Sunday at Bill's Mother's: 22nd February 2026
Ducks and books. Forest lore. Here's Hazel. Waiting for the tram.
Morning. The long wait is over: spring is coming (soon) and our trams will carry bicycles (not quite so soon). We have news of a migrant American welcomed in to a Sheffield reservoir, and two books by local authors: on the challenges of ancient woodland, and the identification and history of the Sheffield area’s 300 bird species, and their enthusiastic recorders. And we have a brief guide to a wise tree that’s been waving at us for the last few weeks.
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Ancient and Modern
Ancient woodlands always contain the history of past humans, alongside the insects and flowers and fungi that fuel the centuries-old living landscapes covering so many hillsides of our city.
We featured Luke Barley’s assessment of Ash woodlands a few weeks ago, and this year we’ll be running some Sheffield-adapted extracts from his new book Ancient, due out on the 5th March. (The book already has praise from fellow authors Chris Packham and Tristan Gooley).
Luke is the Sheffield-based national consultant for trees and woodland for the National Trust, and tells me the book comes from a combination of his love of English literature with his practical experience as a professional woodlander.
The father of two young children, he says he probably chose the worst possible time to begin his book. “I was on paternity leave with my youngest nearly five years ago when it all just came together in my head about what I wanted to say.”
It would have been easy to park the ideas and make it a retirement project, he says, but he chose to burn the midnight oil instead. Actually, the 10pm oil: once the kids were asleep, he made himself sit with his laptop for twenty minutes every night writing at least 100 words. It’s clear there’s some ecological urgency to the project too.
“There’s a huge governmental agenda for woodland creation,” he says. “But what we’re also seeing is this government’s economic growth agenda and their talk of potentially deregulating to enable easier building development, which is a huge risk for our ancient woods. So I think we might have a new fight on our hands to protect ancient woodland, which is really worrying.”
We actually need both, he says. “It’s not an either/or. We need to protect our oldest woods, and we need to create lots of new woods.”
He hopes his book might help inspire people to build a new woodland culture. Being a woodlander means working with the landscape, clearing and using trees as our ancestors did, creating mixed habitats that make woodlands thrive.
“We need to take the lessons of our ancient woods into our new woods,” he says. “We need to be paying attention to how we make those woods brilliant for people and wildlife, so they serve the same function those ancient woods did for our ancestors. And to keep that for our children and grandchildren.”
We’ll have more about local and national woodland work from Luke Barley soon.
After 36 Years: Bikes on Trams
At last, we’ll be able to take bikes on our trams! But not for another four years, says South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard.
The new tram fleet arriving from 2030: “Will be designed with space for bikes because I know a bigger, better tram network has to be accessible to dogs, cyclists, and anyone else who wants to use it, right across South Yorkshire,” he says.
Before the Supertram network opened in 1994, cycle campaigners pointed politicians and planners to tram and underground networks around the world that happily carried bicycles. San Francisco, Adelaide, Amsterdam, San Diego, Newcastle, even parts of the London underground. But not here, said the tram authorities, citing danger, space limitations, and lack of demand
Disbelieving campaigners reckoned the carriage of bicycles would actually increase passenger numbers in Sheffield, by opening up the catchment area of the network, and allowing locals and tourists to ride out with their bikes to green travel routes away from the city.
Some cycle activists tried and failed to take a set of bicycles gift-wrapped as Mother’s Day presents on the Supertram. A few years earlier, a life size cardboard bicycle sculpture made a successful trip. “You’ll not get far on that, lad,” said the conductor to the sculptor travelling alongside.
And in 2006, cycle campaigners persuaded the tram authorities to allow a Sunday morning trial of real bikes out to Transpennine Trail routes south east of the city. Would there be arguments and (as some officials feared) travel chaos as bikes fell on shopping bags and toddlers got tangled in wheel spokes?
“It was the most boring day of my life. Literally nothing happened,” wrote Simon Geller, Secretary of the Transpennine Trail Trust after the event. After campaigning for bikes on trams for so long, he’s now relaxed about a delay of another four years.
The mayor posted his reasoning for the delay on a social media site, after telling this publication two years ago that Supertram would carry bicycles: “As soon as I can work out how to get that done.” Late last year, he says his advisors told him bike carriage was not possible under the configuration of the current trams.
It would if the tram contractors had been told to make space for bikes when the interiors were designed, says Simon. That is, when the original trams were kitted out in the 1990s, and when the new tram-trains were designed before being launched eight years ago.
Simon wasn’t surprised by the refusal for the current tram design. If you’re looking for an engineering solution, he observes, one engineering solution is to say no and not do anything.
Several years ago, his Transpennine Trail colleagues worked out that trail users brought at least a million pounds a year to the South Yorkshire economy. The walking, running and cycling networks around the edges of South Yorkshire have already been celebrated by SYMCA, who’ve launched a 155 mile South Yorkshire By Bike route.
Enabling more locals and tourists to take their bikes by train and tram to explore these lovely local trails would bring even more millions to the local economy, says Simon. And while they’re designing the new tram fleet for bikes, how about recognising that cycles are now built for families and people with disabilities, and design the new trams for three wheelers and longer bikes too?
(Simon reckons some specialist cycles are actually mobility vehicles rather than standard banned bicycles, so if they fit in the existing spaces, Supertram should agree to carry them now.)
SYMCA confirmed to us they intend to carry bikes on the new trams as soon as they arrive in 2030, and that they’ll be looking at more secure parking at tram stops and transport hubs. And since folding bikes can already be carried on their trams, they’ll ask the Supertram authorities if they can promote the fact a bit more.
When Supertram was being planned, it was obvious to a young campaigner like Simon that bikes, trams and trains were made for each other. Now he’s a grandad, and Sheffield is finally latching onto the idea, just a few decades after Adelaide and Newcastle.
“I was pleased to see the commitment that Supertram will carry bikes on the new vehicles. And I do actually trust Oliver Coppard sufficiently that I think he’ll carry through on that,” he says. “But obviously we’ll be keeping an eye on it.”
Curlews, Skylarks, Ring-necked Ducks and 297 Others
It’s not official springtime yet, but our birds haven’t been checking the meteorological (1st March) or astronomical (20th March) calendars. Sheffield Bird Study Group report that Skylarks are singing near 70 Acre Hill, Curlews are arriving back at Rivelin and Redmires, Ring-necked Parakeets are looking for nests in Whiteley Wood and a strange waterfowl landed at Redmires after being blown off course.
It was a Ring-necked Duck, the group’s chairman Richard Hill tells me. “Only the 11th SBSG record, but the first report of a female locally and the first ever record of this North American species for Redmires.”
He adds that the fabulous New Birds of The Sheffield Area guide to the city’s 300 recorded bird species is now available to buy at the group’s website. It’s £32 for non-members and £25 for SBSG members (via a link on the site’s member’s section).
The £6 postage addition is to cover costs, Richard says, but readers who fancy joining an Sheffield Bird Study Group meeting at the University of Sheffield Diamond Building in April or May can pick one up without postage charge.
Hazel Wisdom
February is a good time of year to tune in to Hazels, says local diarist, photographer and illustrator Penny Philcox. It’s easy to spot the catkins (the male flowers) which wave fluffily in the breeze, dispersing clouds of pollen.
But Penny points out the mysterious female flowers too, which are tiny and pink and hiding in the new buds. Both are starting to pass over now after all the rain, but you might still catch a few pink flower tendrils on Hazel trees bearing plenty of yellowish catkins (a.k.a. lambs tails).
Tuning into Hazels might lead you to old hedges, or where the trees were coppiced in centuries past, for hurdles, tools and baskets. The tree was one of the first to arrive back here after the last ice age, but was then shaded out by larger trees, so Hazel usually now makes its living on the lighter edges of darker woodland.
It naturally sprouts again from the base of the trunk when branches are broken by animals or people, so old local Hazels are often shiny or pock marked grey families of different ages.
In old Norse or Celtic mythology, the Hazel and its nuts were associated with knowledge and wisdom, and modern analyses of hazelnuts shows they’re full of chemicals, vitamins and fats good for your nerves and brain.
Hazelnuts are spread by squirrels and Nuthatches: the gaudy former southern bird has blossomed in Sheffield since the last century, doubling or more in breeding numbers over recent years. And squirrels are doing quite well here too. So in future we should see even more Hazels spreading their wisdom around the Outdoor City.
The Sheffield Nature Diary by Penny Philcox is here.
More What’s On Out There (from Sunday 22nd February)
A tiny selection from our new (and regularly updated) What’s On Out There news and listings post for the late winter. (Full version for full members, preview for all).
Sun 22nd - Wadsley & Loxley Commoners Muck in Morning
Mon 23rd - Fri 27th - Daily health walks in parks and green spaces from Step Out Sheffield, 10 am start
Weds 25th - South Yorks Orienteers - Greno Woods night event
Thurs 26th - SRWT Volunteering - Sunnybank
Fri 27th - SRWT Volunteering - Greno Woods
Sat 28th - Wardsend Cemetery conservation session
Sat 28th - Parkwood Springs conservation morning
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Obviously the bikes on trams commitment is good news, but as someone who will be in their 70s by 2030, May I be allowed a degree of scepticism. When politicians say ‘from 2030…’ or any other date, we should expect further delays; one replacement tram or the whole fleet? Since this sort of development takes time to specify, tender and contract before any engineering starts, four years is not a long time.
Thank you for another lovely Sunday read. Always makes me feel better! Xxx great news about the tram and bikes. A joined up transport network that encourages us to get out on our bikes or with our dogs is so essential to wellbeing. I am so grateful that council and symca are listening and taking action. Dogs on trams was something supertram told me would NEVER happen, and now it has, it makes getting around to different walking (and drinking!) spots with the dog so much easier. Thanks to all who helped make these changes happen xxx