Crosspool News – crosspool.info
The Crosspool community website run by Crosspool Forum
The next RVCG open meeting on Thursday 12th November begins at 7:30pm
‘Natural Flood Management’ Speaker: Debbie Coldwell
Stephen Hill Methodist Church, 547 Manchester Rd, Sheffield S10 5PL
The entrance fee is £3 for members and £4 for non-members – refreshments included.
Non-members are always welcome.
Food Works will be hosting another Open Day at Carver Fields on Sunday 8th November, as part of their ongoing community programme. The event runs from 11:00am to 2:00pm at Carver Fields, S10 5PJ.
Visitors can enjoy refreshments, meet the Food Works team, and hear about the food‑growing and community initiatives planned for the site. It’s a great chance for local residents to get involved, share ideas, and discuss what the community would like to see developed there. (If you’re able, please bring your own spade / rake / wheelbarrow – we will have a few to use, but could always do with more!)
To learn more about the vision behind Food Works’ new community growing space in Crosspool, take a look at the article in Now Then magazine.
If you don’t already know, you’ll be pleased to hear that Yorkshire Water has finally begun work to repair the leak on Stephen Hill, which had been running continuously for what seems like months.
The repair work has understandably required the closure of Stephen Hill between its junction with Marsh Lane. However, this meant that when residents drove out from the top of Stephen Drive this morning, they could only turn left. Unfortunately, no access to Manchester Road.
Under normal circumstances, residents would simply have travelled via Long Lane and Hagg Lane, but as we all know, Hagg Lane is currently closed as well. That leaves just two practical alternatives: either down Hagg Hill, along Rivelin Valley Road and onto the A57, or via Bole Hill Road towards Crookes, from where there are various routes into the city. Whichever diversion is chosen, it adds roughly two miles to the journey and considerably more time during this morning’s busy periods.
What is particularly remarkable is that the two organisations responsible for these closures appear not to have coordinated their activities. Those organisations being Yorkshire Water… and Yorkshire Water!
You might have expected that a company closing two key routes in the same area at the same time would have considered the wider impact on local residents and motorists. Instead, residents seem to have been treated to a masterclass in organisational self-communication, or perhaps the lack of it.
Still, after months of water pouring down the road, it is good to see the leak finally being addressed. It is just a pity that fixing one problem seems to have created another. The whole situation rather beggars belief.
Food Works will be hosting another Open Day at Carver Fields this Sunday 13th September, as part of their ongoing community programme. The event runs from 11:00am to 2:00pm at Carver Fields, S10 5PJ.
Visitors can enjoy refreshments, meet the Food Works team, and hear about the food‑growing and community initiatives planned for the site. It’s a great chance for local residents to get involved, share ideas, and discuss what the community would like to see developed there.
For further details, please visit the Food Works website or get in touch with them directly.
Food Works are launching new volunteer sessions at Carver Fields this autumn, with weekly Tuesday sessions (9:00–12:30 from 8 September) and monthly Sunday sessions (from 13 September). Due to road closures on Hagg Lane, volunteers are asked to park at the top of the Lane and walk down.
The autumn work focuses on preparing the site for spring vegetable growing and some autumn crops, including tidying the top paddock, mowing overgrown areas, making the gate safe, and creating veg beds using cardboard and topsoil or compost. Food Works are also exploring the reuse of topsoil from nearby works and plan to plant native hedgerow trees from the Woodland Trust to improve wildlife corridors.
Food Works are keen to hear ideas from local residents. They’ve already spoken with a neighbour about creating a herb garden, and Crosspool Forum has offered a couple of picnic benches for the site. Conversations are also underway with scout groups, local schools, and Holly Hagg farm to explore how the project can benefit the wider community.
A drop‑in event will take place on Sunday 13 September, 11:00–2:00pm, where residents can discuss bench locations, maintenance needs, planting ideas and potential community projects.
If you’re not able to make it on the 13th, please do drop Bethan an email: bethan@thefoodworks.org
Food Works have already begun by bringing Norton Nursery back into community use. Now they have a unique opportunity to create Sheffield’s first nature‑rich, community‑led food‑growing site at Calver Fields, thanks to land generously offered by the Methodist Circuit.
With your support, this could spark a city‑wide transformation, good food and nature that flourishes in every neighbourhood.
The aim of Community Growing for People & Planet is simple: to make Sheffield a city where every neighbourhood has nature‑rich spaces that grow food, bring people together, and ensure everyone has access to good, fresh produce.
A bigger table for everyone. When we share what we can, no one has to go without.
Add your name to Food Works’ bigger table today.
Imagine a city where every neighbourhood has space to grow food, where children learn where their meals come from, communities come together around shared harvests, and fresh, locally grown produce is available to everyone, regardless of circumstances. That is the vision behind ‘Building a Bigger Table’, Food Works’ new summer campaign – the next step in its mission to create a fairer, healthier and more sustainable food system for Sheffield and South Yorkshire.
The campaign launches in August, centred on Carver Fields in Crosspool, with a plan to transform underused land into a thriving community space where people come together, learn skills and grow food for the local neighbourhood and beyond.
Currently a patch of overgrown fields and broken fences, Carver Fields is land Food Works is calling on people to help transform – through donations, volunteering, business support or sharing practical skills. As Food Works puts it, we can live in a world of abundance if we build a bigger table, not a bigger fence – and everyone has a part to play.
The timing matters. With food prices projected to be 50% higher than five years ago and one in five people in the UK already struggling to access good food, the case for growing more of our own – closer to home, affordably and in a way that is kinder to the planet – has never been stronger.
This is just one piece of the puzzle. For the past decade, Food Works has fed thousands of people by redistributing surplus food through markets, community cafés and healthy ready meals – now providing a million meals’ worth of food to the city every year. And while surplus food remains an important part of the solution, Food Works believes the city’s future food system needs to do more than respond to waste. It is about creating opportunities for communities to grow together: to grow good food close to home, bring nature into every neighbourhood, and share what they can so no one has to go without.
The campaign is a natural next step for Food Works. Working alongside Sheffield City Council, in 2024 the organisation began transforming the disused Norton Nurseries into a flourishing community growing site that now supplies thousands of seedlings each year to schools, community organisations and growing projects across the city. It also creates volunteering opportunities and provides practical training. Carver Fields will provide the space to expand that impact across Sheffield.
The campaign will unfold in three stages:
‘Plant the Seeds’ will establish the first growing beds at Carver Fields, launch regular volunteering sessions and begin producing fresh food, while making the site welcoming and accessible.
‘Grow Together’ will expand the growing space, create a public community food forest and welcome more schools, volunteers and community groups.
‘Build a Bigger Table’ will help more people across Sheffield start or expand their own growing projects, strengthen partnerships with businesses and community organisations, and create the capacity to support the city’s wider food growing movement.
Food Works is inviting people across Sheffield to get involved in whatever way they can. Individuals can donate through the crowdfunder – and thanks to a partnership with Aviva, every donation is matched pound for pound up to £250, so gifts go twice as far. People can also volunteer on the ground or share practical skills. Businesses can sponsor parts of the project, offer in-kind support, organise team volunteering days or become long-term partners in Sheffield’s community food movement.
Every contribution, large or small, will help create more opportunities for people to access fresh food, learn new skills and connect with others.
Food Works CEO Rene Meijer says: “It’s clearer than ever before that we need change. Our planet is on fire, and too many people can’t access healthy food. We can start to fix this as a community. For the past eleven years, Sheffield has shown what people can do when they come together to share and support each other. We’ve grown from a small campaign to waste less food into an organisation providing a million meals’ worth of food to the city every year. This is the next step: Let’s help every neighbourhood and every school to grow good food. We can start building a better world together now.”
People can find out more, donate, volunteer or explore partnership opportunities at https://communitiesfund.avivafoundation.org.uk/p/community-growing-for-people-planet or at thefoodworks.org
Together, Sheffield can build a bigger table — where everyone has a place, and everyone has something to bring.
Food Works are really looking forward to getting started on the new community food‑growing project at Carver Fields and are keen to involve as many neighbours as possible.
Whether you’re curious, enthusiastic, or just want to find out what’s planned, they’d be delighted to talk with you.
They’ll be at Carver Fields this Sunday, 26 July, between 2 and 4pm for a relaxed drop‑in chat. Come along, share your thoughts, and help shape something positive for the area.
A huge thank‑you to the Crosspool Forum for brightening our Precinct with planters and hanging baskets this summer. From neat arrangements around the big tree to full cascades of colour in the planters, your creativity has turned our neighbourhood into a cheerful patchwork of blooms.
It’s the small touches that make the biggest difference, hanging baskets and carefully tended planters in the precinct and outside the Crosspool Tavern, together they lift the whole area and show the pride we take in our community.
Massive thanks to Steve and all the gardeners, waterers and quiet behind‑the‑scenes helpers; your efforts are noticed, appreciated, and admired. Your dedication shows, and our community is all the brighter for it.
Yorkshire Water begin the first phase of construction today Monday 6 July, to upgrade parts of their sewer network beneath Hagg Lane. This work includes building a new underground storage tank in Carver Fields, off Hagg Lane in Crosspool.
The aim is to increase capacity in the system and help create a cleaner, healthier River Rivelin by reducing storm‑related discharges.
Further details about the project, including how they are protecting local wildlife and how noise and vibration will be monitored – can be found on their website at:
`www.yorkshirewater.com/investing-in-yorkshire/investing-in-the-rivelin-valley`
You can also scan the QR code for direct access. The onsite team will provide updates as construction progresses, along with information on how the field will be restored once the work is complete.
To keep everyone safe during these essential works, Hagg Lane will be temporarily closed between Thursday 20 August and Tuesday 29 September.
Access to the Hagg Lane allotment entrance will be limited for around three weeks during this period while work takes place directly in front of the gate. The alternative entrance on Back Lane will remain open throughout.
Normal working hours will be 7:00am to 7:00pm, Monday to Friday, to ensure the project is completed as quickly and safely as possible. Occasionally, the team may need to work slightly later; they will always try to let residents know in advance if any out‑of‑hours work is required.
Yorkshire Water will not need access to your home at any point during this project. As always, please remember to ask for identification before allowing anyone into your property.
If you have any questions about the work that aren’t answered on their webpage, you can also give them a call on 0344 8481099 and quote Capital VW.205949, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm, and they’ll be happy to help.
