Shepherd Wheel

Shepherd Wheel stands beside the Porter Brook in south-west Sheffield. It is a former water-powered grinding workshop now run as a working museum. The site includes a large dam, a goit, a weir and a 5.5-metre overshot water wheel. All these parts are Grade II listed and the whole place is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The earliest record of a wheel here comes from 1584, when William Beighton left a water wheel called Potar Whele to his sons. The present buildings date from about 1780 and were worked by the Hinde family throughout the 19th century. The land once belonged to the Dukes of Norfolk until Sheffield City Council bought it in 1900. After years of campaigning by local history societies, the wheel was restored and opened as a museum in 1962. It closed in 1997 and reopened under Sheffield Museums Trust in 1998. Visitors find two grinding hulls with large floor-mounted wheels driven by the water wheel. Tools and equipment are displayed inside these rooms. The restored site also shows the dam, goit and weir that once powered the workshop. The museum offers a clear view of how water power organised metal grinding in Sheffield for centuries.