Hi,
The threat to the ancient woodland in Grindleford – which is known as Rough Wood and is part of the iconic Longshaw Estate – still remains. However, the Department of Transport have redefined the criteria from 4 fast trains per hour to 3. This means that Network Rail have a weaker case for wrecking two ancient woodlands – one each side of the Totley Tunnel linking Sheffield to the Peak District. They can be asked to consider a less sensitive site, not so close to the tunnel and not inside Longshaw Estate.
Longshaw Estate is a special place and the land which Network Rail wants to take has been declared inalienable by the National Trust’s General Manager in the Peak District. This means that the measure would have to be carried by an Act of Parliament passing both Commons and Lords – as I understand it.
Longshaw Estate is special because it was not bought by the National Trust – it was in reality bought by public subscription, overwhelmingly by Sheffield citizens, including steelmakers, wealthy benefactors and a host of ordinary people donating small amounts. Sheffield Corporation helped them by paying the £27,000 up front at the auction of Longshaw on July 5 1927. The Duke of Rutland was broke – as were a lot of his out-dated ilk at that time, and his posh pursuit of grouse-bagging didn’t pay for his aristocratic lifestyle.
In less than 2 years, in the middle of the Great Depression, Sheffield folk coughed up all but a thousand pounds or so of this huge sum. The Sheffield Corporation had handed over Longshaw to a Sheffield Committee to look after. In 1931 they in turn handed it to the National Trust in return for the outstanding thousand pounds, giving them the task of preserving Longshaw forever in its wild, unspoilt beauty, for the enjoyment of the people.
In 1937 there was a threat to build 900 houses all along the Surprise View and down to Padley. This time the National Trust sent out a public appeal, and again this was based in Sheffield and it was Sheffield people who collected most of the money – but such was the fame of the Surprise that donations came from as far away as Japan.
Longshaw’s deep indebtedness to Sheffield, and to the public, seems to have been almost written out of its history. But Wikipedia notes the fact.
The Longshaw Estate has the best fungi in the 70km square surrounding Sheffield, the best fungi in the Peak, and the best waxcap fungi in the UK, if not in Europe.
The brief (and in my view) inadequate ecological survey that Network Rail has commissioned, has already revealed a site of national importance for grassland fungi, on the very spot where Network Rail will be driving through a road past an old traditional homestead (Kettle House).
The Rough Wood has provided us with rare fungi on our first visit.
Rough Wood is not safe yet:
1) the government has just declared the sealing of Woodhead Tunnel, and an end to the other route between Manchester and Sheffield.
2) the government is telling us that it’s OK to cut dowm Ancient Woodland as long as we plant some new trees to replace them (you cannot replace an Ancient Woodland).
3) there has been virtually NO public response from any public body as far as I can make out – the old 1927 Sheffield CPRE who heped to save Longshaw must be turning in their graves, as the Friends of the Peak District/CPRE have been unwilling to answer my question – “Why is there no mention of Network Rail’s proposals on your website?” This is in spite of the fact that they applied for a holding order on the proposals. On the grounds of support for public transport, they agree with the cutting down of the lower part of Poynton Wood, one of Sheffield’s Ancient Woodlands of which we are justly proud. ( I am a member of the CPRE). Jon Stewart, the General Manager of the National Trust Peak District, has been the only public individual who has voiced concerns to those of us with an ecological interest in Rough Wood and Poynton Wood (Sheffield end of the Tunnel).
4) HS2 shows that the government is prepared to wreak havoc on the English countryside – there is no consensus that HS2 will be of any real value. If large-scale destruction of priceless natural habitats is accepted for HS2, what hope for places like Rough Wood and PoyntonWood?
Steve Clements, CPRE member, Fungi Recorder for Sheffield Sorby Natural History Society.
Fungi at Longshaw 