WELCOME
Welcome to the website of the Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust.
We are a registered charity, covering the Porter Brook from Hunters Bar down to Sheffield Station and the
River Sheaf from Millhouses Park to the confluence with the River Don at Castlegate.
This website is your place to hear the latest news from the Trust, learn about our many active campaigns to improve the rivers, find maps of the riverside walks, read up on our extensive research and during the summer months,
book our tours.
Key pages
Headline News
Water quality across the UK is a real concern. That’s why our friends at River Action have organised the March for Clean Water on Sunday 3rd November in London. This national (and peaceful) gathering is for everyone who is concerned and outraged about the state of our waterways.
Together, we can resolve this public health and nature emergency by demanding that the new government enforce the current law and deliver new legislation to end all pollution, and restore our rivers, waterways, seas and reservoirs to full health by 2030.
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Details of the event:
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When: Sunday 3 November
Time: 11am - 3pm
Where: London and online
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Can’t make it to London?
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Don’t worry if you can’t travel, or perhaps marching is not for you. Help build the noise on the day online! Marchers will #floodthestreets on Sunday 3 November but we can all #flood social media – please post images and share stories of incredible river wildlife, crystal clear water courses and stunning shores. Or, share sewage spills, blocked drains, flooded areas or wildlife under pressure. The good, and the bad, needs to be seen.
(The March for Clean Water is a legal, family-friendly and non-violent demonstration
River Walk Planning Condition Upheld at Millhouses - Should it really require five years of continued campaigning by the trust and other local people to get the Council to enforce their own planning conditions ?
​On Tuesday 15th October, two Trustees of the Sheaf and Porter and a representative of a Millhouses, Ecclesall and Carter Knowle residents’ group successfully won support of Planning Committee to enforce in full a condition to complete a section of the River Sheaf Walk at the STEPS medical centre off Troutbeck Road.
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The construction of a 3 metre wide riverside walk/ cycle way was a condition placed on the development of the ‘Jacobs Gate’ site back in 2013 but this condition has never been implemented or discharged at STEPS, although it has in the other two thirds of the site developed by Adlington Retirement Homes , leaving an isolated ‘path to nowhere’.
River Sheaf Wall Collapse
Oct 10th - Due to heavy rain undercutting foundations a riverside retaining wall has collapsed near Broadfield Road, badly damaging a pedestrian ramp and bridge to Saxon Road. The Sheffield Antiques Emporium building on Clyde Road has been affected and their upstairs showroom was briefly closed. Sheffield Council Highways and the Environment agency are assessing the situation. These ageing retaining walls, dating back to the 19th century are now regularly failing and causing a massive headache for riparian owners, the City Council and Environment Agency.
The Trust Celebrates Ten Thousandth Megatron Explorer
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Trust Chair Simon Ogden greeted ten thousandth guest Jane Revill with a case of beers from the Triple Point Brewery, a founding Trust supporter, from whose beer garden on Shoreham Street the tours start and finish.
Simon Ogden (chair of the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust, Abtisam Mohamed MP (chair elect of the Castlegate Partnership) and Councillor Ben Miskell (Chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee) stand over the Sheaf Culvert at Exchange Street
GOOD NEWS FROM CASTLEGATE:
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On Tuesday 27th August work starts on the long-awaited first step of‘putting the Sheaf back into Sheffield’ as part of the City Council’s project creating a new park on the site of the former Castle Markets in Castlegate.
The Trust has campaigned for several years to ensure the river is fully uncovered, restored and made visible and accessible. The ‘deculverting’ or daylighting exercise will open up the Sheaf at its confluence with the Don for the first time in over a century. It will then form an important feature in the emerging new park which will also exhibit remains of Sheffield’s thousand year history including its lost castle and later industrial, commercial and residential buildings from the city’s founding site.
The work will allow ‘re-naturalisation’ of the river including a new rock ramp fish pass over the 1.5 m high Castle Orchard Weir, a vital first step to restoring the biodiversity of the Lower Sheaf. Access for river stewardship, emergency services and for enjoyment of the river will also be facilitated although details are not yet finalised.
What’s Involved ?
Demolition will be carefully controlled by contractor Keltbray to avoid debris blocking the river channel or causing undue disturbance to the small bat colony which occupies the large adjoining culvert chamber known as ‘the Megatron’. Concrete slabs will be sawn into manageable blocks and craned out followed by supporting beams over several months in two phases.
How to follow progress?
The best way to follow the progress is to go to the 'Culvertcam' link on this website and installed by the Sheaf and Porter Trust .
Funding?
The Castle site reclamation and park construction is funded by a £15m grant from the Department of Housing Communities and Local Government plus contributions from South Yorkshire Mayoral Authority and the Environment Agency. Work on the whole park is programmed to be completed by Spring 2026.
Share your wildlife sightings
Please consider sharing your interesting river corridor wildlife sightings with us by sending details / photos on to our member John le Corney at johnlecorney@gmail.com
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