Unique insight into how Sheffield's rivers shaped the city and its people.

From vast reservoirs and cascading weirs to the brooks that trickle through our many green spaces, they also provide a home to a rich abundance of local wildlife.

Now the rivers that have shaped Sheffield over the centuries are being celebrated in an exhibition at Weston Park Museum.

City of Rivers runs until November exploring the city’s connections to the waterways that surround us through art, stories, poetry and more.

It brings together a wide range of historic and contemporary artwork, stories, objects, film and photographs to chronicle Sheffield’s relationship with its waterways – the rivers Don, the Sheaf and the Porter (among others).

Drawing on contributions from people across the city, it reflects on our connections to them in our work, leisure time and our impact on the natural habitats they represent. Visitors will discover art, poetry and film by Alison Churchill, Holly Clifford, Catherine Higham, Ruth Levene, Joe Scarborough, Harriet Tarlo, Benjamin Tassie and more.

The exhibition has been developed with a wide range of city and community contributors, including Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust, Friends of the Porter Valley, Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust, Shirebrook Valley Heritage Group, South Yorkshire Industrial History Society and many more. The displays also feature contributions through a public photography call-out, a city-wide schools art competition, alongside Young Makers and schools work experience programmes.“Sheffield’s rivers are the heartbeat of the city, impacting everything from nature and wildlife to our work and hobbies," says Lucy Cooper, Exhibitions Curator at Sheffield Museums.

"For the last few years we’ve been researching and working with different artists and with the local community to create this exhibition.

"We’ve had a great response from individuals and groups with contemporary content for the exhibition (including art, photos and objects) and it’s been fantastic to bring these together with works from historic collections to celebrate all aspects of the city’s waterways.”

She says that the waterways in Sheffield were responsible not only for the very topography of the city but also for its cultural and societal development.

“The waterways were vital transport links and as a result cemented Sheffield as a hub of industry,” says Lucy.

The exhibition includes more than 300 artworks and objects dating back over the last few 100 years up to specially commissioned contemporary works.

Older works include Robert Hudson’s, Brook Scene, Endcliffe Woods, Sheffield (1870-1884)’ Robert Hudson was a Sheffield artist who predominately painted landscapes. In the paiting being exhibited , Hudson depicts an autumnal day in Endcliffe Woods (now known as Endcliffe Park).

More contemporary work includes a piece by Holly Clifford – Sheffield Rivers Contour Map which was commissioned for the exhibition. It is a beautifully crafted 3D topographic map of Sheffield and includes all of the city’s main rivers.

Holly says of her inspiration for the work: “Storytelling through art is something I’m extremely passionate about. Aside from the enormous practicality of maps, I just think they’re endlessly interesting and beautiful; you can get lost in the entrancing structure of the flowing contour lines.”

The Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust, who work to restore and improve access to two of Sheffield's most famous but little seen waterways, have contributed a series of paintings by Alison Churchill, as well as objects they’ve found in the Sheaf and Porter.

Informed by practices of both Zen and Zen calligraphy, Churchill describes her Water Marks (2022) as exploring “…the mystery, energy and transformative power of water. Long contemplation of the constantly changing and mesmerising patterns which play on the surfaces of the streams, mill-ponds and mill-races in Sheffield’s Porter Valley has given me direct experience of the life-force energy of the natural world.”

There are also a variety of medium used throughout the exhibition – and there is even a kayak, borrowed from the local kayak club, suspended from the ceiling of the museum.

Ali Bird uses collage in her 2022 piece We Enjoy. It was created as part of 'We Make It Happen Together', a partnership project between Efficiency North and Ignite Imaginations in 2022, working with community groups to create large-scale works of art in the city.

Artist Ali Bird says:"This piece is based on what people enjoy about the riverside environment. The participants experimented with gel printing, stencil printing and carbon transfer drawings to create layered images. These were then collaged together with leaves stencil printed over to 'knit' the images together.”

There is a poster This that was used to advertise "Melie & Co's High Class Teas", depicting the local legend of 'Rollo'. It shows a dog rescuing a child in a wicker cradle from the waters of the Sheffield flood in 1864 when nearly 300 people died when Dale Dyke Dam collapsed and water thundered down the Loxley. Storyteller and songwriter Sean Cooney has composed a new song for the show, telling the story of Rollo – although no one knows if it is true or not.

The exhibition also aims to raise the profile of the so-called Rivelin Valley artists – a now largely forgotten group of early 20th century landscape painters who created romanticised snapshots of the then-industrial River Rivelin. a similar exhibition was put on by the Rivelin Valley artists themselves almost 100 years ago in 1924.

And composer Benjamin Tassie has created a set of instruments that are played by the River Rivelin itself.

“We use the five main rivers as a starting point,” explains Lucy. “But we also include a sixth - the Rother and then look at the waterways and networks that come from them and the importance to the communities and industries around them.”

She said during her research for the exhibition that as long ago as the 1930s there was a plan to develop and protect Sheffield lakeland. “It is nice to know that even nearly 100 years ago they were looking at how to protect the enviornment.”

But the exhibition isn’t just a retrospective. It also spotlights ongoing efforts by activists to restore our rivers, including projects to improve biodiversity and plans to de-culvert long-hidden sections of river and create new riverside trails.

It also asks questions about what is it we really want for our rivers.Displays of taxidermy animals showcased the variety of wildlife and the reintegration of newer species, like the red-finned terrapin and anotter. Otter (Lutra lutra) were almost completely wiped out from the Sheffield region as a result of hunting, persecution and water pollution. As people have become more tolerant of wildlife and the rivers have become cleaner, they are slowly repopulating Sheffield’s rivers.

City of Rivers at Weston Park Museum continues until Sunday 3 November 2024 – entry to the exhibition is free. For more information visit www.sheffieldmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/city-of-rivers/