Our Staycation

So I didn't win the lottery but I feel like a winner in life's lottery - so much better than money!


Its half term week, and usually the plan in to bob off somewhere on holiday. Had it not been for the unexpected £3000 we had to fork out for a new boiler at the start of the year, we would have been in France now, trying to find petrol!! Everything happens for a reason! So on the first day of our very trendy "Staycation", we found ourselves on a rainy day in Rotherham. We had free vouchers to visit Magna Science museum, so let me show you around.

The museum in located in the ENORMOUS former Tembleborough Steel Works - known in its later days as "Steel Peech and Tozer". The first time I visited Magna, the vast and extreme darkness of the building really terrified me.



Its really sad to think in my kids lifetime that 20,000 jobs were lost at this one place alone, just after they had broken so many records for steel production.

The museum had four huge pods which explore the elements of Earth, Water, Air and Fire.

Kids love the hands on exhibits in the pods, but the science bits are secondary to me in this great place.

My camera wasn't able to take good photos in the old steel shed because of the darkness, but to give you some indication of size, the blue building is the "water" pod. The whole "shed" is a third of a mile long.

The best bits for me though, are the features that show what life was like in the steel works. You can press buttons and hear stories told by the workers themselves. One woman told the story of how they started to employ women to operate the cranes. She worked 12 hour shifts and took home £9 per week, £11 if she worked nights. She took it home and gave it all to her mum, who gave her 2 shillings for the week.

On the hour, they bring the steel works to life. They can't start up the machinery, but with the help of Pyrotechnics, and a lot of loud bangs, they re create "The Big Melt".

The vast building is really cold, a complete contrast to how hot it would have been when the steel was being produced.

I find it quite emotional and a privilege to be able to stand here and listen to the story of our area made steel that went around the world.

And standing outside is the Bull that used to stand at the side of the M1 on the site of the steelworks that made Sheffield Stainless Steel - again, now closed as we buy cheap imports
from the other side of the world.

He's a very majestic beast.