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use the menu above to view other sections and the one to the right to go to specific projects History The Steel
Valley Project in Stocksbridge was founded in April
1988 as a direct result of the Stocksbridge bypass
road being opened. At the time there was concern
that members of the public would be able to see
straight into the Steel Works which lie in the
bottom of the valley and that they might well
consider it an eyesore. It was feared this would
give outsiders an adverse impression of the
town. It was decided
that a screen of trees should be planted below the
bypass. As this involved some 100,000 trees,
British Steel approached the Countryside Commission
for a grant. An early landscape study was
undertaken by Weddle Landscape Research Consultants
to establish the potential for change. These web pages
illustrate how the original project grew in
scope. The then
Countryside Commission
(now
Countryside
Agency)
was willing to give a grant but suggested that
rather than give a one-off grant, why not pay the
money into a small countryside project aimed at
looking after these trees along the bypass and
other areas of woodland in the Stocksbridge area.
Stocksbridge
Town Council and Sheffield City Council were both
approached and agreed to join together with the
Countryside Commission to fund into this project.
The Stocksbridge Steel Valley Project was
born. In 1999 The
Steel Valley and Upper Don Valley project joined
the Stocksbridge
Training and Enterprise Partnership to make more
effective use of local resources. For a quick
summary and up to date information see
Profile
of project. View over
Stocksbridge from the Steel Valley Walk (click here
for short History
of Valley) Stocksbridge
has a population of about 30,000. It lies 6 miles
north of Sheffield City Centre adjacent to the
River Don. It is part of the Sheffield Metropolitan
District, South Yorkshire. In its foundation it was
an industrial town which grew with the expansion of
Sheffield's steel industry along the Little Don
Valley bottom. Stocksbridge
Training and Enterprise Partnership (STEP) was
founded in 1996 to help in the regeneration of this
settlement as it coped with the decline of the
steel industry and the pressures of the
post-industrial job changes of the late 1990s. STEP
is a member of the DTA and focuses on training,
stimulating new job opportunities and improving the
quality of life for local people. STEP has been
very successful in attracting major funding,
including funds to build a Community Resource
Centre - this is now fully operational. Contact
Chris
Prescott
for further details. This website
deals with only one part of STEP's work -
environmental matters. It is designed to show other
members of the DTA an approach to environmental
improvements which has proved to work
well. As a reflection
of their concern with environmental issues the
Board of STEP initiated a
Local Agenda 21
study in 1997-98. This was undertaken over 12
months by two graduates (one an environmentalist
and the other a town planner), funded by the
Intermediate Labour Market job creation scheme. The
graduates worked initially under the supervision of
an environmental consultancy -
MAP21 Ltd.
The next environmental study was of the Town Centre
- undertaken by student planners from Holland
funded for a practice stage by the Dutch Government
in 1998-99. At present a detailed study of the
ecology of Stocksbridge is being undertaken by a
local expert working under the supervision of
Sheffield Wildlife Trust in partnership with the
Stocksbridge Steel Valley and Upper Don Project. In
addition, to increase available data for future
habitat management decisions, contact has been made
with Dr. Ian Rotherham of the University of
Sheffield, with a view to providing sites for
students to take part in biological monitoring
studies, management plan development and review,
studying sites, etc. Despite its
involvement with environmental issues, STEP had no
mechanism to implement the ideas produced by these
studies until it got together with the Steel Valley
and Upper Don Project. These two teams working
together provide the basis for organising the
future environmental enhancement of Stocksbridge.
The work of the Steel
Valley and Upper
Don
project group is described in detail in these web
pages.
The
Natural History of the Little Don
Valley Although
industrial in nature, the Little Don Valley
contains a variety of wildlife habitats. The main
land uses are urban and pasture, the latter largely
improved grassland with minimal wildlife interest .
However, much of the residential area comprises
mature gardens which are important breeding and
feeding grounds for a wide variety of creatures
including siskins, red admiral butterflies and
hedgehogs. Woodland is
also a significant landscape feature in the valley.
The smaller woods such as Fox Glen, Pot House Wood
and New Hall Wood which occur on the south side of
the valley are particularly interesting. They are
classified as ash/hazel which is unusual, as most
woods in the Sheffield area are characteristically
oak dominated. They are thought to be ancient since
they contain a variety of wild plants typical of
old woodland such as dog's mercury, yellow
archangel, golden saxifrage and greater
woodrush. On the northern
side of the valley, along Hunshelf Bank, is a large
area of gorse and hawthorn scrub, an excellent
habitat for small mammals such as bank vole and
birds such as linnets, yellowhammer and mistle
thrush. There have even been sightings of little
owls perched along the drystone walls. Butterflies
such as common blue, small copper, meadow brown and
small heath are also present. Looking across
Stocksbridge to the southwest the horizon is
dominated by moorland. Known as Whitwell Moor it
supports a wide variety of plants including
bilberry, tormentil and heath bedstraw and is a
good place to see birds such as skylark, meadow
pipit and curlew Wharncliffe
Crags and Heath is an important site
archaeologically and ecologically: for the
production of quern stones (mini flour mills -
which might be Neolithic, certainly Bronze Age). It
is the largest heath land in the Sheffield area,
and the lowest on the eastern side of the Peak
District. Hence distinctive species composition.
SSVUDP is on the management committee and is
supportive of Sheffield Wildlife Action (SWAP), who
are the managers through involving our trainees in
management tasks, leading guided walks etc.
Interesting fauna, e.g. nightjars, as well as other
characteristic fauna and flora. The steel works
which fills the valley floor owes its origins to a
water powered mill established in the 1790s
immediately upstream of John Stock's bridge.
After a varied
and indifferent career, the mill was acquired in
1842 by Samuel Fox, a 27 year old journey man
wiredrawer from Bradwell in Derbyshire. Fox
converted the mill to draw steel wire, and much of
his initial product was supplied to wool textile
industries of West Yorkshire in the form of hackle
and gill pins. From these
humble beginnings, with a dozen or so employees,
Fox built up his business by sheer hard work,
coupled with a readiness to accept new ideas that
showed business potential. The most famous of his
innovations were steel umbrella frames (from 1848)
and crinoline steel wire (1855). Indeed, it is fair
to claim that the Paragon umbrella frame, patented
by Fox in1852, was the forerunner of the modern
folding umbrella. From about 1860
the industry expanded rapidly, with the
installation of steel making capacity, forges and
rolling mills. Much of the output - rails, axles,
springs and tyres - went to supply the country's
emerging railways. This pattern of
business persisted until the1920's trade
depression, when it was realised that the local
steel industry would only have a long-term future
if it gave up railway products in favour of higher
value alloy and stainless steels. The decision was
a wise one, for it set a course which the valley's
industry follows to this day. Click
for map of
Sheffield
showing other DTA members last update 17 July 00 |
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Prepared by STEP on behalf of DTA - Yorkshire and Humberside Region |
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**STEP
