Welcome to Friends of Graves Park Heritage website. Join Us if you would like to help us support, improve and protect Graves Park.
Events
Join the Friends of Graves Park at the Norotn Craft and Makers Market! If you don’t already have your free heritage map collection, visit us to pick up your own pesronal copy!
Join Gertie for another insightful walk in the park, exploring the history of ordinary people who lived and worked in the park:
Paws and Their People Competition
Graves Park is a large park in the south of Sheffield, combining a unique historical landscape with a rich environmental and recreational space. It was established by JG Graves in the 1920s and 30s and given by him to the people of Sheffield for them to enjoy forever. Find out more about the history of Graves Park here. Generations have enjoyed this remarkable place.
Friends of Graves Park is a small charity run by volunteers which exists to protect and enhance this unique place for the people of Sheffield now and into the future.
News
Rose Garden Cafe Latest:
Rose Garden Cafe Partnership Statement
From meeting of 27th September 2024
‘Good news ! £12,326 has been raised for the Rose Garden Cafe via the Friends of Graves Park and £608.10 has been donated so far by Julie & Kelsey, the operators of ‘Dukes on the Rose Garden’ which is donating 10p from every cup of coffee sold in the cafe. So, thank you for your help so far.
We’re also planning to draw down the £25,000 (CIL) funding committed by local councillors to pay for architects, design and survey fees. The council is also contributing to this from its Essential Compliance and Maintenance fund.
We have also agreed to hold a community fundraising meeting on Monday 21st October at 6.30pm in the Rose Garden Cafe in Graves Park.
We also met with the SCC design team to develop the delivery plan for the restoration project and met the team on site and looked at the options for the design brief and in particular the cafe operator’s requirements in providing a modern cafe environment for staff and customers.
Members of the partnership spoke at an event organised by the Sheffield ‘Festival of the Mind’ in the spiegeltent in Barkers Pool on Tuesday 24th September. More than 50 people attended this and it was well received.’
All of our fundraising plans will be published on the Partnership’s ‘Have Your Say’ page:
https://haveyoursay.sheffield.gov.uk/rose-garden-cafe
Just a reminder to everyone that the partnership is made up of representatives from the Save the Rose Garden Café group, Friends of Graves Park and Sheffield City Council.
Please spread the word and let’s get people donating to our fundraiser.
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/RoseGardenCafeGravesPark?invite=true
or by BACS transfer, confirming with email:
Please pay “Friends of Graves Park”
Bank Details:- Sort Code 30-97-51 A/c No. 03370075
If you have any offers of support, please get in touch. Spread the word!
Finding Lost Norton Park: Digging Deeper for All Project
October to December Events 2024
Although the Digging Deeper Project is now over, you might be interested in the following events this Autumn. The first one is a chance to revisit the results of the Project. For more details, please visit our Digging Deeper for All page.
Field walks & free indoor talks:
Thursday 17th October 2024, Bird recording walk, 10 am to 12 noon, meeting at the Rose Garden Café.
Monday 21st October 2024, Evening free lecture at Lees Hall Golf Club – 7 pm, with biodiversity expert Paul Richards talking about ‘Centipedes, Millipedes and Harvestmen’.
Monday, 4th of November 2024 – Evening free lecture at Lees Hall Golf Club – 7 pm,
‘Sheffield Swift Network’ with Chet Cunago, and a discussion of the conservation of swallows, martins, and swifts, with Ian Rotherham and Karon Mayor.
Monday 18th of November 2024 – Evening free lecture at Lees Hall Golf Club – 7 pm, the fungi of Graves Park and surrounding areas – with Steve Clements.
Sunday 1st December 2024, ‘Winter birds in Graves Park’, with Ian Rotherham, 2 pm to 4.30 pm, meet at the Norton Church entrance off Norton Lane.
Monday 2nd December 2024, Evening free lecture at Lees Hall Golf Club – 7 pm, Ian Rotherham on the ‘Winter birds of the park and local gardens’.
Click here to browse our Heritage Maps and resources.
Digging Deeper for All was an exciting investigation into the history, archaeology amd ecology of Graves Park, made possible by the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It included a variety of community events and opportunities to get directly involved.
Click here to find out more and see what we discovered!
The Rose Garden Cafe
On 18th October 2023, the Charity Subcommittee met at the Town Hall for a special meeting to decide the way forward regarding the Rose Garden Café. The decision was to work in partnership with stakeholders to develop a Strategy for the restoration of the Rose Garden Café building
This appears to be good news and the Friends of Graves Park will be pushing for action as soon as possible.
Find out more detail about what’s happening here.
On 18th September 2023 the Rose Garden Cafe was listed on the South Yorkshire Local Heritage Register. This helps to support the heritage status of the cafe, but doesn’t provide the level of protection that national listing would.
Newsletter
The Winter 2023/24 Newsletter is now available here.
Campaigns
We have ongoing campaigns to protect threatened areas of the park and restore the next section of the former Norton Nurseries site. Find out more by clicking on the links below.
Now that Chantreyland Meadow and the Arboretum part 1 are well established in Graves Park, the Friends of Graves Park are ready to start the restoration to parkland of the next section of the former Norton Nurseries site. To donate please click on the link below.
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/GravesParkArboretum?invite=true
How you can help:
Become a member for just £3 a year. You will receive regular newsletters and can attend our AGM.
Donate through our Just Giving account.
Support us when you shop online
Sign up to the fund-raising supports below. This is an easy way to help us whenever you shop online and it supports us with a steady income. Please read the details below and use the links to get you started.
There are over 4,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds.
All you need to do is:
- Go to https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fogravespark/?utm_campaign=raise-more and join for free.
- Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.
- After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to Friends of Graves Park at no extra cost to you whatsoever!
There are no catches or hidden charges and Friends of Graves Park will be really grateful for your donations.
Thank you for your support.
