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Welcome to the
Dams of the Porter Brook (and other Sheffield rivers)
Web Pages
Porter Brook and other rivers,
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
This web site is primarilly designed to be a pictorial record of the bridges and dams of the Porter Brook
(and now other Sheffield rivers).
As such it falls in two parts,
Bridges and Dams, each with a similar layout of photographs, site by site moving downstream. .
Sheffield is said to be a city of five rivers:
Sheffield grew up and the castle was built around the place where the River Sheaf joins the River Don. Most people know where Ladysbridge is, but probably don't realize the end of the Sheaf is close by. The River Sheaf disappeared underground when the Midland Railway built their station, and finally appears from under Castlegate to exit into the Don by Blonk Street.
The Sheaf supported 22 dams above Bramall Lane, and a further 7 before it joined the Don.
The upper Don had some 22 dams above Ladys bridge, and the lower Don a further 10 before reaching Tinsley.
The River Rivelin (some 22 dams) joins the fourth river, the Loxley (some 27 dams),
which then joins the River Don further upstream of Sheffield, at Hillsborough.
Sheffield's fifth river is the Porter Brook, which rises to the East of Sheffield near Ringinglow. It then travels nearly 10km before joining the River Sheaf, at a point now underneath Sheffield (formerly Sheffield Midland) railway Station.
Along with the other rivers of Sheffield, the Porterbrook was influential in the early industry in Sheffield, as the water was harnessed to power grinding wheels for corn, snuff and mainly metal manufacturing, with some 20 dams along its lenght.
What we now see as parkland & duck ponds was the site of Sheffield's early industry. Nearly all the wheels, and most of the dams have gone. Only Shepherds Wheel & Wilsons Snuff Mill survive on the Porterbrook, along with 5 further dams, out of about 20 locations. The Dams survive mainly in the parks, very little evidence of their existence still survives further into the city centre, where the Porterbrook becomes culverted and hidden away from sight. Like the Sheaf, the final stretch of the Porter Brook is hidden as it disappears under Sheffield (Midland) railway Station, where it joins the River Sheaf.
A sixth watercourse, the Blackburn Brook had some 10 dams before it reached the Don at Meadowhall.
On the following pages of this site are displayed pictures of the various dams and their goits of the Porter Brook,
the Sheaf, and also the other Sheffield rivers.
Shepherds Wheel has Scheduled status - see Historic England Reference: 1002931.
See Dam Info page for details of the organisation of photographs of the dams in this web site,
- it should then make more sense.
Navigate through the pages of this site using the section titles at the top of this page,
or the Index in the frame to the left (if your browser supports frames),
and the many hyperlinks embedded in the pages, and in the labels of the markers on the maps.
"Go Back to Homepage" returns here (Dams Home).
Pictures are initially displayed as thumbnails, to ensure the pages appear quickly.
Most can be clicked on to download a larger image.
Note: Porter Brook almost done, only a few odd photos
to do!
All images (c)PorterBrook Bridge Photographer, or
(c)Nix Pix, unless otherwise stated.