UK Trip Blog 1: Safely in Sheffield

Written within the first week of arrival: 2 July 2015

Things I noticed today:

Everywhere I look, Sheffield is filled with evidence of construction work: diggers in backyards; workmen in high vis walking four abreast down narrow foot paths; road work warnings; cranes; lorries, earth movers. It's everywhere. I wonder if this means there is lots of development happening, or just that I have a confirmation bias for noticing working class uniforms. Certainly the high-vis make them more noticeable. It's something I'll dig into while I'm here, because so many of the buildings look tatty and worn, which is not what I was expecting. I was expecting shiny and new and popping with millennial wealth. But the new architecture, to me, looks out of place squeezed up cheek by jowl against gorgeous 19th century confections of grandeur.

As I walked back to my room tonight, I attracted the attention of a large group of road workers digging up the bitumen of Matilda Street. I would like to think it was my pretty red dress that caught their eye, however I think it more likely the half slab of beer under my arm is what led them to invite me to a party at theirs. I keep hearing that Sheffield has a big drinking culture and certainly I have noticed a high number of very nice looking pubs close by. I'm told the Royal Standard is the best and that while the Howard has good food it's the Fat Cat, a bit further away that has the cheapest beer. I learned this chatting to the cleaner. I assured her that on the basis of the name alone I'd be making a visit to the Fat Cat, if only for the photo opportunity for my friends in Canberra.

not an actual pub anymore...

The drinking culture of working people is, in my mind, very closely linked to the danger of their work, a point repeatedly made today while inspecting Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet. The dangerous work of stainless steel making is always emphasised - by the Time Team, the Cutler Hall Beadler, and the Abbeydale guide. And just as often, the next breath is a complaint about 'health and safety' ruining the visitor experience, or requiring electrical changes, or putting a stop to drinking tours being arranged. I have a health and safety background and come from a town where 'miner's lung' killed hundreds of men and widowed as many women. Standing in the Grinders Hull at Abbeydale today, listening to Simon describe the working conditions of men with their noses to the grindstone dying with lungs shredded by silicosis, in a room that smelled exactly the same as the engine room of the Central Deborah Gold Mine - rust and damp and dirt & iron - I am reminded of how much the men (and one woman) who sit in the Master Cutlers chair gained from their deaths. And I wanted to ask - were the deaths recorded? Was the manner of death identified? Was compensation paid? How much was a man's life worth then, or now?

And then I am reminded of the cholera monument pointed out to me as we enrolled this morning. A huge pinnacle sitting amongst gorgeous green trees, it looked like a cathedral spire. I asked Tony what it was - "That's the site of a mass grave of cholera victims." A quick search of the City of Sheffield website was all it took to learn that not only did 402 Sheffield citizens die in the Cholera plague of 1832, but it also claimed a Master Cutler - John Blake. The monument was struck by lightning in 1990. The top was removed. For safety.