Goldthorpe, Phoenix Park, Stotfold, Hooton Pagnell, Moorhouse, and South Elmsall

I wasn't feeling particularly well yesterday and so thought I'd better stick to an easy local walk today. I caught the Barnsley bus to Goldthorpe and then climbed up to the summit of Phoenix Park, the landscaped former spoilheap of Hickleton Main Colliery.

I descended down to the road and continued along a track to the tiny hamlet of Stotfold and then climbed up to Watchley Crags and the village of Hooton Pagnell beyond, one of my favourite local places.

I finished the walk by walking down the Hampole road for a few minutes until I found the path that goes across the fields to Moorhouse.

The final section of footpath went next to an orchard and across more fields until it reached an access road that runs right alongside the railway line basically all the way to the railway station. I had forty minutes until my train back to Doncaster was due so I looked round the shops, many of them were closed and shuttered though.

Rufford Abbey Country Park, Kneesall, and Southwell

A day out in Nottinghamshire. We started our day at Rufford Abbey Country Park, there was nothing special happening but it's a nice place to spend a bit of time on a hot sunny day. Just before noon we drove to the nearby village of Kneesall and had ploughman's lunches at the Haybarn Cafe.

We finished the day off at Southwell, one of my favourite towns to visit.

Billingley Green, Billingley, Middlecliffe, Little Houghton, Great Houghton, Thurnscoe, and Highgate

I caught the Barnsley bus to Billingley Green and walked up the road to Billingley. I then took the path that leads right to the northern tip of Middlecliffe and continued down the lane to Little Houghton.

I walked along Chapel Lane, which I remember as being the old pit lane used to reach to two former local collieries. Despite this area only being ten miles from my home in Doncaster, and the area I lived in until thirty years ago I still managed to find a path I'd previously not used, going part way up the former spoilheap, now landscaped...of course when I was younger there wasn't a path here. It leads to a location where there are now several large wind turbines and the layout of the landscape and footpaths is completely different as to how it's depicted on my Ordnance Survey map dating from the 1980s.

It wasn't difficult to select the correct path going up to Great Houghton. I walked through the village for about half a mile and then took a bridleway heading up towards Mount Pleasant Farm and then to the road that leads to Clayton.

Great Houghton has associations with the civil war and Oliver Cromwell, and that's why there's a statue of his helmet in the village.

I was now walking along the boundary between Barnsley and Doncaster which soon becomes designated as the Barnsley Boundary Walk which I stayed with for a while before branching off to Thurnscoe and continuing through the village and then along a track to Highgate from where I caught the bus back to Doncaster.