Peter was always happy to share his great photos

Peter died after a short illness just over a month ago, at the age of 87, and his colleagues from the Shire Brook Heritage and Conservation Groups have been in touch to share some of the many hundreds of photos he took for them to help promote conservation work and the wildlife around Sheffield and the Peak District.

Peter was a member of the Sorby Natural History Society and also worked as a volunteer for the Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust (SRWT), particularly at the Woodhouse Washlands nature reserve. Nabil Abbas worked with Peter as Nature Recovery Manager at Woodhouse Washlands, a 138 acre floodplain site along the River Rother between Sheffield and Rotherham.

“Peter was involved with the nature reserve at Woodhouse Washlands since it was first established,” Nabil said. “He was always on hand to record habitat management and restoration work taking place on the nature reserve, and was very supportive in sharing his photographs both with the Wildlife Trust and the local press. He was a great friend to South Yorkshire’s wildlife, and his enthusiasm, expertise and kindness will be greatly missed.”

Peter lived in Woodhouse with his wife Margaret, and his photographs particularly document the habitat and wildlife around the area, as former industrial sites returned to nature.

One of his colleagues at the Shire Brook Heritage Group is Christine Handley, who said: “Peter was a very keen and prolific photographer who used his talent to document community activities and events around Woodhouse for more than 30 years.”

She described Peter as a ‘community photographer’ who was always happy to share his photos (as long as he had a credit and the photos were properly captioned). She said Peter had told her he’d rather his photos were used and enjoyed rather than being put in an album or stored away on a computer and forgotten.

“Peter was generous with his time and worked long hours putting presentations, slide shows and compilations together for others to use. He took photos of wildlife locally, always useful for displays, and also ventured out into the Peak District and further afield building up an archive of thousands of pictures. He was a great community champion, knowledgeable and sensible with his advice and opinions delivered in a positive way.“

James Hargreaves from SRWT said Peter was much loved by everyone he met at the Trust, (usually armed with his camera), particularly the Land Team and Rangers at Woodhouse Washlands.

“It was his local nature reserve and he would often call into the office following his daily walk to let us know if he'd spotted something interesting or concerning for us to record or attend to, whilst always offering up amazing photos for us to use.”

Peter’s photograph of a Mistle Thrush eating berries was selected by judges as a winner of last year's SRWT Photography Competition.

“Peter was immensely proud of that photo and the accolade of being selected to represent and support the Trust through this year's calendar,” said James.

The photo represents November 2023 in the current calendar and will serve as a reminder of a great ‘community photographer’ for owners of the calendar later this year.

See: https://www.wildsheffield.com/announcing-the-2023-sheffield-rotherham-wildlife-trust-calendar/