THE Diary hadn't realised it was getting into deep water when it mentioned the reprint of Roy Davey's When t'watter runs o'er t'weir.

"It's the only book available on Sheffield watermills," said DS Publishing's Simon Dawson.

"Oh no it isn't," said Christine Ball, secretary of the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society, delivering a hefty copy of its Water Power on the Sheffield Rivers*.

To be fair to Simon, the book, reprinted last year (it first came out in 1989), hadn't had a lot of publicity.

"We launched it at Archaeology Day last November but never got around to sending The Star a copy," she added.

It seems there is a growing interest in the city's waterways. Sheffield Community Renewables is investigating how weirs could generate electricity.

"It uses a reverse Archimedes screw and is very fish-friendly," says Christine.

* £15 from Sheffield Scene and Famous Sheffield Shop.

Jewel and Baker
MORE deep water as the Diary stupidly said on Monday it was Ben Warris who starred with Hylda Baker when, of course, it was his cousin Jimmy Jewel.

There were quite a few readers putting this reporter right, among them Liam Touhey. He says: "Was Freddie Frinton a Sheffielder? My mother always said he was but she also thought Sean Connery was Irish."

Freddie was from Grimsby.

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