This week my Summer series visits a place of Sheffield renowned for its vibrant inner city lifestyle coupled with only being a stone’s throw from the Peaks in some areas, I am putting the spotlight onto Sheffield South.
I could probably write for days about things to do in this bit of Sheffield it really has it all, so here are just a few cheap but most importantly active places you can visit.
First on the list today is Ecclesall Woods – just 4 miles from the city centre, Ecclesall Woods is a lovely inner city oasis, with Endcliffe Park café and playground at the beginning of the walk up into the woodland this is a great walk for all ages and abilities with runners, ramblers and pooches all traversing the well worn pathways, when you are in it, it’s really easy to see why it’s so popular.
Fancy a challenge? The Ecclesall Woods Run is a route which follows tracks albeit a bit muddy depending on what time of year it is, from the Woodland Discovery Centre, it crosses a stream and passes through the quite aptly named Ran Wood, and then alongside the peaceful Limb Brook finishing up at the Woodland Coffee Stop.
Next on my list is the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet. As I mentioned last week there are a few places in Sheffield that like Rivelin, just fill me with nostalgia and this is definitely one of them.
If you went to school in Sheffield then you most definitely went on a school trip to the Industrial Hamlet and bought old fashioned red coloured sweets from the gift shop that tasted like the cough drops which you would have otherwise turned your nose up to, especially if they were from your grandma, but because they were your choice they tasted ok, they never did, they were a gnat’s whisker away from a Fisherman’s Friend!
So what can you do at the Industrial Hamlet? Well you can get married there! Although I realise not realty a cheap activity for the kids though is it?
So if marriage isn’t your thing or in your budget for a day out with the kids, you can see the Manager’s House and Worker’s Cottage, waterwheels, workshops, tilt hammers, a grinding hull, steam engine and the last complete surviving crucible steel furnace in the UK.
Recently the Industrial Hamlet underwent an extensive £1m restoration project which was completed in 2016 and funded by the National Lottery.
Admission is £4 for Adults, £3 for Concessions and free for accompanied children under 16!
There’s so much to do in the south of the City, it’s hard to pick my last choice but I had to settle on a place where I could include a picture of a beastie like this…
Graves Park! At 248 acres it is the largest park in Sheffield and with such a big open space there’s so much to do. Graves Park is steeped in history, and featured in the Doomsday book, there’s plenty of manmade woodland to explore such as Cobnar Wood and vast expanses of park land, offering panoramic views atop of the hills looking north over the city.
Graves Park Farm contains rare breeds of sheep, pigs and cattle just like this stunner.
The rare breeds centre occupies the east of the park and is accessed from the Hemsworth Road entrance, the website states the primary aim of the farm is to preserve rare breeds genetic material which the animals represent.
Other activities include an adventure playground, a pitch and putt course, a park café and a theatre! And if you are lucky enough to encounter it around May Day there is the annual Highland Fling obviously a tribute to the beasts of the farm sponsored by the Friends of Graves Park and the Highland Cattle Society.
Entrance to the Graves Park Farm is free – I’m off there with my nieces this weekend! Last of the big spenders me!
That’s all from me this week, next week Vanessa will be taking up the driving seat on the blog and covering the 3rd instalment of the Summer series focusing on Sheffield East.
