Bill's Mother's Summer Special: 25th June 2026
An extra edition for all subscribers hiding from the weather this week.
Evening. An extra edition, with news from last weekend’s hills, extra photos from our inner city safari at Matilda Street, and more on citizen science for Sheffield nature watchers.
And thanks to all the new subscribers last week. Following the success of the Sheffield Tribune campaign to land lots more supporters of local journalism to launch their five city challenges, I’d like to explain our own targets, and what they’ll achieve.
We’re now 90% of the way to our milestone of 380 full supporters of our social enterprise publication - every one of our current 340+ supporters is part of the publishing team of It’s Looking A Bit Black Over Bill’s Mother’s. What do we mean by a social enterprise?
Working for the good of locals and nature and biodiversity and public health and the outdoors and all that kind of thing ✅
Business aims as above rather than to ratchet up the profits ✅
Paying employees a living wage or above - just about ✅
Our modest targets for this summer are:
350 full supporters - launch our new Commoner’s Muck magazine highlighting the work of the Outdoor City’s hundreds of voluntary groups working to protect and improve our wild spaces.
380 full supporters - start to provide freelance work for new writers to help us cover even more.
So: if you like us, please help us to reach those targets for the cost of a pint of beer a month by upgrading below. Thanks.
Small Park Big Run
Running round in circles for 24 hours: the Small Park Big Run is a typically eccentric Sheffield community event for the summer.
On the 10th annual Small Park Big Run weekend, during the latest hottest June on record, 565 runners toiled up and down the hills of Meersbrook Park, and 300 singers joined the communal sing on the Sunday morning to help recognise the plight of the almost two million people remaining in Gaza.
For ten years Small Park Big Run has raised money for projects to help women and children in Palestine, and one of the organisers, Jonathan Feldman, reckoned around 800 people attended the two day event this year, from noon on Saturday 20th to noon on Sunday 21st.
There had been worries groups associated with violent racism might get wind of the event, he said quietly as the Sunday morning runners cantered by. And how would that play out, we wondered, in a field of cheerful Sheffielders picnicking and strumming guitars?
“But actually I don’t think there was anything,” he said, “except for somebody who came by on Saturday at six in the morning when I was starting to set up, with the sort of abuse that we’re used to, just comments informed by racism.”
People wrapped in Palestinian flags or scarves ambled by, hugged Jonny and carried on their way. “Other than that, everybody who came along, just brought a spirit of wanting to make it as nice a time as possible,” he said.
The course is a tough one kilometre circuit, including the ridiculously steep incline towards Bishop’s House, a bumpy descent through the woods to Meersbrook Hall, stumbling along past the playground, and then round again, as many times as you like.
The feel of the park last weekend was like any other Sheffield village summer fun day, but with chatting Meersbrook villagers contemplating sweaty runners and stark infographics about the war in Gaza, rather than rolling tombolas and face painting.
Animal sized paper lanterns arrive in the woods on Saturday evening, and on Sunday during busker’s hour, there are musicians every 100 metres
In the dark dusty dell near the bowling club you’re blasted by The Father of Lies blackened sludge crust punk band (as their social media page classifies them), then ascend through ambient violinism and vintage banjo crooning, then back down again past two choral collectives and a shady cellist.
And everyone seems to be cheerily smiling at everyone: even the blackened sludge crust punks have a twinkle in their eyes.
At the end, Jonny and colleagues managed to link up on a scratchy zoom call to the city of Khan Younis, and talk to people from a children’s centre (built thanks to support from people in Sheffield), that Jonny tells me was recently “obliterated”.
The message from the people struggling to stay alive on the other end of the line was that they “felt very supported,” Jonny said.
“It was a solid Sheffield wall of love and solidarity beaming to a desperate but resilient community in Palestine.”
The next Small Park Big Run is on 19th & 20th June 2027.
Donations to the Small Park Big Run charity of 2026 (Sheffield Palestine Cultural Exchange) can still be made at: https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/spbr26
Record Collectors
After last weekend’s mini-safari in the hyper urban Matilda Street pocket park, Elesha Searles sent over a few of her photos, and the species list she’d gathered in an hour of pottering with her magnifying glass (while also helping your reporter avoid falling in the Porter Brook).
23 wild plant species, 6 tree types, 14 invertebrates, 3 impressive birds and at least one identifiable lichen. From Herb Robert and Ribwort Plantain to Crack Willow and Norway Maple, from Moorhen to Goldfinch, from Common Carder Bumblebees to Red Admirals to Red Velvet Mites. And there’ll probably be a lot more we didn't spot, said Elesha from Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust.
As we’ve covered before, wild things love to take over urban sites, given the chance. Strange dusts and crumbling walls, trampling human feet and in this case a river tumbling down from the moors all help provide a foothold for plants and insects, if we let them get on with it. Then the birds and beasts will follow.
Elesha explained last weekend that the main aim of the City Nature Challenge last April was to inspire us all to get out and start looking for what’s living here alongside us. In its first year, Elesha was delighted that records came in from across the city, including north and eastern communities.
Run here with support from partners including Sheffield City Council, Shire Brook Valley Nature Reserve, and Ecclesfield Parish Council and lots of local volunteers and ecologists, this year’s City Nature Challenge was originally launched ten years ago by California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and has now spread to over 750 global cities.
The project is linked to the international iNaturalist nature recording app. Individuals and groups around Sheffield have used iNaturalist to identify species, and then add them to national, international and local data used for all manner of citizen science, not least planning enquiries in areas of urban wildness.
SRWT also offer their own Nature Counts recording system, where they point out data received can be immediately used for local SRWT projects around Sheffield and Rotherham. Verified records from both sources also go into the UK’s National Biodiversity Network nature database.
The important thing is not which app you use, (or notebook come to that), Elesha says, but that you actually get out and start looking, and ideally recording.
“Urban wildlife is really rich,” she says. And once you start looking you start seeing things you didn't even know were there. “Like I spotted a Carder Bumblebee that I’ve not spotted before,” she says. “So every day’s a school day, isn’t it?”
iNaturalist - search for Sheffield to find the various projects going on around here around the year. Or start your own.
SRWT Nature Counts - Start an account to log records around the Sheffield and Rotherham area, and help SRWT staff collect data about their local reserves.
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Thanks so much for covering the Small Park Big Run - a really lovely event and so moving to link up with children in Gaza