Heeley City Farm (Sheffield, United Kingdom)

A city farm in the Heeley district of Sheffield, founded in 1981 on land earmarked for the Sheffield South Relief road — the Heeley bypass — a scheme that blighted the lives of hundreds of local residents for 30 years and was never begun. Built around a wind- and sun-powered mini-farm, it also runs recycling, a garden centre, a café and a charity shop, combining environmental, health, food and farming education with training for disabled people, unemployed adults and young people. From 31 October 2008 it began reconstructing an Iron Age roundhouse with the University of Sheffield's Archaeology Department, targeted for completion in early 2011.

It provides environmental, health, food and farming education to around 5,000 school children and several thousand adult visitors each year, day care and training for up to 20 adults with learning difficulties, vocational horticulture training for up to 100 unemployed adults, youth activities for up to 2,000 young people, support for over 100 regular volunteers, and language and basic-skills training.

Income comes primarily from social enterprise activity, public sector contracts, enterprise sales and consultancy; as of 2005 less than 25% came from grants or charitable funding.

An example of land left in limbo by an abandoned road scheme turned into a neighbourhood farm and training base for over forty years, reaching around 5,000 school children a year on a social-enterprise income base rather than grant dependence.

Founded on land held for a road scheme; the form of tenure could not be confirmed from the source.

Web articles and features that cover this case.

• ArticleHeeley City Farm — Wikipedia ↗en.wikipedia.org