Thorne Moors

Another local walk today, to Thorne Moors; a truly unique place - the largest expanse of lowland raised peat bogs in the U.K....and it's claimed that at one location in the middle of the moors you are further from a metalled road than anywhere else in England.

Since the demolition of the local colliery and its winding gear a few years later there are no landmarks to help with navigation. Apart from the occasional abandoned peat stack the landscape is uniformly flat. This moor isn't like a moor in the Peak District where I could freely roam; I'm forced to stick to the paths and trackways, most of them as straight as an arrow. There are large expanses of deep water, dangerous bogs, dense impenetrable woods and scrubland, grasses taller than me....and venomous snakes lurking in the undergrowth...and even on the path right in front of you. I'll mention them later. On a warm summer's day like today I could have been in Africa.

I got off the bus in Moorends and got some pop and a sandwich from the shop. It's a bit of a walk in the first place to get to the moors, through a housing estate and then along the old pit lane.

When I reached the moors I took the path which leads in an easterly direction right to the Lincolnshire boundary, which is marked by a drainage ditch with only one footbridge crossing it. There are some extensive views along this section when you leave the wooded areas, especially to the north where the three Aire Valley power stations loom like gigantic ships approaching Goole Docks from the wrong direction. The famous salt and pepper pot watertowers at Goole, as well as the cranes at the docks and the spire of the church are also visible. They're not visible in the photograph though.

I walked over the bridge into Lincolnshire and was officially standing on Crowle Moors for a few seconds before I returned to Yorkshire and took a photograph of the sign that welcomes walkers to Doncaster. Part of the wording on the sign isn't very welcoming at all though.

On previous visits I've come across adders, England's only venomous snakes, but I didn't see any today. I can't say whether I was disappointed or not.

It wasn't long until I reached the observation platform.

I spent at least five minutes scanning the horizon with my binoculars. Apart from the landmarks mentioned earlier, I spotted the plume from Keadby power station off to the east. 

I noticed that quite a few benches have been placed on the moors since my last visit; I sat at one of these to eat my sandwich and have a drink.

From here it was only about half an hour back to the housing estate at Moorends where a bus was just approaching the bus-stop. I had to jog for a few yards to catch it.