Shepherds Wheel

On our walk through the woods on Sunday, we happened upon the Shepherds Wheel on the Porter Brook which has recently been restored by volunteers and enthusiasts.

The wheel was working.
Inside, a volunteer told us all about the work that the men would have undertaken in this little hamlet. They used to grind knives and blades of all kinds. The contraption below is called a mule and the man would sit on it in the saddle and the grinding stone in front would have been turning really fast.

The wheels were wurring away really fast, but apparently they would have been going 3 times faster in the olden days.

It had turned fairly cold outside, and the roaring fire inside was hard to leave!

Another Time

I'm at the stage with my preparations for Christmas where I panic. I do the same every year, I get SUPER organised, and then decide something major - that I know I don't have time for, but I go ahead and try and fit it in anyway! Yesterday, I was laying a new kitchen floor, and today I decided to have a huge sort out of a few drawers. However, I'm so glad I did. I found this.

My Grandad had once been an employee of the Fitzwilliam estate. When he died, we found this amongst some of his belongings. I'm glad I saved it.

As I crank up the heating to keep us cosy, and set about wrapping all the presents and stuff the freezer with food, I am reminded that times would have been very different when Grandiwad (my name for him) received his Christmas letter from his employer back in 1944.

Welbeck Stables

On Saturday, we zipped to the craft and food fair at Welbeck. We didn't have enough time to do it justice, so next year we will definately make sure that we spend a full day here. We only managed to pop into Hope and Elvis (which was looking soooooo tidy!!) to book another course and say hi to Louise, Deb and Debs daughter. Hubby remarked that he could tell why I loved it there. We also managed to sample the finest steak and ale stew with duck fat roast potatoes and take home some gorgeous Stichelton cheese.

I had read that the owner of Welbeck was opening one of the very large Stable blocks, so we took the opportunity to have a nosey in.

The stable blocks are truly awesome buildings.
Stepping inside the stables was eerie. It feels like they were stopped being used a long time ago, and nothing has happened with them since.

The textures inside on the walls and floors were interesting.




The estate is riddled with tunnels built by one of the previous earls. I believe that this one was built so that guests could walk from the house to the stables without getting wet. They didn't even have to get wet riding either as the duke built an indoor riding school too.
We marvelled at the wealth that these Dukes and Earls must have had, and the fun they must have had showing off.

Park Life

One of our favourite city walks is through Endcliffe Park in Sheffield. You start out in the city and end up in the Peak District - if you walk far enough. Sheffield is famous for being a very green city and this place is very special and well used by the locals.

We spotted these yellow holly berries,
side by side with plenty of red ones - another harsh winter me thinks.
Before our walk, we partook in a few minutes in the outdoor gym. I think this is a brilliant idea. I wouldn't mind a few of these in my garden.

The park and woodlands are really picturesque now, but back in time, this was the area in Sheffield where the steel forges started. The Shepherd Wheel is being restored, and this weekend the woods were full of masters students from Sheffield Uni re creating some of the sights, sounds and skills from the steel making, forging and grinding industry.


I loved it. You can't beat a real fire in the middle of the woods on a crisp day. And all the kids love this kind of thing. Two little boys had me in hysterics trying to pump the massive bellows.

I think its great that people still do this kind of thing. Some of the workers explained the chemistry and science of what was happening, and other forged products.

Brilliant stuff.
And then it was on with the walk.


Seeing what nature has forged and placed along the paths for us to see.

A very favourite place.

Clumber Park

On the recent Bank Holiday Monday, hubby and I took ourselves off for a cycle ride around Clumber Park as we knew it had some traffic free cycle tracks.

Whilst the visitor centre bit of the park was busy, the outer edges and deep in the forest, at times there was only us. It was lovely to keep stopping and sniffing the pine in the air. It smells so earthy at this time of year.

We've not been to Clumber for a few months, and they have made some big changes. They have opened a bit of a swanky restaurant in the lovely old head gardeners cottage.
The new restaurant is called Barkers - I'll have to give it a try.
They have opened a new discovery centre too.
I have to say, that although this is very swish, I preferred the old conservation centre with its real "nature table" type exhibits and information.

A fair bit of the old estate still exists, some of the stables are intact and used to hold information about the old estate.
This was the house before it was demolished - such a shame. I read that the Duke had demolished it to rebuild a new place, but then the war came, and he got divorced, so he didn't bother.
The park was used in the war quite a bit. This contraption was developed to dig trenches - there are still lots of trenches in the park that were dug by this. You can see Winston Churchill visiting here in the photo.

Its a lovely park to visit, and the National Trust seem to have been spending a fair bit of cash on it lately.

A City Walk

Hubby and I couldn't make our minds up what to do with our day. After I said that we hadn't had much rain - the day after, we got about six inches of the stuff, just as we didn't need it as the DQ was camping at Leedsfest music festival and got washed out of her tent poor love. Fortunately, she is currently renting a house in Leeds as she is transferring Uni (that's another story!), so her and her pals got a taxi back to her nice dry house.

The weather girl said we would have a better day today - but we may still have some heavy showers. So I decided a walk around the city centre would be a good idea - so that we could dart under cover if we needed to.

I thought I would show you around some of my fave places..

Devonshire Street is a lovely place to wander. It has a lot of "retro" and vintage shops as well as some lovely independant shops - sadly lacking in many towns and cities in the UK these days.




I was thrilled to find that Devonshire Green was holding one of its markets.
Every stall was lovely. Local food, crafts, vintage, wonderful cakes. And they had a disco with a DJ too.

We drooled over the Cookie Campervan.
This part of the city has had a lot of new apartments built over the last few years.
But the place I'm taking you next is very old.
The cobbled streets still remain here. Sadly, this area will be pulled down soon, so I wanted to record it. A new (probably soulless) shopping centre is going to be built here - building was due to start as the credit crunch hit - so it has been reprieved for a while.
Most of Sheffield's cutlery making and silver ware came from this area of the city.

The workshops would have been rented out to The Little Mesters who were self employed cutlery makers. Some of the workshops have been successfully converted into shops.
But others are destined to be demolished. I love these old streets. I think its a great shame that they are going to be pulled down. There are only a handful of The Little Mesters left in Sheffield now - You can learn about one of them here.
We moved on - and discovered that landlocked Sheffield has been turned into the seaside.
The Peace Gardens had a beach, and rides and the kids were having a great time.


The fountain is always a number one attraction in the sun and today was no exception.
And the weather woman thankfully got it wrong. It was lovely to wander around the city enjoying the sun and soaking up the lovely friendly atmosphere and happy spirit of our lovely city.