Sanitation

Sanitation was the prime environmental concern of developing societies in the nineteenth century.  The growth of industrial towns like Sheffield presented local and national government with three urgent problems – water-supply, sewerage and the disposal of the dead.

Water supply and sewage disposal

History:

  • locating reservoirs and transporting water to points of need (cf Geography)
  • the Great Sheffield Flood, 1864
  • the Derwent Valley Water Board –
    • Howden, Derwent and Ladybower Reservoirs
    • the lost villages of Derwent, Ashopton and Birchinlee
  • sewerage and sewage treatment – Blackburn Meadows WWTP

Geography/Science/Technology:

  • locating reservoirs and transporting water to points of need (cf History)
  • designing sewerage systems and waste treatment technologies
  • post-1979 super-sewers – Hawke Street, Furnival Road

Field-work opportunities:

  • Derwent Valley reservoirs
  • Great Sheffield Flood tour (Strines to Blackburn Meadows)
  • Blackburn Meadows WWTP
  • Sheffield Energy Recovery Facility

Cemeteries

Sheffield General Cemetery (1976)
Sheffield General Cemetery (1976)

Art:

  • painting and photography – historic and present-day
  • architecture – surviving historic buildings and modern conservation practices
  • three-dimensional design, monumental and functional

History:

  • history reflected in cemetery-design, burials and monuments
  • individual life-stories
  • mortality rates
  • the Victorian Celebration of Death

Field-work opportunities:

  • General Cemetery, Sharrow
  • St Michael’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Rivelin Valley
  • Burngreave Cemetery
  • Loxley Cemetery
  • Wardsend Cemetery
  • City Road Cemetery and Crematorium (accessibility restricted)