Fairholmes to Malin Bridge

Sometimes a few young women  get on the early train after enjoying themselves in the nightclubs in town on Saturday night. Naturally they are usually wearing quite revealing clothing...which always puts a smile on my face when I notice them. Today, however, I was in for a real treat; one young woman who was wearing practically nothing, just a skimpy pair of knickers and a flimsy toga that wasn't even properly held in place. When she walked by me on the train I got a right eyeful of naked flesh - her friend wasn't wearing much more, just beachwear, a thong and a couple of red stars covering her nipples.

My bus from Sheffield arrived on time at Fairholmes, and after visiting the toilets there I headed up onto the moors via the dam and a few isolated cottages.

I took the Wellhead path, which leads up to Dovestone Clough, a route a haven't walked along previously. There were some lovely views as I climbed up here, mainly looking behind me, and they'd look even better in the sunshine.

I then walked across open moorland for a bit and found the easiest way to get up to the Salt Cellar rock formation, climbing through the heather, bracken, and bilberries...it was quite tiring.

From this point onwards it was a steady descent along the top of Derwent Edge and then across the moors to Moscar House and then a bit more undulating past Moscar Cross Farm and across Ughill Moors.

The next section of the walk was along country lanes, tracks, and footpaths, passing the hamlet of Load Brook en route. There was some decent countryside to enjoy and take photographs of.

Only a few minutes after this point it started to rain; the clouds looked very threatening and I thought it was set for the day, and so instead of heading down to the Rivelin Valley and walking all the way to Malin Bridge I decided to bale out and head for the nearest bus stop at Stannington.

When I reached the bus stop I cursed because I'd arrived there five minutes after the bus had left and it was fifty five minutes for the next one. I continued walking towards the direction of Hillsborough and a few minutes later I noticed a timetable on another bus stop showing that two services stopped there on a Sunday - yet again though I was a few minutes late for the additional service. So I kept on walking, fortunately the worst of the rain had passed over.

I wasn't really sure exactly where  I was by this time, I had walked off the edge of the map...but I knew where I needed to be - in the bottom of the valley. I headed straight down a steep hill on a housing estate and arrived not too far from the tram stop at Malin Bridge. When I got there, there was a tram waiting for me on the platform ready for the journey back to the city centre.

  

Hemswell Antiques Centre and Hemswell Village

I was hoping to be able to go to one of the places that was holding an open gardens weekend today. Sadly the weather has been quite bad all week and today has been no exception and so I decided to visit an old standby for whenever it's raining; Hemswell Antiques Centre to the east of Gainsborough.

The antiques centre is located on an old RAF base and there are 6-8 separate businesses operating from various former hangars, barracks, and administration buildings.

There aren't just antiques on display here though...and that's why I enjoy looking round so much; there are collectibles, furniture, jewellery, toys, glassware, railwayana, paintings, books, artwork, vintage clothing, militaria, coins and medals, and all sorts of random tat and junk.

There are also several cafes, two small garden centres, a couple of garden and building materials recovery/recycling merchants, a nursing home and several other businesses on the site.

The buildings are quite far spaced apart, and as on previous visits we didn't manage to see everything we wanted to; there was time to pop into one of the cafes for cream teas though.

On the way home we briefly popped into the village of Hemswell so that I could take some photographs of the church.

Ravenfield Park, Rotherham's Secret Valley

A short walk today with my support worker at Ravenfield Park near Rotherham; a series of three ornamental reservoirs in a one hundred and fifty foot deep valley. I've described it as  'secret' because, although there is public access to many parts of the park, no public footpaths are depicted on the Ordnance Survey maps. 

Thurnscoe, Clayton, Frickley, Hooton Pagnell, Bilham Row, Broodsworth, Pickburn, and Woodlands

I started today's walk after first having visited my parents at Thurnscoe, about eight miles from my home. My mum's not well, she's got terminal cancer, and I'm needing to spend a lot more time with them both.

Thurnscoe is a decent place to start a walk from though, it's situated at the foot of the Yorkshire Magnesian Limestone Ridge and there's some lovely countryside and very pretty villages nearby, 

My parents' home is quite near to the church and so that was the first thing I took a photograph of today. The church isn't really very old, most of it is an eighteenth century re-build. 

I then walked through the estate and across the fields to Clayton, where I ate my sandwiches sitting on a bench at the Millennium Green across from the village pond.

I turned down the lane leading to Teapot Corner and then took the track to the few houses at Frickley, and then Frickley Park. As I was walking along a stretch of one of the estate roads I arrived at a massive steel gate that was closed, and could only be opened by residents of the hamlet by using a keypad. It wasn't a problem for me to get by, I just stepped over a low wall at the side. As long as I've been alive this has always been a public right of way for both pedestrians and vehicular traffic and I'm not happy about this development. Technically there is an alternative route through a small wood, but this is a long detour...and certainly is no use to anyone in a car...or a delivery van.

At times it was difficult to find the path as a walked up the hill to Hooton Pagnell, one of my favourite villages anywhere. There are so many beautiful cottages in this limestone estate village; it wasn't quite looking its best today in the quite cloudy conditions. I'm sure everything will be ready for the annual Summer Fete in five weeks' time though - I'll be there again if the weather's fine.

I then took a route down to Brodsworth which was new to me, first arriving at Bilhan Row. I continued along the road to Pickburn and then over the footbridge over the motorway to reach Brodsworth Community Woodland and then finally the shops at Woodland where I waited for a bus back to Doncaster.