IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

Talk about a historical building in your country or city that you know

: You should say

what and where is it
when was it built? Why
what is it known for
and describe this historic building

: Sample Answer

I live in England in the United Kingdom where we have a wealth of historic buildings. For this topic, I could take my pick from castles, to manor houses and even prehistoric stone circles! I am spoilt for choice in thinking about what historic structure to talk about. However, instead of telling you about one of our more obvious and famous places, I want to tell you about a little piece of living history that is near to where I currently live in Sheffield

I shall tell you what and where it is; and fill in as many details as I can about when it was built; why; what it is known for and describe it as best I can

I first came across this construction when I was exploring a woodland trail near to where I had just moved to in Sheffield after I had to relocate to this city for work. Hidden in amongst the trees, and next to a carefully constructed waterway where the narrow river seemed to have been diverted, was a humble looking stone-built workshop of some sort. When I first discovered it, the building was very run-down, almost completely derelict. Although it was clearly part of the area’s industrial heritage, I had no idea what it was originally built for. It was overgrown with trees, brambles and ivy, and the wooden shutters on the windows were falling off and rotting away. Someone must have told me it was known locally as ‘The Shepherd Wheel’ but that made little sense. It didn’t seem to be in an area where sheep would be kept, and it seemed more likely it was for some sort of semi-industrial purpose, but what? So the building is ‘The Shepherd Wheel’ and it is in the woodland of the Porter Valley, in the south-west outskirts of the city of Sheffield. As to when it was built and why? – it took me a while to find this out

Over the course of the next couple of years, some money was made available by some sort of heritage trust, and a project commenced to return the building to its former glory. As part of the restoration project, some care was taken to put up signs explaining the history of the site, and eventually, I learned much more about it, and have been in to see the renovations, and even participated in some of the work to do so. Only last year I spent a morning volunteering on the project helping to paint the newly crafted wooden shutters on the windows, to protect them from the elements of driving rain

So I can now tell you that this construction is connected to the knife-grinding industry for which Sheffield was once renowned. Even today Sheffield has a proud heritage of Sheffield Steel, and many of the buildings in the city are linked to the Steel industry and the work of ‘the cutlers’ who for some 400 years created fine knives, blades and other steel products. The building, is in fact, a surviving example of a cottage industry that was once widespread on the valley. Set in the picturesque valley of the Porter Brook, this Shepherd Wheel is a unique, now once again working example of Sheffield knife grinding industry. At one time there were many such small water-powered grinding workshops along Sheffield’s rivers abut now this alone remains. I am told it is the earliest complete example of this industry with evidence dating it back to the 1500s. That is an extraordinary notion. That site has been worked for generations, a water wheel turning there since 1584 – or even earlier. It was mentioned in a will of that date when the wheel owner passed it to his sons, who knows how much further back in time something was first constructed on this site

From the outside, it is a single storey stone building, with windows at the side. Inside is an open workshop that seems dark, despite the extent of the windows. However, at the side of the building, and this is what has now been restored to working order, is an enormous water wheel. Powered by the force of water diverted from the river to power the wheel, it turns, and through a clever mechanism provides the energy to power grit stones on which knives were sharpened as they rotated within the workshop itself. Amazingly, the restoration project has managed to find photographs of people who worked in the Shepherd Wheel building toward the end of its time as a thriving industry, together with various tools and equipment that are now all on display. Pride of place is given to the two grinding hulls, grinding wheels and, of course, the waterwheel itself. It is a small working museum, staffed largely by volunteers. It is only open for a few days throughout the year, but well worth the visit. On special days they will get the wheel turning, and give educational tours. You can begin to imagine how in this workshop, in dark, damp conditions, skilled grinders produced fine, sharp cutting edges. It was not until the 1930s that grinding ceased and the Wheel’s pivotal role in Sheffield’s cutlery industry ended, so this is relatively recent history, just about within living memory even though the site itself goes back for hundreds of years

I love this building, it is in a beautiful location, and has a solidity to it that pleases me. It is a link to our local industrial heritage. For those that worked there, the work was really hard. Back breaking, and very dusty conditions with the blade on the grindstones generating lots of dust. I suppose that’s where the phrase ‘keeping your nose to the grindstone’ comes from, bent double over a the wheel, knife grinders had to lean right into the gritstone to sharpen blades, sometimes even lying flat on their fronts, with their faces near the grindstone in order to hold the blades against the stone. Lovely as the building is, and important as the heritage is, it is perhaps unwise to romanticise the reality of what it would be like to work there. All the same, I’m so happy that people have made the effort to restore the works, it is important to remember how working life was for local people in times past