A £120,000 National Lottery Heritage Fund grant will support a two-year project documenting Sheffield’s travelling showpeople, centred on the Pullen/Pullin family, who have operated funfairs across eight generations. The initiative aims to preserve personal memories and traditional fairground crafts while recognising the wider community whose lives and leisure have been shaped by the city’s fairs.

The project will collect photographs, memorabilia and oral histories for a new Pullin Family Collection at the University of Sheffield’s National Fairground and Circus Archive. It will also produce a documentary, book, exhibitions and children’s activities, and restore two 1950s rides; the family recently lost its Endcliffe Park site after more than 40 years and hopes to establish a new Sheffield location.