In Ecclesall Woods and Heeley City Farm, new educational buildings are going up, thanks to wood and elbow grease rather than cranes and property speculation.

At Heeley, the City Farm and Sheffield University's archaeology department are building an Iron Age Roundhouse, a copy of the first real houses built in Britain, which were still used up to 2,000 years ago.

This Sunday, between 10am and 3pm, the public are invited to help build the house a little higher (using local wood), as part of the Lottery-funded Digging Our Roots project at the farm, which is teaching young people about farming from prehistory to the present day.

The roundhouse will use techniques copied by modern 'green' buildings, such as turf roofing and wattle and daub walls.

"This open day will give everyone a chance to get involved with the construction process," said project officer Sally Rodgers.

And in Ecclesall Woods, to complement the gallery now open for Christmas, an outdoor classroom built and designed by students from Sheffield University's School of Architecture has just been completed.

It will be used by the Archimedes Training Forest Schools organisation to promote outdoor learning, often for children who struggle to concentrate in a traditional classroom setting.

The classroom, open to the elements, will also be used by the council's woodland team for its own educational events.

"We used sycamore trees felled literally 50 metres away from where they now stand as structural columns in the outdoor classroom," said Olivia Beaumont, one of the construction team.

"We have mainly used timber from the surrounding Ecclesall woodland, and this material in particular has been an important driver behind the design."



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