This will bore some of you to death but I have just learnt how the Crucible got its name, this is something I have never thought about before but I am really surprised I havent heard it before, even the answer is another interesting fact I am surprised I have never heard mentioned too.

I just wondered if people would be honest and let me know if they have heard it before? if you look it up on net please be honest, will post answer tomorrow night.
If this is not your thing sorry for wasting ya time.

is it from the steel industry? if so then I know what a crucible is, if its another reason what is it?

is it from the steel industry? if so then I know what a crucible is, if its another reason what is it?


Im thinking along these lines too. Is a crucible something to do with a furnace?

awww .. I wanna know now! :D

Im with Disco :) .. lol.

Is it to do with both sheffield football teams being formed there ? Actually i should say it was on the same land where the crucible stands.

Isn't a crucible a melting pot or summat?
Assumed it was a steel furnace ref :huh:

Isn't a crucible a melting pot or summat?
Assumed it was a steel furnace ref :huh:

Hi. there. Yes Pinkie is quite correct, it is a melting pot where the iron ore went and then melted and made into steel, and of course that's what Sheffield is famous for, it isn't called "Steel City" for nothing.

I think the crucible was a sort of vessel or pot where metals were blended. I think Benjamin Huntsman perfected (or discovered) that the crucible was the method by which steel could be made- hence it's importance to the history and culture of Sheffield. I'm sure we will all know very soon!

A crucible is a clay pot used to smelt Steel. Benjamin Huntsman started the process in Handsworth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Huntsman.

Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet is well worth a visit if you are interested in this sort of stuff and the godlike Fred Dibnah visited there in one of his last programmes before he died to look at the crucible smelting process.

Ok I give answer now haha its kind of goes around in a circle, a crucible comes from steel works as you say but when Sheffield was bombed during the war the Germans called it codename 'Crucible' because of the steel works in Sheffield, then the Crucible was named in memory of the blitz. I have just spent an hour trying to confirm this but cant find much. I found that the crucible was named well after the war it used to be called Adelphi Hotel, and I found out the codename was definately 'Crucible'. But although everything points to it being true I really dont want to know if its false because I kind of like it this way ha

I was reading up on the bombing of Marples when I originally found this out.

Is it to do with both sheffield football teams being formed there ? Actually i should say it was on the same land where the crucible stands.

Yeah the meeting for the formation of Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United and Sheffield F.C was held at the Adelphi Hotel.

Thats interesting paddy :)

I found that the crucible was named well after the war
You are obviously a young whippersnapper as the Crucible wasn't built until 25 years after the war ended.;)

its also an arthur miller play which makes sense as its a theatre, always wondered which was the bigger factor in the name...

I knew about it. I believe that at the time people were asked to submit names to be considered for the new theatre. The Crucible was the chosen name because of the Sheffield Steel Industry. Ian McKellen was one of the players who appeared at the opening performance. It was a good opening show. A mixture of various things to show the versatility of the theatre.

its also an arthur miller play which makes sense as its a theatre, always wondered which was the bigger factor in the name...


I thought it was a reference to the Arthur Miller play, also a reference to the steel industry and also the "theatre in the round" design being like a crucible.

There's a large crucible outside Kelham Island museum. It's best viewed from outside the Fat Cat with a pint in hand!

Yeah the meeting for the formation of Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United and Sheffield F.C was held at the Adelphi Hotel.



Must have been a long meeting cos all 3 were formed YEARS apart?

A little known fact. The bloke who invented powered flight 50 years before the Wright brothers did came from Sheffield.
There really should be some sort of memorial to this but every time I bring it up people seem to think I'm mad or making it up but it is true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stringfellow
http://www.flyingmachines.org/strng.html

Sheffield United were a cricket club before a football team

Doesn't EVERYONE in Sheffield know about Benjamin Huntsman and the invention of crucible steel?

Incidentally, I think 'crucible' has proved to be an exceptional name for this particular theatre. Obviously there's the explicit link with the steel industry, but likening the building itself to a 'melting pot' of emotion is inspired, I think.

I was always under the impression that the name had been selected in a competition - when the theatre was still in the early stages of planning it was commonly known as The Adelphi Playhouse after the pub which previously occupied the site.

However, I must admit that I've never heard of the link to the Blitz before. It seems an overly complex explanation when the link to the steel industry is so obvious, but if it adds an extra layer of meaning, then all the better!

I'd also add that I don't think the theatre was named after Arthur Miller's play - if that really was the case, the theatre would surely have performed it prior to 1994 which is when its first ever staging of The Crucible took place. That's 23 years after the theatre opened. However, it no doubt helps that one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century shares its name.

His play was no doubt called The Crucible for similar to reasons to those which gave rise to the theatre's name - it is a melting pot of emotion and turmoil.

does anyone else know that the sheffield innovation of stainless steel was entirely by mistake?

Harry Brearley was messing around with different mixes and when he was finished with them- he threw them out onto an ajoining roof to get rid of them, of course after a while they all used to rust but one day he noticed a patch that was still shiney and he went back and found that recipie- therefore - stainless steel was born :D

Yeah the meeting for the formation of Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United and Sheffield F.C was held at the Adelphi Hotel.

Its mentioned on wikipedia, type in crucible theatre.