Kelham Island Museum: where Sheffield's steel story still roars into life

To understand Sheffield, start at Kelham Island. This man-made island on the River Don was created in the 12th century, when a mill race diverted water to power a corn mill, and it has been a place of making ever since. Today it is home to Kelham Island Museum, which has told the story of the city's industry since 1982.

The museum is housed in a former power station, built in 1899 to supply electricity for Sheffield's trams. Inside, visitors meet the people behind the Made in Sheffield name: the buffer girls, grinders and little mesters whose skills built the city's reputation, and the women of steel who worked in wartime munitions production.

The undoubted star is the River Don Engine. Built in 1905 and rated at 12,000 horsepower, it once powered an armour plate rolling mill and could reverse direction very quickly, and it last worked in production in 1978. The museum holds regular demonstrations, a chance to see this giant of the steel age in motion.

Outside stands England's largest surviving Bessemer converter, which won an Engineering Heritage Award in 2004. Inside, look for the prototype Sheffield-Simplex car, one of only three known to survive, the Benjamin Huntsman Clock, the first manufactured object to contain crucible cast steel, and the fancy scissors made for display at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

The museum has shown real resilience. The 2007 floods caused around £1.5 million of damage and closed it for 18 months, but it reopened in September 2008 and won a national commendation for its recovery. It is now run by Sheffield Museums Trust, the charity formed in 2021 that also looks after the Millennium Gallery, Weston Park Museum and Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet.

The museum hosts events of its own too, including a Kelham Makes festive wreath making session on 19 November 2026, and the Island Cafe+Bar inside is a handy stop.

Kelham Island Museum is on Alma Street, near Shalesmoor tram stop, and opens Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and Sunday from 11am to 4pm. Details are on the Sheffield Museums website.