Graves Park Historic Park & Garden - Local Heritage List Platform

Location/Address

None recorded

Type

Park or garden

Coherent areas of land designed and/or managed for leisure purposes.

Description

This Historic Park and Garden was identified and considered Locally Listed under the Sheffield UDP and UDP Policy BE21, which can be seen here: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-07/03-udp-built-environment.pdf . The supporting document, which contains the schedule of identified Historic Parks & Gardens, can be seen here: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/planning-and-development/sheffield-plan/Historic%20Parks%20%26%20Gardens.pdf. As a result, the park and all its associated features has been included in the current Local Heritage List for South Yorkshire. The land that constitutes Graves Park was formerly part of the Norton Estate, referred to in the Doomsday Book. After several owners through the centuries, the estate passed to Samuel Shore who rebuilt Norton Hall and extended the grounds around the house, forming the estate into a landscape of beautiful parkland. Early in 1925, 112 acres of the Norton Hall Estate including the Hall were purchased by the Joint Hospitals Council to provide a hospital in healthy surroundings. Bernard Firth presented seven and a half acres of land as a gift to the hospitals. Later that year, Councillor Graves bought 154 acres of the Estate to provide the people of Sheffield with a fine sports and recreational space on the edge of the City and to protect the land surrounding the hospital from pollution or development. During the early years of the park, the Corporation constructed walks, the lakes were cleaned out and much planting took place. In 1927 there was a scheme to convert the quarry in Cobnar Wood into an open air theatre. An additional 43 acres of land were obtained by the Corporation to form a significant addition to the recreational space of the park. In the same year, a new approach road to the park from Little Norton Lane, to the top of Charles Ashmore Road, was completed and a new entrance constructed with wrought iron gates and stone pillars. During the 1930s the park was extended in several places and a number of new features added, including additional entrances, childrens playground, tennis courts, bridges and a rose garden. Upgrading and improvements continued to be made in the park, including a new sports pavilion in 1961 and a new lodge for a Head Park Keeper at the Charles Ashmore entrance in 1964. In 1976, 22 acres of agricultural land adjoining Norton Hall was acquired by the Recreation Programme Committee. It became the Rare Breeds Centre, now renamed the Graves Animal Park. The southern portion of the park was separated from the hospital grounds by three lakes, stocked with fish and substantial enough for boating. The largest of the three already had a boathouse in 1925, but it has now been demolished. Today, the surface of the boating lake is almost overgrown by leafy plants. The other two ponds are still popular for fishing. The location of the open air theatre is now overgrown. Sheffield Directorate of Planning and Economic Development, 1997, Sheffield's Historic Parks and Gardens (Unpublished document).

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Historic Interest

Bolehill Lodge inner gate posts & boundary wall: Stone built gate pillars with attaching curved boundary wall to the immediate south of the carriageway entrance besides Bolehill Lodge. Bolehill Lodge, the adjacent northern gate pillars, gates and boundary wall are statutory Grade II listed as ID 1247520 and described as c.1870, gateway of ashlar pillars with plinth caps, and coursed squared stone wall. Dam wall & cascade: Built dam and retaining wall at the west end of the sequence of three former fishponds. The ponds believed to date at least to the 19th century associated with Norton Hall, with the retaining wall marking the end of the 'boating lake'. They could date back even further given that there are medieval features in the landscape, ancient quarries and a possible association with Beauchief Abbey. See also https://friendsofgravespark.org/history/. Packhorse bridge and gate posts: Probable 14th century stone built packhorse bridge over the river entering the ravine in Graves Park. To the east two stone gate posts.