In 2014 Museums Sheffield acquired the painting Sheffield Through The Ages by Joe Scarborough. This epic work is nine and a half metres long and over two metres high, and is the largest object in the city’s collections. Sheffielders may remember seeing Joe creating the work in Ponds Forges International Sports Centre and Castle Market from 1999 onwards.

The painting took Joe six years to complete, and is designed as a visual walk through the city through time, starting in 1940. Around the edge of the painting are newspaper headlines and references to current events, music, local companies and institutions- these include workers rolling and hammering steel at Samuel Osborn’s, Pullen’s Fairground, protest marches, Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United football clubs and the Madina Mosque.