The Porter Valley Parks are a series of public parks and green spaces in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, England. Lying along the valley of

Porter Brook The Porter Brook is a river which flows through the City of Sheffield, England, descending over from its source on Burbage Moor to the west of the city to its mouth where it joins the River Sheaf in a culvert beneath Sheffield railway statio ...

, they run radially out from the city centre, providing a direct green-space connection to the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southe ...

national park. Created variously between 1855 and 1938, they comprise in order from the city centre;

Endcliffe Park Endcliffe Park is a large park in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The park was opened in 1887 to commemorate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. When travelling West from the city centre it is the first in a series of parks and gre ...

, Bingham Park, Whiteley Woods,

Forge Dam Park Forge Dam Park is a park in Fulwood, in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Forge Dam Park is the fourth of the Grade II listed Porter Valley Parks, a connected series of parks (when travelling west from Sheffield city centre) al ...

and Porter Clough. The parks are listed at Grade II on the

Register of Historic Parks and Gardens The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...

. The Friends of the Porter Valley is a registered charity which supports their mianitenance and improvement.

Parks

In 1924

Patrick Abercrombie Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (; 6 June 1879 – 23 March 1957) was an English regional and town planner. Abercrombie was an academic during most of his career, and prepared one city plan and several regional studies prior to the Second World ...

said of the parks, "The Porter Brook Parkway, consisting as it does of a string of contiguous open spaces, is the finest example to be found in this country of a radial park strip, an elongated open space, leading from a built-up part of the city direct into the country, the land occupied being a river valley and so for the greater part unsuitable for building." Besides green spaces, the parks contain various recreational facilities and historic monuments. The Porter Valley Parks are included as a part of the

Sheffield Round Walk The Sheffield Round Walk is a walk through the south west of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Starting from Hunters Bar, it travels along the Porter valley to Ringinglow. It then descends through the Limb valley and Ecclesall Woods to Abb ...

Endcliffe Park

Endcliffe Park comprises and is adjacent to Sheffield city centre. It was opened in 1887 to commemorate the Jubilee of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

. The park is home to three monuments dedicated to

, as well as the

"Mi Amigo" memorial The ''Mi Amigo'' memorial is a war memorial at Endcliffe Park, Sheffield, England, marking the World War II crash site of the United States Army Air Forces, USAAF Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, B-17 Flying Fortress ''Mi Amigo''. Air crash On ...

and ten American Oak trees, marking the crash site of a

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

Bingham Park

Bingham Park is the largest in the chain at , and is separated from Endcliffe Park by Rustlings Road. It was originally donated to the people of Sheffield in 1911, by inductrialist Sir John E Bingham, and was later expanded. Situated up a hillside, it offers good views out over the valley.

Whiteley Woods

Whiteley Woods is adjacent to Bingham Park and covers . The woodland and an existing dam and goit were also acquired in stages. In 1897/98 T Walter Hall presented land to Sheffield Corporation. A further grant of land was made in 1913 by

Sheffield Town Trust The Sheffield Town Trust, formerly officially known as the Burgery of Sheffield,Robert Tittler, ''The Reformation and the Towns in England'' is a charitable trust operating in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Mediaeval period The Town Trust wa ...

ees and in 1932 the J G Graves Charitable Trust donated land to the corporation. The

Shepherd Wheel Shepherd Wheel is a working museum in a former water-powered grinding workshop situated on the Porter Brook in the south-west of the City of Sheffield, England. One of the earliest wheels on the River Porter, it is one of the few remaining—and ...

is a working water wheel and museum, located on the

where it runs through Whiteley Woods.

White Watson White Watson (10 April 1760 – 8 August 1835) was an early English geologist, sculptor, stonemason and carver, marble-worker and mineral dealer. In common with many learned people of his time, he was skilled in a number of artistic and scienti ...

, geologist, was born in Whiteley Woods in the 1760s.Ford, Trevor D., 'White Watson's Tablets', ''Geology Today'' 14:1 (1998), 21-25

Forge Dam

Forge Dam Park was originally created in 1938 and covered , but today occupies only . The dam was originally built to supply water for the manufacture of

cutlery Cutlery (also referred to as silverware, flatware, or tableware), includes any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in Western culture. A person who makes or sells cutlery is called a cutler. The city of Sheffie ...

Porter Clough

At , Porter Clough is the smallest of the five parks. Long but narrow, and for the most part with steep wooded sides up the valley, its south-western end extends from the city centre, to join up with the

Porter Valley Woodlands

The Porter Valley Woodlands is a designated local nature reserve (LNR), sited partly within the Porter Valley Parks. It comprises the wooded areas of the parks, together with the adjacent Bluebell Wood.Porter Valley Woodlands LNR
Magic Maps, DEFRA. (retrieved 7 May 2022)

References

{{coord, 53.359, -1.546, display=title Forests and woodlands of South Yorkshire Grade II listed parks and gardens in South Yorkshire Parks in Sheffield Porter Brook Local Nature Reserves in South Yorkshire

External links

Friends of the Porter Valley
website.