When people think of Sheffield’s heritage, steel and music usually take centre stage. But behind the blast furnaces and guitars lies another story.
Over two years, the Dungworth Bradfield Heritage Group set out to uncover Sheffield’s overlooked food story. With support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, volunteers scoured archives, recorded oral histories, and traced the origins of household brands — Bassett’s, Batchelor’s, Thorntons, Henderson’s Relish, and Béres among them.
I was invited to bring those threads together into a single narrative. My role was part editor, part storyteller: shaping raw research and community memories into ‘The Unsung Flavours of Sheffield’.
The project shows how heritage storytelling can do more than preserve the past; it can re-connect communities. Local families contributed memories, schools used the material for lessons, and community events drew people who’d never before seen their city’s food industry recognised as part of its identity.