The British academic and former long-time presenter of the BBC’s ‘Digging for Britain’ visited Sheffield’s historic culvert during filming for a new programme coming to Channel 4

Professor Alice Roberts has returned once more to Sheffield and this time she delved into the city’s Victorian and Sheaf culverts, alongside her film crew.

This week the esteemed academic, author and archaeologist, who previously fronted the popular BBC series ‘Digging for Britain’ for 15-years, is currently filming a new series for Channel 4 with the working title, ‘Grounded’. It is said to be a programme about landscape, industry and history.

Professor Alice Roberts with Sheaf and Porter River Trust guides Anthony Wood, Simon Ogden and Kevin Leah, in the station culvert at Pond Hill, Sheffield. Alice is holding a piece of a historic grindstone, which she asked to take as a souvenir of Sheffield. | Provided by Simon Ogden

placeholder image — Professor Alice Roberts with Sheaf and Porter River Trust guides Anthony Wood, Simon Ogden and Kevin Leah, in the station culvert at Pond Hill, Sheffield. Alice is holding a piece of a historic grindstone, which she asked to take as a souvenir of Sheffield. | Provided by Simon Ogden

As part of this new series, Sheffield’s historic Megatron culvert and some of the Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust team and tour volunteers will be featured in an episode of the programme to be broadcast later this year – as part of an episode focused on Sheffield’s history.

The chair of the Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust, Simon Ogden, assisted Prof Roberts and the camera crew while they conducted their filming.

“They were a nice crew to work with”, Simon said, “despite making us do everything at least four times”.

“Alice was particularly fascinated by the sheer volume of industrial debris still evident on the river bed such as crucibles, cutlery and grindstones.”

The experience was greatly enjoyed by the popular presenter, who departed holding a piece of a grindstone which she asked to take as a souvenir of her experience and of Sheffield history.

Ticket-holders must be “reasonably mobile”, and able to walk on uneven and slippers surfaces, and to crawl or stoop in certain sections. | Iconic Media

What is the Megatron?

The Megatron culvert is a large labyrinth of tunnels hidden beneath Sheffield Railway Station, which dates back to the mid-1800s.

It was originally built to contain the overflow of water from the rivers Sheaf (from which Sheffield got its name), Porter and the Don. However, over the past 200-years, this system of rivers has been misused, polluted, broken up and even covered over.

Today, the Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust is diligently doing its best to uncover and restore these historic waterways.

Guided tours of these historic culverts are manned-by a number of volunteers who give up their time to share their passion for the ecology of the waterways, with the money generated from these tours funding things such as river clean-ups, produce plans for river improvements as well as the installation of ‘light wells’ to cast some light onto these hidden rivers.

The Star recently went on a tour - see what we thought about the experience here.

The Megatron culvert is a large labyrinth of tunnels hidden beneath Sheffield Railway Station, dating back to the mid-1800s.

Can you book a guided tour of the Megatron?

The Sheaf and Porter River Trust Megatron Tour currently has some tickets available for August, and dates for September’s guided tours will be announced soon on its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SheafAndPorterRiversTrust

For more information, and to book your place on a tour, visit: https://www.sheafportertrust.org/guided-tours