New Sheffield walking trail helps residents discover the hidden gems on their doorstep

The ISpy trail around Nether Edge takes walkers around 30 spots on a map and asks them to find the location of one of the photographs at each stop until the subjects in each photo have all been spied.

The trail was made for the Nether Edge festival which took place from September 11-19, and aimed towards older children and young teenagers, although some adults have also taken part.

John Scholey, an amateur photographer who lives in Nether Edge and took the photographs for the map, said: “It was quite interesting because you walk around and spot things you hadn’t seen before. I did it in three groups of ten photos covering the whole area of Nether Edge so the whole community was involved.

"Maggie Little [Nether Edge Festival treasurer] organised it. She was looking for looking for things to invite the community to do without being indoors – we didn’t know what restrictions would be by the time of the festival.

"She approached me and between us we walked around and came up with these thirty different places. We spotted things we couldn’t put in the trail because they had gone by the time we came to do it, for instance a mermaid on the wall of a house on Montgomery Road.

The maps were designed by Jack Bendall who did other design work for the festival. They contain an eclectic mix of Nether Edge landmarks including signage, public artwork and community buildings. Maggie originally had 200 copies of the map printed and had to print another 100 when they quickly ran out.

John added: "I enjoyed getting involved with the trail. We have been very pleased with it and it has been well received. I would like different places in Sheffield to copy it. There’s a lot of interesting areas in Sheffield, they have all got their own distinctive bits and pieces when you open your eyes and start looking.”

Copies of the map can still be collected from Wickwire, an independent gift shop in Nether Edge.