I remember when I moved to Sheffield ('89), walking back from Attercliffe and walking past a place with these drop hammers going. I stood watching them work for a good 30 minutes, transfixed as the floor shook.
There's only two places that use them these days, you can still hear them early on Sunday morning if they are going. Both factories struggle on but they are not the force they used to be but the history is still there, from an early age we were taught about Olaudah Equiano /Steel Workers fight to abolish slavery and the famous Sheffield Outrages - that place was pretty important.
Nice to see the cooling towers again. I'll miss them, in a funny way... it wasn't quite right, driving past last weekend and them not being there. My better-half couldn't quite work-out where they'd been because there's very little trace of them, except for the big space they once occupied of course. For those who're interested, there are a couple of short BBC News pieces covering the demolition of the towers here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7556858.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7582637.stm.
I miss them a lot, in meant "your 20 minutes from home" and I wish they'd blown up Meadow Hall (massive shopping mall) instead. m PS New Things (as in music) coming next as we are a bit OT
