Sunday at Bill's Mother's: 5th May 2024
Art houses, the importance of fly spotting, and the Fox Hagg chainsaw massacre. Plus, the city's first green councillor of the western hills.
Morning. A visual issue today, with wild art from Open Up, wild creatures from our river mud, wild news from Ecclesall, and woeful goings on at Fox Hagg.
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Art Stroll
“Creative neighbourhoods,” says current Open Up Sheffield organiser Andy van Vliet, when I ask him to sum up what’s going on this weekend and next, in pockets of artistry all over South Yorkshire.
I’ve been covering Open Up since it began with a small arts council grant in 1998, and the artists, sculptors, ceramicists, photographers (and biscuit buyers) opening up their homes and studios to the city usually say the best approach is to treat it as a way of nosying around your neighbourhood, and discovering wonderful hidden artists you’d never realised were beavering away just a few streets away.
Or, treat it as an expedition to find as many unusual artistic hotspots you can in a weekend. Thurgoland, Norfolk Park or Bents Green, for example, as well as the bohemian enclaves of Walkley, Hathersage and Nether Edge.
Biscuits? Yes, almost every artist you visit seems to provide biscuits too, or even better, home baking from a supportive family member behind the kitchen door, who might poke their head out in their apron to ask what you make of the scones, never mind the oil paintings.
The other thing you notice as you travel round is how much of the artwork created in people’s garages and outhouses is inspired by our wild landscape.
"Landscape painters are blessed in Sheffield by the huge numbers of green spaces, wooded walks and fabulous moors,” says Karen Sherwood, long time promoter of Sheffield artistry, and a painter herself. “The hills create ever-changing light with constantly changing skies, which is such a boon to those of us who enjoy a good moody atmospheric scene.”
Artists born elsewhere stay in Sheffield to work in the city of hills and moors and strange light, which those of us born here often take for granted. Karen says it was her love of the moors that rooted her to Sheffield. “I arrived in 1987 and have never left.”
Katherine Rhodes says the practical ease of getting out to our wild countryside helps too. “Sheffield offers the benefit of access to the outdoors, whist still having many of the benefits of being in a city,” she says.
In the early days of Open Up, the problems of struggling artists trying to make a living were one of the drivers of the scheme, which included a heady and unpredictable mix of professionals and keen amateurs behind those Open Up doorways. I wonder if easier online sales options now, along with more customers with plush apartments to furnish, has made life any easier?
“The city is always changing and transforming and reinventing itself, and you see evidence of that as you go round,” said one of the art tourists ten years ago.
Larvae Lovers
I’m in a bowls club changing room, with over a dozen people staring at tiny beasts in pools of gritty water. To be an ace river pollution detective, I learn, you just need a handful of simple tools: a magnifying glass, obviously. A plastic insert for a kitchen drawer. A hors d'oeuvre tray. A bucket, also obviously. And a turkey baster. A guide like this helps too (to put under your riverfly hors d'oeuvre tray).
Everyone is very excited: they’ve been out to to the River Porter just down the hill, learned from Sally Hyslop of the Don Catchment Rivers Trust how to carefully kick-sample the river mud to dislodge any underwater invertebrates, and then carried their buckets back up to the bowls club to see what they’ve found. This is pond dipping for adults, with a purpose.
Riverfly monitoring like this, where you count the numbers you find of eight different river invertebrate groups living in the mud at a fixed location, over a fixed period of kick sampling time, will show how polluted (or not) a river is at that moment.
More and more groups across the country are carrying out riverfly citizen science monitoring to the same criteria. The results are gobbled up by staff at the Environment Agency, who then use the data to clamp down on anyone polluting our rivers. The tiny creatures monitored are all highly sensitive to pollution, including sewage, so drops in their numbers are a very clear warning sign.
“These riverflies don’t move much, but they’re an essential part of the food chain of a river,” says Simon Ogden of the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust. “Fish and birds eat them, so they’re crucial to the more cuddly things on a river.”
So, you slip your special riverfly guide under your octagonal hors d'oeuvre tray. You empty your bucket of river sludge into your plastic kitchen drawer insert, and get out your magnifying glass. Finally you aim your turkey baster at a suspected river invertebrate hiding near a stone, squeeze it carefully, and if you’ve aimed well, the insect should squirt into your baster, ready to be deposited in the identification tray.
Once you’ve sucked up all the riverflies you’ve found, you count each species group, record the numbers, and send the results in to your monitoring team leader, where any major fluctuations will be acted upon.
Sally tells us that local teams have collected data leading to prosecutions and remedial action by companies responsible for river pollution. Staff from the Environment Agency can be at an affected site within hours, she adds, all because a volunteer has identified a drop in the expected number of creepy crawlies lurking on the river bed.
Simon Ogden says by mid May there should be 60 trained volunteers carrying out riverfly monitoring across the Sheffield area, with a new group meeting this Thursday (9th) at the Gardeners Rest (Neepsend Lane) to look at monitoring the Don between Deepcar and Salmon Pastures in Attercliffe - volunteers welcome, he says.
This weekend also sees the Big River Watch campaign from the national Rivers Trust, where we watch our local river for 15 minutes and report what we see, good or bad. And last week saw the launch of the long-awaited Yorkshire Water live Combined Storm (Sewage) Overflow map, which reveals there were CSO discharges yesterday in Handsworth, Hillsborough, Catcliffe, Woodhouse, Swallownest and Richmond.
To help keep your eye on the CSO outage outrage, as noted in a previous post, contact your local voluntary river group: the Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust, Rivelin Valley Conservation Group, Friends of the Loxley Valley, the Upper Don Trail Trust or the Don Catchment Rivers Trust who may be able to help you train as a river ranger too.
River polluters beware: growing dozens of Sheffielders have teamed up with our caddis fly larvae, mayflies, stoneflies and shrimps, and they’re all watching you.
Chainsaw Criminal at Fox Hagg
Last week around 50 trees were hacked down at the Fox Hagg Nature Reserve above the Rivelin Valley. The trees, mainly Rowan and Beech, I gather, appear to have been inexpertly chainsawed to the ground for reasons unknown. Maybe someone thought the view was better this way? Maybe they just wanted to test their new chainsaw?
Whatever the reason, site managers Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust are asking for witnesses to what is now a crime scene at the hillside adjoining Wyming Brook, near the Three Merry Lads pub.
There are now South Yorkshire Police and Forestry Commission investigations underway, and a SYP crime reference number (298/240424). If you have any information, contact the police on 101 or email Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust at nature.reserves@wildsheffield.com
First Green in Ecclesall
The new Green councillor for Ecclesall, Peter Gilbert, has been campaigning in the patch for three years, often on nature-related issues. This magazine tries to avoid party politics, but I thought I’d ask the first ever Green on the western hills of Sheffield for a few of his early thoughts on nature recovery. He said:
“Ecclesall ward is blessed with hugely popular parks and green spaces. Residents use them in their own ways and mostly with great respect and care. I think that most people value our wildlife, but many still don’t get that populations are crashing and species are threatened. We need to create nature corridors and habitats. And this can be done in combination with improving recreation options for people.”
And on the vexatious misunderstandings about local transport to the businesses of Ecclesall (and Abbeydale) roads, he said:
“I think people were tired of misinformation and the weaponising of genuine concerns. People don’t want to be used. They want to be listened to, and have things explained clearly. It’s totally fine to have differences of opinion but a councillor’s job is to help residents understand and allay fears, not to take advantage of them. Regardless of how we choose to get around, people want to be able to do it safely and efficiently. Currently that’s not the case.”
Selected What’s On Out There (from Sun 5th May)
See our full listings service here. It’s updated every few days after I’ve put hours in to save your faffing. Appreciation button below.
Sun 5th - Plants Tour of Sheffield General Cemetery with Gerry Firkins (£5)
Sun 5th - Mon 6th - Open Up Sheffield, local artists open their studios across the city
Mon 6th - Loxley Cemetery Open Day (and cemetery tours)
Weds 8th - Sheffield Bird Study Group: From Pampas to Patagonia: birding in Argentina talk by David Wood at Sheff University (7.15pm - £2 non members)
Thurs 9th - Friends of Porter Valley work morning
Sat 11th - The famed (early) Dawn Chorus Walk of Wadsley Common - 5 am start
Sat 11th - Sun 12th - Open Up Sheffield, local artists open their studios across the city again.
Sat 11th - Early bird walk, Wardsend Cemetery
Sat 11th - Parkwood Springs Conservation Morning (meet Shirecliffe Rd 10am)
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I just wanted to say a bit thank you because thanks to this publication I spent a couple of wondrous hours exploring Woolley Woods last week and taking in the utterly amazing carpet of bluebells - I don’t think I’ve ever used that phrase in such an exactly spot on way before. I also saw a deer, sniffed the wild garlic and generally enjoyed the time spent wandering amongst the ancient woodland - a truly special place. Thank you!