Podcast, 28 mins
Out of the Dingy Hole
How did Sheffield’s grinders shape modern health laws? Discover how early research into deadly lung disease changed workplace safety.
20 Apr 2026 10:00
This podcast showcases the medical developments in occupational health in Sheffield which paved the way for broader changes in legislation in the UK and beyond.
In 19th-century Sheffield, Grinders were the backbone of the city's world-famous cutlery industry, hunched over water-powered sandstone wheels in damp workshops to sharpen steel blades. Arnold Knight, one of the founders of the Sheffield Medical School, was the first physician to investigate high death rates from lung disease in Grinders.
Credits
- Host: Professor Allan Pacey (Deputy Vice President and Deputy Dean of Biology, Medicine and Health at the University of Manchester)
- Contributor: Professor Julia Moses (Professor in Modern History at the University of Sheffield)
- Contributor: Professor David Fishwick (Retired Professor of Occupational and Environmental Respiratory Medicine at the University of Sheffield)
- Producer: Professor Sheila Francis (Faculty Director of One University Strategy Delivery at the University of Sheffield)
- Producer: Andrew Metcalfe (Medical Teaching Unit Manager at the University of Sheffield)
- Music: The Longbeards Beneath The Mountains by Justin Allan Arnold
- Music Promoted By: https://www.free-stock-music.com