Most of us could walk past, or even over, some of Sheffield's most historic sites on a daily basis without ever realising it.
The Kelham Island area of the city is littered with reminders from our proud history of steelmaking but few of us can spot them.
Now The Star has teamed up with the authors of a new city walk to bring the past to life with the very first in our new series of downloadable podcasts focusing on short walks around some of Sheffield's most fascinating areas.
The Furnace Trail is a guide to early steel and metal industries which leads people into the very roots of our city.
And The Star online is offering free podcasts that you can download and listen to on the way as well as a printable map to show you the route.
Click on the green icon above to preview the walk or to download the podcast,
right-click here and choose Save Target As...Click here to download the mapMore detailed instructions on how to use Star Walks, click hereOur audio lets you hear all about how the workers revolted, which ancient furnaces still remain and what lies behind the modern-day apartments as well as finding out what it was like to work in the industry in the words of those who actually did.
We will take you back to the day when steam-power drove machinery and densely packed back-to-back houses were homes for hundreds of families.
Much of Kelham Island is now packed with diggers, JCBs and tower cranes and the area is likely to be changed more in the next decade that it was during the previous 150 years.
But creators of the Furnace Trail Robin Fielder and Steve Pounder hope they can help people in the city rediscover its roots and learn about the industry that helped build Sheffield's international reputation.
The Furnace Trail team, made up of freelance heritage learning consultants Jenny Bland and Judith Smith have been into scores of city schools to capture the imaginations of the younger generation.
Their aim is to present a fun assembly to children looking at how steel was made in Sheffield, what had happened to the area since steel manufacture moved out and how it is all being rejuvenated today.
"We wanted the children to be aware of the past of their area and to feel excited about its present and future in which old and new are being blended together," Jenny said.
"We followed the assemblies with science sessions for the older children in their last year at junior school, finding out about how steel was made in the past by making 'pretend steel' from chocolate, which they loved.
"In all, more than 1,400 Sheffield primary school children have been introduced to the Kelham Furnace Trail through these interactive assembly presentations at their schools."
The trail team has more plans in the pipeline to work with other schools as well as reaching out to the wider community.
They will be linking up with community Health Walks in around Kelham Island and hosting social film evenings showing old footage of life in the area from the past.
A Fun Furnace Open Day is planned to tie in with the national Heritage Open Days scheme on September 14, when some of the old furnace sites on the trail will be open to the public.
There will also be a wide range of connected activities for different ages at Kelham Island Museum.
The section of the walk featured in our podcast starts at the Love and
Manson Works site and Doncaster's furnace where you can see the country's only remaining example of that type of furnace.
It finishes at Kelham weir where we reveal just how vitally important water power was to the industry.
Along the way there are tales dating back to 1841 of industrial sabotage, known then as rattening, and the Outrage at Globe Works.
As the trail booklet states: "The Works was 'rattened' with a bomb because Ibbotson used the workhouse system to keep wages low.
"Friedrick Engels reported in The Condition of the Working Class in England that the workers regretted the whole place had not been 'blown over the church', meaning St Philips church where the dual carriageway now runs."
One of the highlights is the remains of a crucible furnace on Neepsend Lane where scores of people including cellar lads and puller-outs worked from 1857.
Great skills were required as one historical quote from Harry Brearley shows when he talks about a teemer gripping the pot with curved tongs and carefully emptying its contents.
He said: "No lady, handling a delicate china cup, ever supped tea with greater niceness than the knowing melter delivers the glistening stream of molten steel into the soot-lined ingot mould."
Copies of The Furnace Trail are available from The Star shop on York Street.
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