The Lower Don Valley

Banner’s Department Store, Attercliffe, Sheffield (1977)

The Lower Don Valley was the powerhouse of Sheffield’s heavy steel industry and Attercliffe was where its workers lived. Though many buildings have disappeared what remains is a fascinating insight into the life of a once-thriving community. 

These are some examples of subject-specific curriculum opportunities for learning about the Lower Don Valley, accessible to students from all parts of the city:

Art:

  • painting, photography and videography – historic and present-day
  • architecture – surviving historic buildings and recent modern structures
  • three-dimensional design, functional and decorative

English:

  • oral history interviews
  • language awareness –
    • accent and dialect
    • extracts from local writers, eg – Keith Farnsworth, Frank Hartley, Martyn Johnson et al

History:

  • steel pioneers eg,– Benjamin Huntsman, Thomas Firth, John Brown, Henry Bessemer, Sir Robert Hadfield
  • scientific pioneers eg,– Henry Clifton Sorby, Harry Brearley
  • crime – Spence Broughton, the Sheffield Gang Wars
  • social ascent – Sir Frederick Thorpe Mappin, Mary Ann Rawson, Sir Henry Coward, Cecil Wilson MP

Geography:

  • lost watercourses – Car Brook, Kirk Bridge Dyke
  • canals and railways
  • environmental pollution (cf, Science & Technology)
  • map-reading from old Ordnance Survey maps
  • population movements
  • planning policy
  • post-1980 development – retail, leisure, finance

Science & Technology:

  • coal and iron mining
  • iron and steel manufacturing
  • non-metallurgical manufacturing – eg, glassworks, brickworks
  • environmental pollution (cf, Geography)

Field-work opportunities:

  • A Walk Round Attercliffe
  • Sheffield Canal Cruise
  • Carbrook Hall (Starbucks)
  • Zion Graveyard