River Ouse Restoration Project at Sheffield Park

On 10 and 11 July, visitors were invited to join the ranger and volunteers for the annual wildlife survey 'bioblitz' on the parkland. Families set off across the fields and down to the river armed with identification sheets and binoculars to see what they could find. Pond dipping took place at Leeches Pond with the ranger helping to identify the water-dwelling creatures. A great and fun opportunity for visitors to learn about the wildlife that lives in their local area.

One of the aims with the River Ouse Restoration Project was to offer a suitable habitat for bird species that have seen a large decline in recent decades. The UK lapwing population fell by at least 40 per cent between 1970 and 1998 (BTO) so we’re delighted to have some visit our flood meadows this year. Wet grassland is a particularly important source of food for lapwings, and we hope in years to come they may even nest in Broad Mead. Redwings and Fieldfares, both of which are on the red list for birds of conservation concern, have also been spotted in the area.

We’ve been continuing to install a stockproof fence across one corner of Irongates Meadow to create a small area which has been nicknamed ‘Hawthorn Corner’. This patch will be planted with scrub plants such as Hawthorn and Blackthorn and the fencing will protect the young plants from our grazing livestock. By creating this habitat by the river, we aim to encourage a wide range of species including pollinating insects, small mammals and nesting birds.

Work has been completed on the installation of the information panels funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Visitors to the parkland will be able to find out about the industrial heritage of the river as well as the nature and wildlife that live in the surrounding habitat.

After a long pause due to flooding and Coronavirus, work has begun again to finish installation of the parkland interpretation funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Autumn 2019 turned out to be a very wet one, which is great news for our scrapes which are now holding water as they were designed to do. We hope this will encourage migrating wading birds.

There’s a brand-new display up in the woodland gallery, which is nestled inside Ringwood Toll natural play area. The photos were taken to document the ongoing River Ouse Restoration Project and were captured by the Hookstead Photography Group. Hookstead in nearby Crowborough is an East Sussex County Council-run Day Support Service for adults with a learning disability. We were delighted that the group came to see their pictures up and to help us celebrate the new display.

During 2019, thanks to support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the National Trust were able to carry out works to conserve an 18th-century lock at Sheffield Park and Garden. Volunteers worked alongside restoration specialists to learn how to stabilise the brickwork. Justin from Berry Stonework helped us keep a video diary of the work in progress. Watch to find out more: River Ouse Lock Conservation Project video

The free art trail is now open to guide you across the parkland to the wooden bridges over the River Ouse. Inspired by the landscape around us, the trail has been created by local schools and artists using locally sourced materials.

The garden team have constructed scrapes (or shallow flooded areas) to attract wading birds. We carefully selected damp and seasonally flooded sites to offer the best habitats and have already been rewarded with the sighting of a Green Sandpiper. We’ve also seen a Skylark and Yellowhammers around the scrapes – both of which are RSPB red list birds of conservation concern. Monitoring the bird populations here at Sheffield Park is important, both for planning our management work and helping to understand the status of bird species across the country.

Visitors can now walk across the rope bridge over Irongates Lock onto the small island in the River Ouse. This is a new area for visitors to explore and to see the river from a different perspective.

Today marks another landmark date when the bridge opens, linking Sheffield Park and Garden to the Ouse Valley Way and the village of Newick. By opening new walks and alternative views for visitors, you can now enjoy the Sheffield Park estate from a new perspective.

As you can imagine, it's not easy moving a bridge and several weeks of arrangements and discussions went into planning the move, as well as some serious lifting equipment. Despite the bridge being delivered last November, we had to wait until the weather and ground conditions were favourable to withstand the equipment and it was certainly a momentous day watching it move across the parkland.

Almost a year on from the start of the major work to restore the River Ouse, the banks have recovered well and the hydroseeding has resulted in a good covering of grass and wildflowers.

At this time of year, it's hard to imagine what the bridge will look like once it's in position across the River Ouse. This artist's impression certainly helps and we're looking forward to connecting up to the Ouse Valley Way. We hope to be able to move the bridge late April although it does depend on the ground conditions.

The bridge has arrived but due to the onset of winter, it's sitting just on the edge of the parkland and will remain here until the weather and ground conditions improve, before it can be moved down to the riverbank.

Thanks to the contractor, Ebsfleet, this drone footage shows the scale of the work that took place and shares an overview of the project to date.

We used a variety of methods to make improvements to the river and flood plain habitats during the work.

• Leaving the felled tree stumps in the riverbanks will help stabilise them and also add diversity to the habitat.
• Hydroseeding the banks with naturally occurring grasses and wildflowers means they can get established quickly which will help secure the banks.
• Pushing more water onto the historic meanders by creating cuts from the river channel will allow them to flood more frequently and for longer providing an excellent wet meadow habitat.
• Hydraulic controls such as root balls and gravel deposits placed in the water will vary the flow of the river. This provides excellent breeding grounds for fish and dragonflies.

Thanks to grants from the Environment Agency, Viridor, Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust, South-East Water and Sussex Lund, Sheffield Park and Garden is now undergoing the first phase of our River Ouse restoration project. In this first stage of restoration, Ebsfleet Environmental Ltd will be creating berms (shallow edges) using soil excavated from the floodplain areas, held in place with wooden stakes and faggots.

In addition, seven areas of the channel will be narrowed by 50 per cent restricting the flow of water creating hydraulic control during flooding. These will be formed using several overlapping trees, again reused from clearance works. Gravels will also be introduced to the riverbed at these points to encourage fish breeding.

Sheffield Park and Garden wins National Lottery support for a major river restoration project.