President
The membership agreed that the annual subscription, which had been unchanged for 20 years should be simplified and increased. Members will be advised of the details well before the next renewal date of 1/5/25. If you have been paying by standing order, that is much appreciated, but please remember to change it. The Society can not do this for you. Anyone paying electronically is also asked to make sure there is a reference to identify who you are.
If you have tried contacting the society through the webpages and not received any response, it is not because we are not here. All the links shown on this site are routed to the personal emails of the relevant committee members and those links have a mind of their own. If we find that we cannot pick up messages through the site, we will have to revise how contact details are given out. You will appreciate that putting personal emails or phone numbers on a public site is not always a good idea. The site does have an email log which is reviewed regularly and enables us to pick up messages which escaped the re-routing process.
At the AGM the usual appeal went out for members, old and new, who fancy becoming more involved to get in touch. We need more help with administering the membership, arranging the lecture programme, arranging and leading excursions and representing us on other groups and at events. It might also be obvious from the lack of activity on this website that we would greatly appreciate help from anyone who is good at these things or uder the age of 40 which may be the same thing!
Current publications can be seen on this website and they can be obtained by contacting the President who holds the stock. The 5 volumes of the Journal are not shown, but they are all still available and can be obtained in the same way. One day we might even have an index of the contents.
If you have more practical skills we have projects running at our various sites which can also be seen by findind the right page on this webiste. Anything from chopping down vegetation to restoring old engines.
The main site is Wortley Top Forge, which has its own Topforge website. This property is based around the Grade I listed forge and has water wheels, a wide range of working and non working machinery, buildings which need care and attention and recently added archive material and pictures. The site is open to the public but we need guides
Visitors can now see the entire works area including the yard and offices which, until 3 years ago, were a private residence. We currently have a project aimed at getting a proper archaeological evaluation of the cleared area. We know from documentary evidence and pictures that Thomas Andrews has a test rig set up in this area when he was conducting research into the strength of the Forge products and we think we have identified the base plates for where it stood. There are plans for community involvement if any digging can take place.
Those who look at old maps will know that the water system upstream included the weir on the Don and extensive head goit. It also included what is now one of the adjacent fishing lakes. Maybe future generations will be able to re-incorporate that in the site. That will involve money if you have any. Recently we have been concerned about two trees which have become lodged on the weir and are working through the Byzantine reaches of local authority and Environment Agency bureaucracy to do something about this. The weir is part of the Scheduled area. We need someone with a chainsaw and really big wellies.
It will be seen from the lecture programme that we are mostly at Kelham Island Museum, but we do try to get out to other places in South Yorkshire if anybody has any ideas. After all, we are meant to be the Society for the whole of the county. The recent event in Barnsley was held in conjunction with the Barnsley Civic Trust in the Town Hall Council chamber. It was well attended and a great success in spreading the word about the much under-rated Joseph Locke.
We were represented at Sheffield Heritage Fair in January and did plenty of the usual mingling. It is likely that the Heritage Fair will be repeated in 2026 and there may possibly be a resurrection of the South Yorkshire Archaeology Day.
Wortley Top Forge is now open for the summer season and the first main event in on Monday 5th May.
Father Christmas has Wortley in his diary for a Sunday in early December.
The smaller property at Hoylandswaine Nail Forge is opened ocassionally to the public usually in conjuction with other events like Heritage Open Days. It requires occasional maintenance and we have recently managed to replace the bellows. The property at Rockley Forge and Engine House is open access and just needs occasional maintenance and the clearance of vegetation. We are grateful to a local group who deal with what is rather a notorious local fly-tipping site adjacent to our land. There is also an opportunity for anyone with a chainsaw and smaller wellies to move a tree at Rockley.
The Society remains actively involved in the Local Heritage Listing project being run through the South Yorkshire Archaeology Service. The project objective is to provide a database of all the sites in South Yorkshire which are considered important to heritage. Society representatives sit on the committee which considers sites (mostly pubs it must be said) nominated for listing. There is a website for the LHL which is publicly accessible and you may nominate your favourite location if it qualifies and you know a bit about it.
We are hoping that the Bower Spring restoration project will be the star attraction this summer. At the time of writing we have secured funds and had meetings on site with a contractor. The site wiil be handed over to the contractor for a few weeks but you might be able to gaze through the railings. Once we have th site back, we will be responsible for the maintenance. Hopefully this will less of the heavy duty jungle penetration and more of the gentle pottering round a back garden. There are also plans for more public access and information. Volunteers with appropriate skills would always be appreciated and given a bit of training.
With respect to Bower Spring, I have also been gathering together the Society archives and re-establishing some of the lapsed contacts with individuals and organisations previously involved. The medium term plan is that a book can be written on the history of the site from the first known reference to a spring in 1736 to a hopefully pristine public showpiece in the near future.
The Butterthwaite Weir project on the Blackburn Brook still continues although it is now rather more a question of recording the interesting construction details than doing any repairs. Anyone with any local knowledge is always welcome to contact us and perhaps help hold a tape measure. Wellies are essential.
The Weir is being dealt with by the Society’s Field Recording Group which meets regularly and actively goes to various sites. It is open to all Society members.
Tony Ball : President