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The Council of Europe funded 'Drainspotting' project that I won earlier this year has begun. We have six months to find and log as much as we can of Sheffield's historic pavement features. Our app enables people to photograph and GPS plot their finds and we will draw up the maps showing the locations of the important finds, how many are left, and what that tells us. Anyone interested in being involved I'd love to hear from you! streetheritageresearchgroup@gmail.com https://sites.google.com/view/streetheritage/the-street-heritage-research-group https://www.europeanheritagedays.com/story/cfbd0/Drainspotting-A-European-Story-Made-in-Sheffield

Inspired by your diligent work, we may all be in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars... (probably a Wilde misquote)

A picture of an oil painting of Sheffield General Infirmary viewed from around Port Mahon in 1798 and an interesting 1826 map of the area drawn just before the whole area was developed.

In an earlier review of Hospital requirements it was proposed to build a new hospital for the south of the City. 190 acres of land was acquired at Coal Aston under the Public Health Act of 1875 and, in a strange twist of fate, the proposed Sheffield Airport was then planned to be built there. By 1933 priorities had change...and the War intervened . Neither was built...the land being used for municipal housing. As an aside, the Northern General is a rambling "Ponderosa"...confusing to the occasional vistor and guaranteed to increase blood pressure if attempting to park a car!😉

I had my tonsils out there in 1949 age 5; go in morning & out by tea time having been told to eat ice cream ! I recall anasethetic being dropped onto mask over my nose plus a glass jar with liquid in it on window ledge which looked as though it had tonsils floating inside it ! My wife was a student nurse living at the Nurses Home called Centenery House there from 1964 - 1966. We went in the underground tunnels to go from block to block when it rained.