1897-1950

In 1897 the Sheffield Horticultural & Botanical Society reluctantly informed the shareholders that the company was in debt. With the opening of new free public parks such as Weston Park (1874), Firth Park (1875) and Meersbrook (1886) the number of people prepared to be shareholders was falling. Even the gala days had competition from other venues on the traditional bank holidays.

The Curator and staff were laid off, the Gardens were closed to all visitors and the contents of the conservatories and aviaries were sold.

The Sheffield Town Trust, led by Sir Frederick Mappin, offered £5,000 for the Gardens. Some people were anticipating a profit if the Gardens had to be sold to housing developers and were buying up shares. Consequently, not all proprietors were in favour of the transfer and there followed a long and involved court case to decide if such an action was legal. On the other hand many of the shareholders freely surrendered their shares to ensure the survival of the Gardens. Eventually the Trust agreed to pay an extra £445 and became the owners of the Gardens in August 1898.

The Gardens were opened to the general public free of charge on 20 April 1899. There is still no admission charge.

Because of the state of dilapidation The Trust had to demolish unsafe buildings, starting with the Tea Pavilion, the Camellia House and the Water Lily House in 1899, followed by the ridge-and-furrow glasshouses between the three domes in 1902.

Originally the Gardens had been totally enclosed by a high stone wall, but when Clarkehouse Road was widened in 1900 the wall was demolished. In return for the extra strip of land, the City Council provided attractive new railings. The original Curator’s House, old farm cottage and the additional propagating glasshouses behind the conservatories were removed. New glasshouses were erected near the South Lodge.

The Town Trust purchased additional land at the southern end of the Gardens, thus extending the drive well beyond the old South Entrance Lodge (now Grade II listed). New gates and railings were installed and an avenue of lime trees planted leading towards the Thompson Road entrance from Ecclesall Road.

A new turnstile entrance (now Grade II listed) was installed in 1902 in the north-west corner, opposite the end of Westbourne Road.

In 1929 the Italianate flower garden was totally redesigned as a Rock Garden by Clarence Elliott. Elliott was a famed alpine nurseryman, plant collector, writer and founder member of the Alpine Garden Society. He was responsible for an earlier rock garden constructed in Whinfell Quarry Gardens, also in Sheffield.

The Osborn brothers, William, Samuel and Frederick, of the steel manufacturing company, had inherited Clarke House next-door to the Gardens, after their mother died. The brothers decided to donate some land adjoining the Gardens in 1934 and a new stone wall was erected the following year.

An attractive colonnade was constructed in 1937 between the Central and Eastern Domes, sheltered seating was provided and this proved a popular place for visitors to sit.

The Clarkehouse Road railings were dismantled early in the Second World War as metals were required for war industries, although an appeal saved those on Thompson Road. The present railings were re-installed by the original suppliers in 1984, using the Thompson Road ones as a pattern.

On the night of 12 December 1941 German bombers severely damaged the conservatories. They were not repaired until 1958 when Mellowes & Co fitted 10,000 panes of glass on the central pavilion and 3000 each on the smaller glasshouses.

Sir Samuel Osborn offered this piece of land between the Gardens and Southbourne Road to the Town Trust in 1944. At first it was used to grow vegetables, then as a Trial Garden in the 1970s.

The land used for the nursery for plant propagation near the South Lodge was deemed to be inadequate and was extended uphill, a beech hedge was planted in 1949 to surround the area.