Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet
OS grid reference- SK 326 820
Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet is a unique eighteenth century industrial museum on the River Sheaf about 4 miles to the south of the centre of Sheffield.
The site was used for iron forging for 500 years, although there is evidence of other metal working prior to 1200. Its early history is intimately tied with the nearby Beauchief Abbey, which operated a smithy in the vicinity as well as number of mills along the River Sheaf. Visitors can catch a glimpse of life at home and at work at a rural scythe and steelworks dating back to the eighteenth century. Abbeydale Works was once a producer of agricultural tools and the largest water-powered industrial site on the River Sheaf.
It is now a group of Grade I and Grade II listed buildings and a Scheduled Ancient Monument where visitors can see workers' houses, waterwheels, workshops, tilt hammers, a grinding hull and the last complete crucible steel furnace surviving in Britain. Water from the dam powered four waterwheels, which drove massive tilt-hammers, bellows for the forger's hearth, giant grindstones and a boring lathe. Almost all the processes used in the production of blades were carried out on one site. The only process carried out off site was rolling crucible steel bars flat before they were forged. This was done at Totley Rolling Mill.
Visitor Attractions in Yorkshire