Morning. Out there news today about glorious flowers in Kelham Island and inglorious shooting practises on our grouse moors. We have a story about running and talking from Ellen Beardmore, and some thoughts on how we might start sparing and sharing our wild spaces for the sake of local wildlife, following yesterday’s 42 acres of sanctuary post in the Sheffield Tribune.
We’ve had a busy few weeks, so we’re still on our way with upcoming posts on wild swimming, dry grass, happy butterflies, hot rivers and the wild world of Wardsend.
We aim to have some more supporters supplements coming soon to cover some of these subjects (and more), so you know what to do: if you like what you read here, help us out by joining as a full supporter of our unique social enterprise publication for the cost of a posh coffee, by taking two minutes to upgrade, right there, just below.
Out There News
Flower Festival - Bloom Sheffield are hosting their first Flower Festival at Kelham Island from 10am today. The not for profit flower people wanted to show off the flora of Yorkshire, and fundraise for their free gardening sessions to improve Sheffield women’s mental health. Bloom have been operating for six years, with now four special gardens around the city producing local flowers and hosting a variety of sessions for women including therapeutic horticulture and baby and toddler groups.
The festival includes flower stalls, talks and workshops, and family play activities for all, with a £3 donation for entrance to the market and play activities. We hope to be visiting Bloom Sheffield soon for a future post.
Gory-less Twelfth - During last year’s grouse shooting season, we heard that disease and extreme climate conditions were making driven grouse shoots ever harder to justify economically.
As far as we know, there haven’t been any official shoots on the moors above Sheffield so far this season (which lasts from August 12th to December 10th).
National and local campaigning, like the recent annual Reclaim our Moors march from Redmires onto Moscar, is helping to make the cases against driven grouse shooting clearer to our politicians.
Recently, the government quietly revealed they were looking into a licensing scheme, for shooting birds like Red Grouse and Pheasant, following a recent RSPB report noting that in their study period up to 2024, 55% of confirmed incidents of raptor persecution were “linked to land managed for game bird shooting.”
Some moorland owners are already changing to favour an experience rather than numbers approach, and offering walk up shooting, as practiced by more civilised shooting nations.
It’s possible that this year’s drier weather has left grouse moor owners with something approaching a ‘surplus’ of this year’s young Red Grouse, which might still allow them to set up days for wealthy shotgun owners to blast dozens of them out of the sky.
But as reported before, if the UK government is finally noticing that something smells bad about industrial moorland shooting, maybe the days of the driven grouse shoot really are numbered.
Run, Talk, Run - by Ellen Beardmore
Talking is good, mental health advocates tell us. The outdoors, and moving, are good too, they’ll add. And mixing them all up together is really good, say public health professionals across the world.
Today our running reporter, Ellen Beardmore, visits a Sheffield organisation who learn the benefits of running talk every week.
Ash Mellors admits that for years, he had a ‘love-hate’ relationship with running. So it might seem a tad…..unusual that he founded a weekly running group in Sheffield.
The 44-year-old is the leader of Run Talk Run Sheffield, a free, welcoming event that offers an open space for people to talk about their mental health while moving.
“I’ve been running since 2008, but I have had a very love-hate relationship with it’, said Ash, speaking after we completed a Wednesday group run together.
“Doing the Sheffield Half Marathon in 2019 was when things changed. It blew me away. I had no idea there would be that much support on the course and so many people doing it.”
Just after Ash found his enthusiasm, the Covid-19 lockdown hit. Then in October 2020, he spotted Run Talk Run movements taking off in Lincoln, Somerset and Norwich via social media. And instantly knew he wanted to be involved.
Ash, who lives in Greenhill, added: “I was missing running with people. I saw the number of people that were enjoying these events and the ethos behind it and thought, let’s give it a go.”
At first the Sheffield group got off to a slow start, and moved around the city’s parks, attracting different people from different postcodes each time.
In 2023, Endcliffe Park was chosen as the group’s home destination, and it now meets at the Hunter’s Bar entrance every Wednesday, rain or shine.
A fine drizzle fell as I joined the group for their 5K route a couple of weeks ago. As we headed along Rustlings Road, there was plenty of chat. In contrast to other running groups, the topics veered more towards moving house and cooking tips than towards upcoming races or the latest shoes.
That’s because Run Talk Run focuses on mental health support first, and being a running club second. The aim is to increase accessibility to mental health support and make physical movement seem less intimidating.
Ash said the group had had a positive impact on people’s lives over the years.
He added: “One man opened up a little bit about how Covid had really affected him; he was just relieved he had someone to talk to because he lived on his own. I think we saw him for about a month, then he sent us a message saying thank you so much for listening.
He let us know he wasn’t coming back, because he’d joined a running club!
“By coming out with us, he had built his confidence up - you could physically see that improving week by week.”
As our group headed around the back of the park - with walking breaks on hill sections - a rainbow symbolically appeared above our heads.
The gentle route continued down Brocco Bank and through Sharrow Vale, before returning down Psalter Lane. Some of the group, made up mostly of regulars, headed for pizza afterwards.
The group will celebrate its sixth birthday in October, and there are plans afoot to mark the Sheffield Half Pint Marathon too.
The mental health benefits - not to mention the physical ones - of running are well-stated. One study, in the Journal of Affective Disorders in 2023, even found that antidepressants and running-based therapy for patients with depression or anxiety had similar levels of effectiveness.
The appeal of Run Talk Run, especially for beginners, lies in its laid-back approach. There’s no need to worry about paces, routes, or buying the latest running watch.
And that creates a more relaxed, inclusive impression compared to a typical goal-focused running club.
Ash is a Run Talk Run regional leader supporting other leaders across Yorkshire, the North East and North West. He said: “I love creating this safe space or environment to talk about anything. People can be open. There is no judgement or pressure.
“I think it (running to help mental health) works because moving gives everybody endorphins, no matter how fast or slow they are going. If you are moving, you are being active. And running is really hard - people forget that, and you’ve got to overcome it, so it is a real achievement.”
But he stresses that striving for speed is not an essential requirement of that achievement: “We will go at whatever pace people need to. Nobody is left behind.”
As you read this, former NHS worker Ash is about to start a new job at Sheffield’s Up and Running shop. So has running taken over his whole life now?
“It absolutely has,” he laughs.
Run Talk Run is a global movement that was founded in 2017 by Jess Robson.
The Sheffield group meets at the Hunter’s Bar entrance to Endcliffe Park every Wednesday at 7 pm.
City of Sanctuaries?
The marvellous Sheffield Tribune covered the Ecclesall Woods bird sanctuary in yesterday’s post, to which I and a few of our readers contributed. (Along with members of Sheffield Bird Study Group, Friends of Ecclesall Woods, Sorby Natural History Society and Sheffield RSPB).
The sanctuary is an example of how we might consider our wild places, a friendly council officer told me over the sound of warblers and Buzzards in the 42 acre fenced enclosure. He told me about the current idea in the conservation world of a ‘landscape of sharing and sparing’.
With ever more humans visiting the wild landscapes of Sheffield and the Peak District, what do we share with nature, and what do we spare ourselves, so nature can have a safe home there?
Allowing more wet woodlands to flourish will likely keep people out who don’t fancy wading through bogs, particularly if the official paths are dry and looked after.
And maybe fences to protect places like the developing Parkwood Springs heathland, beyond the incoming new gravity park, will spare space for Roe Deer, wild flowers, beetles, Linnets and Skylarks to prosper, without sharing the land with humans and their dogs blundering past every few minutes.
And could we allow the faint paths widened by Covid lockdown explorers to return to the wildwood (or the wild moors), so the creatures that live there can start their families without us?
Birds of prey in particular like places without people in them to bring up the next generation. So sanctuaries like the century-old patch of Ecclesall Woods, or little wet rainforests in the Gleadless, Loxley or Porter Valleys, are likely birthplaces for all those new Buzzards, Sparrowhawks and Grey Herons striking out to share the skies and rivers around us.
More What’s On Out There (from Sunday 23rd August)
A tiny selection from our (regularly updated) What’s On Out There news and listings post. Full version for full members, preview (& this week) for all at the link above.
Sun 23rd - Steel City Trail 10 - Chapeltown
Mon 24th - Fri 28th - Daily health walks in parks and green spaces from Step Out Sheffield, 10 am start
Thurs 27th - CycleBoost cycle training - confidence & learn to ride, Greenhill Park
Sat 29th - Parkwood Springs conservation morning
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