Our South Yorkshire story

July 18, 2021

We were recently invited to visit the South Yorkshire region. As a family who loves to explore the UK, we jumped at the chance to explore what it has to offer. South Yorkshire consists of four boroughs, Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham.

Kelham Island Museum – Sheffield

Hopping off the train from Bristol to Sheffield on our first day, we strolled down to the Kelham Island Museum for the afternoon. The kids had so much fun learning about what it was like to live and work in the area, during the industrial revolution and Victorian era.

We loved spotting the models of workers in the industrial section and also the transport gallery. There were also lots of interactive displays that helped explain subjects like how steam is produced and used. I particularly loved The Little Mesters which is a reconstructed Victorian street. A couple of the workshops are still in use.

Everyone had such a nice time at the museum and finished the afternoon off with cold drinks in the courtyard outside.
You can visit the Kelham Island website here.

Elsecar Heritage Centre

On day two of our trip to the South Yorkshire region, we headed to the Elsecar Heritage Centre. It’s worth noting we did this trip without a car. All the places we visited were easily accessible by public transport. A short seventeen minutes by train and we arrived in Elsecar. We then walked the five minutes down to the heritage centre.

Elsecar Heritage Centre in Barnsley is an amazing little village full of a variety of independent shops. It’s a very relaxed and family friendly area so perfect for a day out. Our favourite part though was the antique shop which I could have spent hours trawling through.

Tom could have spent a lot of time in the record shop and the kids were wide eyed at the sweet shop. There were also a few food places that looked really nice. The dedicated tea rooms looked so good but also a sweet cafe that served amazing looking cakes.