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For the last several years I have completed a Writing Challenge with many people, all over the globe.  We write something inspired by a prompt for 21 days plus an introduction.  This year the prompts are about place and I've chosen the River Porter in Sheffield.  I hope some readers might take part and so I have a couple of challenges, see the paragraphs in bold towards the end.

Today was miserable.  Dark first thing, when it should be light.  Sky a murky yellow-grey.  Constant drizzle.  Just as I like it!  (My optician tells me I have early signs of cataracts and sold me sunglasses that slip over my specs.  Now when I go out in the sun I look like a cross between Blues Brothers and Reservoir Dogs.  (More like the latter as I don’t have the hat.))

Just the day, I thought, to walk down Porter Valley and get some photos for this exciting series of blog posts I’m writing.  And so I caught the 88 to Bents Green and stumbled and slid down the hill to Forge Dam.  A few photos and into the café (worth a visit) for a traditional Sheffield falafel and halloumi burger with fries (not trad). 

So fortified, I set out to walk the trail to Endcliffe, camera at the ready, determined to solve the mystery of Wiremill Dam  (possibly a future post) and so on.

This walk is so familiar.  Once I was out of the pushchair and able to roam wild and free, I found out about the second duck pond!  Yes, there are two duck ponds in Endcliffe Park!  Gradually, my horizons widened and sometime in the 1960s we learned the Park was part of Sheffield’s Round Walk.  And so we could walk through the park and via the dams to Porter Clough and then Ringinglow, the Limb Valley, Ecclesall Woods and eventually to Graves Park by a route I’ve since forgotten and haven’t been able to find again. 

This was my home from home until I left for University in 1972.  Home is much more than the place where you sleep and eat breakfast.  It’s the places we roam, explore and return to.  As a child I walked this route first with parents, then friends and sometimes alone. 

My goodness it was wet, unrelenting misery.  And then I met a man as I was reading the interpretation board outside Shepherd Wheel.  We chatted and he was a man with a mission, planning a walk next September for people walking from Leeds to Nottingham, if I remember correctly.  I suggested he might ask if they could open the grinders shop, at this the only working wheel.  We quoted bits of this and that and got onto John Ball (as you do).  “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?”

I left him with the words from a song by Sydney Carter that celebrates the peasants’ revolt.  Apply it as you wish:

“Sing John Ball and tell it to us all,

Tell of the day that is dawning

I’ll crow like a cock and carol like a lark

For the light that is coming in the morning!”

Maybe I’ll need sunglasses tomorrow.

I've written several pieces about the Porter and this is where I show how pieces of this type might be used for marketing (at least in part).  As you read these posts, think about how you might use this post or a post like it to promote your business.  I'll add a few of my thoughts after each post, like this:

My last post referred back to my earliest memories of the River Porter.  This post covered experiences from the same day as it was written.  Where you are seeking to introduce yourself, an account of a typical or atypical day might be a better introduction than the usual: "Hello my name is Chris and my business is Market Together."

Notice how the final sentence refers back to the first paragraph.  This can help the reader feel the article is complete.

What Call to Action might I use?  It depends on what you are promoting.  But this was a day of exploration, relaxation, recording and progressing a project (this sequence of blog posts).  Any one of these may be developed as your CTA.

My other challenge is especially 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 second of 21 stories about the Porter.  The last story was: Quacking Up.  The next is: The Roughs.

This is Nether Spurgear Wheel, also known as the second duck pond in Endcliffe Park.  You can see this dam has an island.  The river is below the trees visible on the left.