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It is difficult to think that it is less than 5 years since the formation of Hands Off Graves Park. At the time we faced the very real danger of 7 acres of public parkland being sold off for housing development. This despite the fact that the land had charitable status and covenants which expressly forbade such use.
It is very likely that had this development gone ahead further parts of our park would soon have followed.
Hands of Graves Park, having successfully prevented the sell off, and achieved the recognition of the land's charitable status by Sheffield City Council, have now evolved into The Friends of Graves Park.
J G Graves gave Graves Park to the people of Sheffield as parkland "forever". Friends of Graves Park have obtained charitable status and aims to safeguard the long term future of the whole of Graves Park in line with his wishes.
Chantry Cottage
43 acres of Norton Park were purchased by J G Graves in 1935, and gifted to the people of Sheffield as an extension to Graves Park, on condition that it was maintained as a public recreation ground forever. The Lord Mayor of Sheffield accepted the gift, along with the covenants, in 1936. Graves Park Charity is the body charged with protecting the people's interests in the gifted lands, although the charity's trustees are solely made up of city councillors. Part of the 1936 gift was the old walled garden of Norton Hall, which was used by Sheffield Council as a nursery for growing plants for Sheffield's parks. In 1997 this area of parkland, amounting to around 7 acres was declared surplus to requirements and put on sale, contrary to the agreed covenants. City Councillors voted for the sale of land that they were entrusted to protect. Worse still was the way that the disposal would affect the Graves Park Charity. It became clear that the disposal of land was expected to yield around £1.2 to £1.4 million. However this money was not to go to the Graves Park Charity, but into the councils central coffers. £400,000 of the money was then to be paid into the council's Leisure Services budget. Furthermore, when the annual budgets were prepared a sum of £400,000 was deducted from Leisure Services budget, in anticipation of the sum arising from this sale of parkland. In effect Graves Park Charity was to loose land to the value of £1.2 million, whilst neither it, nor any other park in the city gained any advantage. One should question whether councillors should be allowed to be trustees of a charity when they have such a conflict of interests. Local people were outraged that land so generously given as parkland, should be exploited to enable the council to balance its books. They formed a protest group, which with the help of the Charity Commission forced the council to abandon its plans and honour the promise to incorporate Norton Nursery into Graves Park. Since then around 2 acres of the 7 involved have been integrated into Graves Park. Local people formed a group " Friends of Graves Park", which obtained charitable status, and discusses peoples aspirations regarding Graves Park with Sheffield Council. Chantry Cottage is a building in the old walled garden. It was purchased by J G Graves along with the 43 acres in 1935, and was part of his gift to the people of Sheffield. In the mid 1990s, despite the covenants, the council sold this cottage to a developer who started conversion into a private dwelling. Several large extensions were added to the cottage, which severely compromised access. The property's owner simply appropriated land from the park to extend his garden and provide a driveway around these extensions. The council accepted 3 years ago that this land was being illegally occupied and promised to take action to restore the boundaries to their correct positions. It appears, contrary to their promises, the council has been negotiating to sell this land and other areas of Graves Park that the cottage's owner requested. Whilst the Friends of Graves Park Charity have been seeking Charity Commission help to reclaim the unlawfully occupied land, the City Council have been pressing the Charity Commission to allow them to sell it. All this time the City Council were telling us that they had no desire to sell the land in question, and were actively taking steps to remove the illegal occupation. Yesterday FOGP finally discovered that the Charity Commission had ruled that the sale of land could not go ahead. Rather than accept this, and fulfil their obligations to the Graves Park Charity, the council has lodged an appeal. I think that it is important to point out a few facts that may not be apparent from the Commission's correspondence with Sheffield Council. 1 Chantry Cottage was part of the gift to the people of Sheffield in 1935, and was therefore the property of the Graves Park Charity. No permission was sought from the Charity Commission for its sale. 2 Sheffield Council has repeatedly stated that Chantry Cottage has inadequate land to make the property viable. This is not the case. Chantry Cottage has had several large extensions added since it was sold. It is these extensions which are blocking the access to the property, and should never have been built. 3 The sale of Chantry Cottage was of no fiscal benefit to the Graves Park Charity. The money raised from the sale was merely substituted for money that was already in the Leisure Services budget to be spent in Graves Park. 4 Sheffield Council made an agreement that nothing would be done in Norton Nursery without the consent of local people as expressed through Friends of Graves Park Charity. Throughout the council's negotiations to sell land around Chantry Cottage, the council has insisted that they were taking legal action to re claim the unlawfully occupied land.
If you have any memories or photographs from Graves Park, please let us have them, and we will post them on this page.
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