Lottery cash helps Heeley City Farm to celebrate Sheffield's heritage

Heeley City Farm has been successfully delivering Community Heritage work across Sheffield and beyond since 2008.

During that time we have worked with thousands of people, including many volunteers and people on work placements, as well as the fantastic people of all ages who have taken part in our many projects across the city.

We have excavated and made art, we have built roundhouses, transcribed long-lost medieval documents, recorded and shared people’s memories, processed archaeological finds, told stories, given talks, led walks and carved letter seals out of soap.

We have made replica pottery, built museum displays, worked in schools, with local history groups, universities and many other groups.

We have met and made friends with so many amazing people.

We have always worked hard and with a lot of love to engage and connect the people of Sheffield to their amazing heritage and to share it far and wide.

“When Heeley City Farm started on site in August 1981 it was forecast to last about three years,” said John Le Corney, ex-chief executive.

"Nearly 40 years on, after many panics, crisis, successes and triumphs, Heeley City Farm has become a Sheffield institution.

"We are part of both the history and future of Sheffield.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on Heeley City Farm’s charitable work.

The farm’s Community Heritage Manager Sally Rodgers says: “All our planned projects were rapidly put on hold when the pandemic began and we are very grateful for this support from National Lottery players, who have supported a number of our

projects in the past.

"This means that we can continue for the next four months and build our work to start 2021 in a robust, resilient position.”

Sue Pearson, Heeley City Farm’s CEO, says: “The farm played an important part in Sheffield’s voluntary sector response to C-19 during lockdown, as a community hub in the local network, however this has meant big changes to our normal ways of working.”

Community Heritage work began again in September and the fund has enabled us to build our capacity by employing a part-time Heritage and Wellbeing Officer, Rebecca Hearne, a current Phd student at the University of Sheffield.

Rebecca’s specialism is in the beneficial effects of heritage on health and wellbeing.

She says: “The past is a resource that we all share and, although the therapeutic properties of imagining and telling the stories of our shared history are usually overlooked, this funding means that we can start working on new, fun and creative ways to explore heritage and improve our mental and physical health at the same time.”

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Over the next four months, funded by the National Lottery, we will be able to get back to work, explore new delivery models to adapt to the current climate and ways of working, including improving our digital offer, and reach more people.

Through engagement in local heritage, we can address issues of loneliness and social isolation, in particular among vulnerable groups such as older residents.

Our planned projects will include a new Health and Wellbeing Programme, re-activating our planned partnership projects and getting ready to celebrate Heeley City Farm’s 40th anniversary in 2021 in style.

If you would like to get involved with Community Heritage at Heeley Farm or to find out more, please contact Sally Rodgers, our Community Heritage Manager, at [email protected] or follow us on Facebook, @Community Heritage at Heeley Farm, on Instagram @heeley_heritage, Twitter @HeeleyHeritage.

*Heeley City Farm is a charity organisation based on a working farm and visitor centre one mile from Sheffield city centre in Richards Roads, Heeley.

Staff and volunteers from Heeley City Farm work with local communities around Sheffield to promote sustainability, regeneration, environmental education and health and well-being.

The farm was founded by local people in 1981 and has been growing organically ever since.

The Community Heritage Team has been an important part of the farm since 2008, we love seeing people progress by helping them to have hands-on opportunities to experience local heritage.

Thanks to National Lottery players, the Heritage Lottery Fund invests money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about - from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife.

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