Second week - Busy Bus Week

Good times always go quickly. The study tour of Sheffield is almost finished. Also we should do lots of group work during the last weekend. I think every chance to do group work is a good opportunity to increase your experience. I should also do more work on blog.
During the second week, we went to some beautiful places: Leeds, York, Liverpool, Manchester and Port Sunlight. I like the small village of Port Sunlight most but the other cities are wonderful as well.
Port Sunlight

Although Port Sunlight is a small village, the design of the buildings are so beautiful and diverse. Also the open spaces of this village are huge. Flowers, trees and lawn, are everywhere and are maintained by supervisor. According to the introduction by the tour guide, we know that this village was designed for workers by wealthy people, William and there are a large number of buildings designed by famous designers. But unfortunately I cannot remember the names. But I will point out some photos later. There is a big soap factory, which contained 800 workers in Port Sunlight. It was opened in 1889; nowadays this factory still produces liquid soap. The design of the factory is really special. The entrances of factory are two doors next to each other. This is designed for women and men workers. They were divided into different working spaces in this factory. It is an interesting thing nowadays. 

This picture is the first village school. Also it is a mixed-use purpose Church and school. Workers’ children can go to this school for high quality education. It is really well designed building I think.


Village School


This house is the first teahouse of the village. The architect was a genius I believe. This house designed so specially and beautifully. We can image people enjoy their afternoon tea after work in this kind of environment, that is so amazing.



The memorial is the best one of outside of London. Also the gallery is so wonderful as well. This is a small village with huge attractions I think. We can see that lots of tourists come here, and enjoy their wonderful time.



Mining tour


The mining tour was so amazing, so interesting. I never had this kind of tour before. We wore a security helmet with light, then went down the underground level by a lift, which was a simple lift used by miners. When we walked on the underground level we could not raise our heads, because some areas of the underground roof are much lower than normal height. Also it was so dark in the underground. We couldn't see anything without light. During the industrial revolution period, even though women and children worked in this kind of environment, they worked for a long time everyday. And at that period, people just had candles for light, very simple tools for work. But basically bought candles were too expensive for working people. So under these conditions they needed to spend a lot of extra physical strength to finish daily hardly work. It is so pitiful. I am so glad I was not born in those years. Therefore we should proud of the miners. Nowadays we have different machines to help miners finish their work. But it is still difficult and dangerous work with a frozen and dark environment. The miners made so many contributions to our daily lives. They are so good. So normally after this kind of hard job, they like spend time on pubs with beer. It is good for them to relax.



I am so happy with this mining tour. I had such special life experience. Unfortunately, I could not take photos underground in the mine. But I took some photos from the museum. It was good exhibition of miners’ life as well.


Liverpool

It also is a good choice for visitors, especially the fans of The Beatles. I think we all spent a lot of money in The Beatles’ shop. The music of this band appeared in lots of shops of the city. Also I think the band already influenced the culture of Liverpool as well. It is just so famous across the world.



Albert Dock was opened in 1841, and all the buildings of this area were made of cast iron, brick and stone without structural wood.


Leeds

We didn’t spend much time on Leeds, but it still attracted me. The old fashioned heritage buildings emerged everywhere, even though the shopping mall was a huge attraction building. Leeds is not an industrialized city, so the environment of Leeds is pretty good. Not that much abandoned buildings in Leeds either. I can’t image how many people spend time travelling from Sheffield to here for shopping. Compared with Sheffield's CBD area, the level of shops are really higher in Leeds. It offers lots of more choices for consumers. We saw that it is very crowd during lunchtime.

York  

Emma grew up in this beautiful area, York. You are a lucky girl, Emma. It is a good place to visit. Firstly we visited the Railway Museum. This museum displayed lots of trains from different period. When you walk through this museum, you can feel that you crossed time at that moment. Then we spent time walking away the town. I was really interested in the Minster (York’s cathedral), Clifford's Tower, city walls and pubs.

 

The cathedral is huge and luxurious. Every part of this cathedral is exquisite, quaint. It is different from Australian churches I think.








Clifford's Tower and city walls




Pub with historic characters

I am really looking forward to my next trip after the study tour. I will go Scotland and Ireland. I think I will have different views and different experience of these areas as well.

Thank you so much, Emma and Trevor. You have both organized an amazing trip. And best wishes for our group and everybody. Hopefully all of us can get a good mark.


- Fang Fang Cao (Bachelor of Urban, Rural and Environmental Planning)