Parks & Pavements Past is a research and design service set up by Dr Amy Graham and based in Sheffield, UK. It combines the skills and experience Amy has developed over the last 20 years, building on a specific idea, long held and now being realised.
Our values
We believe that local history belongs to all of us, whether our family has lived in an area for generations, we have just started to call a place home, or we are visiting somewhere new for the day. We hope that Parks & Pavements Past will make a long term, meaningful contribution to the city of Sheffield, and beyond, helping people feel more connected to where they live and to lead happier and healthier lives through fundraising and other activities which improve local parks and streets.
Please click the link to download our Social Good Statement (version 2025.01) [Coming soon]
Biography
I moved to Sheffield in 2017 to pursue my PhD in ‘Critical Heritage Studies’ at Sheffield Hallam University and have made my life in the Steel City, with my partner and daughter. We love the hills, the rivers, and the parks, and I have a huge fondness for the surviving industrial heritage, the rows of terraced housing, and the distinctiveness of each high street.
Before coming to Sheffield, I was the Local History Officer for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. This is where I fell in love with local history, and helping others to discover and expand their own passion through diligent research, creating meaningful displays, information pamphlets, workshops and a whole series of talks on a variety of topics.
I have always been a bit ‘crafty’ and have admired architectural and graphic design since completing my first degree in Architecture at the University of Cambridge (2010), and probably before that when I was studying for my GCSE and A-Level in Art. Good design is like magic, hard to describe – but you know it when you see it, because it draws you in and tells its own amazing stories.
You can see more of my making on Instagram at makestuff.mimi. If you’re interested in my PhD, which was about bus enthusiasm and the experience of time on the bus journey, you can download a copy here.
Parks & Pavements Past 