I should have been walking with my brother today but he didn't show up at the agreed time at Rotherham bus station. He refuses to use a mobile phone and so I couldn't contact him to find out what the problem was and what alternative plans we could make. So I got on the first bus for Greasbrough that departed after nine o'clock, and although it was a circular service which went the long way round the journey only took nineteen minutes.
It was short walk until I reached the entrance to Wentworth Park; it's a pleasant walk past the lowest of the three small reservoirs followed by a gentle climb up through the deer park to Wentworth Woodhouse, the large stately home that is currently being renovated and so is covered with scaffolding. Some tearooms have recently been open there though and I think at certain times during the week group tours are organised to view parts of the house that are deemed safe.
I think many people will have been fooled by this building over the years; this is a photograph of the stables.
It was only a short walk to the village of Wentworth.
There are two churches in the village, the new one, and the old one which is in ruins apart from a small family chapel which is still roofed. They are both always open and I would have gone inside them both if my brother had been with me; since I was on my own I didn't bother though - I've visited them several times before and taken photographs.
It was an easy walk along an estate road to Harley and then a short stretch of the busy A6135 until I reached what I assumed to be Tankersley Park. The quality of the estate roads here isn't quite as good as at Wentworth though, but the walking was still easy.
It was raining quite heavily when I reached Tankersley church. The building was closed, I couldn't even get inside the porch and so had to take shelter for a few minutes under the canopy of the lychgate with a local dogwalker.
Part of the route heading north to Worsbrough crosses a busy dual carriageway and some industrial areas, yet there is still some nice countryside over to the east of Birdwell.
The vicar at Worsbrough has a special car that warps the fabric of time and space so that when he parks it on a dangerous corner in front of the church it isn't a hazard to traffic.
When I reached the end of the walk at the tearooms at Worsbrough Mill I had the most colourful and psychedelically decorated slice of cake I've ever seen - unfortunately it didn't taste as good as it looked.
My two bus journeys back home ran like clockwork and I arrived in Doncaster within the hour.
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