Notre Dame School Historic Park & Garden
Location/Address
None recorded
Type
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.
T he old entrance was on Riverdale Road, where a lodge remains. The drive followed the course of the Oak Brook through ancient oak woodland and past a heart shaped pond with an
island. From here a good view of the house was revealed, on the highest point of the site, south of Fulwood Road. It looked south over sloping lawns with specimen trees (yew, oak, cedar, monkey puzzle) to the woodland at the lower end of the site and the suburbs beyond. Within the woodland was a large walled garden. Houses have recently been built in it but the boundary wall remains. There is dense planting of evergreens (laurel, holly, yew, rhododendrons) around the pond and bordering the old and new drives. The newer access
from Fulwood Road retains its lodge which is Listed Grade II, stone gate piers and gates. The stone boundary wall is intact along Fulwood Road. Where the drive crosses the Oak Brook there is a curved retaining wall with balustrade, in need of repair.
To the rear of the house the stable block remains and nearby are the sites of heated greenhouses and the fountains of an octagonal orangery. The area to the west of the house has been heavily built up since it became the convent and school of Notre Dame. There are also tennis courts and playing fields over much of the original lawned area.
Oakbrook was a very extensive garden of which only part remains. Enough of the original planting and features still exist to give the impression of a mid Victorian landscape garden providing a magnificent setting for the house.
[https://www.notredame-high.co.uk/about-the-school/history-of-notre-dame/ - the original mansion became a convent in 1919, with a secondary school built in the grounds in 1935; further new buildings were added in 1988; now Notre Dam High School.]
Sheffield Directorate of Planning and Economic Development, 1997, Sheffield's Historic Parks and Gardens (Unpublished document).
Statement of Significance
None recorded
Date Listed
n/a
Last Updated
07 Sep 2022
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