Two sites in and alongside the proposed Bramley Common (SES30) Green Belt release area are being considered for the South Yorkshire Local Heritage List - and public comments are open now.

Please send a short comment supporting these nominations. It takes 2 minutes.

This is one of the few points where local voices can still shape how these places are formally understood, recognised and taken into account.

Deadline: Friday 20 February 2026

The two nominated sites

🌳 Cinderhill Green

An area of open land near Grange Lane and Beaver Avenue, known locally as Cinderhill since the 13th century.

According to the authority’s assessment, this is one of the earliest recorded Quaker open-air meeting places in England. George Fox - founder of the Quaker movement - preached here several times in 1654, and his own journal records that several thousand people gathered on the hillside to hear him speak.

What’s striking is that the report describes the landscape as still recognisable and largely intact: historic field boundaries survive on the ground today, making this a rare example of a 17th-century religious meeting place that can still be seen in the landscape.

🌳 Cinderhill Quaker Burial Ground

A separate but closely linked site nearby, historically used as a burial ground by the local Quaker community, including families associated with Ballifield Hall.

The assessment records burials from as early as 1667, notes surviving boundary walls and markers, and documents grave stones that have been displaced but remain present. One gravestone (William Bullas, 1673) can be seen in Handsworth Museum.

The report also notes that people still visit the area - sometimes from outside the UK - trying to locate this burial ground today. It is described as both archaeologically important and culturally significant, and unusually early in Quaker history.

🌳 Why comments matter at this stage

Both sites are currently listed as “Candidate (work in progress)”. That means the authority is still checking, refining and strengthening the record - and local recognition genuinely matters now.

Comments don’t need to be technical. They can be short. What helps is confirming that these places are known, named, valued, and meaningful to people who live here.

🌳 How to comment (it really can take 2 minutes)

1. (Optional) Read the nominations on our website: Current Candidates for Assessment – Sheffield (warning: large PDF)
2. Send a short comment via the South Yorkshire Local Heritage List contact form or email syorks.archservice@sheffield.gov.uk

If it helps, you can copy and paste something simple like:

• “I support the local listing of Cinderhill Green as a long-established and locally valued part of Handsworth.”
• “I recognise the Cinderhill Quaker Burial Ground as an important historic site connected to the early Quaker community.”
• “I have known this area for many years and believe it deserves formal recognition before any changes are made.”

If you have a photo, an old map, or even a family memory, you can simply add that you’d be happy to share it.

If you’re able to spare a couple of minutes before 20 February, it really could make a difference to how these places are treated in future.

Thank you for reading - and for caring about Handsworth’s history.

News Articles

You can explore all the latest Local Plan coverage on our website’s Press Articles page, where we’re adding new pieces as they come in.

Contact

If you want to get in touch please email us at either:

info@saves13greenbelt.org.uk - email the working group.

website@saves13greenbelt.org.uk - suggestions/additions to the website.

In honour of Sapphire McCarthy