Do you use the Blue Loop, the 13km long walking route along the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal towpath and the Five Weirs Walk? Our founder Dan does, or should that really be he did. For almost six months, a mile-long section of the canal towpath has been closed off, leaving the hundreds of walkers, cyclists and runners (like our Dan) having to take a huge detour through some of the less salubrious parts of Attercliffe. The Canal and River Trust say a long-term repair plan is “being formulated”. But if motorists wouldn’t stand for a road being closed for months on end with no word on when or if it might reopen, why should pedestrians? That’s today’s big story.
As well as that we have news of a row over Restore Britain candidates in Sheffield, an Olivier-award winning musical at the Lyceum, and a lovely home in Norfolk Park.
A reminder that you can now send us messages on WhatsApp! Please send us anything you like: gossip, tips, advice, even recipes. Just click the button below to chat with us.
The Tribune is now on Whatsapp! Get in touch with any tips or things you think we should be looking into. All messages treated in confidence.
The iconic Buxton International Festival returns
This summer, the internationally renowned BIF returns to the peaks for another stellar year. For almost 50 years, BIF has brought world class performances to Buxton, including opera, music, literature and jazz. It's a unique chance to get out of the city and into the stunning scenery of the high peak for a cultural summer escape. Eat, drink, watch and be merry.
This year's programme includes La traviata, The Merry Widow, The Hallé and an appearance from Guardian columnist John Crace. With 160 events from 9th to 26th July, you're bound to find something you'll love. Tickets are on sale now, to grab yours click below.
In case you missed it
We got a massive response to our weekend read about the financial peril facing Showroom cinema. Over a dozen new members joined The Tribune to read the story, while the piece attracted lots of insightful comments on our website. One member, who worked on a passenger liner in the 60s, remembers the legal porn cinemas in Honolulu were always very busy and suggested monthly or weekly events like this “with a hot dog thrown in (sorry!)” might generate some revenue. Got any other novel ideas for the Showroom? Let us know in the comments here.
On Tuesday, our regular contributor David Bocking went swamp diving to learn about a Great Crested Newt success story in east Sheffield. The tiny dragon-like creatures are often blamed for holding up development, but, as David discovered, human beings and newts can live side by side. The piece also provoked some terrible humour in the comments. “I used to have one as a pet,” said Tribune member Richard. “I called him Tiny as he was mynewt.”
And on Friday, Victoria returned to the tragic case of Veronica Crawford, a severely mentally ill woman who froze to death outside a shop in Gleadless Valley on New Year’s Day 2025. Veronica’s daughter Kyla was really touched by the piece, telling us: “It is the second time since the death I have felt a glimpse of closure.”
The big picture: Standing at the sky’s edge 🌳
Congratulations to the Friends of Skyeline Park who have taken the first step towards creating a new pocket park overlooking the South Street Amphitheatre. This morning, a temporary road closure was put in place at the top of South Street, meaning vehicles won’t be able to park on the section of South Street directly overlooking the amphitheatre. Locals have been campaigning for the change for years after the area became a magnet for crime and anti-social behaviour. If the road closure proves successful, the Friends of Skyeline Park hope to create a new pocket park in the area. For more details, see their Instagram page.
The big story: Anger over canal towpath closure
Top line: A mile-long section of the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal towpath has been closed for months, with no word on when it might reopen. Motorists wouldn’t accept a road being closed for this length of time. So why are the hundreds of walkers, runners and cyclists who use this path everyday treated differently?
Background: Last November, the Canal and River Trust found that a section of the towpath between Bacon Lane bridge and Bernard Road bridge was actively beginning to collapse. To make matters worse, surveys later revealed that the damage was more extensive than it first appeared, stretching as far as the Cadman Street bridge.
- Initially, temporary “heras” fencing was installed, but this was ignored or vandalised. Around a month ago, heavy metal “palisade” fencing with a padlock appeared at both ends of the closure.
- The trust says the collapse has been caused by a “washout which has undercut the towpath” and that a long-term repair plan is “being formulated”. One person on Reddit said that they had been told that the damage had been caused by burrowing signal crayfish, although this has not been confirmed.
The blue (broken) loop: The canal towpath forms part of what is known as The Blue Loop, a 13-km long continuous waterside path, which also includes the Five Weirs Walk along the River Don. However, a section of the Five Weirs Walk has been closed for seven years after it was damaged in the 2019 floods. This closure and the closure of the canal towpath means that the loop is now missing two large sections, robbing Sheffield of something that should be a great asset to the city.
No timescale: Simon Ogden from the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust was one of the driving forces behind the creation of The Blue Loop. Writing on Facebook, he said that the canal towpath is only a permissive right of way at the point of closure, and therefore the Canal and River Trust do have the legal right to close it for operational or repair purposes.
- However, he said that given the history of how the towpath was rebuilt, the Trust had a duty to explain why the closure is in place and how long it might last. They should also signpost diversion routes, he added.
- He said: “It was rebuilt in the 1980s with substantial sums of public money, and then resurfaced by the heroic Blue Loop Troop, so the very least CRT should do is to post an explanation, a diversion route and a timescale for reopening.”
Our take: While the closure of the towpath is annoying, it perhaps doesn't come as too much of a surprise. As we discovered in our piece about the last lockkeeper on the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal, the Canal and River Trust are currently strapped for cash, which has forced them to sell off some of the buildings they own along the 2,000-mile long network of waterways. However, the towpath is one of the best-used walking, running and cycling routes in the city, with hundreds of people enjoying it every day. That such an asset for the city has been taken away, with no timescale for its return, is a real shame.
Your Tribune briefing 🗞️
🗳️ Restore Britain, the far right-wing splinter party set up by former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe, is standing 13 candidates in this year’s local elections in Sheffield — but all of them will appear on the ballot paper as independents. Anti-racist campaigners Hope Not Hate say Restore Britain could become the largest organised force on the extreme right in decades and suggest the 13 candidates could be a “Trojan Horse” to get candidates elected without proper scrutiny. The truth, however, is more nuanced. Restore Britain was only registered with the Electoral Commission on 20 March, meaning they had less than three weeks to nominate candidates before the 9th April deadline. Given the tight schedule, Lowe said on 1 April that the party would not be standing candidates under the Restore Britain banner in this year’s local elections. Either way, with little party machinery behind them, none of the 13 candidates in Sheffield are likely to be in contention when votes are counted on 7 May.
😶🌫️ Attercliffe sauna The Boiler Room, which has provided a cruising space for gay men for over a decade, was forcibly shut down by police last week. As reported by The Star, an enforcement notice posted to the door on 13 April states officers have “reasonable grounds to suspect that the use of the premises” has resulted in “nuisance to members of the public,” adding that entry by anyone other than the sauna’s owners is now banned. If you know any more, please get in touch.
📺 After the worldwide success of Peaky Blinders, someone surely needs to make a TV show about the 1920s gangsters of Sheffield, led by local kingpins George Mooney and Sam Garvin. Back then, tit-for-tat attacks between rival gangs were so common that West Bar earned the nickname “Little Chicago”. Following the 1925 murder of William Plommer, 8,000 law-abiding residents attended his funeral and demanded tougher policing, after which the scourge did begin to wane.
The weekly Whitworth ✍️
Cartoonist James Whitworth with his take on the start of “Sheffield's second Christmas”, the 17 days of the annual World Snooker Championship at the Crucible theatre.
Home of the week 🏡
This three bedroom detached home in Norfolk Park is located on the edge of the city centre just a few minutes walk from the train station. It also has off-road parking for two vehicles, and an enclosed rear garden surrounded by woodland. It is on the market for £310,000.
Things to do 📆
Theatre 🎭 On now at the Lyceum is the 2024 Olivier Award-winner for Best New Musical, Operation Mincemeat. The year is 1943 and right now we’re losing the war. Luckily, we’re about to gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse. Bursting at the seams with chaos you couldn’t invent: how did a dead body, a fake love letter, and — of all people — Ian Fleming come together to wrong-foot Hitler? Tickets are £15-£76 and the show runs until Saturday.
Talk 💬 There are still a few tickets left for a special guest lecture by Warp Films’ CEO Mark Herbert on Tuesday. The lecture is part of Sheffield Hallam University’s Future Now Festival of Creativity, and will see Herbert talk about the Sheffield-based company’s journey from cult films like 2004’s Dead Man’s Shoes to the 2025 worldwide Netflix smash hit Adolescence. The one-hour lecture is free and will begin in the university’s Pennine lecture theatre at 6pm.
Music 🎹 On Wednesday at Firth Hall, join the Neil Cowley Trio for Built on Bach, an evening of music which uses the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach as a “jumping off point” for jazz experimentation. Using Bach’s original pieces as a starting point, Cowley (piano) and his bandmates Rex Horan (bass) and Evan Jenkins (drums) combine their classic jazz sound with the most classic composer of them all. Tickets are £16-£20 and doors open at 7pm.
If someone forwarded you this newsletter, click here to sign up to get quality local journalism in your inbox.
