Edgelands-inspired RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden will establish permanent roots at Sheffield’s iconic Park Hill
A RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden marking the centenary of The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) will have its permanent home at the landmark Park Hill in Sheffield.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England Garden: 'On the Edge' has been designed by award-winning Sarah Eberle for next week’s RHS event. It will highlight the importance of the countryside on our doorsteps, the fragile spaces on the fringes of our towns and cities that connect people to nature in everyday life, yet are undervalued and under constant threat.
After the show (19-23 May), the garden will be relocated in the summer to the landmark regenerated housing development in urban Sheffield, giving new life to a community space. The move will continue the legacy of Ethel Haythornthwaite, pioneer of the British countryside movement, activist and poet and one of CPRE’s earliest campaigners, who was instrumental in creating the Sheffield Green Belt.
Lydia and Cuthbert Noble, fifth-generation stone wallers from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire will be part of the artisan team helping to create the garden at the most famous flower show in the world. The siblings have won awards globally for their work, and will be using stone sourced from Longcliffe Quarry, Matlock, Derbyshire to craft the body of a striking Mother Nature land art feature on the garden.
Lydia Noble said: “We are both really looking forward to this project as RHS Chelsea is such a special event and it allows us to be far more artistic in what we create. For the garden to then live on after the show in Yorkshire makes this even more special for us.”
Sponsored by grant-giving charity Project Giving Back, the garden is part of CPRE’s centenary year, marking 100 years of standing up for England’s countryside.
The Mother Nature guardian figure will be partly carved from fallen mature trees, with willow-work hair flowing to form the top of a dry-stone wall that snakes through the garden. A winding pathway will lead you under the figure’s arched torso through to a central, partially enclosed space, with stone seating and rustic water trough, for community gathering or quiet contemplation. Planting will be rich, diverse and textural, celebrating UK native flowering plants, often dismissed as 'weeds' but vital to our ecosystems.
After relocation in the summer to Park Hill, the garden will be open for the local Sheffield residents to use and enjoy.
CPRE chief executive Roger Mortlock said: “We want people to feel pride in their countryside, and through this garden, to love the countryside that’s right on their doorstep. We’re especially excited that the garden will be relocated to Sheffield. In many ways, Sheffield is the birthplace of CPRE, where some of our earliest calls for a Green Belt began. That work was led by the remarkable Ethel Haythornthwaite, and I hope she would be proud to see this garden celebrating the relationship between the city and the countryside that surrounds it.”
Park Hill has been transformed in recent years by a joint venture partnership of Urban Splash and Places for People with the pair working together to create hundreds of new homes, student accommodation, amenities and green spaces; work has recently started on a fourth phase of 125 new homes.
Speaking on behalf of the JV Sian Stanhope said: "We’re genuinely thrilled to be partnering with CPRE and the wider team on this project. It will provide Park Hill residents with a beautiful new space to enjoy, enhancing and building on the landscaped areas we’ve already created. Park Hill carries such rich history and heritage, so it’s especially meaningful to know that Ethel Haythornthwaite had connections to this place and that, combined with the Yorkshire craftsmanship involved in creating the garden, makes this a truly special moment for both the estate and its residents."
The garden’s designer, Sarah Eberle, is the most decorated British designer at RHS Chelsea and is marking her 50th year in horticulture. She will be leading a team of artisans creating the garden including Lydia and Cuthbert Noble, renowned willow sculptor Tom Hare, and champion woodcarver and chainsaw artist Chris Wood. It will be built by multi award-winning landscapers, The Outdoor Room.
Sarah Eberle said: ‘This garden celebrates the often-overlooked beauty and importance of everyday spaces, where people and nature coexist. It challenges conventional thinking about the countryside and invites you to recognise the biodiversity that exists all around us. It speaks to nature’s resilience, transforming neglect into abundance, and symbolises hope on the margins.’
Hattie Ghaui, CEO of Project Giving Back, said: “We are really proud of the diverse network of gardens that Project Giving Back has enabled over its 5 years of funding gardens for good causes at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and are sure the CPRE Garden will bring joy and health benefits to the residents of Park Hill and its surrounding neighbourhoods for many years to come.”
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