Sheffield - Whinfell Quarry Garden (Yorkshire)

Thanks to Mike who sent the above photograph of one of the Giant Redwoods in Whinfell Quarry Garden. Mike says, "Right next to where we live, on the south-west border of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, is a Victorian garden created at the end of the 1800s by Samuel Doncaster, a Sheffield steel magnate. Samuel travelled all over the world collecting specimen plants and created this garden in a disused quarry which formed part of his land, and where he built a house in 1898. The garden – known as Whinfell Quarry Garden – contains two wonderful specimen giant redwood trees. The garden was given to the city of Sheffield in 1968 but has become somewhat neglected over the past 25 years. About 7 years ago a group, known as the Friends of Whinfell Quarry Garden was formed. My wife is chair of this group. It has charitable status and does a lot of voluntary work in the garden, trying to restore some of its former glory. The garden is a heritage site and has just received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for essential tree work etc." Mike also wrote with information about a tree survey carried out on 30th January 2007. We recently had an extensive tree survey done in the garden as part of the plan to prune and fell many of the other trees. This was done by a specialist firm of tree surgeons in Sheffield. Their estimate of the height of the two Wellingtonia trees were as follows:- No. 46 Wellingtonia “Spectacular tree in excellent condition. 27 metres tall” No. 50 Wellingtonia “As tree No. 46 but perhaps slightly taller at 28 metres”. Thank you Mike, the restoration works sound like a very worthwhile project.