The National Trust is set to open a 265 acre historic, listed park at Sheffield Park Garden in July.
South Park, adjacent to Sheffield Park Garden, is an English Heritage Grade I listed landscape and was laid out at the same time as the garden by ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton. It forms an integral part of the designed landscape at Sheffield Park with the house and garden at its centre. The land sits in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the garden itself is designated a Site of Nature Conservation Importance.
The estate was divided in 1954 when the previous owner, Captain Granville Soames, was obliged to sell. The garden, house and parkland were split and the National Trust was only able to acquire the garden. However, in 2006 a rare opportunity to purchase the parkland was presented to the Trust who seized the chance to reunite the two halves of this historic estate and have since begun to restore the parkland for the benefit of wildlife and the public.
Already a temporary grazing regime has been introduced and a large amount of invasive shrub has been cleared – as a result many wild spring flowers returned to the area this year. Park Warden Kevan Gibbons says:
'Our plans for the future are to set up a permanent grazing management programme, restore the woodland features and the water meadows adjoining the River Ouse and implement substantial nature conservation benefits.'
All of this means that otters may well return to this part of the river and the 250 year old trees can be saved as homes for bats and rare fungi. In the longer term the Trust also hopes to reinstate a carriage drive leading from Sheffield Park Garden to the Bluebell Railway.
The park will be opened during a ceremony for local residents on 10 July at 6pm after which people will be able to enjoy it at any time all year round.
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