Birley Moor Garden Centre: Plans to transform popular Sheffield venue with café, school and community garden
Plans have been drawn up to transform a popular Sheffield garden centre, with new features including a café, and an onsite school.
New owner, Dave Walker, has drawn up plans which would transform Birley Moor Garden Centre, and has put together a planning application for the scheme.
The garden centre, on Birley Moor Road, near Frecheville, has been on the site for over 40 years and Mr Walker bought the business along with his son, William this year.
Mr Walker is well known in the area, and also works as the vicar of Ridgeway.
Under the plans that have been drawn up, a new café building would be developed alongside the garden centre, in its own separate building on the premises.
A building would also be created to be used as a school, where people would be able to come to study for qualifications in horticulture and land management.
And part of the site would also be used by health professionals, providing space for people to do gardening as part of ‘social prescribing’.
The venue currently has a van on site which sells coffee.
Mr Walker said he took over the garden centre in March with his son, and wanted to see it provide more in the community, which was where he grew up.
He said: “Nostalgically I have fond memories of the area. As a young child ,growing up on the council estate across the road, Weakland Close, we used to play with all our friends on the old derelict Dent mining works.
“In 1977 the area was turned into a garden centre nursery. Everyone loved it, the excitement of visiting the garden centre with my dad on Sundays was immense .
“When I found the previous owners were looking at retiring, I started to look at what we could do with the area to bring it back to how I remembered it as a child. As a visionary and reverend in the Church of England, I personally thrive on community engagement. This is the foundation of our plans.”
He said the pre-application for the scheme had been submitted to Sheffield Council, and was on schedule.
The overall garden centre site spans 7.5 Acres, and will include community gardens, with walks connecting to existing public footpaths and bridle networks.
He said the café would not be a restaurant, but would serve things like paninis and teas and coffees. He described it as ‘bistro level’.
He also plans to link up with local GPs so that some of the land can be used by patients who they feel could benefit from ‘social prescribing’, in which doctors prescribe activities that they believe will help with health issues that people may be suffering.
The aquatics part of the centre is already going through a refit with new aquariums and fish stocks.