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10 heritage highlights

Sheffield’s an endlessly surprising city – rummage around its roots and you never know what you might turn up.

Naturally, our heritage highlights touch on Sheffield’s famous industrial history, from the birthplace of stainless steel cutlery to the women who took over the steelworks in the wars and much more between. Mary Queen of Scots also pops up here and there, while other stories go way back to Norman times and beyond.

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Kelham Island Museum

Kelham Island is one of the city's oldest industrial sites. Find out about the buffer girls, grinders and little mesters whose skills and sweating brows are to thank for establishing world renown for the words "Made in Sheffield".

National Emergency Services Museum

Housed in the old fire, police and ambulance station, this museum offers lessons in everything from the origins of the name "bobbies" to why hoax 999 calls are bad. There are lots of vehicles to climb on and uniforms to climb in, too.

Women of Steel

Linking their bronze arms in Barker's Pool, next to the City Hall, the Women of Steel are a powerful symbol of solidarity between women and a source of inspiration for generations to come.

Manor Lodge

One of Sheffield’s most incongruous buildings: a Tudor ruin, sitting next to a 20th-century residential estate. The hunting lodge used to be at the heart of a huge deer park and once held Mary Queen of Scots in picturesque captivity.

Sheffield Cathedral

From its Norman bricks to its 1960s tower, Sheffield Cathedral is full of stories. It could take you several visits to take it all in.

Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet

A unique 18th-century scythe-making works, Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet is a piece of Sheffield’s history preserved. Explore the workers' cottages while the sounds of hammering and grinding float out of the working hand forge.

Sheffield General Cemetery

A hillside spot for both the living and the dead, containing stories of wars, epidemics, floods and more between 1836 and 1978. Today it's rich in history, wildlife and architecture. Look out for upcoming gigs, film screenings and exhibitions.

Shepherd Wheel Workshop

Shepherd Wheel is one of more than a hundred water-powered grinding wheels that were once in action in Sheffield. It's a great little stop on a Porter Valley walk, a few minutes from Endcliffe Park.

Portland Works

The birthplace of stainless steel cutlery. The cutlery works first opened in 1877 and was bought out by the community in 2013. Today the building is populated by a mix of artists, craftspeople, musicians and small-scale manufacturers.

Weston Park Museum

Trace Sheffield's social history and learn about life and nature in further flung parts of the world. The museum sits in one of the city's prettiest green spaces, next to blossom trees, a bandstand and pond.

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