Dear Supporter, We have the following items in this edition of the JUHS newsletter: Best wishes, Joined Up Heritage Sheffield Missed a newsletter? Looking for an item in a previous newsletter?We are now putting the JUHS newsletters on our website. Just go to joinedupheritagesheffield.org.uk/newsletters and you'll be able to access what we've sent out since the start of 2025. Publicising a heritage event is now even easierGot an event you'd like to publicise? Submit it to the JUHS website at joinedupheritagesheffield.org.uk/events. There's no need to register - just complete and submit the form and our team will check and publish. JUHS upcoming bi-monthly meeting - crafty historic maps and Central Library updateFor our upcoming bi-monthly meeting on Tuesday 23rd September at 4pm we will be returning to the wonderful Grade II*-listed Leah's Yard, in Cambridge Street. We're grateful to them for making the Assembly Rooms available to us again. Read the agenda or find out about getting to and accessing the venue. We have guest speakers lined up to tell us about an innovative combination of historical research and heritage craft and update us on the future of the Central Library and Graves Gallery. Rhiannon Thomas is a historian and embroiderer, and her project “Mapping Meersbrook” uses historic maps and local historical research to inspire intricate stitched artworks. She will bring samples of her remarkable work, and it promises to be a great introduction to this highly creative approach. Francesca Frascina from Sheffield City Council will introduce the new feasibility project on the Central Library and Graves Gallery. This focuses on designing library, art gallery and other services for the future and how the Council's commitment to this much-loved building can be part of delivering these. We are also delighted to welcome Katy Ashton, the Council's Head of Culture and Place Marketing. We do hope to see you there, but if you're not able to be there in person then as usual this will be a “hybrid” meeting. You can take part online via Zoom using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86525335169?pwd=qSjzzUkp6uoXxQ6PoFgDYtTf7Sivnx.1. Last month's JUHS bi-monthly meeting at the National Fairground and Circus ArchiveWe had a very enjoyable time at our last bi-monthly meeting at the National Fairground and Circus Archive thanks to our hosts at the University of Sheffield's Western Bank Library, which houses the NFCA and many other fascinating special collections. Click here to download the presentation or read the talk notes. For a limited time you can see a recording of the meeting at:
us02web.zoom.us/rec/s...Mt_PqV
Passcode: 60^0d2Li You can also read the minutes of the meeting here. Visit the website: https://sheffield.ac.uk/library/about-us
Search the online archive catalogue: https://archives.shef.ac.uk/
Search the library catalogue: https://find.shef.ac.uk/discovery
View digitised collections online: https://cdm15847.contentdm.oclc.org/digital
Bluesky: @uoscollections.bsky.social
Get in touch by emailing: lib-spec@sheffield.ac.uk Sheffield Conservation Advisory Group seeks new chairAfter many years in the role the current Chair, Philip Booth, is standing down at the end of 2025 and a new Chair will be appointed in January 2026. With this planned retirement of the current Chair, we are looking for nominations for the role of Chair of the group. Nominations will close on 22nd September 2025. The election of the new Chair will be undertaken by the Group Members at the Meeting on 13th October 2025. The elected Chair will take up their role at the Group's meeting on 12th January 2026. Please Note - The role of Chair is non-political and therefore will not be open to elected members of the Council or to employed Officers of the Council. If you think you, or someone you know, has the skills to undertake this role of Chair, please send an email to - conservationadvisory@gmail.com – asking for more details. Please ensure you have asked any third party individual if they consent to be nominated by you and provide their email address. Read more about the aims of the group and the nomination process. Heritage Open Days 2025This year's Heritage Open Days will be held from 12th to 21st September. Visit the Sheffield HODs website for full details. Sheffield's fantastic offering runs to 116 venues and events, and you can read about them here. If you are organising one of this year's events you are also welcome to submit them to the JUHS website at joinedupheritagesheffield.org.uk/events. Bower Spring Cementation Furnaces restoredRestoration work has been completed on the 200-year-old Scheduled Ancient Monument at Bower Spring in Sheffield, built as part of Thomas Turton's Spring Works which mainly produced files. It was taken over by Moss & Gamble in the 1850s and renamed Franklin Works. The furnaces remained operational until 1911 and survived by chance in their current state by being ignored in a back corner of the works. There are only two other comparable surviving cementation furnaces, at Hoyle Street in Sheffield and Derwentcote in County Durham. The owners, South Yorkshire Industrial History Society, completed the work in collaboration with Sheffield Historic Buildings Trust. Funding came from Historic England and the Sheffield Town Trust, and the contractors were Pinnacle Conservation. The site is within a security fence but easily viewed from the surrounding public footpaths. The Society and Trust are now working on interpretative display boards and hope to allow closer public inspection at certain times in the future. News from Hunter Archaeological SocietyNew Hunter Archaeological Society Editor: We were devastated by Phil Sidebottom’s death in April and so appreciative of all the work he put into editing and typesetting the Hunter Transactions. Now we have invited Ashley Tuck of Wessex Archaeology to be our next Editor and we are very pleased that he has accepted. Congratulations to Tim Cockrell and his team recording archaeology on the western moors: On 22 July the Council for British Archaeology’s CEO Neil Redfern and came over to Broomhead Moor, with a representative from the Marsh Awards, to see for himself what has been going on and to present a certificate to the team, who were Highly Commended in the Community Archaeology Project of the Year 2025. Neil spent a couple of hours walking on the moors and seeing some of the features the group has been recording. Further details about the awards can be found here. £5,000 Records at Risk Grant saves 2000 Archaeology Reports: Under Colin Merrony’s leadership, a successful application was made to the National Archives ‘Records at Risk’ programme for a grant of £5,000 to fund a recent postgraduate student Jonathan Gray in coordinating the work of digitising and uploading the ARCUS documents (an Archaeological Consultancy which operated from the mid-1990s until 2009) to the Archaeology Data Service, assisted by Hunter volunteers. We can now be assured that the content of these reports will be available for research. To access the reports, go to https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/search/searchResults.xhtml, search for ARCUS (use capitals) and select Available from ADS. Film celebrates South Yorkshire's hidden racial historyIn 2024 Dig Where You Stand's exhibition on South Yorkshire's hidden racial history spread across five venues in Sheffield City Centre, featuring 14 local artists from global majority backgrounds commissioned by DWYS to explore local archives and produce dynamic new work. One year on we are excited to share our short film as a snapshot of the exhibition and events, the sense of joy, kinship, creative storytelling and collective struggle. A lot has happened since the Biennial, with the political landscape appearing ever more bleak and desperate. We hope this film helps attune you to the urgent demand of this present moment, while giving you the energy and purpose to meet it. Thanks to Ai Narapol for capturing the essence of the DWYS Biennial 2024 and all its supporters: our artists, Sheffield Archives, Peter & Paul, Yorkshire Artspace, the Centre for Equity & Inclusion, Sheffield Cathedral, Sheffield Central Library, Moor Market, ASAP Digital Limited and Urban Splash. Thanks also to the The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Lottery players for funding this necessary project. Visit the "Library of Stone" at Sheffield Hallam University or onlineSheffield Hallam University will launch their Stone Library in the newly-completed Redmires Building in Howard Street at this Heritage Open Days launch event on 12th September. Of interest to anyone with an interest in historic buildings, whether a professional or just wanting to understand better how buildings are made, the library was originally designed in 1996 for Triton Building Restoration Ltd in London. Founder Scott Engering has arranged its transfer to SHU, curated by Elizabeth Laycock, Professor of Stone Conservation, who has added more stones and created the Stone Library website to make this both a physical and a virtual library. Events by Scissors Paper StoneTwo upcoming talks at St. John's church, Ranmoor look like adding further interest to this project exploring the people behind the buildings of Ranmoor. On Saturday 6th September at 5.30pm Dr. Julie Banham will introduce The Sheffield Code: Domestic taste in eighteenth and nineteenth century Sheffield. How will established norms of design fare in the Battle of the Styles with newly-wealthy industrialists, manufacturers and professionals? Tickets £5 (Students and under-18s free), with refreshments beforehand. Then on Saturday 13th September, Mary Grover will present share the findings of their summer wills workshop. What did the wealthy residents of Ranmoor leave in their wills and who did they leave it to? Church opens 2pm, talk begins at 4pm. Free entry, refreshments available. Historic England fund urgent repairs at Sheffield churchRecognisable by its distinctive bell tower, the Grade II-listed St Catherine of Siena Church was designed by Sir Basil Spence, the renowned architect of Coventry Cathedral. It urgently needs roof repairs after its original copper roof failed, causing severe water damage. Currently, 35 buckets catch rainwater inside the church and without immediate intervention, this community hub faces closure. St Catherine's serves as the area's key community building, a home for everything from belly dancing to bereavement support. Nearly £500,000 from Historic England's Heritage at Risk Capital Fund will repair the chancel, nave roof and clerestory windows. Sad loss at The LeadmillWe want this newsletter to be the bearer of good news, but like many people in Sheffield we were deeply saddened to learn of the removal of half the charitably-commissioned sculpture at The Leadmill by the previous operators as they moved out. We can see no justification for this, and look forward to it being restored to the place for which it was designed, undamaged and without delay. We also want to congratulate Sheffield City Council and their Heritage Champion, Cllr Janet Ridler, for their swift action in preventing the total removal of the sculpture. Sheffield Castle and River Sheaf ToursSet your alarms for 10am, Friday 22nd August to get your spot on the HODs Sheffield Castle and River Sheaf Tours! Tours will take place on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th September 2025. This is your chance to see remains of Sheffield Castle and hear about the River Sheaf’s exciting future. Join Wessex Archaeology, Friends of Sheffield Castle and the Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust to learn more. | 