The Kelham Island Museum is an industrial museum on Alma Street, alongside the River Don, in the centre of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was opened in 1982.

The site

The island on which it is located is man-made, resulting from the construction of a mill race, in the 12th century, which diverted water from the River Don to power a corn mill belonging to the Lord of the Manor. It is reported that the island was subsequently named after the Town Armourer, Kellam Homer, who owned a grinding workshop on the neighbouring goit (mill race) in 1637. Having remained meadowland for much of its existence, John Crowley's Iron Foundry was built on the site in 1829 and continued in operation until the 1890s. The site was flooded on 11 March 1864, when the Dale Dyke Dam broke, damaging workshops on the site. Crowley's Iron Foundry was replaced by a power station in 1899 to provide electricity for the new fleet of

trams A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

in the city. The power station operated until the 1930s when the building was used for storage and workshops. These are the premises now occupied by the museum, along with Russell Works, once occupied by Messers Wheatman and Smith. Russell Works now houses the Hawley Gallery and the Crucible Shop, both part of the museum.

The Museum

The museum houses exhibitions on science and Sheffield industry, including examples of reconstructed little mesters' workshops and England's largest surviving

Bessemer converter The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with ...

. This object received an Engineering Heritage Award in 2004 from the

Institution of Mechanical Engineers The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is an independent professional association and learned society headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that represents mechanical engineers and the engineering profession. With over 120,000 member ...

.IMechE (2009) Recognising Excellence, Past, Present and Future
(Henry Bessemer's pilot converter is on display at the

Science Museum (London) The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

). The museum gives tours to local schools and has regular demonstrations of the 1905 River Don Engine, a 12,000 horsepower (9 MW) steam engine, which originally powered a local armour plate

rolling mill In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simil ...

. The engine is remarkable for its ability to change direction very quickly, a feature that was necessary for the efficient rolling of heavy steel. The engine rolled steel for nuclear reactors towards the end of its life (it was last used in production in 1978 at the River Don Works). The museum is operated by the

Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust The Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust (SIMT) is an independent charitable trust based in Sheffield, England, that runs the Sheffield City Council-owned Kelham Island, Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, and Shepherd Wheel museums. The trust was create ...

. It is an Anchor Point of ERIH, The

European Route of Industrial Heritage The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is a tourist route of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. This is a tourism industry information initiative to present a network of industrial heritage sites across Europe. The a ...

. The Museum houses the prototype

Sheffield-Simplex Sheffield-Simplex was a British car and motorcycle manufacturer operating from 1907 to 1920 based in Sheffield, Yorkshire, and Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. The company received financial backing from aristocrat and coal magnate Earl Fitzwilliam. ...

car, one of only three know to remain. The car was described as, “one of the best and most remarkable vehicles available, representing the highest point to which motor design has yet attained”, by ''The Times'' in 1913. The

Benjamin Huntsman Benjamin Huntsman (4 June 170420 June 1776) was an English inventor and manufacturer of cast or crucible steel. Biography Huntsman was born the fourth child of William and Mary (née Nainby) Huntsman, a Quaker farming couple, in Epworth, Li ...

Clock, the first manufactured object to contain Crucible Cast Steel, can be seen in the

Enid Hattersley Enid Anne Hattersley (''née'' Brackenbury; previously O'Hara; 19 September 1904 – 17 May 2001) was a Labour Party politician from Sheffield, England, who became the city's Lord Mayor in 1981. Early years Hattersley was born in Shirebrook, Nott ...

Gallery. The Museum also has a vast photographic archive which is used by authors for illustrating local history books. Since 2009, the museum has housed the workshop of

Stan Shaw Stan Shaw (born July 14, 1952) is an American actor. Early life Born in Chicago, Illinois, he is the son of Bertha Shaw and saxophonist Eddie Shaw, and cousin of the late soul singers Sam Cooke and Tyrone Davis. His brother is Vaan Shaw, a ...

, a

little mester A little mester is a self-employed worker who rents space in a factory or works from their own workshop. They were involved in making cutlery or other smallish items such as edge tools (i.e. woodworking chisels). The term is used almost exclusivel ...

. Shaw worked there and demonstrated knife making to the public until his death in 2021.

Flooding

The Museum suffered heavily in the Sheffield flood of July 2007 with water over a metre deep inundating the site, causing £1.5 million of damage. Paintings by

William Cowen William Cowen (18 June 1791 – 29 January 1864) was an English landscape painter. His work includes views of towns in Yorkshire, Italy, France, Ireland and particularly Corsica. Life Cowen was born in Rotherham in 1791 and worked teaching dr ...

and Henry Perlee Parker, a drawing master at Sheffield's Wesleyan College, were some of the objects damaged by the floodwater. The Museum was closed for 18 months, reopening in September 2008. The Museum received a national commendation from the

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) was until May 2012 a non-departmental public body and registered charity in England with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, libraries and archives. Its function ...

(MLA) for its recovery from the 2007 floods. The site is now protected by new flood defences which were completed in December 2011.

References

External links

Kelham Island Museum
{{Coord, 53.389503, N, 1.472345, W, scale:1000_type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust Industry museums in England Museums in Sheffield European Route of Industrial Heritage Anchor Points Steam museums in England Transport museums in England Industrial archaeological sites in England

The site

The Museum

Flooding

See also

References

External links