A weekend of feasting and nature in the forest

The car park was closed to host the new ‘Collier’s Market’ for local food, drink and other businesses, which was so busy that customers reported that only the fudge was left later on Sunday afternoon.

This was the first major event in the woods for over two years, and was partly a celebration of the birthday of the J.G Graves Woodland Discovery Centre, which quietly held its tenth birthday during one of the lockdowns last year, when it couldn’t actually be opened to the public.

The buildings, made partly from local Sheffield wood, cost over half a million pounds in 2012, funded mostly by the JG Graves Trust. The centre celebrates the philanthropist who bought Ecclesall Woods for the people of Sheffield 94 years ago to prevent them being swallowed up for housing.

Now the Woodland Discovery Centre hosts weddings and conferences along with community events - the commercial arm helps pay for the upkeep of the woods, which have been such an asset to the city over the last two years.

“We’re in the largest ancient woodland in the city,” said Sheffield City Council Parks and Woodlands Officer Jon Dallow. “Not forgetting there are over 60 other ancient woodlands in Sheffield, but here we’re showcasing how important woods are for Sheffield, and celebrating all the groups who make Sheffield’s woodlands great places to be.”

Groups like Nature Box and Grow Theatre, who provide arts and crafts activities for local children around the city, were roasting apples and building stick puppets at the Feast in the Forest, while the Accelerate Woodrun group, who provide running sessions in Ecclesall Woods on Thursday mornings, were pounding the trails (and periodically returning for cake) throughout the weekend.

Jon Dallow had been an essential worker during the pandemic, and saw how much the city’s green spaces were being used, often by people who had rarely visited before.

“There was a national explosion of people finding and using their local green space, and in Sheffield we were all lucky enough to be able to get out into our local parks and woods and enjoy them, whether it was walking, running, cycling, dog walking or picnicking. I think they were an essential service for everyone.”

Now, with more cuts looming, the Parks and Woodlands service has to find funding where it can - although the public health benefits of green spaces became clear over recent years, public funding is diminishing rather than growing, it appears.

So the woodland craft courses are starting again, and the Collier’s Market (the original meaning of ‘collier’ was charcoal burner, a key trade in Ecclesall Woods hundreds of years ago) may now become a regular event to bring in funding.

It’s about “squaring the conundrum of sustainability,” pondered Jon Dallow. The conundrum of how people actually get to the woods also needs squaring, he noted.

Drivers involved in the traffic jams of Whirlowdale Road last weekend might consider the 218 bus in future, he suggested, which offers a half hourly ‘hail’ service to stop on Abbey Lane within the woods.

And the many old woodland pathways used by people of all ages over recent years have led to older people or families struggling to cross the busy Abbey Lane. The Friends of Ecclesall Woods and others supported a popular petition on the issue, and funding was found for several possible changes including crossing points, pedestrian refuges and a speed limit reduction to 30mph, now out for consultation for wood visitors to make their feelings known, at: https://connectingsheffield.commonplace.is/proposals/abbey-lane-crossing

“For those who’ve struggled, we hope to have some better infrastructure next year,” said Jon.

“J.G. Graves was all about ‘parks for the people’, and we’re trying to do that still.”