Parkwood Springs History Trail

Parkwood Springs

Parkwood Springs, Shirecliffe, is a high sandstone ridge rising from the east bank of the Upper Don Valley stretching for about 2 km from in the south to Herries Road ponds in the North, where the ancient woodland of Scraithwood and Rawson Spring Wood form the northern slope. The northern part, Wardsend – or originally World's End – marked the boundary between and the district of .

The whole area comprises 144 hectares – over 300 acres – about the size of Hyde Park in . The highest point is 575 feet (175 metres) above sea level.

In 1819 the historian Joseph Hunter, in Hunter’s , described Shirecliffe as, ‘beautifully clothed with a forest verdure …the ground declining to the river Don.’ For centuries the hillside was wooded, with sandstone outcrops which give the name ‘Shirecliffe’, which means bright or gleaming, steep hillside. Certainly the ridge catches the afternoon and evening sun and the sandstone outcrops – mainly sandstone - must have shone brightly. There are two SSSIs (sites of special scientific interest) where outcrops of Carboniferous sandstone are found - formed c. 300 million years ago when Sheffield had a tropical climate!

The site of one SSSI – the old Neepsend brickworks where some Neolithic remains were lost through quarrying for ganister to line the furnaces of the steel works.

The views from Parkwood Springs over the city - through the Rivelin and Loxley valleys out to - are stunning and not to be missed, particularly at sunset when the hillsides and valleys of Sheffield City acquire a magical, misty red glow.

The Beacons event each October – sunset from the viewpoint. From Parkwood Springs there are panoramic views over the .

Local Councillor and former Lord Mayor, Jackie Drayton, surveying city views from a sandstone outcrop.

Over the centuries Parkwood Springs has undergone a varied history of human intervention - used for hunting grounds, mining, woodland management, coppicing and tree clearing, quarrying, farming, industrialisation, industrial settlement, railway and power station, a , allotments, military use, landfill, the ski village, industrial and recreational facilities.

The majority of the land is in the ownership of , which also assumed responsibility for from the Church of . Viridor Ltd. continue to own the restored landfill site and will continue to be responsible for its maintainance. The Ski Village

For more than 20 years the ski slopes provided a valuable asset to the city. Many school groups used the facilities.

Fires at the ski village left the area needing urgent work to secure and redevelop the site. Redevelopment plans are finally underway.

The Mountain Bike Trail was installed in 2012 attracting mountain bikers from across the country as well as offering local people a world-class biking facility free of charge and close to the city centre.

Our Country Park in the City.

For about 30 years from the 1970s, Parkwood Springs was left neglected and largely forgotten - known mainly as a site for landfill and the recycling of refuse. During this time, however, nature began to reclaim and re-vegetate the area. Parkwood Springs began to regenerate as a place of wild heath and woodland offering the natural beauty of a potential country park within a mile of . In 2002, the City Council launched the initiative: Parkwood Springs – Your Vision. Community consultation and involvement led to setting up the Friends of Parkwood Springs in 2010 supporting a wide range of activities and developments to bring Parkwood Springs into responsible public use. Visitors can enjoy the wild, open space and steep escarpments for recreation and sport, observe and study wildlife and help to conserve a beautiful landscape for quiet reflection and renewal - all within a short distance of high density housing and the city centre. Parkwood Springs brings a history which reflects rural, industrial and ecological changes over the centuries. It has a unique place in Sheffield's historical landscape and will provide a valued city landscape for generations of Sheffielders to enjoy.

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Beacons 2012 Mr. Fox dance with fire.

Schools cross country – organised by Watercliffe Meadow.

Admiring the view: History walk with the Rangers

One of Jason Thomson's sculptures – The Spirit of Parkwood at the Gateway to Parkwood Springs at Shirecliffe/Cooks Wood Road. History Walk – a walk of about 1 hour.

Our History walk begins at the sculpture and meeting point – 'The Spirit of Parkwood'.

This can be found at the main car park entrance to Parkwood Springs at the junction of Shirecliffe Lane, Shirecliffe Road and Cooks Wood Road. There is a bus stop close by named 'Batworth Road', a bus stop beside the Sheffield United Academy on Shirecliffe Road, or a short walk from Post Office which can be accessed by a number of bus routes. The car park at this entrance is open at weekends.

The walk takes you between key points of interest and is a round walk, therefore you can join it at any point en route. Just find your starting point and follow from one key point to the next.

Point 1 The Spirit of Parkwood. (Picture on previous page)

The sculpture.

The sculpture, The Spirit of Parkwood, was created by Jason Thomson, funded by Viridor Credits Landfill Communities Fund and Sheffield City Council and installed in December 2011. The sculpture is cast in iron, which has rusted to a warm golden- brown colour. The coating of rust protects the iron structure and remains durable in all weathers. In discussion with members of the local community the sculpture was created to encapsulate elements of the history and nature of Parkwood Springs. Each element is identified on the explanatory plaque installed close to the sculpture.

Key elements seen in the sculpture include:

The , the tree branches giving shape to the charcoal burner’s hut, the stained glass window of the ancient chapel, tools of the woodland coppice workers, artefacts from domestic life - both high status and working people’s lives at Parkwood Springs. Look for the tea pot and the small ball.

The intricate interweaving of the ironwork affords a glimpse through history to the landscape beyond

Point 2 - Shirecliffe Hall

On the site of the car park stood the ‘new’ Shirecliffe Hall built in the early 1800s by H.E.Watson JP.

The Watson family had lived at Shirecliffe Hall since 1775. H.E. Watson had the old Shirecliffe Hall demolished and he built ‘a good modern house near the site’. He was a local dignitary ‘who worthily upholds the historic character of his mansion.’ Mr. Watson was ‘chairman of the Borough Conservative and Constitutional Association, Justice of the Peace for the West Riding (Sheffield was in the West Riding at that time), a Town Trustee, a Church Burgess, a director of Chas. Cammell and Co. Ltd (later Cammell Laird) and to put it shortly, one of the most prominent and popular of local gentlemen.’

Nearby, across the top of the present Cooks Wood Road was the site of the old Shirecliffe Hall, which was situated on Shirecliffe Lane. Shirecliffe Lane ran from Pitsmoor to the present Shirecliffe Road and continued to approximately the site of the Sheffield United Football Academy, where it became Cockshutt Lane, which ran through Roe Wood.

Old ‘Shiercliffe Hall’ – ‘Shirtcliffe Hall Farm’

Old Shirecliffe Hall was built by the Norman family - de Mounteney - who gave their name to the Monteney estate, part of Parson Cross. The family lived at Cowley Manor, Chapeltown, a large castellated manor house. They worshipped and were buried at St. Mary’s Church in Ecclesfield where a portrait, thought to be of Joan de Mounteney (1321-1395), still survives in a window.

Shirecliffe was a sub-manor gifted to the de Mounteneys after the in 1066 by the de Louvetots, to whom they were related. In 1392, Sir Thomas de Mounteney was granted a licence by King Richard II to make a deer park at Shirecliffe. This was an area for keeping deer as a source of food, hunting game and rabbits and grazing animals. Shirecliffe Hall was a mediaeval hall or hunting lodge within the deer park.

According to Hunter’s Hallamshire, ‘Sir John Mounteney had a license from the Crown to inclose 200 acres of land, 300 acres of wood and 20 acres of his demesne land in Shiercliffe, and to make a park of the same.’ ‘The family continued to reside at Shiercliffe and Cowley till the reign of King Henry VIII, when the eldest line ended in female heiresses. The last de Mounteney to reside at Shiercliffe was John who died in 1536. He died in the prime of life, and there was a tradition that he was assaulted and wounded in the church porch of Sheffield, which wound hastened his death.’

In 1568 the property was purchased by John Thwaites, ( brother of John de Mounteney’s son-in –law, Thomas Thwaites.) In 1572, he sold it as a ‘very valuable acquisition’ to George, the 6th Earl of Shrewbury, who returned it to the manor of Sheffield.

In 1587 the de Mounteney heirs contested the sale and regained the property and land at a hearing in , leasing it to tenant occupants, the Brough family.

By the end of the 16th Century the land was ‘disparked’ and turned into large coppiced woods.

In 1637 there were still deer in the area. Harrison’s survey details the use of timber and wood. The map shows Shirtcliffe Hall, Cooke Wood, Oaken Banke Wood, The Lords Wood, Shirtcliffe Parke Wood and Scraith Banke. The Hall was tenanted by Richard Burrowes or Boroughs (Brough), ‘gentleman’ and it was described as ‘ a dwelling house and ancient Chappell, one Barne, one Oxhouse, one Orchard.’

In 1638, the lease expired and Mr. Rowland Hancock became the tenant. He was a former vicar of Ecclesfield church, but he was banished to under the Act of Uniformity. In 1672, when ‘the severity of statutes were a little relaxed’, he returned to Shirecliffe and preached there ‘as the circumstances of the times would allow.’ He gathered a few of his neighbours forming a ‘small church on the independent model’, but after his death in 1685 the congregation left to join churches ‘at and Sheffield’.

‘Rowland Hancock, tenant of Shirecliffe Hall during the reign of Charles II, was vicar of Ecclesfield and from 1661 an assistant minister at the parish church in Sheffield. But neither he, the minister or the other two assistant ministers were prepared to agree with the requirements of the 1662 Act of Uniformity, so they resigned their preferments.’

‘The 1662 Act of Uniformity led to the expulsion of 2000 clergy from their livings, including Hancock. Hunter says that Hancock "continued to reside in the neighbourhood of Sheffield" until the 1665 Five Mile Act required clergy to not come within five miles of incorporated towns or their former livings. Hancock was "taken" at Allerthorp near in 1668 by Mr Copley of Batley and sent to York Castle, it's not stated how long he was there. In 1672 there was the Royal Declaration of Indulgence which repealed the penal provisions of the previous Acts. Hunter says that Hancock then "returned to his own house at Shiercliffe-hall".

‘Hancock continued to live in Sheffield until a later Act required non-conformist ministers to move at least five miles away from where they formerly preached. He was taken in by Sylvanus Rich of Penistone and lived with him until the Act was relaxed in 1672. When he was able to return to Shirecliffe, though in 1668 he had been imprisioned in York Castle. In 1676 he and Matthew Bloome of Attercliffe, another former assistant minister, set up a non-conformist "Church of Christ" meeting at Shirecliffe Hall. Twenty people signed the account of the rules of the church and a further 34 joined immediately afterwards. Unfortunately Hancock and Bloome had a disagreement after a short time and the church split, some following Bloome to Attercliffe, others remaining with Hancock. Rowland Hancock died at Shirecliffe Hall in 1685 and was buried in the parish church graveyard. He was described as "a very pious man, of excellent natural parts, and tolerable learning, though he had not been bred at the University." Rowland Hancock had no son, but one of his daughters continued to live at Shirecliffe Hall and married Joseph Banks, an influential lawyer who became a member of parliament and was great grandfather of the famous Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society.’

Mr. Hancock’s daughter Mary married Joseph Banks, a Sheffield lawyer, and they lived at Shirecliffe Hall until about 1700, before retiring to Scofton, near Worksop. In 1675 permission was granted for hunting the deer in the park. At this time there was also evidence of charcoal burning in the area.

Through the 18th century Old Shirecliffe Hall was let to a succession of tenants until it came into the possession of the Watson family in 1775, who completely rebuilt it as the ‘new’ Shirecliffe Hall by about 1803. Much of the stone from the old hall appears to have been used locally - there are many walls around the area built from very old and weathered sandstone – we may guess where it came from.

Other buildings on Shirecliffe Lane may have been associated with Shirecliffe Hall including Shirecliffe Grove which is detailed on one map as the kitchen gardens.

New Shirecliffe Hall – on the site of the car park.

We have no pictorial representation of the old Shirecliffe Hall.

Records of Old Shirecliffe Hall describe an 'ancient chappell'. Photographs of the new hall show a chapel to the side and behind the house. There is nothing now to see of the house or chapel. The house is on the site of the car park and the chapel site is now woodland. A geophysics survey of the area in 2016 by a group of archaeology students from Sheffield University revealed no ancient foundations. We assume that the chapel was moved or rebuilt when the house was built to the side of the original Old Hall.

The Lodge to the Hall and the main gateway to the drive can be seen on Shirecliffe Lane. The drive would have crossed the top of Cooks Wood Road to approach the Hall close to the sculpture. Old buildings and walls on Shirecliffe Lane could have been built from stone from the halls or some may be original.

The 'new' Shirecliffe Hall c.1800

Some photographs of the hall must have been taken after the general strike in 1926, when the last of Old Park Wood disappeared - local people cut down trees for firewood. The Hall was inhabited by the Watson family until it was seriously damaged by bombing during World War II. It was said to have been used as a kennels before its demolition in 1963.

During the 19th Century an application was made for a new roadway to cross the woodland to Shirecliffe Hall because the existing road from Sheffield via Pitsmoor was too steep for horses to draw larger carriages. It is thought the road went north from the hall turning down the hill at Herries Road and returned to Sheffield along the side of the river Don. Shirecliffe Hall and Chapel

Point 3 The Dipping Pond – Cooks Wood

Walk on the footpath to the left of the car park, turn left down the footpath into the wood and directly down the hill.

A short detour from the upper part of the footpath which forks to the right, takes you to a small spring, where the water appears from the hillside and runs below the path eventually to form the stream which feeds the small pond at the foot of the hill. A number of springs were recorded throughout the area.

Mel Jones, local historian and author of the Parkwood Springs History leaflet, maintains that the name Parkwood Springs derives from ‘Shirtcliffe Park Wood’, which was a spring wood – where coppicing took place. However, local people feel that the name derived more directly from the many springs of water which arose from the sandstone hillside. On the steep descent look for the edging stones either side of the footpath, thought to have been installed or re-set during the 1960s/70s, when the area was re- landscaped as a youth employment scheme. You may also see areas where garden plants have invaded the woodland - possibly as a result of householders tipping garden rubbish or birds dropping seeds.

Encroachment into the woodland by some householders extending their gardens has been addressed by the City Council.

Encroachment is a serious issue for wild areas such as Parkwood Springs and unless it is quickly addressed, parcels of land may be lost to private or business use. It is important for the City Council and the Friends Group to raise people's awareness to value Parkwood Springs as a public space and therefore respect its boundaries.

The dipping pond is at the foot of the hill behind the houses on Cooks Wood Road. The dipping platform at the pond was installed c. 2007 as part of the City Council’s management work to make it easier for children to study the pond life there.

During the 17th and 18th centuries the woods were intensively managed. Woods where coppicing took place were known as Spring Woods. Around the pond are examples of coppiced trees – trees which have been cut at the base to encourage multiple new stems to grow, which could then be harvested as poles or left to mature to increase the yield of timber.

Multi-stemmed coppiced tree

Poles could be used for fences etc. but were also used to build the conical, (wigwam shaped) frame covered with turves for the charcoal burners to live in close to the charcoal pits.

Wood was stacked in large pits, covered with soil and burned slowly with restricted air flow to convert the wood into charcoal. The charcoal was needed to add carbon to iron in order to forge steel.

Iron was smelted from local rock, or in later years, imported to convert to steel by the Bessemer process developed in Sheffield. displays a Bessemer converter used at local steel works. Woodland close to the rivers where the forges and foundries were located provided a valuable source of carbon (charcoal) for this process.

The name ‘Oaken Banke Wood’ - on old maps between ‘Cooks Wood’ and ‘Park Wood ‘ reflects the presence of oak trees amongst the indigenous species growing at Parkwood - predominantly the sessile oak, where acorns are borne directly onto the twig and not on a stalk. The bark of the oak trees was stripped to make a liquor used in the tanning process. There was a tanning mill at Rawson Dam – on Herries Road – first recorded in 1783. The Dam was still in use in the mid- nineteenth century by Rawson, Machen and Oxspring, and coppicing continued until the end of the 19th century.

From the mid- nineteenth century the lower part of the woodland was gradually encroached and cleared for industrial use. The Lords Wood was cleared first, followed by the lower parts of Oaken Bank Wood. However, the boundaries of the Lords Wood appear to have been maintained and the land sold as a block at a later date for the housing development at Parkwood Springs village.

Point 4. Rutland Road Entrance – The Bird and the Boy.

Continue to walk along the surfaced footpath from the dipping pond to the main ridge path, then head downhill to the Rutland Road Entrance to Parkwood Springs.

The path crosses an area of acid grassland and heath – a specific feature of Parkwood Springs. The open area is heather-clad with occasional gorse bushes and an apple tree, possibly a survivor from the orchards which were reported to have been planted over the sunny south facing hillsides. The Bird and the Boy

The sculpture was created by Jason Thomson and installed c. 2005.

Jason talked to local people and school children in preparation for producing his sculpture, which was finally inspired by a story he heard from someone he met walking at Parkwood Springs.

As a child, the local resident had lived at Parkwood Springs village and played in the area. He had found a Kestrel’s egg and succeeded in hatching the egg and rearing the kestrel. The bird is the kestrel.

The boy on the sculpture has an arm raised in the air holding a glove to represent the industry in the Upper Don Valley at the foot of the hill. If you look closely behind the sculpture, you will see an image of tools used by Jason in completing his sculpture. The process Jason uses to produce his iron sculptures is to carve the sculpture from a large block of polystyrene with a very sharp kitchen knife and a specially made longsword to reach high parts. The carving is then lowered into a foundry pit and packed with sand in the traditional method of mould -making. Molten iron is poured over the polystyrene, which disintegrates and the space is filled by the molten iron. Noxious gases are ducted away. When the iron is cool the sculpture is removed from the pit and sharp edges smoothed. At this point it is shiny grey in colour. Both this sculpture and the ‘Spirit of Parkwood’ sculpture have been installed securely into reinforced concrete.

After installation the iron begins immediately to rust, beginning with a golden tinge which gradually, but rapidly, turns to the deep rust colour – with a highly tactile finish. Jason Thomson preparing the ‘Spirit of Shirecliffe’ Sculpture.

Installing the sculpture Point 5. The Lower Ridge

Walk back up the path and continue along the edge of the ridge on the main path. Stop and look at the lower edges of the hillside when you can see below into the industrial valley.

It may be easier to find a better view of the lower slopes of the hillside from the / Netherthorpe side of at another time. The steep slopes here are unstable and not accessible to the public.

The area below the Bird and the Boy close to Rutland Road - now an industrial estate - was the site of a brickworks located in a geological feature known as ‘the Neepsend Brickpit’. This is one of Parkwood’s SSSI s – a site of special scientific interest and a nationally important sedimentological site.

The geological survey describes: ‘Rock outcrops to the north and east faces of the former quarry show iron stained sandstone, mudstones, shale and seatearth.’ Some Neolithic finds suggest early habitation, but little evidence remains as a result of the quarrying.

In the early part of the 19th century woodland was cleared to make way for quarrying, mining and brickmaking. There was little coal to be mined, although the whole of Parkwood Springs was excavated for coal during the 1930s, 40s and 50s. A seam of ganister – fire clay - was mined to line the furnaces for the production of steel.

Ganister is a hard rock formed from a particularly dense clay. Ganister mining was a treacherous occupation. Whole families were left without men to support them, killed by asphyxiation by ganister dust in the mines. However, the brickworks used the seam of ganister and clay where it came to the surface at Neepsend and was readily accessed.

Ray Swift (Friends of Parkwood Springs) recalls playing on the clay heaps as a child. He said that children would take lumps of clay and mould them into small boxes making holes in the sides. They would take them down to the steel works where the workers would fire the boxes in the furnaces and fill them with burning oiled cloth (oily wap). The hot boxes would keep children’s hands warm in cold weather

.As you walk up the hill you can see views across the river Don to the City centre, Sheffield Manor to the left and Walkley to the right.

To the right in the valley foreground, the existing chimney at Kelham Island steel works can be seen from the path. The old infirmary building – now behind Tesco – can be picked out.

The Neapsend Brick pit The view of Sheffield City Centre from the ridge walk

Imagine the scene here in the 18th / 19th centuries, the valley filled with glow and smoke of the fires from furnace chimneys, the rhythmic crashing of tilt hammers and the clanking of machinery. All the river valleys, the Don, the Loxley, the Rivelin, were heavily used for small scale steel production. Walks up any of these valleys will give a glimpse of the industrial history through the use of the fast flowing water to power machinery. Most local farmers had workshops with an anvil (a stiddy) where they made small folding pen knives or they cut files – a dangerous process for workers who suffered from breathing in metal dust. The knives were made in huge quantities and exported widely, many to the USA. The average life span of a knife grinder was 25 years. Apart from breathing in metal dust, grinding stones could fracture causing terrible injuries.

During the early part of the nineteenth century there was a major influx of people migrating from the country to the cities looking for work. Accommodation was in desperately short supply and people were housed by rogue landlords in overcrowded tenements surrounding small yards. Facilities and sanitation was poor or non-existent. In Sheffield areas of the city centre were a maze of small yards surrounded by tenements with a communal water pump and one foul smelling privy for everyone to use. Disease was rife.

The city of reported that during the 1840s the highest cause of death for small children was by laudanum (opiate) poisoning, parents attempting to sedate their children to keep them quiet. Anthrax was common amongst workers in woollen mills. Rickets and Tuberculosis were rife caused by lack of fresh air and sunlight.

Whilst in areas such as York and Saltaire philanthropic factory owners recognised the problem and built housing to a high standard for their workforces, little attempt was made in Sheffield to improve living conditions for the working class. People were largely employed in small scale units, often self-employed without a factory owner who could see the benefits of employing a healthier workforce.

The rivers regularly flooded the valleys carrying foul water into people’s homes and with it epidemics of cholera. Little was done until 1832 when the Master Cutler in Sheffield died of cholera in one of the epidemics. It was finally accepted that disease held little respect for social class and mass building programmes of small terraced houses with sanitation began – mostly privately rented – which continued into the 20th century. Sheffield’s hillsides were covered with streets of small terraced housing. Some were back to back houses, but the majority had a small garden for growing a few vegetables. No back to back housing remains in Sheffield, but examples can be seen in Leeds. Old Park Wood

‘Around six o'clock on Sunday morning 23rd October 1864 a crowd of about 200 people gathered in a clearing in Old Park Wood. They had come to see Thomas Dawes and William Horner fight for a prize of £1. Dawes and Horner had been friends, with Horner training Dawes as a fighter, but they had fallen out after "some words about a woman". Horner had Joseph Potts as his second and Dawes was seconded by William "Brick Lad" Stenton, an unknown other man acted as umpire and timekeeper. The crowd formed a ring and Dawes and Horner fought gamely, but fairly, though the fight "was not a friendly encounter". It was "a fair stand-up fight" and both men were "plucky" although there was some "hugging" and "throwing" in the final round and Dawes received a blow under his left ear. Time was called after about eighteen minutes. Dawes sat on his second's knee but struggled to rise when time was called again, he managed to stand but fell immediately on his side and did not rise again. Joseph Vardy from Eldon Street worked in the same factory as Horner and knew both men. He picked up Dawes who lived for about five more minutes while he held him up, but did not speak. When the crowd realised Dawes was dead they, the seconds, and the umpire all ran away, leaving only four or five remaining. Vardy helped carry Dawes' body to The Bay Horse in Pitsmoor. The post mortem found that Dawes was a strong healthy man with muscles largely developed and no fat in the body, the cause of death was concussion to the nervous system arising from outward violence. The Coroner's jury returned a verdict of Manslaughter against Horner, Potts, Stenton and the unknown man who acted as umpire and timekeeper.’

Views of Victorian/ Edwardian housing – mostly built between the 1890’s and 1920.

The view of the hillside across the Don Valley shows the terraced streets of Walkley clearly - some rising steeply up the hillside, others following the contour of the hill. Houses are interspersed with churches, shops, schools and public buildings, libraries etc.

Some of Walkley’s streets were built by groups of people who collectively bought land to be able to vote as landowners. In Britain, universal suffrage for all men over the age of 21 was not achieved until 1918 and for all women over that age, not until 1928. Land ownership previously gave men the right to vote.

Public sector housing schemes begun in the 1920s provided good quality housing for those returning from the first World War. Slum clearance schemes during the 1930s aimed to provide better housing – such as on the Parson Cross Estate - to clear the yards and tenements in the city centre, making way for business premises. However, Sheffield suffered severe bombing during World War II and a considerable proportion of its housing was destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Much of the Victorian housing stock was in need of replacement or refurbishment.

During the 1960s and 70s, the City Council chose wholesale clearances of the Victorian terraces. Large multinational companies developed modern, high amenity, mass produced public housing. Sheffield’s plans to develop ‘streets in the skies’ received widespread acclaim from eminent architects across . Schemes aimed to take into account the social fabric of the community as well as the architecture to provide a model of 'modern' high density living.

In Sheffield, land use was limited because of the heavy metal pollution in the valleys, which would have been extremely costly to remove. Creating 'streets' in high rise development seemed a way of maintaining the neighbourly reputation of Sheffield communities whilst taking up little land. At its height Sheffield Council managed more than 90,000 public sector homes – many in high rise developments close to the steel works on hills overlooking the city centre.

Whilst initially these schemes worked well as people benefited from the change to clean, up to date dwellings, in the longer term the plan was flawed when communities did not adapt to high density living. Social cohesion broke down and with poor quality of building, the flats soon became undesirable, prone to vandalism and felt unsafe to residents. Most public sector properties have an expected life of 60 years before needing attention. The high rise flats needed complete refurbishment after 20 years. In Sheffield, families with small children were not allocated high rise flats because of physical dangers and social isolation. Looking to the right of the Infirmary a modest new housing development fits neatly into the urban landscape. It was built on the site of the Kelvin flats, built in the early 1970s, which dominated the valley for two decades. In the style of post-modernist architecture of the post-war era, the high rise, ‘streets in the sky’ development zigzagged across the hillside. The Kelvin Flats were similar to Park Hill Flats which can be seen to the left of the city centre.

By the time Kelvin Flats were built, flaws had already emerged in the social aspects of high density living. Crime rates and vandalism were high, resident satisfaction low. Kelvin flats were demolished in the early 1990s barely more than 20 years old.

When the ageing, Victorian terraced housing built for the working classes was demolished during the 1960s and 70s to clear sites for the new, high amenity flats, residents of Parkwood Springs Village (Point 6) protested, but because of substantial damage to the area by wartime bombing the protest was overruled. Walkley residents won their campaign to preserve much of the Victorian housing which was in better condition. It is that housing in Walkley that can be seen across the valley.

The Cycle Trail crosses the foot path.

The mountain biking trail was installed in 2012, funded and supported by ‘Sport England’, European funding, the CTC (Cycle Touring Club) and the City Council. Steve Peat, the mountain cycle world champion has given much support and ‘Recycle Rides’ provided bike training to local young people.

The mountain bike project aims to provide an exciting sporting activity for young people over the age of 11 and for more serious mountain bikers, without detracting from the overall objectives for the site of providing a relaxing, wild space for people to enjoy. Emphasis has been placed on encouraging many more local young people to use the site safely and respectfully. The trail has been professionally laid with a great deal of thought and expertise to protect areas of ecological importance and ensure that cyclists are alert to walkers on the site, particularly where the cycle trail crosses the footpath. The cycle trail on the whole is separate from walking routes starting and finishing at the 'Spirit of Parkwood' entrance on Shirecliffe Road.

Opening up more dense areas of woodland for the cycle trail and encouraging more people on site helps to make the area feel safer for walkers. The funding also allowed more time from the City Council’s Ranger Service for additional work in maintaining the site.

The Limestone Outcrop

To the right of the footpath before the trail is an area of wetland where irises flower in the spring. The Friends of Parkwood Springs have been working to develop the pond here and the print of a Roe deer was spotted recently by the water.

Above is a limestone outcrop which was once part of the old Oaken Bank Wood with spectacular views over the city from south and east to north and west. The ridge is a good example of the heathland, now an ecologically important feature of the area. The steep slope to the left of the ridge footpath has been colonised by a wide variety of lichens, some rare.

Lichens Heather on the outcrop

Point 6 Sheffield’s Industrial History

The viewpoint heading up the ridge path affords one the best views of the City of Sheffield. Visitors can spend time picking out landmarks across the city.

Cityscape with gorse and broom – 2009 The Railway

Directly below runs the railway – the , Sheffield and Railway built in 1845, which cut through the lower stretches of Old Park Wood separating the woodland to the banks of the river Don from the higher parts of the hillside.

Painting of Parkwood Springs village showing the railway courtesy Barbara Warsop

There was a railway station at Neepsend on Parkwood Road above Hillfoot Bridge. The footbridge is still usable and a mound remains where the station building stood. Currently the railway line is single track and terminates at the steel works. At least one train in each direction uses the line most days. The last passengers travelled on the line in January 1970.

Parkwood Springs Village built 1840s demolished 1970s

The Sheffield Star in the 1970s reported:

'Parkwood Springs (Village) is triangular shaped, flanked by the Sheffield Manchester Railway, quarries, earthworks and a vast tipping area. Access is through steelworks via a low railway bridge.’ Looking to the right of the low railway bridge below the viewpoint, roads can be seen where there are now some new industrial buildings leading to the former ski village. The roads can be named as Wallace Road, Pickering Road, Douglas Road and Vale Road, which emerge from under the railway bridge at Bardwell Road.

There is now little to see of the once vibrant village settlement. A quarter of the houses were destroyed or damaged by wartime bombing and the area was finally cleared for redevelopment during the mid-1970s, despite co-ordinated opposition from residents. Redevelopment of the site as a whole did not happen because the steep slope of the site and poor access from the road system left it unattractive to developers.

Parkwood Springs village occupied a triangle of land whose boundaries corresponded directly to the site of the old Lords Wood. There were once streets of back to back and terraced housing with a few larger houses between. There were , a church, shops, fish and chip shops, a bowling green and a recreation ground. It was a close community where everyone knew each other and looked out for each other. However, it was cut off from neighbouring areas by its location and until 1971 did not even have a bus service. The isolation which once gave the community cohesion, eventually became its downfall as people felt isolated and vulnerable when others began to leave.

Parkwood Springs village was built in the mid-nineteenth century to house workers for the railway and the steel industry. ‘In 1861 there were 171 houses with a population of 792. By 1901 the settlement had almost trebled in size to a population of 2,263.’ Mel Jones reported that whilst the majority of steelworkers resident at Parkwood Springs originated from Sheffield, the majority of railway workers came from outside the city. (History leaflet)

By the early 1970s a survey by a group of students showed that Parkwood Springs consisted of:

380 houses mostly owned by private landlords. 100 owner occupied houses 40 houses owned by Sheffield Corporation Population around 1000.

‘The majority of residents have lived in the area for at least 20 years, many all their lives.’

In 1936 George Orwell stayed at Parkwood Springs Village whilst preparing to write ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’. He lodged at 152, Wallace Road with Gilbert and Kate Searle. He noted in his diary:

“Sheffield seems to me, by daylight, one of the most appalling places I have ever seen. In whichever direction you look you see the same landscape of monstrous chimneys pouring forth smoke which is sometimes black and sometimes of a rosy tint said to be due to sulphur. You can smell the sulphur in the air all the while. Even the shallow river that runs through the town is usually bright yellow with some chemical or other.”

At night from the hillside above the Don, he saw “lamps twinkling like stars. Huge jets of flame shoot periodically out of the roofs of foundries (many working the night shift at present) and show a splendid rosy colour through the smoke and steam. Then Sheffield assumes a kind of sinister magnificence.”

Despite the place, Orwell wrote of the people: “I was quite sorry to leave the Searles. I have seldom met people with more natural decency.”

Former residents have contributed their memories of living in the village:

When people lived on Parkwood – Memories of Parkwood Springs

‘Being born and bred in , our parents used to take us for walks and to picnic over the white bridge onto Parkwood Springs. We could see Wardsend Cemetery from the top of the white bridge. One post of the white bridge is still standing. Jean.

‘My uncle, who was in the Home Guard during the war used to man the anti-aircraft guns at the top of the hill. Our windows would rattle when the guns were fired. The anti aircraft gun mountings are still there beside the viewpoint at the top of the hill. If you look near to and under the bushes you can see the concrete base. Jean

‘After the war I was a lad of 14 and I worked for a firm at Bottom who repaired roofs after the bomb damage. Every morning two of us lads had to push a handcart with all our ladders and equipment from Heeley Bottom to Parkwood Springs. When we got there we had to push it all up the steep village streets. Often one of the women would take us into their houses and make us sit by the fire with a cup of tea while they cooked us bacon and eggs. They had nowt, like everyone else, but if our gaffer spotted us, they would send him packing, telling him we looked half starved and needed some proper food.’

‘Once our gaffer, who was the expert to us apprentices, told us not to go on the roofs without proper equipment. He did just that and fell through a damaged roof onto a night worker who had just gone to bed. They were both covered with thousands of birds nests and all the muck from the years and the bombing.’

The terraced houses on Wallace Road were for Railway workers who probably worked at Victoria Station, Parkwood Station or the engine sheds at Bridgehouses. The window tapper used to come round with a long rod and string with a weight on it to tap on railwaymen’s bedroom windows and wake them up for duty. Ray

There were two long blocks of back to back houses, mostly terraced houses with small shared gardens at the back and then a few bigger houses like the gas manager’s house and the vicarage in Pickering Road. The gas lamplighter used to come round the streets with a hooked stick to turn the gas lamps on. Ray

The sulphur from the Electricity Power Station used to smell unpleasant, rot the curtains and kill the privet hedges. As children we used to climb the massive spoil heaps of black ash at the Power Station, jump into the empty buckets going up the hillside and jump off at the next heap. Ray

In winter we sledged down the steep streets and down the clay heap between the brickyard and Douglas Road. We collected clay and made small hollow boxes that we baked in the kitchen range. The steel workers at the Hallamshire steelworks gave us ‘oily wop’ to burn in our ‘winter warmers’ to keep our hands warm. Ray Carts came round the streets selling milk, fish and all sorts – even pikelets and oatcakes. The milk man was a local farmer who brought milk in churns with a horse and cart. Once the cart came loose and ran off down the street it was so steep. Vera

When I was young, I once gave the rag and bone man some good clothes in exchange for a balloon. I was in trouble for doing that. Julie

You had to push cars up the hill in the snow – we got 6d (like a 5p piece) when we got them to the top. Christine

Our dads made us sledges and carts out of things we had. We used to go up to the tip for old pram wheels. My dad made a sledge out of an old cast iron bedstead that he shaped at the steelworks and he put a piece of wood from a walnut wardrobe on for the seat. It was so slippery with the wood being polished that I fell off. Julie

Everybody knew everybody. It was a really close-knit community. If you didn’t behave, neighbours would say, ‘I’ll tell your dad’ – and you didn’t want that. Christine

At the top of Little Vale Road was a recreation ground with 6 swings. There was rough clay ground covered in black ash where we played football and at the top of Douglas Road next to the allotments was our bowling green with a conservatory. Above this were huts with livestock – pigeons, goats and a donkey. Ray

At the bottom of the hill to get to Hillfoot you had to go down 100 steps, a cobbled gennal and through a dark tunnel. Ray It wasn’t nice to go out on dark nights because of coming back. My dad used to wait for me at the 53 bus stop to walk back up the hill. I daren’t be late home. We didn’t have mobile phones then. Julie

The old houses had cellars that went right through the whole row. There were lots of mice down there. I had a new coat for my birthday and when I put one arm in, a mouse ran out of the other sleeve. We used to sleep all night on the bunkers (air raid shelters) outside or hide inside them. Christine

During the 1960s planning policy was to try to replace ‘slum’ dwellings with new high rise development. Sometimes perfectly good housing was cleared to regularise sites for the developers. It was considered more economical to clear and redevelop areas than to refurbish old housing, but many people disagreed preferring to live in their own house with a garden to a high rise flat. A protest campaign was launched to object to the clearance of Parkwood Springs. The Sheffield Star and Telegraph reported on the plight of residents of Parkwood Springs village:

What the papers said:

‘Mr George Ellis, chair of the residents’ action association, said, ‘We wonder how many people know where Parkwood Springs is.’

‘They claim that the area which is scheduled for redevelopment has been neglected and forgotten by Sheffield Corporation and they intend to take their fight for improvements to Westminster, if necessary.’

‘Parkwood Springs is half a dozen of the steepest and loneliest streets in Sheffield. It is a fortress cut into the hill which climbs from the Don Valley at Neepsend. On all sides the land rises so steeply that the only entry by road is under a low, narrow railway bridge on Bardwell Road.

The only other contact with the city is a long steep tunnel which drops from the top end of the district under the railway line to Parkwood Road.

Amenities include five shops, two pubs, a church and a wind whipped playground at the top of the hill. ’

The view from here is panoramic but hardly picturesque. Cooling towers, factory chimneys, across the valley the vast slab of Kelvin Flats and at the bottom of the hill the black mass of the gasworks, keeping an evil eye on the Springs.

Problems

To enter the Springs, as the residents call it, is to move back in time…no new buildings… many that were there were faded and neglected. Tottering shacks were scattered around. ‘It used to be such a lovely place,’ one woman said.

Mr. Eadon, a member of the action association, aged 62 who has lived on Parkwood Springs all his life said, ‘We have three main problems: First there’s the transport problem for the old folk. We think that if the Corporation is willing to run bus services at a loss on the outskirts of Sheffield, they could put one here, a couple of miles from the centre. Then there’s the development problem. We were given last week by the Council a list of the houses which are due for demolition. (393) Some of the houses on the list haven’t been standing for years and others are in far better condition than houses not on the list. We want to know what is going to happen to the houses left. Are they going to be surrounded by light industry? The third problem is the general appearance of the area. It’s a disgrace. We never see a road sweeper up here.’

His wife Evelyn said, ‘It used to be such a nice friendly village. Everybody knew each other. But now we just want to leave, even though we’ve been here so long.’ The isolation of the village which in the past had created a village atmosphere and community spirit is now causing people to despair.

‘As I walked up Pickering Road to the playground, I could understand why the Eadon’s relatives rarely visit them. It’s simply too steep and inaccessible. I could understand too the feeling of the residents being cut off. According to Mr. Eadon, ‘There are people living in Parkwood Springs who don’t know that the tracks have been taken up.’ I could well see that could happen too.’’ Ralph Martin The Star c.1970

New hope given to Sheffield’s ‘forgotten village’. Lord Mayor, Ald. Sidney Dyson, officially opened Operation Springs Clean. Villagers who have been ashamed to invite visitors because their area is rapidly becoming a shanty town saw the Lord Mayor trundle a wheel barrow loaded with a large paper bag full of assorted tins, bottles and rusty barbed wire across the road from Parkwood Springs Methodist Church and dump it on a patch of grass. Sheffield Morning Telegraph, Tuesday, June 30th 1970.

‘Parkwood Springs – Sheffield’s ‘Island Village’ cut off from the main body of the city by the railway line to Penistone and the gasworks on Neepsend Lane has been given its first bus service.’ It needed to be a single deck bus to negotiate the low railway bridge on the road leading to Parkwood Springs. Star Nov. 17th 1971

Douglas Bowling Club. At the end of the season – next month the curve of woods across grass will stop – for good. This is the ‘forgotten village’ of Sheffield only a mile from the city centre yet cut off. The place that until recently didn’t even have a bus service.

For years the people of the Springs have complained that they are being neglected – made to do without facilities others in the rest of the city have. The closure of the green is, to them, yet another sign of neglect, and the official reason - that it simply doesn’t pay its way – is not good enough. Mr. John Dallamore of Douglas Road said, ‘People feel very bitter about it. There are only two facilities up here, the and the bowling green, and now they’re taking one of them off us. We don’t know when the houses are coming down but we do know when the bowling green’s closing. If we were certain we were going to flit this year we wouldn’t mind, but we could be another five years up here.’

The few square yards of immaculate turf surrounded by flower beds are a patch of beauty in a decaying district that is squashed between a quarry and a gas works. The approach to it up a rocky track past old washing machines and other junk has fooled many a visiting bowling club member. ‘People are flabbergasted when they see it. They think they’re going to play on a tip but when they get here they say it’s the best green in the league.’ Malcolm Ward secretary of the Douglas Bowling Club.

Ironically news of the closure comes at a time when bowls is catching on with young people in the area. 20 year old Maynard Sinclair of Mount Road and 17 year old Steven Entwhistle of Vale Road said, ‘It’s a good game. We’ve been up here every day this week.

Arrol Winning, general manager of the Recreation Department said that total income from the green last year was £32 whilst it cost £1,200 a year to pay the man who looks after it and the nearby play areas. ‘We’ve a bowling green for the benefit of Parkwood Springs residents’, says Mr. Dallamore, ‘That doesn’t mean it should be made to pay.’ Ralph Martin Sheffield Star.

Jean Lovell aged 12 was crowned centenary year Sunday School queen at Parkwood Springs Methodist Church – and will probably be the last. 20 post war queens were able to get to the church from all over Sheffield. The church is in a redevelopment area and is expecting to close soon. Star.

Parkwood Springs is considered the best site for a proposed multi-purpose driver training ground on a scale bigger than any in the country. The best site involves a recreation ground at Parkwood Springs – a children’s playground, a bowling green area and informal grass play areas which soon will no longer be needed because the population in the vicinity is moving. Sheffield Star Thursday 27th January 1972.

Space has been given to reproduce here some of the memories of Parkwood Springs Village because its clearance had a major and lasting impact on the area. The issues were even more poignant because, apart from the development of the ski village towards the top of the site of Parkwood Springs village, redevelopment was not forthcoming. Even the driver centre, originally earmarked for Parkwood Springs, was later located at the level site of Lightwood in the south of the city.

Point 7. The Forest Garden

Continue to walk up the path and take the footpath to the right. On your right is the forest garden which was created in 2009 on the site of old allotments.

The Forest garden 2009

and in 2017 Tim Shortland one of the City Council’s foresters developed the concept of the Forest Garden to grow fruit and herbs for the local community to use. With much hard work by Council staff and volunteers, the garden has been successively weeded, dug and planted. The idea is for the garden to be self –sustaining. Nitrogen enriching plants replenish the nutrients in the soil to fertilise fruit trees and bushes. The garden is multi- layered to achieve a high yield of crops at different heights of plant growth. Weed suppression was difficult to achieve until ground cover was able to suppress the bracken. Rabbits are a constant problem and fruit bushes have needed protection. Stone-lined wells were found on the site, which have been closed for safety reasons. A hibernaculum was created for lizards to shelter, and a wetland preserved for amphibians. Two mulberry trees mark the entrance to the garden and existing terracing and paths have been restored. (See Ed Thatcher’s column in Parkwood Springs into Action No. 5.)

There had been orchards across the whole of the hillside in the past and fruit trees have survived in some locations. People have found fruiting apple and plum trees growing wild in addition to the wealth of blackberries and establishing bilberries.

A number of groups – including a University group, an interfaith group and the Friends of Parkwood Springs - have been involved in the past helping to create and maintain the forest garden. Currently the Friends of Parkwood Springs organise a regular session for anyone to come and join in.

Point 8. The Playing Fields and Helipad

Continuing to walk past the garden and the cycle track crossing, you will come out onto the wide sweep of open green space where wild rabbits can be seen early in the morning and at dusk. Close to the centre of the city, the wide open space is restful and relaxing. Allowing grasses and wild flowers to grow naturally in places has diversified habitats and created areas of greater interest.

At weekends football teams play on the pitches. Otherwise, the area is ideal for family picnics and children’s play, activities and events. The helipad between the pitches is still used occasionally for the larger helicopters to bring in patients or emergency supplies eg. transplant organs to the Northern General Hospital. Point 9. The Former Ski Slope and Village

Walk back across the cycle track crossing, take the footpath to the right and up the hill.

The dry ski slope was developed during the mid -1980s on land leased by the City Council for a ski resource. The gear for the ski lift which used to rattle and whir as metal poles were flung round the wheel at the top of the lift has now been removed as the Ski Village was dismantled.

Around the top of the ski lift wild lupins flower in springtime.

Children’s classes could be seen gathering at the top of the nursery slope before young skiers disappeared cautiously one by one over the edge. The more advanced skiers would glide across from the lift and swing over the platform onto the ski run. Local people complained that they would have liked to have had a viewpoint where they could sit and watch the skiers. People who used the ski run felt that it was a valuable resource for the city and provided useful practice, particularly for young people to learn. It was relatively accessible in terms of low cost. Two skiers who practised here were highly successful in winter Olympics.

In 2005 the Ski slope was considered to be needing refurbishment. Ambitious plans were registered with the council to redevelop the whole site with an indoor snow slope and large cable car connection to the tram route and to Shirecliffe Road. No consultation took place with the local community and plans included the ski village taking over much public green space, therefore they were opposed locally. The plans were rejected.

Pullen (Selby) took over the ski slope, but struggled to make it successful. Mr. Pullen was a house builder who applied to build houses on the site. Vandalism in 2012 caused irreparable damage. Modern technology has made it more attractive for ski facility development, offering advantages over indoor ski mountains. Discussions are in progress to redevelop the site for extreme sports, including a ski facility. The steep terrain makes it a very attractive site. Parkwood Springs will be key to developing Sheffield as an Outdoor City for sport. The Friends of Parkwood Springs support the initiative providing plans are consistent with conserving the environmental aims for Parkwood Springs to become a Country Park in the City. Point 10. The Viewpoint

Continue to take the path uphill through the woodland to the open viewpoint at the hill top.

Views to the west extend over Walkley and Hillsborough, through the Loxley Valley to Derwent Edge and north towards and beyond. The Hillsborough , Stadium and can be seen clearly in the Upper Don Valley.

The viewpoint was installed in earlier years with a brass direction plate and map. Unfortunately the plate was stolen long ago, but the viewpoint presents not only a vantage point for the spectacular views, but also a stage for the 'arena' at the hilltop. The high poles were installed by Handspring Design in 2007 as flag poles to form the centrepiece for the annual Beacons Event in October each year. Handspring designed huge firework displays to illustrate the story created by local school children and told by the storyteller, Shonaleigh. Flags at the viewpoint - Beacons 2008 and Fireworks at Beacons 2010

A photographic record of the annual Beacons Event can be found on the website with a link to Shonaleigh's presentation of the stories which were developed with local school children who imagined mysterious events that might have taken place as a result of the flooding of the river Don in 2007. Mr. Fox, who dance with fire, participated in the story telling and provided an after-dark spectacle for early Beacons events. The Beacons event has taken place as a lantern procession since 2014 – led by the Sheffield Samba Band.

Sunset at the Lantern Procession.

Lanterns have been made with groups in the area who bring their lanterns to the procession.

Up to 400 people attended in 2017.

Neill Schofield, chair of the Friends of Parkwood Springs, at the head of the procession. The Parkwood Deer and dragon lanterns 2017.

Floods

Looking over the Upper Don Valley, one can't help but think about the Sheffield floods. The river in the flat valley bottom has created a flood plain where the river banks have been breached from time to time flooding the road and low lying buildings.

The Sheffield Flood 2007

In 2007, after several days of relentless heavy rainfall, a surge of water flooded down the valleys from the higher reaches of the Don, Loxley and Rivelin. The water rose quickly during the day of Monday 11th June carrying mud, debris and sewage into homes and businesses throughout North Sheffield, ultimately devastating and towns and villages towards and beyond. Traffic was stopped early enough in daylight to avoid disaster as all the bridges were submerged before the evening rush hour.

Commuters were turned back to the higher ground in the city centre or to find routes across surrounding hills. Accommodation (mainly a chair and a blanket) was found for those stranded in the city. The city pubs were full, but food was at a premium as most of the food outlets had sold out or were closed. At Neepsend, when the Fat Cat flooded, its clientelle retreated to the Kelham Island Tavern where they stayed. All the Neepsend real ale pubs and Kelham Island Museum suffered serious flood damage.

Sheffield Wednesday Football ground looked like a swimming pool, the road and adjacent buildings were all under a considerable depth of water. Neepsend power station was put out of action, leaving the whole of Hillsborough and much of Parson Cross in darkness that evening. By 11pm the only possible access across the Don was at Oughtibridge where the surge had begun to subside and move downstream. In total darkness a procession of hundreds of stranded people, like a subdued football crowd, were making their way on foot across the now accessible bridge over the at Hillsborough and up Middlewood Road. Cars were allowed through very slowly, lighting the way.

By morning news reports were full of the events of the previous day, notably temporary traffic lights at the washed into the torrent. Two people died in the floods, but many were left homeless.

The Sheffield Flood - the breach of the Dale Dyke Dam 1864.

In 1864 the flood was less an 'act of God' – more the folly of man, with devastating human tragedy in its wake. The Sheffield Waterworks Company built the dam as one of four planned to provide the city with a clean water supply following epidemics of cholera. Corner-cutting may have caused the dam's collapse.

At the Dale Dyke Dam in the Loxley Valley the newly installed reservoir wall was not fully settled before the dam was filled. The overflow hatches jammed, the wall cracked and gave way allowing a wall of water to cascade through the steep sided valley causing death and destruction throughout the valleys of the Loxley and Don. It happened at night, people were in their beds, few were able to take evasive action. Stories of luck and heroism can be found in accounts of the disaster, where the highest casualties were at and through the city centre. Memorials to the hundreds who perished can be found in including , Wardsend (See point 14.) and the General Cemetery, where unidentified bodies were buried.

Standing at the viewpoint, the course of the water can be envisaged coming towards you through the Loxley Valley and crashing against the steep hillside at Shirecliffe. The water turned first northwards to circle round at Bridge, then it forged south to wreak havoc round the lower lying areas of Lady's Bridge and the Wicker.

Several stories come immediately to mind:

To the dismay of neighbours an old man lived in a shack at the end of a reputable Hillsborough street. He slept in an old wooden box. On the morning after the flood not a single house was left standing in the street and there were no survivors - except for a sleeping old man floating gently in his box.

A silversmith had a forge on the river Don below Parkwood. A large quantity of silver was ‘washed away’ in the flood.

A little downstream of Neepsend a man rescued several babies from the flood water (presumably floating in wooden cots). He cared for them at his home until their families could be found.

Below the viewpoint is the landfill site owned by Viridor. (See point 13)

Point 11. The Gun Mountings 1939/45.

Continue to walk northwards a few yards and look on the ground to the right.

An octagonal concrete area shows the base of the gun mountings from the second world war. The underground buildings have been filled in, but the anchor points for the anti -aircraft guns are still visible.

Higher up the Don Valley on the hill at Grenoside the American Army had a base where bomb casings made locally were filled with explosive. Aircraft approaching, flying low through the Don Valley, could have been intercepted by guns at Parkwood Springs. Hillsborough residents remember the noise of the guns during air raids on Sheffield. During the raids much of Parkwood Springs village was damaged or destroyed as was Shirecliffe Hall.

The gun mountings

Through the woodland between the car park at Shirecliffe/ Cookswood Road and the viewpoint there are some remains of brick walls from the army billets and munitions stores. One Sheffielder recalled cycling over 'the Springs' in the early years of the war to find himself surrounded by armed soldiers in the midst of army billets. Other local people people describe playing there when they were children in later years and finding bullets, guns and knives buried in spoil heaps.

Sheffield was severely bombed in two main raids during 1941. In December it had snowed leaving the roofs of buildings visible to enemy aircraft. Incendiary bombs were dropped around the city centre leaving a circle of fires as a target for heavy bombing. Shirecliffe Hall and Parkwood Springs village were bombed, but the steel works in the and the armaments at Oughtibridge remained untouched.

Point 12. Penistone Flags.

Walk along the wide path northwards.

The natural sandstone – known here as Penistone Flags – can be seen on the path along the top of the ridge. Whilst quarrying left deep pits over the top of the hill and removed much sandstone from Shirecliffe, the natural rock creates a pavement at the top of the hill. Point 13. The Landfill Site .

Sandstone and ganister have been quarried from this area for many years, but it is only relatively recently that the site became a real blot on Sheffield's landscape with a huge landfill site occupying a third of the whole area of Parkwood Springs.

The landfill site before its final restoration.

In the 1840s the railway was forged through woodland in a deep cutting. Clearing the woodland ove r the years left the hillside denuded of vegetation. The steel works filled the air with sulphur. But it was really only during the 1960s and 70s that industrialisation made its worst impact on Parkwood Springs.

Cooling towers linked with the Neepsend electricity sub- station had been built on the site of an old quarry with conveyors taking spoil and clinker to dump further up the hillside. Ray Swift remembers riding on the buckets as young lads, and jumping onto lower spoil heaps before the bucket tipped out its load. Others have told of finding shiny lumps of clinker which they gave to their sweethearts as 'jewels.'

During the 1960s and 70s the cooling towers were demolished, the heaps of spoil removed to build roads and the vacuum replaced by landfill. At that time little recognition was given to the toxicity of household and industrial waste. Local residents complained about air pollution, rats and flies. The council eventually sold the site to Viridor, a multi-national waste disposal company, who had the resources to manage waste disposal more effectively and more profitably. By capping the site with an impermeable membrane they maximise use of the methane gas produced from decaying waste to generate electricity -which is itself a profitable enterprise. Viridor closed the site for waste disposal in 2014 and restoration is ongoing.

Ducts collect gases throughout the site which feed generators close to the river Don. Electricity is fed into the National Grid. The filled land has been covered with deep layers of soil ready for planting. It is expected that the land level will reduce in height by 15% in time.

There has been substantial community response to Viridor's plans to restore the site and ongoing negotiations between the City Council, the local community, the Environment Agency and Viridor aim to ensure that planting and restoration meet the Council's and community's aspirations for the area and are ecologically and environmentally appropriate.

The run off of surface water and the dangers of pollution to the rivers from leachate have been matters of concern to Water and the community. The link between the north and south of the site has been problematic as Viridor installed inspection points for the gas pipes which needed to be protected by fencing, leaving only a narrow linking path.

New footpaths and cycle ways are planned to be opened by 2020 allowing better access across the whole site. A substantial water feature is planned in a deep valley close to the ski village site. Point 14. Wardsend Cemetery.

(A longer walk ending at Livesey Street and - optional.)

If you wish you can continue to walk northwards on the narrow path between the landfill site and the housing estate. The path opens into an area of grassland with clumps of trees. Walking down the steep path to the left you will pass through Wardsend Cemetery. At the foot of the hill, crossing the new Livesey Street bridge, walk straight ahead to Penistone Road or public transport in Hillsborough.

Loxley Silver Band performing at Wardsend Cemetery open day 2018 organised by the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery.

Walking on the steep downhill slope, you suddenly become aware of gravestones emerging above the bracken. In dim light it can be quite a mystical experience.

The name 'Wardsend' originated from 'Worlds End' - the ancient boundary between Sheffield and Ecclesfield. In the cemetery, memorials can be found to soldiers who were based at Hillsborough Barracks. Their gravestones can be seen alongside victims of the Sheffield Flood of 1864 (See also point 10).

Scandal was recorded at Wardsend Cemetery during the nineteenth century, when the Sexton at the cemetery was accused with a local curate of robbing graves to sell bodies to the Infirmary (on Infirmary Road). The practice was discovered by a workman employed by the Oxspring family (at Oxspring Bank) who found lodgings for his family in the upper rooms of a barn at the cemetery. Hearing noises in the night, he found a knot hole in the floor through which he observed the sexton and curate removing bodies from coffins.

Many of the bodies were of children or young people. Their families were distraught and angry because they had scrimped and saved for a headstone for their child, only to find that there was no grave. A mob tried to lynch the guilty parties, but forewarned, they escaped. The sexton was found guilty in court, but served a relatively short sentence. The curate was moved from the area.

The Friends of Wardsend Cemetery provide interesting history tours and events accessed from Livesey Street Bridge. They aim to conserve the cemetery, which had fallen into disrepair, have renovated much of the site and have many stories to tell about people buried there. See The Friends of Wardsend Cemetery website for information.

Point 15. Shirecliffe College playing fields

( The shorter round route returning to the car park and the sculpture 'The Spirit of Parkwood'.)

To the east of the ridge path, the path leads onto playing fields.

From here wide views can be seen to the east towards Wincobank Hill, Meadowhall and far into the distance. Former quarries and pools were filled to create the flat playing fields for Shirecliffe College, which was demolished c. 1999. The college grounds have been used to build the estate of new houses, but the playing fields remain in use.

Storms and high winds destroyed a protective row of conifers, therefore the City Council Ranger Service helped local school children to plant areas of woodland round the field, which will eventually provide some protection from the high westerly winds for surrounding housing

During the Friends Group dawn chorus walks a number of migrant birds have been observed nesting in the woodland and shrubs round the field.

Point 16. The footpath to Little Pear Tree Field

Return via the viewpoint and walk to the left downhill past the mobile phone mast and left onto the downhill path.

This area of woodland was replanted in the 1970s after trees were cleared in 1926 by local people needing firewood during the general strike. Species of trees planted were not all indigenous, therefore whitebeam and other more ornamental trees flourish here.

To the right are the wide slopes down to the playing fields, which give Parkwood Springs a spacious open aspect and form an ideal arena for community activities such as the schools cross country event and the Beacons Festival.

The cycle track weaves through the woodland leaving the footpath safe for pedestrians. A list of birds spotted nesting in this woodland is available from the Friends Group.

Point 17. Little Pear Tree Field

Turn right towards Shirecliffe Road. To the left is a small area known as Little Pear Tree Field.

For many years this area was left neglected. It had once been in the ownership of the Duke of Norfolk who owned the land on which Shirecliffe Hall stood. The map of 1790 shows two areas of orchard belonging to the Hall, Great Pear Tree Field – on the site of the playing fields – and Little Pear Tree Field, which is unmistakable on the map as the small area of land positioned alongside the lane. Local people say that the slopes of the hillsides were once known for their orchards - a number of fruit trees still survive across the site.

In 2004/5 a local resident, Mrs. Jean Armstrong, discovered that the land had been gifted to the City Council in1964 and was in the ownership of the Education Department, presumably as part of the land serving Shirecliffe College and the playing fields.

Jean applied for a grant from Viridor Landfill Credits to renovate the area as a wildlife study area for local school children. It was initially maintained by Sheffield Wildlife Trust. Jean's work made way for the formation of the Friends of Parkwood Springs and community activities to help restore the whole of Parkwood Springs for community use.

As part of the initial renovation work, children and local residents planted wild pear trees, snowdrops and wild daffodils. City Council rangers and woodland officers planted rowan and hawthorn to form new hedging. The overgrown hedge along the main footpath was re-layed by an expert hedge layer.

Foxes, rabbits and a number of species of birds have been spotted on Little Pear Tree Field. Maintenance work has reduced the overwhelming invasion of Rosebay Willow Herb leaving areas of heathland to develop, Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillars have been found, which feed on the willowherb and areas have been set aside to preserve areas of willowherb and the established natural habitats which have developed over the years.

It was aimed as a demonstration site for the variety of habitats found at Parkwood Springs. However, maintaining it as such has been too expensive in the longer term. The field has been left to naturalise with low level maintenance.

The development of Little Pear Tree field 2006.

The opening ceremony – cutting the ribbon Jean describing the work of the Friends Group at little Pear Tree Field.

Jean at the forest garden.

Point 18. End of the walk – The Gateway Project.

You have now returned to the main road and the car park.

The Gateway Project has aimed to enhance the entrances to Parkwood Springs so that local people can be proud of Parkwood Springs as a major asset to the area and so that visitors can be welcomed to explore the delights of such a wild and wonderful stretch of open countryside so close to the city centre. There is still work to be done to enhance other entrances and to make an easier route from the bottom of the hill to the top – especially for the less able. We would like to encourage access for those who cannot engage in sports or extreme sports as well as those who can.

We have ambitions for a sculpture trail, possibly a tactile trail and a history walk with display boards and signage.

The Friends Group has been working towards enhancing the variety of habitats at Parkwood Springs to encourage more wild life onto the site. New ponds have been dug, a wild flower meadow planted at the view point and maintenance work to conserve the heather moorland.

More people have been using the area for picnics, running, walking and cycling. This makes the area safer for everyone and discourages unwanted behaviour. Unfortunately moorland fires have caused some destruction in 2018, possibly as a result of unattended barbecues or vandalism. The heather is already regenerating and ground-nesting birds had finished nesting before the fires started, therefore they caused little long term damage.

More wild life walks and surveys have been taking place, bringing our attention back to conserving wildlife at Parkwood Springs both to encourage green corridors through the city, but also to provide an area of wild natural beauty for city dwellers to enjoy on their doorstep.

Coronavirus – 2020

During the lockdown in 2020 Parkwood Springs has provided a wonderful open space for local people and families to take exercise, enjoy fresh air and walk in the countryside close to home. Use by local people increased dramatically, including increased numbers of users from diverse cultural backgrounds. Some people who had not been to Parkwood Springs before have begun to make regular visits, walking or running routines. There has been good social distancing and respect for the lockdown rules.

As restrictions eased, football has resumed and more families continue to visit. In line with Councuil policy, the Friends Group reinstated working groups of no more than 6 participants per group to continue with maintainance work on site and in the Forest Garden.

Planning application timescales were extended, but it appears that plans for the Ski Village redevelopment are still in progress. Our Country Park in the City.

The whole of Parkwood Springs eventually will be available and accessible for public use and enjoyment. At present work is ongoing to ensure that the best use is made of the land, which includes exploring possible funding sources and activities which encourage responsible use of the space to conserve wildlife and promote the benefits of green space for healthy living in the city.

Parkwood Springs offers a unique area of heathland and moorland within a mile of the city centre. We hope cyclists and walkers, footballers, picnickers and city workers will come and enjoy the benefits afforded by beautiful open space and superb views. We hope that visitors will enjoy themselves, respect and conserve the environment – and take their litter home.

From Deer Park to Country Park, Parkwood Springs has come - not full circle - but via a multitude of industrial and land uses to progress towards providing a unique and impressive open space for the responsible use of the people of Sheffield. We hope the Friends of Parkwood Springs have contributed towards enabling a positive move forward, raising the profile of the area and of the people who live here now and who have valued the area in the past. We want local people to feel proud of their area, of Parkwood Springs’ heritage and their own – and for the area to become known for the excellent opportunities offered here for everyone in the city.

We hope you have enjoyed the History walk and can take away with you a little of Parkwood Springs' heritage and place within the history of the city of Sheffield.

Carol Schofield 2020 Friends of Parkwood Springs. www.parkwood_springs.co.uk