Supporters Supplement: 16th June 2026
Our new Supporter's Supplement - more Book Club chat with writer Paul Besley, a daytime look at Nightjars and the first river tourist's view of Sheffield station for 150 years.
Today’s supplement has daytime Nightjars courtesy of the Bill’s Mother’s team of ace nature photographers, along with a first explorer’s view of the River Sheaf lightwell at the railway station. We also have more from writer Paul Besley’s chat with Dr Jo from Bill’s Mother’s Book Club. (And sorry we’re a bit later than planned).
As usual, the full Supporters Supplement is for all the wonderful full subscribers who keep this social enterprise running, but the preview is for everyone (so please do share this post with anyone who might like this kind of thing).
Porter Portal
The first pictures of underground river tourists meeting the grilled gateway to the skies (and the platform of Sheffield railway station) have arrived courtesy of Anthony Wood from the Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust (SPRT).
The summer season of tours along our urban river tunnels began last weekend, and near the culverted confluence of the River Sheaf and the Porter Brook, the tourists found they could chat to surprised passengers on Platform 5A above.
“There was a fun engaging tone to the conversation with both sides joking backward and forward,” said Anthony Wood. “One pair of passengers described it as ‘awesome’ and posed for photos above us.”
The experience reminded Anthony of The Portal art installation of 2024, where the two worlds of Dublin and New York could interact in realtime, thanks to a high tech videolink, rather than our equally impressive metal grille.
All profits from the SPRT underground river tours support the trust’s work to open up our rivers for people and wildlife. Tickets are £25 at the link above.
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