The Five Weirs Walk
The Five Weirs Walk is an 8km path from Sheffield City Centre to Meadowhall along the banks of the River Don. It connects to the Sheffield and Tinsley canal towpath, the Upper Don Walk, the riverside path to Rotherham and the Trans Pennine Trail.
The combination of the FWW and Canal Towpath forms the Blue Loop, for which there is an excellent associated website that can be accessed via our link to other sites, below.
Five Weirs is ideal for walkers, cyclists, anglers, canoeists and those fascinated by the rich history of the lower Don Valley. It is accessible to disabled users. Several schools have based projects on different aspects of the walk."
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The Cobweb Bridge
"Cobweb Bridge forms part of the Five Weirs Walk along the River Don from Blonk Street, near the centre of Sheffield, eastwards to Meadowhall. The bridge is held in place by a lattice-work of suspension and tensioning cables and sits over the waters of the Don and below the railway arches of the old Victoria Station, now long gone.
Completed in 2002, its design solves a difficult problem: passing the riverside cycle- and footpath (the Five Weirs Walk) under the massive Wicker Arches viaduct while linking one bank of the River Don to the other. Without the Cobweb Bridge, the footpath would have had to make a one-mile detour.
Designed by Sheffield City Council's Structures Section, the entire 100-metre-long bridge is suspended on a web of steel cables secured to the underside of the viaduct, hence the name. Completing the theme, large steel likenesses of spiders conceal the overhead lighting.
While the bridge has been prone to vandalism in the past (the wires forming the parapet having been stolen more than once), the bridge was repaired in 2015 to reduce the risk of future vandalism. The newly restored bridge no longer uses wires in the parapet, having been replaced with metal plates with spiderweb designs."
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The Wicker Arches Viaduct
"The Wicker Arches form a 660-yard (600 m) long railway viaduct across the Don Valley in the City of Sheffield, England. They take their name from the thoroughfare The Wicker, which passes through the main arch of the viaduct and was, until the completion of the Sheffield Parkway, the main route eastwards from the city to the M1. It is a Grade II* listed structure.
The viaduct was built in 1848 to extend the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway from its previous terminus at Bridgehouses. The requirements were laid down by Sir John Fowler (engineer; designer of the Forth Bridge), but because of its prominent position in the city, he employed a firm of architects, Weightman, Hadfield and Goldie, to manage the detailed design. The design was then constructed by Miller, Blackie and Shortedge, and consisted of 41 arches. The arch which crosses the Wicker provides 30 feet (9.1 m) of headroom and spans 72 feet (22 m). On either side are smaller arches around 12 feet (3.7 m) high, with heraldic decoration in the stonework above them. Many of the arches are now concealed by buildings. The structure is officially named the Sheffield Victoria Viaduct, and has in the past been called the Wicker Viaduct."
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