I took the kids to Kelham Island industrial museum last weekend. My daughter is doing a project at school about the history of Sheffield and its growth into a city on the back of the steel industry. So I thought it would be a good place to do a bit of research with her. I have been there before, but it must have been about 10 years ago, before the Sheffield flood of 2007 anyway. The whole area where the museum is, was under water....So they've done a big refurbishment at the museum since my last visit - and it's really great... very interesting indeed - and a good mix of history and hands-on things for the kids to play with. The huge River Don steam engine is housed inside the museum and they get it running a couple of times a day - very impressive, My 2 year old son thought it was fantastic - my daughter was not so keen! - The whole building was vibrating!!
The whole place was very atmospheric - dark - lots of heavy machinery - and at the time we went, pretty empty of other people- which in a way was a shame, but it was great to explore the place by ourselves! - We were there for a couple of hours... the other highlights were an unexploded 2nd World War bomb that was dug up in a garden not very far from our house... and an exhibition about the history of Fairground attractions put on by the University of Sheffield National Fairground Archive. I think this is a temporary exhibit - so it's worth a look whilst it's on - but they've also got a very interesting website with lots of excellent old photos on - check it out here!
All in all a great day out in Sheffield's industrial past...
Bessemer Converter
River Don Steam Engine
The Kids with un-exploded bomb!
Bessemer Converter...
Romany - not keen on the River Don Steam Engine when it's running!!
No comments:
Post a Comment