The story of Kelham Island and its spirit will endure for years to come

We live in a house free of gender specific jobs; I am as good with a screwdriver as I am with a paring knife.However, this drawer was held together by obscured bolts and springs, and its repair required focussed attention.Hearing my protestations (and to be honest, my expletives too), my husband appeared, completely naked, denied the bath he was just getting into after a day of mending dirty broken things.

With a face like a bag of left-over IKEA fixings, he took the drawer down to the cellar.Twenty minutes later, he returns, it’s fixed, and he heads back to the bath.

I notice the dirt on the soles of his feet and hear him ironically mutter his Dad’s favourite motto – there’s no time like the present.

We’ve lived in our new home for six weeks – we love it, but the list of things that need mending, moving, unpacking and sorting is overwhelming. We are busy people, but the house move has pushed us to an extreme.

Managing the to-do list alongside all the things that are infinitely more important; family, friends, work, the dog, each other and the fragility of the kitchen drawers, is keeping us both awake.We lay at night planning our day jobs down to the last minute – we feel lucky for so many reasons, but when those thoughts pile together in the early hours it feels stressful.

When morning comes, it’s back to work – another long list of things that we at Sheffield Museums want to achieve over the next decade.Our instinct is to crack on, have a big push – after all there is no time like the present – but the truth is we can’t to do everything all at once. To be more precise, we won’t know what we need to do until we have a better idea of what the future holds.

I am minded of my father-in-law’s second favourite truism: If it isn’t bust, don’t fix it.

The city’s museums hold their truths in their buildings and their collections, and they are far from broken – like all of us though, they require ongoing, careful and thoughtful attention.

They were all founded at moments of great change and challenge, and they have been consistent in helping generations of people understand the past and navigate the present.

Next year, Kelham Island Museum celebrates its 40th anniversary – I wonder how many Sheffield children have stood in front of the River Don Engine and trembled with fear, excitement and mechanical vibrations?Dedicated to heavy industry and the light metal trades, it’s a museum full of stories about the people who forged a revolution with hard, hand, work.

It reminds us that things change, but stories endure – the city’s story is strong, but it needs looking at afresh, and telling and retelling as it’s passed down the generations.

The Island itself was built in the 12th century, diverting water from the Don to power a corn mill; over time it became the home of an iron foundry, crucible steel, file and saw manufacturers, a power station for the tram network and eventually a museum.When I first visited as a student in 1986, it was surrounded by industry, yet somehow out on a limb.

The walk from town took you along a busy Corporation Street, with businesses either side and a great little chip shop at the top; it was hard to find but worth the effort.

Kelham was already a conservation area, with Green Lane, Globe, Horseman and Eagle Works among the beautiful industrial buildings bordering the Island.As a young curator based there in the 1990s, I’d walk to work over Rock Street and survey the view of the city and Kelham from the top.As I turned onto the Island, the Tyzack’s men would be sat along the goit wall having a break, already several hours into their shift.

If the sun was out they’d play cricket in the lane or stretch out on top of the wall to catch a few rays.

I knew things were changing yet couldn’t imagine how deep that change would be, or that thirty years later, the museum would be at the heart of a thriving neighbourhood.No-one can predict what the future will hold, but I know that story of Kelham Island, and the entrepreneurial spirit of the people and businesses based there, is one that will endure for years to come.

Join Anders Hanson on Sunday August 22, 1.30-3.30pm for a walking tour around the area.

Please book in advance at: museums-sheffield.org.uk/kelham-tour

See sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk for this story and pages 60-62 for more property news and features.