1. The History
Getting their name due to their very close proximity to the River Don, Don Sawmills are located on Saville Street, Sheffield. Initially the building was built in the 1870s to house a steam driven sawmill.
More recently it used to be Henry Matthews timber merchants. The remaining building next to the former car dealership was the sawmill and lumber storage yard was on the opposite side of the river. The storage yard was also close to the railway viaduct and Matthews used two of the viaduct's arches for drying/seasoning rough cut boards, before they were finished in the mill. The two parts of the business were originally connect by a ramshackle wooden bridge until this was replaced, circa 1949, with a Bailey Bridge, installed by the local TA detachment of the Royal Engineers. Later this bridge was dismantled, after the mill closed, and refurbished and reassembled further down-stream as part of the Five Weirs Walk. The remains of the sawmill were Grade II listed in 1995, although the front section of the building was demolished sometime around 2007.
Archive picture of the front of the building before the street facing section of the mill was demo’ed. Also note, to the left the former “Hole in the Wall” public house, which was also knocked down.
Don Sawmills by HughieDW, on Flickr
2. The Explore
To be honest, I’ve passed this place so many times but never bothered to go in. However, inspired by @tarkovsky and his recent report, decided to hop over the boards and have a look for myself, such is the current shortage of explore sites in Sheffield. It’s a small site and not too much to look at and getting up to the next floor is probably not worth the effort. That said, I managed to get enough decent pictures to scrape a report together. Vastly inferior to Tarkovsky’s report and nothing to get too excited about, I thought I'd post it anyhow as this place doesn’t normally get too much attention.
3. The Pictures
A couple of pictures from the other side of the Don:
img3013 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img3014 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Round to the front:
img3759 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img3760 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img3758bw by HughieDW, on Flickr
img3757bw by HughieDW, on Flickr
And a close-up of the Phlegm:
Don Saw Mills 05 by HughieDW, on Flickr
In we go:
img3754 by HughieDW, on Flickr
There’s not too much to see:
img3745 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Don Saw Mills 03 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Don Saw Mills 02 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Don Saw Mills 01 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Possibly the most interesting thing inside – the old boiler:
img3748 by HughieDW, on Flickr
The view out to the Don:
img3752 by HughieDW, on Flickr
This is the hole I made! Fortunately, only one leg went through, but it shook me up a bit!
Don Saw Mills 04 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Getting their name due to their very close proximity to the River Don, Don Sawmills are located on Saville Street, Sheffield. Initially the building was built in the 1870s to house a steam driven sawmill.
More recently it used to be Henry Matthews timber merchants. The remaining building next to the former car dealership was the sawmill and lumber storage yard was on the opposite side of the river. The storage yard was also close to the railway viaduct and Matthews used two of the viaduct's arches for drying/seasoning rough cut boards, before they were finished in the mill. The two parts of the business were originally connect by a ramshackle wooden bridge until this was replaced, circa 1949, with a Bailey Bridge, installed by the local TA detachment of the Royal Engineers. Later this bridge was dismantled, after the mill closed, and refurbished and reassembled further down-stream as part of the Five Weirs Walk. The remains of the sawmill were Grade II listed in 1995, although the front section of the building was demolished sometime around 2007.
Archive picture of the front of the building before the street facing section of the mill was demo’ed. Also note, to the left the former “Hole in the Wall” public house, which was also knocked down.
2. The Explore
To be honest, I’ve passed this place so many times but never bothered to go in. However, inspired by @tarkovsky and his recent report, decided to hop over the boards and have a look for myself, such is the current shortage of explore sites in Sheffield. It’s a small site and not too much to look at and getting up to the next floor is probably not worth the effort. That said, I managed to get enough decent pictures to scrape a report together. Vastly inferior to Tarkovsky’s report and nothing to get too excited about, I thought I'd post it anyhow as this place doesn’t normally get too much attention.
3. The Pictures
A couple of pictures from the other side of the Don:
Round to the front:
And a close-up of the Phlegm:
In we go:
There’s not too much to see:
Possibly the most interesting thing inside – the old boiler:
The view out to the Don:
This is the hole I made! Fortunately, only one leg went through, but it shook me up a bit!
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