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Call of the Curlew
Ughill Farm: a special place for curlews, but for how long?
Ughill Farm is low grade, marginal farmland on the western edge of Sheffield. It is an important site for curlews, golden plover and other nationally threatened wading birds that come to our moors each spring in order to breed. The farm also includes a small area of the internationally important Eastern Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest and lies within the Peak District National Park.
Temporarily saved
When the 132 hectare farmland came up for sale, we knew we had to do all we could to save the land – and the curlew – from more intensive agriculture as has happened elsewhere in the area.
Thankfully, with the support of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Ughill Farm has now been temporarily saved.
But we only have a year to pay back the Foundation in order for the Trust to own the land forever or it will once again go on to the open market.
Securing Ughill Farm for the future
We need your help to raise £1.2million by the end of November 2023, to take ownership of Ughill Farm, begin our plans to let nature & wildlife flourish and keep the Ughill curlews safe forever.
Thanks to the generous gifts already made by supporters, we are delighted that the Third Party Contribution target for our applications to Landfill Communities Funds has now been met. Any new donations will now be eligible for Gift Aid.
If we exceed our target then donations will go towards looking after Ughill Farm and setting up the nature-friendly farming activity.
Please support us to take full ownership of Ughill Farm by making an online gift here:
We need your help to raise £1 million and keep the Ughill curlews safe forever.
Add your donation
We need your support to help us secure Ughill Farm for the future!
For more information on the Ughill Farm appeal please contact Alison Gardner on a.gardner@wildsheffield.com.
Recent donations
£800.00
Colin
£10,000.00
High Latitude Services Ltd
£100.00
Paul
£25.00
Aline & John
£20.00
Kesia
£100.00
Andy
£7.00
Sharon
£100.00
Kevin
£100.00
David
£250.00
Harry
Large contributions
£500,000.00
FCC Communities Foundation
£100,000.00
Ecological Restoration Fund
£90,000.00
The Banister Charitable Trust
Totals and donors updated every 48 hours
About Ughill Farm
We are working hard to secure Ughill Farm for the future, for both facilitating nature recovery and to test and learn nature-friendly farming practices.
Internationally Important Habitat
The farm includes a section of internationally designated heathland and an important habitat for breeding waders. The site’s importance was emphasised to the Trust by Natural England, who contacted us encouraging purchase of the land. They are concerned the habitats could be lost if subject to more intensive agricultural practice, as has happened elsewhere in the area.
Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Protection Area
The Ughill Farm land lies within the Sheffield Lakeland Landscape area. It is 132 hectares and comprises a mixture of ‘improved’ pasture, rough pasture, woodland and stream corridor, an old quarry (now a mosaic heath habitat with a small water body) and a piece of land that is part of the Eastern Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Protection Area (SPA).
Ughill Farm includes primary habitats of European importance including dry heaths, blanket bogs and old sessile oak woods as well as habitat for several upland breeding species, including birds of prey, waders and migratory birds such as merlin, golden plover and dunlin. The farm is also partially designated under the Countryside Stewardship agri-environment scheme as a priority area for Upland Breeding Birds which are currently in decline including curlew, lapwing and snipe.
Contributing to nature’s recovery
Owning, managing and using this land for nature friendly farming, will make a significant contribution to our ambition of ensuring 30% of land and water is good for nature by 2030.
A Wild Night In: An Introduction to Ughill Farm
Liz Ballard, CEO of Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust, is delighted to give you a virtual introduction to our Ughill Farm.
Photo: Ian Cracknell
An Expert’s View
Chris Tomson, Trustee and Independent Conservation Advisor, writes:
Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust’s purchase of Ughill Farm could not come at a better time. Agriculture is entering a new era with a major transition in the way government financially supports the farming industry in England.
Farmers whose main role is to produce sustainable food from their land are now also being encouraged to deliver public goods which include biodiversity, clean air, clean water, flood management and carbon sequestration with financial support from Defra’s new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS).
Upland farming is well placed to deliver these public goods alongside traditional sheep and cattle production and maintenance of the landscape beloved by tourists if the remuneration from ELMS is competitive.
Ughill gives the Trust an opportunity to join this new era of farming and environmental enhancement to farm the land sympathetically with nature, aiming to demonstrate to our members, decision makers and others that sound commercial, sustainable farming, together with enhancing our wildlife and natural resources is achievable.
There are already a lot of nature friendly farmers working to enhance our environment, Ughill gives us the chance to join them.
Curlew and Chicks
Short film of curlew and their chicks, courtesy and copyright of Nicola S / ALL MEDIA.
Future Plans: Our Proposed Approach for Ughill Farm
Future Plans
This is a unique opportunity for the Trust to purchase an upland farm to ‘test and learn’ how a financially viable farm can be run in a nature positive way. In the first full year of ownership, we hope to set up key infrastructure (including a solar powered water system and pasture pumps) and secure the boundaries so that we can start grazing on the land.
We also hope that our volunteer community will support with essential work at Ughill, including ecological monitoring, habitat management and dry-stone walling. The Trust also plans to work with the local universities so that Ughill Farm is a place where students can gain direct experience of ecology, wildlife and land management.
Strategic Importance of Ughill Farm
The opportunity to purchase this land has come at a key time and in a strategically important location. The Trust are already working with a number of farms in the area on a DEFRA Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) Test & Trial. We are part of an existing farm cluster group and have built relationships with the local farming community.
Owning, managing and using this land for nature friendly farming, will make a significant contribution to our ambition of ensuring 30% of land and water is good for nature by 2030.
This is a long-term project and a comprehensive plan is currently being drawn up by a team at Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust (SRWT) which includes Roy Mosley, who has over 20 years’ experience as SRWT’s Head of Conservation, and Trustee Chris Tomson, whose experience includes 20 years managing farms in the Ewden Valley, close to Ughill, and 13 years as Farms Conservation Adviser with RSPB. Additionally, the management team will be using the most up to date research and knowledge in nature-friendly farming techniques, and will have the opportunity to test innovative methods at Ughill Farm. These findings and results will be shared with other landowners in the local community and wider region in order to help inform farming techniques and increase biodiversity on their land.
Benefits to the local community include the opportunity to get involved in the project, including its management and monitoring, potential reductions in downstream flood risk, and as biodiversity improves – encouraging, for example, a wider variety of wildflowers – the appearance will also improve, encouraging wellbeing through providing an increasingly popular area for walkers and cyclists.
Managing the land
We intend to farm the land using a low intensity farming model that has been tried and tested elsewhere. By balancing the level of stock with nature in mind, fewer inputs (feed, fertiliser, seed, glyphosate, machinery etc.) are required to maintain the pastures.
The Trust has decades of experience in managing a similar upland site at Blacka Moor and has been working closely with local farmers in our Sheffield Lakeland partnership for the last seven years. Ughill Farm will provide us with an opportunity to test economic, low input, nature-rich farming practices in an area important for breeding waders, and for its moorland fringe, upper catchment and woodland habitats.
Involving Our Community
Approaching management of the land in this way is sure to capture the imagination of the Sheffield and Rotherham community. There will be opportunities to volunteer and be involved, to support the monitoring, aid evidence gathering and learn about the ecology and land management. We have links with the two universities in the city and plan to provide opportunities for student work experience in these specialist areas. The land includes a byway open to all traffic (BOAT) running through the site which will ensure that walkers, cyclists and visitors can visit the farm, whilst protecting the land for wildlife.
Landfill Communities Fund
In a nutshell: how the Landfill Communities Fund works:
- Landfill operators receive a 90% tax credit against payments to organisations like Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust – so we can fund projects that meet agreed criteria.
- To unlock the funding, we need a third party to contribute the missing 10% tax.
- The third party must be completely independent from us.
- Entrust, the landfill operator regulator, has allowed us to collect these funds on their behalf (unfortunately gift aid cannot be claimed on these gifts).
- For every £1,000 we raise, we are able to unlock £10,000 of funding.