City River walking

On New Years Day the dancing queen had to work - much to her extreme disgust, and to be fair she said that the whole shopping centre was empty all day - more staff than shoppers. Hubby and I took the opportunity (as we were up at such a ridiculously early time) to leave the car in Meadowhell car park and walk down by the side of the Industrial part of the river Don and into the city. It was a very mizzly day, and if we had gone home, we would have just sat watching rubbish TV all day. This was a much better option.

Whilst Sheffields industry started out right at the other side of the city, it ended up here on the east side of the city where it sprawled out, employing thousands of men and women until the 1980's when the decline started.
The river Don from Meadowhall down into Sheffield is not a pretty river but I find it fascinating. There are lots of information boards with amazing facts along the way. Did you know that there are lots of fig tree's along this stretch of river? Apparently the seeds set themselves in the river because along the way, warm water was dispersed from the steel works into the Don.

We were shown how the river's course had been changed by the industry and also shown where other tributaries joined the river.

Some of the really old buildings remain - with a change of purpose. We recently watched a re run of the Victorian Farm which showed how bricks were painstakingly made in Victorian times. We marvelled at how many of these bricks are still in use.

One thing that the river provides is a corridor of wonderful wildlife through a part of the city where there would otherwise be none. We saw Cormorants, Kingfishers, some fab looking ducks (which I need to check out), Herons, Rabbits, a big fat brown rat (EEEEKKKK). The river - once very heavily polluted by industry, now boasts many species of fish and crayfish.

We've done this walk many times, and never noticed this fascinating bridge - even though we have walked across it!

We walked back via the canal so that we got a good "round" walk. Along our way, we noticed lots of these blue plaques that we hadn't seen before either. They tell of the history of this area. If you have ever been to Sheffield Arena, you may have noticed the pub across is called "The Noose and Gibbet" This plaque tells why.

The weather never did clear up, so I'm glad we got out when we did. I was determined to make the most of my precious time off work by walking as much as possible this week, but my stinking cold and the foul weather conspired against me somewhat.