POSTCARD FROM SOUTH YORKSHIRE

Bob Barton visits a man-made island in the cradle of the steel city, enjoys a pub crawl with a rock legends theme and spends a day on the buses

- Bob Barton

The sense of anticipation was palpable. Children and adults alike gazed up at the behemoth. It was as tall as a house, with wisps of steam escaping from various valves. The most powerful steam engine in Europe. At set times, twice daily, it powers into life. At the prescribed time, a man appeared on its upper walkway and simply pressed a red button. The River Don Engine, built in 1904 for the Cammell Laird works, started drumming and vibrating. Its giant pistons rose and the crankshaft turned. It sounded like an orchestra with a big percussion section. The sight was of a giant waking from his slumber.

This scene – at Kelham Island Museum (0114 272 2106, simt.co.uk/ kelham-island-museum) – was among the highlights of my visit to the steel city of Sheffield. Kelham, a man-made island between the River Don and Kelham Goit, is the cradle of the city’s steel industry. The museum is housed in a former power station that generated electricity for early trams. (There’s now a new generation of “supertrams” to whisk you about). It brings to life the history, power and skills of the industry that made this city.

I learned how craftsmen, known as “little mesters”, used their skills to create delicate items like surgical tools and ornamented scissors.

I was equally amazed by the armaments wrought here, such as the Grand Slam Bomb made by VickersArmstrongs which was the largest dropped in World War Two. I would love to go for a spin in the handsome Richardson Light Car of 1921, made on an early production line by toymaker Charles Ebenezer Richardson.