Sheffield Audio Tour: Crucible and Hull

Explore Sheffield at your own pace

Sheffield's cutlery and steel walked the world, and behind every Old Sheffield Plate teapot and stainless dinner knife stood a courtyard yard, a wet grindstone, a smoke-stained chapel and a thousand independent craftsmen the city called Little Mesters. This self-guided audio tour traces a Sheffield working day through the centre of the city, from a town hall whose facade carries the carved trades and whose Roman god of the forge still tops the spire, through the cutlers' company chartered in 1624, the radical newspaper editor jailed in 1795 for what he printed, the cobbled square where John Wesley met his largest weekday congregation and the Chartists were dispersed by troops, past the open ground where crucible-steel furnaces still lie beneath the dirt, to the Cultural Industries Quarter where eighteen separate little-mester trades worked one yard, and finally to Leah's Yard itself, the only city-centre courtyard restored as a living monument to the people who actually made Sheffield's name. Walk slowly. The buildings still hold their shape, and the trades still hold their names.

Photo: Harrison Qi, Unsplash

Tour details

• Duration: 52 minutes, entirely at your own pace
• Distance: around 2.1 km (1.3 miles)
• Stops: 9 landmarks, including Sheffield Central Library, Tudor Square, Upper Chapel
• Audio: up to 23 minutes of narration
• Starts at: Sheffield Central Library

Map data by Mapbox and OpenStreetMap contributors

How it works

• Book here and a redemption code arrives by email within minutes.
• Download the free AudaTours app on your phone and enter the code.
• Download the tour once and the whole thing works offline.
• Walk to the first stop and press play. The audio for each landmark starts automatically as you approach it, so your phone can stay in your pocket.

There is no fixed date and no start time. The date you pick at checkout does not matter, and the tour stays on your phone permanently, so you can use it whenever you next visit and walk it again as often as you like.

What is included

• Professionally narrated audio that plays automatically at each stop
• An interactive map showing the walking route between landmarks
• Full offline access once downloaded, so you need no data or signal
• Freedom to start, pause and resume whenever you like
• Lifetime access - your code never expires

Where you will stop

• Sheffield Central Library
• Tudor Square
• Upper Chapel
• Sheffield Town Hall
• Butcher Works, Sheffield
• Leah's Yard
• Cutlers' Hall
• Paradise Square
• Sheffield Cathedral

Image: AudaTours

What is AudaTours?

AudaTours turns a walk through a city into a story. Our guides bring landmarks to life with the history, the scandals and the detail you would never get from a plaque.

• Immersive: real stories about the places in front of you, not a dry commentary
• Offline: download once and use it with no data, anywhere
• At your own pace: start, pause and resume whenever you want
• Accurate: every story is built from verified historical sources and checked before release

Good to know

• This is a self-guided audio tour on your own phone. There is no in-person guide.
• It does not include entry to any building or site along the route.
• The landmarks on the tour are not affiliated with AudaTours.
• You need a smartphone with Android 7.0 or later, or iOS 16 or later.
• Bring headphones and start with a charged phone.

Who it suits

Solo travellers, couples, families and small groups who would rather explore on their own schedule than follow a guide and a fixed departure time. It suits a first visit, and it suits anyone who has already seen the famous sights and wants to know what actually happened in them.

Image credits

Photos: BEN ELLIOTT, Harrison Qi (Unsplash).