Wath-upon-Dearne, West Melton, Brampton Bierlow, Elsecar, Street, Hoober, Upper Haugh, Nether Haugh, Greasbrough, and Rotherham

I can't easily get to the Peak District on public transport at the weekends at the moment; on Saturdays there's a strike on the railways which is limiting the number of services which are running to Sheffield, and on Sundays there's currently engineering work which has closed the line. So, it was another local walk today...in the rain.

I'd got no particular destination in mind when I arrived at the bus station at 7:30 this morning. I scanned the destinations screens and saw that a bus going to Wath was due and so I rushed over to board it.

Obviously the church at Wath wouldn't be open at this early hour.

I left Wath by heading westwards; some women who most likely worked at a hairdressing salon were smoking as they waited for the premises to open and must have been sharing some particularly juicy gossip because as I approached, the woman with the loudest voice stopped mid-sentence and just smiled at me, continuing her tale a few seconds later when she hoped I would be out of earshot.

I soon reached the allotments at West Melton and then found the footpath that goes along the old railway embankment. There were plenty of windfall apples along here; this is often the case alongside former railway lines as the apple cores were discarded by passengers and crew. I looked up at the trees if there might be one just ready for picking and easy to reach - I didn't spot one, but I didn't linger over the task either,

I had to walk along the road for a while before I picked up the TransPennine Trail and then the Elsecar Greenway, which is actually the towpath of the Elsecar Canal, a  short spur leading off from the now drained and filled in  Dearne and Dove Canal.

The heritage railway that's based at Elsecar Heritage Centre runs alongside, or quite near to, the canal towpath; one of the steam locomotives passed but I didn't have enough time to take my camera out of my pocket...and on its return journey I wasn't able to see it through the trees. I did eventually capture an image of it though as it set off again just as I was approaching the station.

A few minutes later I was at the heritage centre.

Even though it was only 11:15 I still had a cream tea in Brambles Tea Room and sat next to the radiator and imagined it was switched on, it was raining and quite cold outside. By the way, I wasn't the only person enjoying a scone served with fresh cream and jam.

I walked up to the Needle's Eye, one of the Wentworth Follies, walking through the woods and across fields.

I then walked down the lane to the hamlet of Street.

I could pick out two of the other follies as I walked along here, Keppel's Column and Hoober Stand.  The road ends just beyond the houses and then continues as a bridleway. 

The next place I reached was Hoober; I don't know how Mr and Mrs Hobson manage to persuade their hens to only lay eggs on certain days though.

I walked across more fields to the edge of Upper Haugh, fortunately not too muddy despite the rain, and then traipsed down the road to Nether Haugh, Greasbrough, and finally Rotherham town centre.

Despite the strike there were still some local trains running and I only had twenty minutes to wait for one back to Doncaster.

Elsecar, Tankersley, Warren, Spittal Houses, and Wentworth

A change of routine today. Normally when I go walking with Chris and Maureen, my friends from Leeds, I meet them at Fox House up on the moors and then we drive to wherever we're starting from. Annoyingly there are no early morning trains running from Doncaster to Sheffield on Sundays for the next few weeks because of scheduled engineering work so I couldn't get to Fox House until much later than our regular ten o'clock pick-up time.

So, we went on a much more local walk for me, out to Elsecar near Barnsley. I met Chris and Maureen at Warmsworth, near to the A1(M) roundabout, and it took us about twenty minutes to reach our destination - the car park at Elsecar Heritage Centre. We immediately went inside to use the toilets and have a quick look round - both the parking and admission is free. 

Chris was particularly interested in the heritage railway station and the Newcomen Beam Engine.

We then started our walk, headed to the west via Elsecar Park and Skier's Spring Wood, going along a short section of the TransPennine Trail before turning to the north to pass the ruins of Tankersley Old Hall - there's no public access and the ruins look to be in quite a perilous state. A few minutes later we reached our lunch stop, Tankersley Church...a lovely location.

Navigating the next section of the walk through Tankersley Park Golf Course wasn't easy - the signage was poor so we just took to walking down the fairways until we reached the club house and a path that we could then follow.

We crossed over the A61 road and walked next to the perimeter fence of an industrial estate; I noticed by the signs that we were now inside the boundary of the City of Sheffield. Next up was the village of Warren, pretty boring and unattractive, before then walking along the main road for a few yards before reaching the bridge over the motorway. 

It was a pleasant walk across the fields, past a couple of commercial stables, and through a small wood until we reached the small hamlet of Spittal Houses, and then Wentworth. We only entered the western edge of the village today...passing next to the old ruined church though.

It was about a further mile and a half, mainly downhill, back to Elsecar where we had time to pop in to the tearooms. I had a cream tea, Chris had a sausage sandwich and Maureen some green tea. 

There was a 'Gift and Grub Fair' inside one of the buildings; I bought a pork and lime pickle pie for my supper.

Wentworth and Elsecar

My first day out  for nearly three months with Siobhan, my support worker, because of a problem with social services and my personal budget, or personalised budget - I never know which is the correct term.

It only takes about half an hour in the car to reach Wentworth, where we parked at the garden centre. We had a quick look round; it was mainly Christmas trees, shrubs, primroses and cyclamens on display...the cyclamens had very large flowers. We strolled into the walled garden and climbed up the observation tower in the maze, before briefly exploring the other areas, including the bear pit.

The shops were very much geared to the Christmas season; I wasn't really that interested. My main interest was the farm shop where I bought a couple of large rabbit pies.

We sat and ate our sandwiches in the car before going to explore the village, first of all the new church...the building was locked.

The old church is partially ruined, but part of it is still roofed and in regular use...and it was open, so we could go inside.

We walked back to the car along the main street through the village and then drove down the hill to Elsecar Heritage Centre. The two main attractions we looked at here are the antiques centre and the antique furniture centre...oh, and of course we popped in the cafe for tea and scones.

Elsecar, Street, Wentworth, and Kimberworth Park

A walk today that's not really local, but it's not that near to the Peak District either.

I caught one of the frequent trains from Doncaster to Meadowhall and then the hourly Leeds stopping train, and got off at Elsecar.

I walked down the quite steep road and arrived at Elsecar Heritage Centre at just after nine thirty. The site was open [it's free admission] and I was able to visit the toilets and have good look round and take plenty of photos, but most of the shops and cafés didn't open until 10:00 or 10:30. I've been here several times before; my favourite thing to do is wander round and linger in the antiques centre...I never buy anything though.

I love the old tin advertising  boards that are attached to the outside of the building.

I walked over to the nearby Newcomen Beam Engine but didn't bother to take my camera out of its case because the building was covered in scaffolding; it's good news that it's being repaired though.

There are several follies in the Wentworth area and the footpath to the first of these starts off going along the boundary wall of the Heritage Centre, then up through woodland and across fields. The views are far reaching; I could see the Aire Valley power stations and the wind farm at Penistone. Occasionally I looked down too, and noticed some very pretty wildflowers which I'm sure I haven't seen before.

I got no warning of my approach to the Needle's Eye, it's situated in a clearing some way back from the path; you could easily miss it if you didn't know it was there.

It wasn't far until the path reached the road; I crossed it and took the country lane almost directly opposite, which leads to the hamlet of Street. Once past the houses the lane is no more than a track. At this point, if you know what you're looking for, you can just make out the second folly of the day, Hoober Stand. 

The summit of the hill where the Stand is located is quite dense woodland, but only a few yards away, in the clear, I was able to enjoy some lovely views.

I then descended across a field and returned to Street and took a footpath which led me to the road, which I needed to walk along for a few hundred yards before reaching Wentworth. I explored the village for a few minutes, popping into the shop to get something to drink, and banging my head both going in and coming out, on the lintel above the door.

I spent a bit of time photographing the church.

Next stop was the garden centre, which is lovely place to visit with the family; all I required today though was a mug of tea from the café.

The entrance to Wentworth Park is only a few hundred yards away and after only a short walk I arrived at the magnificent stables block; so magnificent that some people supposedly mistake this for the actual country house which is the reason for the park. (The red lawnmower in the picture is the size of a small tractor.)

Wentworth Woodhouse is truly awe inspiring; it's the largest private house in Europe...and it's massive. Unfortunately it's not open to the public. It's in a rather bad state of disrepair, so I couldn't get up close for any photographs even if I wanted to. Close up shots wouldn't do it justice though; in order to capture all of the frontage in a shot I had to stand a long way away.

Wentworth Park is actually a deer park, or a 'gun park' as it says on all of the signs. Just beyond the house, in a fenced off area though, there are two more follies, a temple and a shrine [I think]. In a wooded area quite a distance from the house I caught sight of the animals, unusually in a mixed herd with cows - I'm sure there's a mother-in-law joke hidden in that line somewhere.

I don't know what type of deer they are, but they do seem to be different to the ones I saw at Northern College last month, which also has a deer park in the grounds.

The park gently slopes downhill; at the bottom of the hill there are a couple of nice lakes. By now the map that I'd printed from the internet was no use to me because it didn't cover this area. I was confident that, irrespective of whichever path I took, I'd arrive at a location where I could catch a bus back to Rotherham.

I think I ended up at Kimberworth Park, but before getting there I was able to see the last two Wentworth Follies, Keppel's Column, and the Rockingham Mausoleum on the skyline.

I didn't have long to wait for the bus into Rotherham, where I did a bit of shopping and had a meal in a pub. The pub had an unusual name, and seemed to have a problem as to where it really is, as you can see from the till receipt.