New exciting projects for Graves Park and beyond

These were formally launched on the first of April when the heritage-themed project (supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund) was presented to an excited audience. The climate and biodiversity project (supported by the Graves Trust) is separate but connected and will be fully launched in early summer.

New Community Heritage Project Launched – ‘Finding Lost Norton Park: Digging Deeper for All.’

On Saturday 1st April, the Friends of Graves Park and their partners, the South Yorkshire Biodiversity Research Group, launched their ‘Finding Lost Norton Park: Digging Deeper for All’ project at Mount View Methodist Church Hall in Sheffield. The project has been made possible with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and we are very grateful to the players who have made this possible.

Attended by over 100 individuals and families from across Sheffield, the event provided an opportunity for Caroline Dewar, Chairman of Friends of Graves Park to celebrate and introduce the project’s overall aims. The launch was addressed by Professor Ian Rotherham, the project’s Research Director with an illustrated presentation on the rich history, archaeology, heritage, and ecology of Graves Park. Previously known as Norton Park, this is Sheffield’s biggest Public Open Space and holds remarkable and previously unknown heritage back for a thousand years or more. The site is also hugely significant as a strategic greenspace with rich biodiversity connected to its ancient park, its ancient woodlands, and its extensive ‘unimproved’ meadows. The biodiversity reflects the history and heritage of the park.

Over the coming year and a half, the Friends of Graves Park, with South Yorkshire Biodiversity Research Group, are leading a programme of historical, archaeological, and ecologically themed public activities. These aim to enhance the understanding of this much-loved landscape, and to engage a wide section of local communities from the surrounding areas in becoming champions for heritage and for ecology.

Supported by Mercian Archaeology, the project offers the public, schools, and community groups, opportunities to delve into the park’s past through a series of detailed surveys of physical heritage. These aim to identify currently unrecognized buried archaeological sites to shed light on prehistoric, as medieval activity, and early industrial activities in the area. Indeed, the project will extend investigations up to the present time, to include the Victorian period and the twentieth century too.

As well as the archaeological surveys, which will include 3-dimensional photography workshops, the project will also include a programme of school and community group outreach event and activities with guided walks and surveys, digital mapping and archival sessions, and celebration events. Heritage and archaeological activities will be led by and coordinated by Chris Atkinson, and wildlife and biodiversity events, by Karon Mayor. Come along and take part in activities which will be informative, exciting, and great fun too.

To discover more and find out how you can be involved join the Friends of Graves Park mailing list at: [email protected], or find them on Facebook.

More information on this, and on our previous projects on: website www.ukeconet.org