Westwood Man Seeks To Preserve Shuttleworth Field

Peter Schuler reached out to fellow Westwoodians to inform them of a potential solar project on the Shuttleworth Field in town. Although this project is not being continued, he now seeks a way to keep the Hanlon/Deerfield school project from encroaching on the Shuttleworth Field.

The proposed solar array would have been on twenty acres of the Shuttleworth Field. The field is located near Lowell Woods, adjacent to the location of the Hanlon School. Shuttleworth is owned by the town of Westwood and designated as unprotected, Multi-purpose Open Space Land.


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The Westwood Select Board opted to not continue the solar array at its October 5, 2020 meeting. Schuler attributes part of this success to the Change.org petition and Facebook group’s success in raising awareness of the solar array.


However, the new elementary school project may raze about ten acres of Shuttleworth Field. “There’s been a strong case made for why the new elementary school needs to be built. The environmental impact has not been disclosed,” says Schuler.


He identifies his main concern as that there has been thirty to forty years of action in town to protect open land. According to town documents posted on the Twitter account Save Shuttleworth, the 1994 Westwood Town meeting designated “Shuttleworth Parcel” as being for “school or municipal purposes.” The same Twitter account also notes that when Shuttleworth Property was sold from Dedham to Westwood in 1970, its intended purpose was for schools.


Having the Select Board permanently protect and preserve the land, and having the School Committee ensure that the new school building project protects the land are key goals for Schuler. If you want to get involved, he can be reached via email, or you can join the Keep the Wood in Westwood Facebook group.