Location: Old Horns Inn, High Bradfield
We should really be shouting it from the rooftops: ‘We are ace, this is beautiful, and you need to get here.’”
If you want to find somewhere special in Sheffield, you’re usually best off heading to the top of a hill.
We’ve got plenty to choose from. Whether you’re in Meersbrook Park, Stannington, Ringinglow, Dungworth, or wherever else, you’re always going to find an incredible view. From this spot you can look out over Loxley Valley, you can see down to Lower Bradfield, Agden Reservoir, and there’s Strines moor out in the distance too.
Although Sheffield has a strong industrial past, and you can still see that history displayed in the city centre, we also have all of this natural beauty on our doorstep – I mean, literally right on our doorstep. We are an undiscovered jewel. The thing about Sheffield people, and I think it’s a very Sheffield thing, is that we’re brought up being told to be good at what we do, to be proud of what we do, but not to big ourselves up. Bigheads don’t fare so well in this city. We keep our feet on the ground because no matter how successful or famous a Sheffielder will get, they will still go home and get told off by their mum. Alex Turner will still get bollocked by his mum when he goes home, and so will Jarvis Cocker, and so will Richard Hawley. It’s a nice, modest attitude to have, but the downside of it is that as a whole we don’t push ourselves and trumpet ourselves to the world enough. We should really be shouting it from the rooftops: “We are ace, this is beautiful, and you need to get here.”
The industrial heart of the city tends to stimulate creatives around here. Martyn Ware of Heaven 17 used to talk about the rhythm of Sheffield, the beat of the factory hammers thudding throughout the night, and how that would inspire musicians. It runs through you and becomes ingrained. But places like this is where you come for an escape, when you’ve grafted all week and have a reyt headache from it all, you can come up here to take in this view and think to yourself, ‘That’s all mine, that is. There’s nobody who can take that away from me.’
