Office for National Statistics data showing a dramatic increase in shoplifting. Figures show that in the year to December 2023, there was an astonishing 37% rise in the crime in South Yorkshire, and many police forces now only come out to incidents if the amount stolen is over a certain value. They speak to one Ecclesall Road shop owner who says the problem is now so bad she locks the shop door even when they're open. 

All the shops, cafes and businesses opening at Leah's Yard 🛍️ With all the announcements, it’s been difficult to keep up to date on exactly who is going to be in the highly-anticipated Leah’s Yard development. This handy piece in The Star includes most of the tenants including Pete McKee’s new gallery, the bar and bottle shop Hop Hideout and bookshop La Biblioteka. It’s not quite all the occupants, as the article claims, but we’ll forgive them for missing us out. The grand opening will take place on Saturday, 24 August.

An exciting future for this important but unloved building 🏚️ At the The Tribune we love the Sheffielder blog, and his most recent post provides some fascinating history to a recent good news story. Last week S1 Artspace announced they had bought the former Yorkshire Bank chambers on Haymarket to use as their new base. This piece reveals the building’s forgotten past, including its original function as a Post Office in 1871, and then the city’s stock exchange.

Home of the week 🏡

A little bit out of Sheffield but we’ll make an exception for the magnificent Slade Hooton Hall in  Laughton-en-le-Morthen near Maltby. Built in 1698, the Grade II*-listed eight bedroom detached home has an indoor swimming pool, orchards and a greenhouse, and sits within over four acres of private grounds with stunning views over South Yorkshire. It is on the market for £1.4 million.

Ed: if anyone does actually buy this as a result of our recommendation, you can thank us by inviting us round for dinner…

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 poll instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.

Things to do 📆

Art 🖼️ On Tuesday, join Sheffield Museums for a guided walk highlighting some of Sheffield’s many public artworks made in metal. Starting at the train station at 2pm, the 1 hour 30 minute tour will showcase different forms, functions and metalwork processes. Learn about the history, craftsmanship and design of Sheffield’s celebrated industry, as you walk around the city of makers with the museums’ curator of industry and metalwork, Emma Paragreen. Price £8.

Nature 🐍 On Wednesday at Sheffield Plate on Orchard Square, get up close and personal with your favourite furry (or not furry) friends with Animal Encounter. On the day you’ll have the chance to meet a wide range of the planet's most interesting animals including giant snails, crested geckos, leopard geckos, snakes, duprasi (fat-tailed gerbils), rabbits and ferrets! Two sessions will take place on the day, one at 10.30am and a second at 11.30am. Tickets are priced £8.

Music 🎸 On Thursday, Delicious Clam on Exchange Street host another night of varied indie music with bands from Australia, Leeds and Sheffield. Headlining on the night are Screensaver, a synth-driven band from Melbourne who have recently been making a name for themselves in post-punk circles. They will be supported by Wormboys, a “noise-pop” band from Leeds, and the lineup is completed by Sheffield’s unique Ye Woodbeast. Doors open at 7.30pm. Tickets £10.