Ponds Forge International Sports Centre was constructed for the 1991 World Student Games. The site used was that of the derelict Ponds Forge steel works (1872), itself the culmination of industrial activity around a water powered site dating back to at least 1716 when a record records rates paid for a 'Forge Wheel' (Crossley 1989, 113). Water ceased to be the main source of power for the works c1850. Fragmentary legibility of the 19th century provided by the older phases of the former Central Post Office and the former gateway to the old Ponds Forge which survive within this polygon.