Meet the Sheffield heritage hero bringing the Steel City's fascinating history to life
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Hidden Sheffield Walks is a unique tour guiding experience looking at the hidden aspects of the city’s history and heritage. We went to meet local historian Calvin Payne who spoke to us about walks...
Sheffield is a city that is rich in history and heritage both good and bad, but for many of the city dwellers a lot of this history is either unknown or simply forgotten.
You may have seen Calvin Payne - one of a number of enthusiastic historians who are intent on delving into the city’s past and sharing these explorations - during one of his interesting and informative guided city walks.
But what gets someone like Calvin into the city’s history in the first place? Why did he set up Hidden Sheffield Walks? We joined him in the city centre to find out
One of the things that inspired Calvin to set up Hidden Sheffield Walks is the possibility of ‘discovery’.
He said: “I wanted to help people discover elements of the lesser known history when it comes to the city they live in, like Sheffield. There are so many stories and genuinely interesting things.”
Despite originally coming from Brighton, by way of London, Calvin has felt a connection to the city and sees the Steel City as his ‘adopted home’.
“I would say I adopted Sheffield as my home, but you could say it has chosen to adopt me,” Calvin said.
Well known for his popular appearances at Heritage Open Days and other city events, Calvin’s guided walks are a great way to see Sheffield through fresh eyes and also as a means of finding out something new about the city that you may have overlooked up until that point.
One of the most popular are his ‘Drainspotting’ walking tours that encourage visitors to look down and discover elements of the city’s heritage. These tours utilise the details from manhole covers, drains, road name plates and other insightful details of that particular street to tell the stories behind the city’s development, and evolution over the years.
Calvin is focussing on the city centre during the spring and summer. He said: “We’ll be running a number of weekly or twice weekly looks at what I call ‘Hidden in Open Sight’.
These tours explore the city centre and the historic beautiful elements that are not celebrated as much as they should be, something Calvin wholeheartedly agrees with.
Calvin also curates a Substack newsletter, aptly titled ‘Hidden in Open Sight’, where he expands on why - despite his guided tours being called ‘Hidden Sheffield Walks’ - nothing really is.
“It’s only really hidden until someone points it out to you, it could be something small or large, or even on the top of a building you’ve not noticed before,” he said.
During his carefully curated tour of the city centre, Calvin points out a variety of historic buildings and fixtures ranging from two to three-hundred years old.
He said: “Some people think the city centre doesn’t have beautiful buildings. We really do. We sometimes just have to seek them out a little bit.”
Find out more about Hidden Sheffield Walks on its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hiddensheffieldwalks/
Read the ‘Hidden in Open Sight’ blog on Substack: https://hiddensheffield.substack.com/
The Hidden Sheffield Walks guided tours can be booked for £10 per person for each two-hour session.
Take a tour of Sheffield’s historic buildings for free this month as part of the Heritage Open Days 2026. Sheffield will be hosting over a hundred free events, making the city one of the largest Heritage Open Days centres in the country. Find out more about Heritage Open Days 2026 – Check out our round-up of nine historic sites for you and your family to visit.