Friends of Lynwood Gardens

In 2003, Lynwood was thickly overgrown with self seeded Sycamore and Ash saplings. The meadows were 6 foot thick in Brambles and Nettles and all manner of discarded waste. The Friends of Lynwood Gardens began by clearing this litter and thicket to improve sightlines and therefore site safety. This process also served to allow more light into the woodland. After consulting the community and drawing up designs, we then raised a BTCV Peoples places grant of nearly £10,000 which enabled us to get the project started. The fertile topsoil was stripped back. Seedbanks from the meadows were harvested and sowed along with a native wildflower mix, with the help of Broomhall Infants School. The thick Ivy in the woodland was also cleared in patches to sow woodland wildflowers and bulbs such as Bluebell.

FOLG have since become a registered charity and raised over £40,000 for restoration. Path lighting networks have been installed, making it safer for users of the site. An outdoor community space designed for performing arts and music, teaching, BBQ and community herb garden as well as an orchard space have all been put into place by the group. We have also started a community crafts and composting scheme and are involving local children in site management. Lynwood is now used on an almost daily basis for a variety of arts, crafts, community and educational groups and the friends run regular work days and events.

In 2005 a pond was built and designed as a Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS). This channels rain water from nearby roads and roofs and feeds it into a three stage water treatment system of reed beds, ponds and a bog garden. This removes pollutants such as dust, oil and petrol from the run off as well as keeping the water level of the pond topped up. The pond is a magnet for all sorts of wildlife such as frogs and newts. Volunteers have built decking and a dipping platform to study the wildlife from.

All the work in Lynwood Gardens with the exception of specialist work such as lighting and tree surgery has been carried out under the free labour of volunteers from the local community, schools, universities, local businesses and environmental training teams. We have also benefited from some practical and financial help from Sheffield City Council.

Virtually all materials used in the redevelopment of Lynwood Gardens are recycled, (preferably on site), or originate from sustainable sources.

Lynwood contains an apparently unique Victorian feature in the form of a crozzal wall and domed grotto dating back to 1860 (approx). The wall and grotto are built from "crozzal" - a bi-product of the cementation furnaces common in Victorian Sheffield. Also incorporated in the wall are crucible pots and grinding wheels - all objects associated with different stages of the steel and cutlery making process. The wall is also buttressed in places with a series of alcoves which appear to have held statues or similar features.
We have conducted archaeological and structural surveys and reports on the feature with the voluntary assistance of ARCUS (Archaeological Research and Consultancy at the University of Sheffield) and Eastwood and Partners (Consulting Engineers) these conclude that the wall and grotto appear to be a quirky garden feature designed to celebrate Victorian steelmaking in Sheffield. The grotto is apparently the only domed crozzal structure in existence in the UK if not world wide and we are currently looking into funding for its repair and reconstruction.

We aim to repair the wall as a heritage feature and run small scale tours and courses on traditional crafts such as charcoal making, basic steel forging and dry stone walling in order to make Friends of Lynwood Gardens financially sustainable in the long term.