The Celebrating the Cascade project will save one of the country’s oldest and most loved water features from risk of collapse, while a wraparound programme of access, interpretation and public engagement will ensure that the restoration project is used as a catalyst to reimagine how we use Chatsworth’s heritage to connect with the needs of our communities today. Schools are at the heart of this programme.
We have been developing our partnership with the Minerva Learning Trust, a muti-academy group of Sheffield and Chesterfield state primary and secondary schools.
This element of the Cascade project has been funded by a very generous legacy of over £33,000 that we received from a generous donor from Sheffield. This local donor wished to remain anonymous and remembered 16 charities that were important to them, both national and local, in their will.
Together with the Minerva Learning Trust we have devised a programme of impactful, child-led educational experiences, which build life-skills alongside curriculum learning. Over the course of the Cascade project, the legacy will enable us to further develop and test these programmes and before ultimately rolling them out to benefit the 10,000 children and young people who come to Chatsworth on educational visits every year.
Throughout the project we will work with 3,600 children and young people, many of whom have limited opportunity to access heritage sites. We have designed new Cascade-themed garden adventures for children from early years to lower secondary school age, which foster life skills such as teamwork, decision making and creative thinking, as well as exploring curriculum areas, with options including geography, engineering, the environment, creative writing, art and music. Over the summer, pupils had the chance to try out the new adventures and their feedback will continue to inform how we design and deliver these adventures in the years to come.
Legacies of any size help Chatsworth House Trust to preserve and enhance Chatsworth for future generations. To find out more about how legacies can have a positive impact on all of Chatsworth House Trust’s work, please read our legacy brochure here. If you are interested in finding out more about leaving a legacy to Chatsworth House Trust, please contact Miles Stevenson (miles.stevenson@chatsworth.org, 01246 565400 ext. 21211).
Photography credit: Saul Brown
