Hidden waterway under railway station uncovered

Railway passengers can now see a section of a river that has been hidden underneath a station for more than 150 years.

A new light well was unveiled earlier at Sheffield Station, opening up a secret one-mile (1.6km) section of the River Sheaf, which the city is named after.

Organisers said the installation will also help wildlife in the waterway, which runs through Victorian culverts and is joined by the Porter Brook.

Chair of the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust, Simon Ogden, said: "We aim to let light reach the river, to encourage passage of fish and wildlife allowing the public to hear, glimpse and smell the river."

The light well, which exposes a previously hidden shaft down to the river, encountered safety challenges, with designers worried passengers may catch their high heels in a steel grille covering the opening, and perch seats were installed as a decorative and safety barrier.

It was positioned on platform 5A, where the River Sheaf meets the Porter Brook.

Ogden said the River Sheaf was "fundamental in Sheffield's history" but its final mile (1.6km) was hidden from view, "to save the public from the fetid stench of sewage and pollution and to allow the station to be built".

He said: "Our goal is to 'put the Sheaf back into Sheffield' and Porter Brook too, for the benefit of nature recovery and local people's wellbeing."

Completely uncovering the river "is our preference" he said, "but where that's not possible we aim to let light reach the river".

"We know that fish and mammals and insects are returning to the rivers.

"We think as salmon has come all the way from Newfoundland in Canada across the Atlantic Ocean to get to the River Don, the least we can do is get them to Totley."

The perch seats have also been used to attach engraved information about the history of the River Sheaf, and four short poems, three of them winners of a national poetry competition in 2023.

The light well was designed by civil engineer and Trust volunteer Ric Bingham, and fabricated and installed by Sheffield company Steel Line.

Bingham said: "One of the problems with grilles is that people with high heels on tend to get stuck and possibly break their ankles."

The project was funded by grants from Sheffield Town Trust, South Yorkshire Community Foundation, Gripple, Outokumpu, Transpennine Express, Freshgate Trust Foundation, J G Graves Trust and Sheffield City Council, and by income from the Sheaf & Porter Trust's 'Hidden Rivers Tours' of the culverts.

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