Article Body:Article Body: A student has transformed a wasteland on a council estate in Sheffield into a thriving community garden using skills learned during his university education. Sam Penrose, a third-year Landscape and Architecture student at the University of Sheffield, redesigned an overgrown plot of land near the Scraith Wood estate. Together with a team of other student volunteers, he created the garden, which included demolishing a large paved area. The Scraith Wood Tenants and Residents Association (TARA) said the new garden on the site of a disused play area would help bring the community together. The garden is designed to be sustainable, low maintenance, and accessible to all local residents. It was funded through the Nature Hubs Fund, a national initiative to create new green spaces for 100 UK communities. Andy Clayden, a senior lecturer in the university’s School of Architecture, said it was “really exciting and rewarding” to see students using their knowledge and skills for positive change. The garden will be officially opened by the Mayor of Sheffield at the end of June.
Image source, Tim Cleasby
Image caption, Sam Penrose said the Scraith Wood garden allowed him to “literally get his hands dirty” rather than leaving the project at the design stage on a computer Item information
- Author, Grace Parnell
- Role, BBC news online
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2 minutes ago
A student has used the skills he learned during his university education to transform a wasteland on a council estate in Sheffield into a thriving community garden.
Sam Penrose, a third-year Landscape and Architecture student at the University of Sheffield, has redesigned an overgrown plot of land near the Scraith Wood estate.
Together with a team of other student volunteers, he created the garden, which included demolishing a large paved area.
Scraith Wood Tenants and Residents Association (TARA) said the new garden on the site of a disused play area would help bring the community together.
Image source, Tim Cleasby
Image caption, The Scraith Wood garden is designed to be a sustainable, low maintenance and accessible space for all local residents
Peter Thornett, chairman of Scraith Wood TARA, said: “What better community space than a flowering garden that is open all year round and can produce edible crops? A gathering space and a resource.”
He said previous plans for the abandoned space had fallen behind during the Covid pandemic.
“For two years I wondered how I could restore this disused, dilapidated playground/abandoned garden,” he said.
“It seemed to me that this area should be the heart of the town hall, but when Covid-19 lockdowns hit the country, the dream of community meetings seemed further away.”
Mr Penrose said HR designed the garden to be sustainable, low maintenance and accessible to all local residents.
Image source, Tim Cleasby
Image caption, Sam Penrose designed the garden and student volunteers helped build it
It was funded with £6,000 from the Nature Hubs Fund, a national initiative to create new green spaces for 100 UK communities, funded by environmental charity Hubbub and coffee chain Starbucks.
Hubbub said almost two-thirds of people in Britain spend just an hour a week in nature, and the country needed 4,000 new green spaces by 2033 to maintain current levels of access to green space.
Andy Clayden, senior lecturer at the university’s School of Architecture, said it was “really exciting and rewarding” to see students using their knowledge and skills for positive change.
The garden would be officially opened by the Mayor of Sheffield at the end of June, the university said.
