Women from the Sheffield And District African Caribbean Community Association (SADACCA) undertook a Walk/Learn Create session at the Moorland Discovery Centre, Peak District National Park. And although some of the women have visited the Peak District National Park prior to today’s visit, however, none have heard of or visited the Moorland Discovery Centre, an educational centre that normally provides outdoor learning activities for schools from South Yorkshire.

Today’s visit faciliated by Destinations Arts, was therefore a great opportunity to learn about the outdoor learning sessions that take place at the Centre and history of the Longshaw Estates, which once upon a time belong to the Duke of Ruthland but now property of the National Trust.

The women were welcomed to the Centre by Melany Holmes, Visitor Experience Officer with the National Trust and Megan Carrol, Senior Visitor Experience Officer of the Peak District National Park Authority, who talked about why the Centre was created and the types of outdoor learning activities offered to schools across South Yorkshire.

As one of the women later remarked, “Although I have live in Sheffield all my life and often visit Peak Park for walks, little did I know this place existed, I will be bringing my grandchildren here as there’s a lot to learn about nature”. Another women asked if there was any volunteering opportunity at the Centre as she would love to volunteer”.

The visit was part of Walking Arts Project 2025 which is an Arts Council funded project.

As part of a local walking festival, Sheffield Environmental Movement organised a guided walk at the Longshaw Estates for 27 South East Asian Women from ROSHNI.

This walk, led by Rangers, was arranged in collaboration with the Eastern Moors Partnership, National Trust & RSPB , and took place on 2nd July 2024 during the Derbyshire Dales Walking Festival 2024.

Below is the feedback from one of the women, aged 65yrs old, who attended the walk.
” I live alone with no family in the UK and have been in this country for 30yrs, I am very isolated suffer from mental health issues I don’t speak English and I needed a lot of support when I first came here to the UK. Through the years friends supported and referred me to ROSHNI. I had low self-esteem also suffered from Depression, at ROSHNI I was informed about field trips organised by SEM in partnership with ROSHNI to the countryside and I was very interested and excited.”

“I have never been to the Peak District National Park for walks. Having this opportunity to go on the walk with my fellow women I enjoyed it, it reminded me of my childhood back in Bangladesh, climbing trees picking fruits the fresh air was good, less air pollution, it made me feel very relaxed and calm helping with mental wellbeing. I really enjoyed walking with the group making new friends chatting and having a picnic together, finding out not to touch different plants in the wild in Peak District National Park as some can harm you. I would like to go on more walks in the Peak District and do more local walks within Darnall, walking is really good for my physical and mental well being”.

The Walk Moor programme is a Walk Derbyshire initiative between Eastern Moors volunteers, North East Derbyshire and Derbyshire Dales District Councils.

The programme aims to introduce new and diverse audiences to walking in Derbyshire.

On Friday 10th May, the African & District Caribbean Community Association (SADACCA) women’s group got an opportunity to look back in time hundreds of years to when Sheffield had a Castle!

The historic Sheffield Castle now being excavated by archeololgists, had been buried for decades by the recently demolished Castle Market buildings.

The Site has had many uses over the centuries and archeologists from Wessex Archeology were on hand to explain the dig to the SADACCA women’s group.

The SADACCA Women’s group have had a bit of history with Wessex Archeology. In 2022 SEM was awarded a Government Green Recovery Challenge Fund (GRCF) grant. As part of this funding initiative, Wessex Archeology was invited by SEM to give a presentation of their work to the SADACCA Women’s group.

This event ignited the imaginations of the group and two years later the SADACCA women (17 of them in total) became the first community group to be taken on tour of the site led by Natasha and Ashley from Wessex Archeology.

Below are some of the comments from the women:

“When we were on top of the market we never knew what was underneath what it looked like until today so it’s a really great experience to see something like this.”

“It’s a bit emotional when you think we are actually walking where the castle used to be and all the interesting finds and history underneath us, it’s really fascinating I just hope and pray that we will still be around to see the new park”

“look what down there while we were doing our shopping we didn’t know all these things were down there, interesting, very very interesting”

“I would like to come back again to see how far they have gone”

“As teenagers we used to meet on the gallery (overlooking the market) and just spend all afternoon there.

Ashley from Wessex Archeology said;

“we really needed to engage people that have shopped here … so it’s fantastic to have you along”

The site is being excavated by Wessex Archeology and Univeristy of Sheffield. The Castle site is the centrepiece of a city centre regeneration project led by Sheffield City Council.