Zine: Telling a different story about North Sheffield

Nisha Kotecha, director of positive news organisation Good News Shared, walks across this deprived and diverse area to explore its rich community spirit

This story is part of our Tales from a Slow Way series, funded by the Pilgrim Trust. Each ‘Tales’ award includes a donation to the organisation as well as a project fee to the creative. Nisha’s project donation went to The Furnival, a community organisation in Sheffield that supports the community through English lessons, cooking, a toy library and more.

By Nisha Kotecha

Despite the challenges many people are facing at the moment due to issues such as the cost of living crisis, there are still reasons to cheer at a local level. This became increasingly clear during the pandemic when stories of communities rallying round for each other were regularly shared.

I walked along the Chapeltown to Sheffield Slow Ways route, speaking to individuals and organisations about recent acts of kindness and community spirit. The route takes in some of the most deprived and diverse areas in Sheffield, such as Burgreave and Parsons Cross, where less than 16% of over-16’s hold a level-four-or-above qualification (the highest area in Sheffield has 62%). These areas, like most of North Sheffield which this route is mainly in, only tend to be mentioned in the media for negative reasons. This project will show another side to them.

The areas along the route are very diverse in terms of ethnicity and religion, with at least one church, mosque, and temple. Also, there are many migrants and refugees living in these areas. Acts of kindness are something we all have in common. Reading uplifting stories can help to improve people’s mental wellbeing, as does walking outside. I believe reading these positive stories of areas that are normally forgotten about and only in the news for negative reasons will encourage people to explore different areas on the route. Plus having positive stories about their area will give people in these often forgotten-about areas something to feel proud about.

Zine text: Community and contrast in North Sheffield

Sheffield is my adopted home city and I appreciate so many things about it. The sense of community, the people, the beautiful green spaces, the proud history of the area…

The food scene has been getting some attention recently, but I think the city still remains a bit of a hidden gem.

I live in North Sheffield, which sometimes feels a bit neglected in terms of the focus it gets. When I saw that there was a Slow Ways route that passed through the heart of this area, I knew I wanted to follow it and play my part in sharing the area with the wider world – while shouting about the importance of the Slow Ways movement at the same time.

Like many cities, Sheffield is split along lines of affluence and poverty. Some of the most deprived areas are in the north and the walk I did goes through/near them. Part of the reason for that is the loss of jobs through deindustrialisation.

The 83a bus cuts across the city from south to north. A report in 2013 uncovered the infamous statistic that life expectancy in Sheffield was up to an average (for women) of nearly 10 years less from the least affluent areas to the most.

“A baby girl born and who lives her life in one part of the city can expect to live, on average, almost 10 years longer than a similar baby girl born and living her life about four miles away, by virtue of nothing more than the socio-economic circumstances and area she was born into.” Sheffield Fairness Commission (2013)

While these are shocking statistics, they are of course only one part of the picture. On my walk I wanted to see the reality of the difficulties parts of North Sheffield are facing – likely exacerbated by the pandemic and the tough economic situation, while also acknowledging the amazing people and organisations that make it their home.

At the start of my walk I passed Chapeltown station (the photo on the front of this zine). It is possible to get a train straight to the centre of Sheffield from there, but I suspected, and definitely found, that so much would have been missed by not walking. I want to share some of my discoveries with you. They include a series of wonderful green spaces, some of which I had never explored before, a host of inspiring community organisations and so much evidence of people caring about where they live. That sense of kindness and community spirit is something I was particularly keen to bring to the fore.

The route starts on the northern fringes of Sheffield, not too far from where the Arctic Monkeys grew up, in fact. It dips in and out of built-up areas, skirting farms and ancient settlements, passing through beautiful woodland and parks, before approaching the centre of Sheffield, crossing the river Don and ending up at Sheffield station.

Incredible organisations

I passed so many organisations doing incredible work on the route. One of the organisations whose work I was particularly keen to highlight is The Furnival.

Their aim in their own words, is to: ‘Seek to offer a warm welcome and support for newly-arrived, migrant women helping them to make connections, grow in confidence and build the skills they need to support their families’.

For example, they offer practical help, teaching English to the women they support so that they can go to the GP or shops without needing someone to interpret for them. When I was younger my mum would sometimes be asked by neighbours and relatives to accompany them to the GP surgery and translate what the doctor said. So this work by The Furnival especially resonates with me and I think it’s wonderful how they are supporting women in this way.

Food is a special way to bring people together and The Furnival do this in a lovely way with their weekly cook and share sessions in their community kitchen where the women in the community share their own recipes and they cook and eat together. Other resources include a toy library and a community garden. In addition, they run school holiday children’s activities, where children have the chance to enjoy multi-sports and craft activities.

Another organisation on the route that I had the pleasure of visiting was Reyt Repair, which is ‘Working in Sheffield to reduce waste, save money and bring people together’.

For a small fee, they fix all sorts of items that people bring them to repair. It was buzzing with activity when I popped in. Lots of volunteers were hard at work fixing things in their office, which was well-stocked with spare parts and tools.

In collaboration with another organisation, Green City Action, they also have a community Tool Bank where people can borrow tools at reasonable rates. At the time of writing this includes a wide range, from a hedge trimmer to a food blender, a leaf blower to a wallpaper steamer.

Reyt Repair’s ethos is to: ‘Fix things, not throw them away. Buy spare parts instead of buying new. Share skills together not shop in isolation’. There was something really special about seeing people utilise their skills to help others, while also reducing the need to throw things away and buy replacements. That they are utilising an old building that would probably be empty otherwise made it even more so.

Time and again, both on the walk itself and while researching organisations to visit, I found examples of kindness and community spirit in the area that the walk passed through.

In addition to the organisations already mentioned, here are some projects I wanted to mention:

• Chapelgreen Advice Centre was packed when I stepped inside at the very start of the walk to see the support they provide. They help with a range of issues, particularly welfare benefits, employment rights, money and debt and housing rights. They are clearly a very well-used and essential part of the community.
• Ecclesfield Library is run by volunteers. On the day I passed by, the library was closed for regular use but they were set up and open for a chairobics session for the local community.
• I passed close to the Northern General Hospital, one of the two main hospitals in Sheffield. They have a wellbeing garden that can be enjoyed by staff. The project was launched in 2021, in recognition of the extra strain on NHS staff during the pandemic.

Sheffield traditions while looking to the future

One of the things that makes Sheffield feel special are the traditions that only a local would know.

One is the famous Hendos, a sauce beloved by Sheffielders. There are Hendos cookbooks, crisps and even a beer! You never have to look far for a bottle and I made sure to have some with my breakfast in a cafe before I started the walk, to fortify me.

During a coffee stop some way along the route, I was excited to see that they were selling ‘Elephants’ Feet’, a type of pastry (a bit like a giant profiterole) native to the area.

Speaking of elephants, Sheffield has a famous elephant, Lizzie, and the route took me past her very well-deserved recent blue plaque.

The beautiful and varied landscape of the walk

The landscape along the way was one of the real treats of doing a Slow Ways walk. At times I was on main roads going past local shops and then the route would suddenly take me through back alleys of housing estates, through wooded areas, alongside and then over the river Don, and at one point through a cemetery.

Early on in the walk I thought I was going to get stuck in a rather boggy field, but it added to the sense of adventure and achievement by the end of the walk! I saw a lot of animals on the way. Aside from dogs of fellow walkers and people enjoying the parks, a robin, squirrels, butterflies and horses all added to my experience.

A sense of community

As well as the formal organisations I have mentioned, there were so many things I saw on the walk that demonstrate a sense of community pride. Here are a selection of them.

Concluding thoughts

There are two main things that I’d like to share as a conclusion to the special journey I was able to take.

The First: the Slow Ways ethos and series of routes are such a special way to experience the country, for so many reasons. They enable you to literally take ‘Roads (and paths, and tracks!) Less Travelled’: both roads that very few people travel or roads that you yourself have never thought of travelling before. It is a different way to see the world, one that encourages you to take things at a different pace and to appreciate what is right in front of you. One that makes connections between things that you otherwise might not have discovered.

The Second: in direct relation to this, how the particular route I took both served to reemphasise to me the special sense of community that I already knew was there, while also giving me the chance to discover some new organisations and activities. Some of the nicest things to see and experience weren’t really curated at all but were things I stumbled across. Like how friendly people were in a cafe, local wildlife, the way the landscape formed a dialogue between the past, present and future, revealing the many faces of Sheffield.

I hope that my walk and observations inspire you in some small way to try a Slow Ways route for yourself. To discover something new and enriching about a community that is familiar – or unfamiliar – to you. To marvel, as you make your way along the route, about all the good things that, through caring about their local area, people bring into the world. 

The Slow Ways route I took is Chashe one, from Chapeltown to Sheffield.