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For several years, I've completed a Writing Challenge with many people all over the globe. We write something inspired by prompts for 21 days, plus an introduction. This year, the prompts are about place, and I've chosen the River Porter in Sheffield.  These posts touch upon the river's history but they're also about what it means to me.  I'm not following the river in any order except that the first 10 posts are about the Porter Valley and the second 10 posts are about the Porter in the city.  I hope readers will participate and I have a couple of challenges; see the paragraphs in bold towards the end.

Even rivers can be imprisoned.  If you look closely at the grill in the header photo, you’ll see the Porter reflecting a little light in the dark, dismal depths.  Whatever possesses us to imprison our rivers in this way?

Of course, this is not what it appears to be.  This is a light vent and its purpose is to help fish and other animals navigate through one of the Porter’s longest culverted sections.  The Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust has installed this in the Waitrose car park.

Waitrose is to the right of this grill and across the car park.  Somewhere around where Waitrose stands, there was a small dam supporting the Norris Wheel.  This survived until about 1845, although the tail goyt lasted longer and was used for washing horses. 

Some years ago, I participated in a quiz and was asked to identify an object in a photograph.  I’m not brilliant at quizzes but I knew the answer and was able to give chapter and verse.  It was originally one of several plaster flower motifs that adorned the external walls of Sunwin House, which stood where the Norris Wheel used to be. 

Sunwin House was built in the late 1800s as an Art Deco department store for Sheffield and Ecclesall Co-operative Society.  It was demolished in 1990, and a new building was constructed, which is now home to Waitrose.  It was Safeways at first and they displayed one of the flower motifs on an internal wall.  At the time of the quiz, it had recently vanished, never to be seen again and soon after that, Waitrose took over the building.

The point of this seemingly bleak section of the Porter is to illustrate how the wheels are long gone and often several buildings have succeeded them one after the other.  I remember Sunwin House and Safeways, although at the time I was not aware of the Norris wheel. 

The photo below shows the Porter emerging from beneath Waitrose.  This has recently been de-culverted and you can clearly see it is still canalised. 

I’ve shopped at Waitrose many times and Safeways before that.  I took my father there in his later years for his weekly shop.  I remember visiting Sunwin House as a child.  It has only been while writing this post that I’ve realised the Porter was below my feet during these many visits.

How might posts of this type be used for marketing?  Think about how you might use this post or a post like it to promote your business.  I add a few thoughts after each post, like this:

How do you market something invisible?  Actually, this is perhaps the most common marketing question.  Problems are often invisible.  There are many reasons for this.  They are too embarrassing.  We don't want to bother people with our problems.  We've given up seeking solutions and don't believe they can be solved.  So our problems become culverted and canalised.  

The challenge for the marketer is to uncover these problems and focus on showing they are understood.  The possibility of a solution is all very well but not always practical.  We might have a vision of the Porter opened up and alive again but that would involve removing Waitrose and its car park.  But once we understand a problem, it's much more likely we'll find some sort of solution.  It might not be the best conceivable but it could be the best possible.

My other challenge is for Sheffielders.  Do you have anything to share about the Porter?  Your experiences along it, bits and pieces of history you've uncovered, folklore you've heard?  If you remember something, please share it in the comments.  (Or maybe you are more familiar with other rivers in Sheffield, you could share those too.)  Let's see what we can find out over the coming weeks.

This is the twentieth of 21 stories about the Porter.  The last story was: Water Music.  The next is: A River.  A Blessing.

Look closely and you can see the river!