CHERTSEY

BOATS, BRIDGES, BOILERS ... IF IT'S GOT RIVETS, I'M RIVETTED
... feminist, atheist, autistic academic and historic narrowboater ...
Likes snooker, beer, tea, rivets and solitude, and is strangely fascinated by the cinema organ.
And there might be something about railways.
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Saturday 5 August 2017

A bit steep

When I first moved to Sheffield, I wondered why my legs ached so much. I's just spent nearly a year living on a boat, walking three miles to the shops and back most days... along the towpath. After a couple of weeks I twigged - Sheffield is very hilly. It's hard to walk any distance at all within the city without going up or down a noticeable hill - and usually both.

I fairly quickly got used to the terrain in Broomhill (clue's in the name!), where it as steadily downhill all the way to work, the city centre shops, or the station. So if I was going to the station or the shops, I'd walk down and get the 51 bus back.

It's not so simple down here in Walkley. It's actually a bit nearer work, but with a lot more hill in between. The last leg of the return journey is the most challenging bit. But just how challenging I only discovered yesterday. Apparently I live one street away from what is quite possibly the third steepest residential street in Britain, and approximately half of it is betwween me and work, and me and Tescos.
What's more, I think it's the steeper half! The BBC/OS figures are an average for the entire length of each street.

The view from the top is a pretty impressive vista of Sheffield.

Whilst that from the bottom is just somewhat daunting.

When it snows, I'll be staying indoors for the duration.

2 comments:

  1. The steepest hill it might be but it is also the backdrop for some very important scenes in The Full Monty with The Blake pub in the shot. Directors love a hill. Margaret Drabble (from Sheff) wrote a book about literary landscapes and concluded that flat places induce depression and result in a higher number of suicides than hilly places. I can understand this. Your calves will be a force to be reckoned with x Sandra

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  2. I must admit that I was surprised that Blake Street is steeper than Steep Hill. It doesn't seem like it!

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