A Reconnaissance of Green Moor

The Green Moor Delf RIGS

During my brief exploration of Chancet Wood, Ecclesall Woods, the Limb Valley and the Porter Valley – as well as the villages of Norton and Grenoside - I encountered various rocks from the lower parts of the Pennine Coal Measures Group that have been exploited as building stone, for grindstones, as linings for hearths, to make bricks and crucibles and also mined for coal.

The geology around Green Moor

The Greenmoor Rock, in particular, forms several distinct features to both the south and north of Sheffield and it has been quarried extensively for paving, gravestones, cills, heads, steps at Brincliffe Edge, where its local trade name was Brincliffe Blue – on account of the blue/grey colour of the sandstone here when freshly quarried; however, over most of the length of its outcrop, this formation is largely argillaceous and used for bricks.

An old road stone quarry at Don Hill Height

The type locality of the Greenmoor Rock is about 15km to the north-west of Sheffield, just over the city boundary in Barnsley, in the small hamlet of Green Moor. Here the flaggy sandstone with a distinctive green/grey colour was extensively quarried for its paving stone and exported all over England, but particularly to London where it had its own Greenmoor Wharf.

The old road stone quarry at Don Hill Height

I first visited Green Moor back in 1996, when undertaking a survey of geological sites in Barnsley for the South Yorkshire RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) Group. Although none of the several old quarry sites that I visited had good publicly accessible exposures of Greenmoor Rock, except a small spur of rock in the beer garden of the old Rock Inn, the industrial archaeology value was considered to be of sufficient importance for Green Moor to be identified as one of only five ‘showcase sites’ identified in the county.

A view along the escarpment to the west

Of these showcase sites, only Anston Stones Wood received sufficient support from the parish council and local authorities to put some good ideas into action, with its very popular geological trail, and the South Yorkshire RIGS Group had effectively ground to a halt when I was invited to visit it again by the clerk to Hunshelf Parish Council – 10 years later, following the closure of the Rock Inn and the subsequent sale of the site to a house builder.

A view down the escarpment to Stocksbridge

During a walk around the village, where the parish clerk showed me around the Hunshelf Heritage Trail and in subsequent visits when working as a consultant for the Stoneway Manor development, I came across old quarries that I had never seen before and which I thought provided much better examples of the Greenmoor Rock than that seen at the former Rock Inn.

A view east along the escarpment towards Wharncliffe Crags

As a member of the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, I had thought that Green Moor might make a good field trip, when the itinerary for the previous year’s outings was being agreed and when I was asked to jointly organise an event to replace another that was already on the itinerary, I didn’t hesitate to put this idea forward.

Discarded blocks of Greenmoor Rock in the Isle of Skye Quarry

With half of the proposed circular walk not having been yet put into practice, a preliminary visit to Green Moor was necessary, to determine the time it would likely take for a group of retired adults – usually numbering 15-20 – around a safe route that would provide some good exercise and have plenty of points of interest.

A stile incorporated into a rebuilt dry stone wall

Helped out by a local resident and parish councillor, with an excellent knowledge of the local history, we set off to explore it on an April day that had turned bright and sunny by the time we got back to the old pump house, which was to be opened specially for our group when we returned three months later.

An old track way used for moving loads of stone