Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet
A complete Georgian scythe works with waterwheels, forges and workers' cottages, preserved in the Sheaf valley.
Abbeydale is the best-preserved water-powered industrial site of its kind in the country: a full 18th-century scythe works with tilt hammers, a crucible furnace, grinding hulls, a counting house and the cottages the workers lived in.
The waterwheels still turn on working days and the setting — woodland and a mill dam on the edge of the city — makes it feel a long way from the centre, though it is a short bus or train ride down the Sheaf valley.
Highlights
- Working waterwheels and tilt hammers
- The only surviving crucible steel furnace of its type
- Woodland and mill dam setting
Nearby in Sheffield
Ecclesall Woods
Sheffield's largest ancient woodland, 350 acres of oak and birch with waymarked trails.
Beauchief Abbey
The surviving tower of a twelfth-century abbey, standing alone in fields on the city's south edge.
Millhouses Park
A big family park on the River Sheaf with a paddling pool, boating lake and miniature railway.