1951-1983

The Sheffield Town Trust reluctantly concluded that the Gardens required a large amount of investment to recover from the war years. They were impressed by the work carried out by the Corporation in the other parks and offered the Gardens to the City in 1951 on a 99-year lease for a peppercorn rent of one shilling per year. The Council agreed to take charge of the management of the Gardens. The rental rose to 5p per quarter in 1971. The Sheffield Town Trust remains the owner of the Gardens.

The rose garden was dug up and completely replanted in a formal Italianate design in 1952 and the area surrounded by a yew hedge. The Pan statue, cast in bronze by Cashmore & Co of London, is otherwise known as ‘Spirit of the Woods’. It was donated to the city, under the terms of Colonel Sir Charles Clifford’s will, in 1934 and was installed in the newly planted garden.

This somewhat forbidding-looking statue, apparently of Queen Victoria representing ‘Victory’, had been paid for by public subscription and erected at the top of a tall column at the top of The Moor in the city centre. Post-war development required its removal and the Town Trust reluctantly agreed that the statue (without the column) could be placed in the Gardens at the foot of the Broadwalk.

In 1961 with the aid of a grant from the War Damage Commission the Council was able to repair the three domes which were renamed the Pavilions. The central dome became an aviary, whose most popular residents were a pair of macaws, and in 1963 the east pavilion was converted into an aquarium. The west pavilion was used to display temperate, but not fully hardy, plants.

During the 1970s and 80s the Gardens played a major role in local education. Several trial gardens were set up. The Botanical Supplies Unit had links all over the city to supply schools and colleges with plant material for classes ranging from botany to art. The curator taught horticultural classes, ran workshops, contributed to the local newspapers and broadcast on Radio Sheffield. Many specialist plant groups were involved with the Gardens including societies with interests in daffodils, chrysanthemums, geraniums, fuchsias, dahlias and cacti.

The AGM Borders were created to showcase plants awarded the RHS’s Award of Garden Merit.

In about 1980 the fossil stump of an ancient club moss, Lepidodendron, which grew to a height of over 100 feet [30 metres] and was approximately 310 million years old, was moved from High Hazels park to the Gardens. The fossil had been originally discovered in 1875 when a railway line was being constructed near the Chapeltown area of the city. Initially, the stump was placed near the Crimean War Memorial.

The National Collections of weigelas and diervillas were started in 1984, these shrubs were originally situated in the area where part of the Prairie Garden now stands.