Botanical Gardens Sheffield

Sheffield is the City in the UK where I was born and it has 80 parks which, for an industrial city, is something special.

The Botanical gardens had been left to go to ruin and were overgrown with the glass houses almost destroyed. A group was formed and the restoration began. With the help of a lottery fund grant.

Even though I haven't lived in Sheffield for over 40 years it seemed like a good idea and an old school friend of mine was involved with the project. We sponsored some glass though there are thousands of panes so it was a drop in ocean but I'm sure it was a start.

Last year we visited the gardens and the glass houses had just opened after all the years of neglect it was so wonderful to see them as they must have been in Victorian times.

The gardens were still a mess though work had started on those as well.

Yesterday 26th April 2005 we visited them again and what a difference. The space is transformed with beauty all around.

If you want to have a lasting memorial to friends and relatives there isn't a better way than to donate to this sort of project. I am sure there will one in your area and I hope you will consider helping to keep these places alive for generations of the future.

Here is a short slideshow of some of what we saw. It is not a good time of year to see the plants and trees at the their best so we are definitely going to make another trip in a few months time.

History here