Abbeydale Works

The nitty-gritty of the lengthy voluntary work of restoration is shown in this early example of the post war movement to preserve the nation’s industrial heritage.

With the war out of the way, Sheffield helps to lead the way in the gathering movement for restoring historic industrial sites. Here work over several years, between 1963 and 1966, in time for World Cup visitors, transforms the early iron forging site at Abbeydale into a working museum.

This film was made by Sheffield steel maker and one time Master Cutler Billy Ibberson, who was also an accomplished filmmaker. Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet ceased operating in 1934 and the 'Society for the Preservation of Old Sheffield Tools' – forerunner of the Sheffield Trades Historical Society – campaigned for it to be made into a museum. A previous gift to Sheffield Corporation by the J G Graves Trust helped when, after the war, along with the former owner Donald Tyzack, Ibberson helped organise the Chamber of Commerce to clear the site. They set up the Council for the Conservation of Sheffield Antiquities in 1954, and this worked towards the museum eventually being fully opened to the public in 1970.