Our Landscape

Defining Lakeland

The Sheffield Lakeland Landscape church and nearby Bailey Hill Scheduled Partnership area is bounded to the north by Monument (SM). The western margin the A616 Stocksbridge Bypass and Sheffield includes the Dark Peak Site of Special City and Barnsley MBC local authority Scientific Interest, (SSSI), boundaries. To the west the boundary Moors Special Protected Area, (SPA), and follows the course of the Little Don river from South Pennine Moors Special Area of the point that it enters Conservation, (SAC). The role of Sheffield top Harden Clough where it reaches the Lakeland’s undesignated valleys as both watershed and then continues south along stepping stone and buffer between the the line of the watershed as far as Stanage SPA and SAC and the city, in the context Pole on the . The southern of the Lawton Review ‘Making Space boundary of the Partnership area skirts the for Nature’ (DEFRA, 2010), is not to be south of the three and underestimated. follows Brown Hill Lane and Lodge Moor Water is a key part of Sheffield Lakeland. Road eastward to the urban edge of the Three of Sheffield’s five principal rivers rise city at Lodge Moor. The eastern boundary of within the Landscape area. A multitude of the Landscape Partnership area follows the fast flowing streams tumble down steep peri-urban margin of Sheffield as far as the sided valleys from the moors to fill the 14 River Don, then continues northward along major reservoirs which help define the area the Upper Don Valley until the A616 crosses and provide water for industry and clean the Don at Soughley Bridge near Deepcar. drinking water to thousands of people in See ‘Map 1 The Sheffield Lakeland Landscape Sheffield and beyond. The reservoirs form Area’ on the following page. such a distinctive aspect of the landscape The Landscape area covers 145km2, the that they inspired a bus company in the central point being close to the village of 1950’s to establish bus tours from the city High Bradfield with its Grade l listed Norman to visit the ‘Sheffield Lakeland’.

Edgelands, Stannington, Loxley Valley

SLLP LCAP Our Landscape 7 8 SLLP LCAP Our Landscape The community of the landscape

Over 30,000 people live within the Over half a million people live in the city Landscape area. There is a particularly of Sheffield, with growing polarisation strong and unique Sheffield Carol tradition between the least and most deprived and celebrated each year in local venues. Each an increasingly ageing population. Sheffield community retains its thriving brass or silver has a higher proportion of patients with band tradition, male voice and community depression than is found nationally and a choirs and Bradfield hosts an annual music high prevalence of mental health issues and festival featuring artists of international type 2 diabetes is found not just within inner repute. Local creative industries are based city areas, but also in urban fringe villages in the area, including Stoneface Creative such as Stannington (local GP pers. comm.). who use the local gritstone for their stone In two of the last five years, Sheffield has sculpture work. Key local stories deserve to had higher rates of overweight and obese be shared more widely, including that of 10-11-year olds than the regional and national the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864 and of the average and campaigns such as ‘Move More’ links the area has to both World War I and have been launched as a part of a package II through the camps and military training of actions to address the city’s growing grounds at Redmires, for example. health inequalities.

Sheffield is known as a “city of sanctuary” and as such welcomes new arrivals and asylum seekers. The BME population in the city increased significantly since the 2001 Census, from around 11% of the total population to 19% in 2011, with the Roma community continuing to increase significantly since then, (Sheffield First Partnership, 2016).

Main photo: Walkers on the northern boundary of the Sheffield Lakeland area enjoying views towards the Upper Don Valley. Photo courtesy Stocksbridge Walkers are The Great Sheffield Flood of 1864 claimed at least 240 Welcome. lives. © www.picturesheffield.com/PA Wire

9 SLLP LCAP Our Landscape9 Why is Sheffield Lakeland so special?

The north west of Sheffield is an outstanding Many thousands of years of human interaction example of a living landscape, rich in history, with the landscape have left behind Mesolithic with diverse habitats abundant in wildlife, and Neolithic artefacts, Bronze Age earth- vibrant communities and strong traditions. works, pack horse bridges and mileposts, historic inns, cruck barns and a lattice of dry The Sheffield Lakeland area is dominated stone walls. The civil engineering triumph of by fast flowing rivers, which flow off the the reservoirs adds its own distinctive Victorian heather clad grouse moors and tumble Gothic vernacular to the landscape. through steep, wooded valleys to meet up in the industrial heart of Sheffield. The rivers This is a special – and unique area – and the powered the corn mills that fed the medieval work of the Sheffield Lakeland Landscape town and then gave energy to the machines Partnership seeks to identify, protect and that drove the early years of the industrial celebrate these qualities. revolution, helping to transform that Sheffield into the Steel City - with an international reputation for quality steels and technical excellence which continues into the 21st century.

Today the rivers continue to provide water for industry as well as filling the reservoirs that provide drinking water for Sheffield and surrounding towns. In addition, both rivers and reservoirs offer much-loved places for sport, recreation or quiet reflection. A bus ticket from the original Sheffield Lakeland bus tours

Sheffield Lakeland in a national context

The Sheffield Lakeland area lies in the north as the Steel City, many innovations were western portion of the Sheffield City Council developed locally, including crucible and administrative boundary in the eastern stainless steel, fuelling an almost tenfold foothills of the Pennines and includes the increase in the city’s population during the valleys of the Upper Don and four of its Industrial Revolution, which had at its heart tributaries, the Little Don, the Loxley, the the water power generated by Sheffield Ewden Beck, and the Rivelin. Lakeland.

Sheffield is comprised of 61% green space, Sheffield’s international reputation for and a third of the city lies within the Peak engineering and high-end steel production District National Park. There are more than continues into the 21st century. It is 250 parks, woodlands and gardens in the remarkable that two thirds of figure skaters city and Sheffield is estimated to contain at the Pyeonchang Winter Olympics wore over four million trees. In the 19th century, blades made in Sheffield winning 18 medals.

Sheffield gained an international reputation Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk--south- for steel production. Known affectionately -43219349/sheffield-steel-used-in-medal-winning- ice-skaters-blades 2018

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