When I was eleven years old I went on a cub camp somewhere near Sheffield. In those days Sheffield seemed a million miles away. I knew the name because it said it on tiny writing on my Granny's knives and on some of my dad's tools.
Anyway we were in the minibus driving down the M1, on a stretch I had never seen before, when a huge series of buildings with steaming chimneys appeared. The signs said "Avesta" and there was a sparkling steel buffalo of a plinth at the side of the road. Even then I thought that was cool, and I reember thinking "wow, it even has a clock on it". I can only assume moments like those planted the seeds for my fascination for industry. By the time I went that way again the buffalo had gone and a foreign sounding name had replaced Avesta.
Outo Kumpu have wound down operations at the Sheffield site. I believe the piece that is left is nothing more than a distribution centre. A shadow of the once former glory of 'steel city'
I was shocked and disappointed to see the building with the clock that had interested me all those years ago was under demolition. I vowed to give it a go...
The building was pretty much stripped. It did however have an enormous gantry crane, dwarfed only by the one it Inverkip. We made our way up the steps, on the crane and into the cab, which had a glass floor so the driver can see below. A small gantry took us up some horrific outside steps and onto the roof. It offered a good view of meadowhell and the motorway.
Oh, I also got inside the clock...
Afterwards we went to the excuse for a steel museum that is Magna and had a "go" on the buffalo. Little Dweeb would be very proud of his older self having seen both the clock and buffalo that interested him so very much all those years ago!
Anyway we were in the minibus driving down the M1, on a stretch I had never seen before, when a huge series of buildings with steaming chimneys appeared. The signs said "Avesta" and there was a sparkling steel buffalo of a plinth at the side of the road. Even then I thought that was cool, and I reember thinking "wow, it even has a clock on it". I can only assume moments like those planted the seeds for my fascination for industry. By the time I went that way again the buffalo had gone and a foreign sounding name had replaced Avesta.
Outo Kumpu have wound down operations at the Sheffield site. I believe the piece that is left is nothing more than a distribution centre. A shadow of the once former glory of 'steel city'
I was shocked and disappointed to see the building with the clock that had interested me all those years ago was under demolition. I vowed to give it a go...
The building was pretty much stripped. It did however have an enormous gantry crane, dwarfed only by the one it Inverkip. We made our way up the steps, on the crane and into the cab, which had a glass floor so the driver can see below. A small gantry took us up some horrific outside steps and onto the roof. It offered a good view of meadowhell and the motorway.
Oh, I also got inside the clock...
Afterwards we went to the excuse for a steel museum that is Magna and had a "go" on the buffalo. Little Dweeb would be very proud of his older self having seen both the clock and buffalo that interested him so very much all those years ago!
