Lost and hidden rivers
secret caves under the city centre
and the Megatron
what a video we've got today
Welcome, my name is James and this is The
Sheffield Guide
Sheffield was built on the confluence of several
rivers but if you walk around the city centre
now you hardly see any naturally running water
so where has it all gone? Well what if I told
you it was right beneath you
Fresh running water is a vital component of
where people choose to settle and early Sheffield
was no different
Situated near the Peak District, the early
settlement was purposefully located to take
advantage of the many springs, streams, brooks
and rivers flowing through the valleys
Forges, mills and workshops benefitted from
the natural sources of power and as the city
grew into an industrial powerhouse, factories
were built alongside the main rivers to both
contribute to powering manufacturing processes
and also as a convenient place to filter out
industrial waste and sewage
But all that comes at a cost - severe pollution
led to the loss of wildlife with many natural
species completely dying out across the city,
whilst rapid urban sprawl means that many
of the smaller brooks and streams were completely
lost to make way for building works
In some places - particularly sections of
the city centre - parts of larger rivers are
culverted, meaning that they still flow underground
but are covered over by concrete, roads and
buildings
In fact, if you’ve ever stood on the platforms
of Sheffield train station, you probably didn’t
realise that the river Sheaf is flowing just
meters beneath your feet
The Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust recently
formed in order to try and preserve and uncover
a lot of the hidden rivers in and around Sheffield
- just like here at the Porter Brook Pocket
Park where the Porter Brook runs and then
there's a nice little city centre pocket park
where you can come and enjoy your lunch or have
a nice relaxing sit next to the river
They are also encouraging a lot of the wildlife
back into the city centre through schemes
like this and one of the things they have
been doing recently is tours of underneath
the train station and down to the Megatron which
have been really successful all summer, selling
out within minutes of going online and that
is what we're here to do today, we're going
to have a look with the Sheaf and Porter Brook
Rivers Trust underneath the city and see what
there is to offer from these lost and hidden
rivers
The Porter Brook starts out as a spring on
Burbage Moor, just inside the Peak District
before flowing towards Fulwood where it creates
Forge Dam - one of the many old mill dams
the Porter used to power
From there it winds its way past Shepherds
Wheel through Whiteley Woods before becoming
a big feature of Endcliffe Park
At Hunters Bar the river then crosses underneath
Ecclesall Road before emerging again to run
past Sharrow’s old mills and alongside Sheffield
General Cemetery
It then winds its way past the old Wards Brewery
site before completely disappearing underneath
the Waitrose car park and into the city centre
below St. Mary’s Gate
In 2017 it was reported that a ‘sink hole’
had opened up in the car park of Decathlon
off Eyre Street - in fact this was the result
of the Porter Brook culvert collapsing, exposing
the river in that location for the first time
in decades. The Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust
are working with the landowners to try and
expose the river properly here, a process
commonly known as ‘daylighting’ culverts
From the Decathlon site, the river comes back
out again to run behind the old buildings
between Mary Street and Sidney Street before
running under a bridge on Matilda Street and
reaching our starting point of the Porter
Brook Pocket Park.
So we're on the Porter here at the moment
and we're going to go down towards the station,
this bit here is culverted, and then when we get
to here we join the sheaf, which on this map
had already been straightened but since that
map was built - was made - the Midland station
was built so actually all this from here onwards
is culverted except for a very short section
we get to at Sheaf Street where we come into
the open air just by the bus station then
we go back underground underneath Ponds Forge
under Sheaf Street again, under Commercial
Street and then down as far as Broad Street
West which is next to the Q-Parks and that
is where we stop, and we're at the Megatron then
which is the tall bit of the culvert
that people have all heard of and that is actually
where the bats roost so we ask you to be fairly
quiet, not use flash and turn your lights
down and we'll explain a bit about the story
of the Megatron when we get there
We're just going past the car park of BBC
Radio Sheffield that's on Shoreham Street
A funny thing is we did an interview with
Rony Robinson when we launched the trust in
the car park and he wasn't even aware that
there was a river in his car park! You can
see why because it is completely covered by
buddleia
This next section that we're going through
is the most physically demanding section of
the tour so there is two hundred metres of
stooping and then about ten metres of crawling
and then the rest of it is walking
So this next bit is about a hundred, hundred
and fifty metres of stooping
- We're just going underneath the South Yorkshire
Archives which is here
- Oh is it? And red tape and all those?
- and Red Tape and the Showroom yes
- Wow!
It was about his point that I discovered that
stooping and crawling in dark, tight, confined
spaces really wasn't for me
[Panicked Breathing] 
Can we stop a second?
- Yes. Are you OK?
- Nice and steady
[panicked breathing]
Fortunately, there were experienced volunteers
around and they skillfully kept me calm, guiding
me through to the end of the tight tunnel
in my own time
I was glad to see daylight again and stand up
to catch my breath and glad that no other part
of the exploration would be quite as demanding
as that and I was grateful for the expertise
on hand from the volunteers and onwards we
went!
So there's a choice to be made as we head under
the train station, left or right? Wednesday
or United? The right passageway is slightly
higher, so the choice is yours
So we've been following the Porter up to now and we've now joined the Sheaf, if you just
go upstream a little bit on the Sheaf there
is an access point you can have a look up
there, that leads to Platform 5A
One of the projects of the Trust is to turn
some of these access points into light wells
to bring light down into the river and to
allow people to connect with the river that
is running below them but also to help fish
- salmon, they can't wear head torches, they
can't hold torches so they need natural light
to help them come back up stream to their
old spawning grounds
Down this next section there are three passageways
but it is not the time to go off exploring
on your own because it gets quite deep
- So here we are under Platform 5A right under
the train station in Sheffield and we're continuing
right down under the station now eventually
we'll come out near Ponds Forge
You expect it to be cold but it's really quite
warm
And you can hear the trains rolling by overhead
it's really quite cool!
The route that the river is taking is the
original route of the Sheaf we know that because
of these industrial artefacts that we have
found down here - does anyone know what this
is?
- Is it a crucible? - It's a crucible, very
good!
So for making steel, crucible lids, a small
grindstone - or a grindle - for polishing small
tools, and these things have been collected
from quite a small area just here and further
on down there is a bit where we have collected
another load of stuff, loads of cruzzle which
is the waste material scraped off the top,
we also found loads of oyster shells, they
would have been a cheap snack for the working
classes and just as things were broken, no
longer needed, they would just be discarded
into the river
You can walk through and just go, think it
is all just a load of rubbish but there is
actually quite a lot of history and interest
down here
We've lots of old bricks down here, the Gregory
bricks like this one here, they are a Sheffield
brick
So these 'Iron' bricks that says 'Iron' across
the middle there, the first batch of 'Iron'
bricks, the imprint was backwards so they
say 'NORI' instead! Quite sought after by
the brick enthusiast! Not worth very much,
it's not worth carting them out, but yeah,
carry on, see what you can see
We're at Ponds Forge now - if you want to
go swimming go in there, don't go in here
These sort of open sections are what the Trust
want to see more of and the most being made
out of them, you know they are quite a nice
spot for people in their lunch breaks or whenever
to come down and be close to nature
It is pretty valuable for wildlife you know
there are trout swimming in here that you
can see, kingfishers, I mostly just see pigeons
- maybe that says more about me than anything
else!
But yeah, creating more of these spaces and
making the most of the, I think Simon was
talking about the Decathlno car park before
we set off, you know creating more spaces
like that
We're going to make our way across here, as
you go past or as you are waiting to go past
there is a quote on the wall there, "Is the
river really beautiful or is it just the gradient
of the land?" Do you know KLF, the group?
What's the guy's name again? - Bill Drummond
- Bill Drummond, he was here, he wrote that apparently.
Deep. Like the water over there that's why
we're going over here
So, we're now looking at the Megatron! I'm
keeping my voice down because of the bats,
what you're looking at down where you can see the little half-moon of light is the River Don
and Blonk Street bridge
Beyond the Megatron, which is this very big
stone structure you come to a lower culvert
which is made out of concrete, it is the most
recent bit of culvert and actually is the
bit that is the most deteriorated, and the
go back to the 1920s but it is now actually
too weak for vehicles to drive across it,
it is in the old Castle Markets loading bay
The council and the Environment Agency are
both pretty keen to see that culvert go and
the Trust is very keen to see that turned
into a park, a bigger version of where we
started at Matilda Street, and also to link
it with the ruins of the castle, which we
know are there on the left bank underneath
the old Castle Market itself, that is where
Sheffield's history began so it is appropriate
that we mark it a bit better than it is at
the moment
So we've been inside the Megatron, bats are
roosting so you can't really shine the lights
or get a good view, it is a bit different
than what you expect, it is a bit longer,
wider than you expect, a bit lower than you
expect, now we're just making our way back, we've
gone under Park Square Roundabout and we're
making our way back through the deep bits
of water under the station
And so there we are, we went underneath the train station
where the Porter Brook meets the river
Sheaf under platform 5A, we had a walk right
down along under Ponds Forge and back underneath
the culvert until we eventually got to the
Megatron, it is quite a fun, exciting thing
to do - I will say it comes with some caveats,
there is a big, long stooping bit where you
have to lean and crawl part way for about a hundred
and fifty metres right at the beginning - if
you're not fit, if you can't breathe, if you
are tall then it might not be for you going
down here
And also make sure that if you're come down
here you do it with the tours, not only are
they amazing, informative tour guides but
they keep you safe as well
If you have a look on the Sheaf and Porter
Rivers Trust website they are arranging lots
more of these tours throughout the rest of
the year and they are doing a lot more as
well with regards to trying to uncover, bring
the sheaf back out into Sheffield and that
is a very important role to try and bring
that biodiversity and that wildlife and everything
back to Sheffield
And yeah we've got to say a big thank you
to everybody at the Sheaf and Porter Rivers
Trust for bringing us down and showing us
around and the amazing fantastic tour guides,
go look at their website go look at their
facebook page, there's lots to come from them,and also the YHA guys that help them with the tours
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Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next video!
