cycleSheffield

The Next Friday Night ride - change of date - now May 29th

Mick Nott informs us that the next FNR is moved to May 29th

Sorry have had to change the date - I can’t make May 22.  Its now the Friday of the Bank Holiday weekend May 29

Advance Notice

Sheffield FridayNightRide

War and Peace

Friday May 29 2009

NB not May 22 as originally planned

Meet at Castle Market,

corner of Waingate and Exchange St,

6-6.30 for a 6.45 start

Bring lights and locks!

Sheffield’s connections with war and peace are manifold.  Sheffielders have fought, and died, in wars, Sheffield steel has been an instrument of war and the arms trade contributed significantly to the city’s wealth, Sheffielders culture of non-conformism and dissent have stimulated peace initiatives, and Sheffielders have been welcoming to refugees and asylum seekers from wars.

This ride touches on some aspects of war and peace and Sheffield.  I hope its a time for reflection and discussion as well as the usual pleasant company getting to know each other and their city.  Not all the notable locations could be visited in one ride so we could revisit the theme another time or on another ride..

For film clip of Picasso in Sheffield at a 1950 Peace Conference see http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//Bpathe/1950/11/16/X16115001/

Heads up! This is a ride on roads or well-metalled paths and should suit all types of bike.   I’ve tried to keep it ‘lower’ down compared to the last ride and starts and finishes in the heart of the city.  It covers many roads we have travelled before but maybe in a different direction or arriving and leaving in a different direction!  Total distance is 13 miles

Map at

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=108285123450551660446.000468acdde43122a1c81&z=13

Route - see the map for more details about the sites and history

We start at the corner of the site of Sheffield Castle, which was a Royalist stronghold during the Civil War and later destroyed by Parliamentarians, and then we follow the TPT to the Wybourn, turn off through Manor Park and enter the City Cemetery from Manor Fields.  There we can ride past a military cemetery, the mass grave from the Sheffield Blitz, a panel of remembrance and a memorial to Belgians who took refuge in Sheffield during WW1. We’ll then head for the west of the city, down through Norfolk Park across Queen’s Rd, past an old TA barracks, and on through Sharrow to Ecclesall Rd where there is still clear evidence of bomb damage from nearly 70 years ago.  Then we go down through Endcliffe Park, riding past the memorial to a USAAF bomber that crashlanded there, and out back to Hunters Bar where we will ride down, past the Polish Club which was started by refugees, to Collegiate Hall which was a hospital in WWI and has the remains of WWII air raid shelters on the lawn.  There will then be a gentle climb up to Weston Park where we can look at the impressive war memorials and work out where the one from the Boer War has gone(!).  The we cut back through the University, site of some of the meetings for the 1950 Peace Conference and we’ll go across the inner ring road at Broomspring Lane and up to the TA Somme barracks on Glossop Rd, and down into the center along Portobello, Trippet Lane, Campo Lane where we’ll ride into town to view some of the sites that were devastated in the Sheffield Blitz, to the Town Hall to ride past the memorial to Sheffielders who saw action in the Spansih Civil War, out past Barkers Pool and the City Hall, Sheffield’s main memorial to WWI, and then across Devonshire Green (cleared by WWII bombing) to the Bath Inn on Victoria St.

Mick
sheffieldfridaynightride@blueyonder.co.uk
079 49 59 67 02
“We have nothing to lose but our chains!”

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