Friends group deteremined to continue pushing for transformation of 'secret garden'

The fierce determination of a group of Sheffielders to transform an unloved part of a city park into an area of natural beauty has seen them challenge Sheffield City Council relentlessly.

Caroline Dewar, chair of the Friends of Graves Park, is hugely proud of the work that the group have done in creating the Chantreyland wildlife meadow and arboretum from part of the park that once housed Norton Nurseries.

At one time the council had an extensive network of glasshouses used to grow plants for its parks and open spaces before it decided that it would be cheaper to buy them in.

Now Chantreyland and the arboretum form a tranquil green space filled with plants and wildlife with paths winding through it on part of the old nurseries.

“People call it a secret garden,” said Caroline.

She said many people enjoyed visiting the area during Covid because it was a quiet spot where they could go outside while keeping their distance from others.

A team of volunteers works hard to maintain the area and manage it to encourage wildlife.

The Friends want to continue their work on another area of the nurseries but have come up against opposition from the parks department. They want to retain that space for a parks equipment and waste store for Graves and other open spaces.

The Friends have repeatedly complained successfully to the Charity Commission that the council is in breach of legislation governing charitable trusts, such as the one that owns the park. The council acts as sole trustee.

That is because the land must only be used for the benefit of the park, not the council. However, on July 13 a meeting of the council’s charity trustee committee acted on advice from the commission that the council can issue itself a licence and pay the trust to continue the depot use for five years.

The Friends said in a letter to committee members that they were “very disappointed and disillusioned” by the outcome.

They fear that they may never get access to the land as a result, despite being given assurances by the council in the past that it will release part of the site.

The area which the Friends have raised money to convert into the next extension of the arboretum can be seen from it through a wire fence.

Caroline pointed out two lines of trees that the Friends planted to mark out the site boundaries. Beyond that is is a long greenhouse now used by the social enterprise Food Works.

Caroline said that behind that building lie the remains of an 18th-century walled garden, once part of Norton Hall, which she believes should also be restored.

The Friends group came out of the Hands Off Graves Park campaign in the 1990s. That fought off plans to sell off a sizeable chunk of the park near to Chantreyland for housing development.

Standing in sight of the Norton Park View park entrance, Caroline said: “If we had not won that battle 28 years ago, we would be standing in someone’s living room now.

“They talked about housing going right the way across to Charles Ashmore Drive. The council would have made about £400,000 by selling this site off at the time.

“They took £400,000 out of the Sheffield parks budget and then, when they were stopped from selling the land, they had a £400,000 hole in their finances.

“History doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes. The council say this is is a very small part of the park that was never open as parkland.

“Of course Graves Park can function as a park without this bit,” said Caroline. However, the Friends group are determined that all of city philanthropist Alderman JG Graves’ bequests of land given to create Graves Park for the people of Sheffield should remain as part of the park.

“The council claimed before that it was derelict and surplus to requirements when they wanted to move St Luke’s [Hospice] on here,” said Caroline. “We made it clear that we were not going to let them do that.”

She said the council contradicted itself when it also said the site has been used for a long time as a parks department operations depot.

The Friends and other locals also fought to save the Rose Garden Cafe in the park because they refused to accept that the building was in a dangerous state and should be scrapped when it was closed suddenly by the council four years ago.

“If they got permission to knock that down, they would have demolished it and put a shipping container on there before you could say ‘Fargate’,” said Caroline.