Sheffield blog

Arts, crafts and antiques all under one roof

This week I paid a visit to the Nichols building in Sheffield. It is a large former grocery wholesalers near the Shalesmoor roundabout, dating from around 1854, which has been converted into a boutique shopping emporium.

There are over 30 units inside, mainly based on the first floor open plan area. It is a lovely place to browse and there are all sorts of bespoke goodies for sale, including antiques, art, jewellery, clothes, books, pottery, interiors, glassware and furniture.

After you’ve had a look round, there is no excuse not to stop off for a cup of tea and a piece of cake at the cafe.

They also hold regular knitting afternoons, small exhibitions (currently there is a set of vintage little black dresses on display, one from each decade starting from the 1940s) and a Christmas fair is in the pipeline for December.

I took a few photos on my phone which you can see below.

The Nichols building (also on Twitter and Facebook)

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Your next t-shirt

If you only buy one t-shirt this month, then why not make it this. Designed by Sheffield’s very own Hantu collective in partnership with the Japanese Red Cross Society, all proceeds from the sale of the Heal Japan tee will go to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami.

You can order one online or pick one up from the Hantu workshop in the Forum’s Arcade shop.

Order your Heal Japan tee from Hantu

Bees, beers and bovines in Bradfield

North west of Sheffield lies a community which is making a bit of a name for itself with the production of local food and drink. Bradfield and neighbouring village Dungworth are home to some of the city’s best known local producers and on Saturday I popped up to Bradfield farmers’ market to catch them all as they gathered under one roof.

Bradfield farmers’ market

I’ve not been to Low Bradfield before, which is where the monthly market is located. The last couple of markets have coincided with snowy weather but today it is fine, which makes the drive up through the countryside on the edge of Sheffield even more pleasant. In the spring sunshine the village looks very picturesque, nestled in among the hills with a pub, village store and central green area.

The market is held in a modern village hall building. There are around fifteen exhibitors selling products such as beef, pork, milk, pies, chicken, ice cream, fruit, vegetables, beer, cheese, bread, honey, wax products, cheesecake, jams and cakes. Other items on sale include soap, bird feeders and fire wood. Refreshments are also available from a cafe.

At places like this, half the fun is going around each stall and enjoying the free tasters. Although that isn’t to say that all the food is overpriced.

For example, the cheese (three for a fiver) is comparable to what you might pay in a supermarket plus you can pick up a dozen eggs for £1.70. And of course you know you are getting good products as well as supporting independent producers.

The major Bradfield and Dungworth names in attendance include the Sheffield honey company, Our cow Molly ice cream, Bradfield brewery and Bradfield meats.

The Sheffield honey company has been around a couple of years now and as well as producing various types of honey (my favourite being the one with a vanilla pod in it) they now sell other beeswax products such as candles. You can now even buy a block of straight honeycomb which is supposed to be delicious melted on toast.

Production of the tasty Our cow Molly ice cream grew out of a dairy farm set up in 1947. In 2007, with the value of milk plummeting, they decided to diversify and the Our cow Molly brand was born. You are more likely to see it on sale in north or west Sheffield, although the Crucible and Lyceum stock it so make sure you try some as your interval snack next time you go.

Bradfield brewery beers are already all over Sheffield and can also be found further afield. I think their most popular beer is probably Farmer’s blonde, which I would recommend. They all have Farmers in the title though so are pretty easy to spot and are available in bottles and kegs as well as on draught.

Lambing season at Our cow Molly

Laden with local produce, we decide to head back to Sheffield. We’d been given stickers at the market which entitled us to a freebie from the Our cow Molly ice cream shop, so can’t resist calling in on the way home.

It is a great time of year to visit Cliff House Farm in Dungworth, the home of Our cow Molly. The weather is finally warming up and lambing season is here, which means there is plenty on view.

I last came to the farm for their big bonfire in November, which was great fun. On pulling up in the car park we are greeted this time by a lamb and its mother. There are also new born calves and goats to see, as well as cockerels, rabbits and of course cows.

Eddie the farmer is currently giving short tours of the lambs and their barn, and although we had just missed one, he is more than happy to take us round and talk to us about his livestock and the meat, milk and ice cream they produce.

Children are enjoying the animals and of course the prospect of finishing off our visit with an ice cream in the parlour is a treat for everyone.

Our cow Molly lambing tours: weekends in March and April, 11am and 3pm

Bradfield farmer’s market: upcoming dates

Sheffield: land of milk and honey on the culture vulture by Lucy Harper

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Contributions welcome for this new photo blog

Having taken inspiration from London shop fronts photo blog – and a polite suggestion that someone should nick the idea and do a version for Sheffield – I’m pleased to confirm that Shop fronts of Sheffield is now up and running.

Anyone can contribute to the photo blog, you just have to your email your picture in, making sure it meets the criteria.

The suggestion for a Sheffield version was put out on Twitter and it didn’t take long for some enthusiastic and creative people to get the project off the ground.

Surely with the power of the internet we can include a good selection of photos of Sheffield shop fronts from across the whole city?

And if anyone has got any other ideas like this that need a push to get going then get in touch!

Shop fronts of Sheffield photo blog

@shopfrontsheff on Twitter

Where is there room for improvement?

Were you one of the 250,000 people that visited the Peace gardens over the festive season for Sheffield Christmas market?

I’ve been asked to gather some opinions of the Christmas market on behalf of the people behind it. What did you think? I’ve put a few thoughts here – feel free to add your own by commenting below.

Last year’s Christmas market felt a bit underwhelming but this year’s was a definite improvement. There were better quality stalls and the ice rink made it feel more like a destination as opposed to just another market.

When passing, the ice rink never looked that busy and felt a bit expensive for Sheffield at £8 for an adult. The price was slashed to £6 for the final few days so perhaps this is a more realistic price to aim for.

It would be great if there were more Christmassy stalls. This would help further differentiate it from some of the other markets we have in Sheffield through the year.

It would also benefit from more local suppliers selling more local products. Sheffield people love buying Sheffield stuff, so to get some of our local food, arts, crafts on sale would be great. It would also make it more uniquely Sheffield instead of a generic Christmas market that you could find a bigger and currently better version of elsewhere, for example in Manchester and Leeds.

One problem with these events in Sheffield is that we don’t seem to have a perfect location for them. The Peace gardens is very prominent, but it does seem a bit cramped in there. The same goes for Fargate – probably our busiest shopping street, but gets horrible bottlenecks when the continental market is on.

One thought would be to host it in the big area they have just flattened where the fire station was. This may a better use of space than another car park until Sevenstone arrives.

There’s no doubt that the current market can be improved. A great Christmas market for Sheffield will take time to establish; we obviously aren’t going to go from nothing to one rivalling others in a couple of years.

What do you think? Has it been a success? Is it the sort of place you would take visitors? And what is it missing? Comment below and your thoughts will be fed back to the organisers.

Spectacular wildlife photos – for free

Coming soon to the Moor shopping area is Wild planet, a selection of 80 pictures from the famous Wildlife photographer of the year exhibition.

I’ve been a big fan of the annual photography exhibition which usually runs at the Natural history museum in London and have made a point of visiting each year since 2005. It collects the year’s best wildlife photos as submitted to the competition and is basically easy culture – amazing photos that anyone can appreciate.

The free Wild planet exhibition in Sheffield looks to be a best-of selection of images from past years of the competition, which has been running since 1964. It is based on the Moor and runs from 6 October to 27 March 2011.

Sheffield-based wildlife photographer Paul Hobson was highly commended in the 2008 exhibition for his Osprey catch image, below. He has also just won a category in European wildlife photographer of the year competition.

Another idea for empty retail spaces in town

Many people are rightly proud of what a creative city Sheffield is. It is certainly home to plenty of creative people: 7.2% of the workforce is employed in the creative and digital industries* and an uncited claim on Wikipedia says that outside of London, Sheffield has the largest population of amateur, working and professional visual artists in the UK.

Could we do more help promote our creative excellence? The bigger manufacturers pay to use the Made in Sheffield mark to help sell and authenticate their products, but this is less useful for smaller artists trying to sell their wares.

As the recession has hit, shops have gone bust and retail units in towns up and down the country have been left empty. Sheffield city centre hasn’t escaped this, with the delay of Sevenstone resulting in many of our retail spaces being caught in a black hole between compulsory purchase orders and postponed building work.

We’ve already seen some other ideas for ways to make use of these spaces in Sheffield and some bars and shops are even reopening in the empty units.

At least three other cities have now come up with another use for them which is helping local artists and creative people. In the last few months, ‘Made in…’ or ‘Created in…’ shops have opened in Newcastle and Birmingham. It looks like Nottingham is also home to a similar type of  shop.

The concept is simple, although it has varied from city to city. Broadly, they are pop-up shops occupying empty retail units that showcase and sell locally-made products. They can also incorporate meeting places, small workshop spaces and exhibition areas. A group of volunteers run the shops, sometimes with a committee or main organiser heading things up.

Could this work in Sheffield? We already have a pool of creative artists, plenty of empty units in town and and regular craft fairs run by the Sheffield craft mafia.

Running the shops is hard work, as the Created in Birmingham people discovered, so it isn’t something to take on lightly. And I think some thought would need to be given as to how such a project would work alongside existing rent-paying outlets like the Famous Sheffield Shop and Sheffield Scene, and also existing art-selling galleries.

On the whole, it sounds like these pop-up shops have been very well received. After a successful three-month trial, the Birmingham shop closed due to their prestigious unit in the Bullring shopping centre being let to paying tenants, but it is expected to return for Christmas.

Has this idea had been considered for Sheffield? If not, is anyone interested in seeing whether there is an appetite to get a Made in Sheffield shop up and running in time for the Christmas shopping season?

*I’ve no idea how an occupation is classed as creative or otherwise

Sheffield’s urban music festival returns for a second year

So once again the hordes descended on the city centre for the second year of the Tramlines festival. This time it was much bigger than 2009, with an estimated 125,000 people creating an amazing atmosphere around town.

Following feedback from last year, there were some changes for 2010. The problematic ticketing system for the main stage was scrapped in favour of a one-in, one-out policy. This meant that there was queuing down Devonshire street, particularly on the Saturday, but on the whole I think it worked much better and led to the main arena being much fuller for more of the day.

The capacity for Devonshire green was increased to around 8,000, with a bigger area fenced off.  This meant that the spontaneous barbecues and gatherings that took place along the Rare’n'racy stretch of Devonshire street didn’t occur, which was a shame. Most of the businesses along there were inside the enclosure. I understand that the intention was for there to be public access to it via the side gates, but this didn’t seem to happen.

It was good that you were allowed to drink anywhere inside the main stage area, Food wise, I think there is room for more outlets offering a bigger variety of cuisine than we saw this year.

If you wanted to see a particular band then you needed to get there early, allowing time to queue to get in the different venues. Some people seemed annoyed at this but as it is a free festival, I don’t think that much can be done about it. I found that when one band finished playing there was the opportunity to move inside and get a good spot for the next one.

It was possible to avoid the queues if you chose your venues carefully. Drifting between the new music stage in Barker’s pool and also the world stage in the Peace gardens was easy. And I had no problem walking straight in to the Leadmill, Frog and parrot and Soyo at various times over the weekend.

If you didn’t go on the Busker line bus, then you missed out. As well as a practical means of getting around, it became a venue in itself. I overheard one old couple sat behind me on there discussing whether they should go round again. It sounds like they had been on it a while.

The organisers have said they’d like to make Tramlines even bigger if it returns in 2011. It will be interesting to see how they go about this. I can’t see how the main stage can increase its capacity, although they could also open it on the Friday night.

I also get the feeling that there is a limit on the size of the headliner that Tramlines can accommodate on Devonshire green. Echo and the bunnymen was a perfect fit: an established band that appeals to different generations and has at least a few songs that most people will recognise. If the main band was were really big then although that in some ways would be brilliant, it would also bring with it a whole new level of logistical and security issues.

There isn’t another obvious city centre location for a bigger stage than Devonshire green. They could look to using the Don valley bowl, but part of the appeal of the festival is its compactness and the atmosphere that is generated in town because of this.

Also, at the moment I don’t think Tramlines is just about getting big names to play. Although having very well known bands playing where you know the songs is great, the festival is as much for me about soaking up the atmosphere around town, checking out some new music and supporting local artists and businesses at the same time.

The organisers have acknowledged that some elements of this year’s festival could have been run better and are still looking for feedback (they have over 500 points on the list already). You can get in touch via Facebook.

And if you want to increase the chances of Tramlines happening again next year, they have also set up a voluntary donation scheme.

All in all it was another great weekend, I think the most exciting of the year to be hanging out in the city centre.

Flickr photos

• arepeejee Friday, Saturday and Sunday
• dansumption
• robinbyles
• Starquake
• Subterranean Tourist Board

Tramlines TV videos

The regeneration and preservation of Sheffield’s past

A debate is rumbling about whether or not Castle market should be listed.

Giving it listed status would mean that it would be much harder to press ahead with some elements of the Sheffield city centre master plan, notably the idea to open up the ruins of the old castle, which are located under the current 1960s market building.

The arguments are discussed in this post on the Bleeding heart show blog:

There’s no doubt that if the decision is made purely on aesthetic or historical grounds, the council would have their demolition day. But when you consider the decision on social grounds, things get somewhat murkier.

The full post is well worth a read.

A tale of two castles post on Bleeding heart show blog

Yes, I got up early to queue

I’m a bit of an iPhone fan. It is useful for updating this blog and @sheffieldblog Twitter/Facebook accounts while on the move, so I was quite keen to get my hands on the new model.

I decided to get up early yesterday to try and get one in Sheffield on the day of release. I plumped for the main O2 store on Fargate where I thought they might get more in stock compared to the Division street store, which I think is a franchise.

I was in town for 6:30am. I was obviously prepared to queue but had no idea how long it would be. It turned out to be only about 20 people when I arrived, which made me think I was in with a chance of getting one.

The atmosphere in the queue was quite friendly, with people ducking out of the line to bring back coffees. This seemed like a good move – although with no toilet facilities this proved to be a bit uncomfortable as time ticked on.

Many people were needing to go to work straight after so with the shop due to open at 8:02am, there was plenty of speculation over how long it would take to serve each customer, what time we could get away and how much stock they would have.

O2 staff started appearing shortly before 8am and were going down the line to find out what model of iPhone people were after. They also bought out some water for people which was welcome, although reports were coming in from Meadowhall that the O2 shop there was giving away drinks, pastries and newspapers to those queuing.

By the time the doors opened it looked like the line was stretching almost all the way down to the High street. Or were there separate queues at the other mobile phone shops further down Fargate?

There had been a few photographers taking photos, and as I neared the front, a journalist from the Star appeared and started to interview people for their report.

Fargate was now getting busy with office workers and shoppers, who were also giving puzzled and incredulous looks to the people queuing. Who would be silly enough to get up early to queue for a new phone?

O2 staff had also started posting updates on a white board about stock levels. I think by this point they had told people at the end of the queue to go home, as there wouldn’t be enough for everyone once they had sold the initial allocation.

Anyway, it turns out that my early start hadn’t been in vain. By 9:30am I had left the store with my new – if somewhat expensive – iPhone.

Now there was just an extra tiring day at work to get through before being able to have a proper play with it.