Planning a Trip to Whitwell and Steetley

 

A walk from Whitwell to Shireoaks

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, as the various restrictions on travel were loosened, I explored the areas around the Chesterfield Canal that I could access from the Sheffield to Lincoln railway line - stopping at Shireoaks a couple of times - and during my online research, I became aware of St. Lawrence's church in Whitwell and All Saints chapel in Steetley, which Pevsner describes as “by far the richest example of Norman architecture in Derbyshire”. 

 

A Google Map view with the locations of Treeton, Whitwell and Steetley

 

For my last day out in August 2023, having been to Coal Aston, Dronfield and Beeley earlier in the month, following on from my recce of Nether Edge, Brincliffe Edge and Ecclesall Road, I decided to make the effort to go and see them. 

 

A map showing the route by the buses from Treeton to Whitwell

Steetley is only 14 km away from Treeton as the crow flies and only takes 25 minutes to get there by car, but it is very remote and the nearest accessible places from Treeton by public transport are Shireoaks and Whitwell – both of which are approximately 3.5 km away from All Saints chapel.

 

The Ordnance Survey map showing routes from Whitwell to Steetley

Not since my days out to Hooton Pagnell and Ault Hucknall, did I have to put so much thought into the planning of my journey. From Treeton to Whitwell, the three separate bus journeys would take 154 minutes, plus waiting times in Sheffield and Chesterfield, over a distance of nearly 60 km. 

 

The Ordnance Survey map showing routes from Steetley to Shireoaks

 

From Whitwell, I would then have to walk to All Saints chapel across fields and alongside the very busy A619 road, where the footpaths are virtually non existent, before continuing across more fields to Shireoaks Hall and then up Shireoaks Row to the railway station – from where I would go all the way to Sheffield and then catch one of two possible buses back to Treeton. 

An alternative route from Whitwell to Steetley and Hodthorpe

As usual, I had prepared a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, identifying 7 buildings in Whitwell, 4 in Steetley and 2 more to the north-east of the village of Hodthorpe, through which the No. 77 bus passed and provided an alternative route to the one above if needed.

Results of the Photo Challenge for Whitwell and Steetley

Brincliffe Edge and Ecclesall Road

 

An outcrop of Greenmoor Rock at Quarry Lane

Arriving at Brincliffe Edge Road, having walked from Kenwood Hall Hotel on my recce for a planned field trip with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, I briefly stopped to photograph the Grade II Listed late Georgian Woodside House.

 

Woodside House

 

Continuing past various Victorian houses that are built with Greenmoor Rock, Brincliffe Edge Close is a C20 housing development that occupies one of two quarries that the 1924 Ordnance Survey (OS) map marks in the grounds of Brinckliffe Tower (1852) – in the year before it was given by Dr. Robert Styring to the people of Sheffield, which opened as Chelsea Park in 1933.

 

A 1924 Ordnance Survey map of Brincliffe Edge

Entering Chelsea Park, I wasn’t aware at the time that the remaining old quarry has been planted with trees and I continued along the path to the house, now called Brincliffe Towers, which has been disused for several years and is in a state of disrepair.

 

Brincliffe Towers

Although fenced off and partly obscured by trees, it is still possible to see enough of the building to appreciate that the Greenmoor Rock used to build it has a very noticeable green tinge, which is due to the presence of chlorite - a mineral that I usually associate with the metamorphosed volcanic rocks that I surveyed in Borrowdale as an undergraduate geologist.

 

Sheltering from the rain in Chelsea Park

 

Before I had a chance to have a good look at it, the heavens opened and I dashed for shelter and waited until the rain subsided. After what seemed an age, the rain eventually stopped and I just took a few photos from the drive to the house, where the Greenmoor Rock is easily distinguished from the massive Derbyshire gritstone, which is used for the dressings.

 

A view of Brincliffe Towers

 

Back on Brincliffe Edge Road, I stopped briefly to photograph the rock outcrop on the corner of Quarry Lane, which had been the last stop on a previous field trip with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group – when we followed the escarpment of the Greenmoor Rock from Meadowhead.

 

An outcrop of Greenmoor Rock at Quarry Lane

 

Walking along Quarry Lane, apart from the name, there is nothing to suggest that the area from here to Psalter Lane was occupied by several substantial quarries that opened in the second half of the C19 to keep up with the expansion of the western suburbs of Sheffield, at the height of its industrial growth – as seen on the 1894 OS map.

 

The location of quarries along Brincliffe Edge on the1894 OS map

Following the snicket at the end of Quarry Lane, I carried on along Brincliffe Hill to the entrance to Chelsea Heights, a housing development that has been built on the former car park of the Omega banqueting suite. I last visited in the early part of 2018, when an old quarry face provided an excellent exposure of the Greenmoor Rock, but there isn’t much to see now from the road.

 

An old quarry face in the Greenmoor Rock at Chelsea Heights

 

Most of the exposure comprises every thinly bedded Greenmoor Rock, which would not have been suitable for any practical use and, as I had seen on a recce for the above mentioned field trip at Morrisons supermarket at Meadowhead, much of the rock is disrupted by a localised shear zone.

 

The old quarry face in the Greenmoor Rock at Chelsea Heights

Looking more closely at sections along the visible quarry face, thinly spaced joints occur both parallel to and at right angles to the quarry face. In several places, it has been reinforced with stone walling and, as I had also previously seen in the Quarry Head Lodge development, rock bolts have been used to stabilise it.

 

A detail of the shear zone in the Greenmoor Rock

 

This site has been of interest to various members of the Sheffield Area Geology Trust (SAGT) for several years and, as part of the 2022 Nether Edge Festival, I noted in SAGT News 2022 that they had led members of the public around the site.

 

The garden at Chelsea Heights

 

From this report, I learned that deep piles had been required in places, to reach bedrock through loose fill that was left after quarrying ceased and that several large blocks of Greenmoor Rock, which had been excavated during the groundworks, are scattered around the development and form various features in a small garden.

 

Details of the garden at Chelsea Heights

 

Grindstones for Sheffield's cutlery industry were produced in large numbers from quarries on Brincliffe Edge, in addition to the flags, steps, heads, sills, gravestones and general building stones and one of these has depictions of masons at work carved into it. More noticeable are the large broad chisel and a lewis, which was used to lift large stones.

 

A specimen of Greenmoor Rock from Chelsea Heights

 

Retracing my steps back to Brincliffe Hill, although I didn’t have my Estwing hammer with me, I was able to prise out a loose piece of Greenmoor Rock from the old quarry face, which is very fine grained, greenish in colour and has carbonaceous material on the bedding planes.

 

A view across the Porter Valley from Brincliffe Hill

Arriving at Psalter Lane, I had an unexpected view of Ranmoor and St. John’s church, which I was more used to seeing from the north side of the Porter Valley and, after taking a couple of photos for my records, I continued to Banner Cross and followed the escarpment down Ecclesall Road.

 

St. John's church in Ranmoor

 

I finished my walk at the old quarry face that now forms the backdrop to the Co-Op supermarket and the various shops and businesses on Marmion Road, which occupy the site of the former John Gregory brickworks.

 

A view of the Greenmoor Rock at Marmion Road

The Greenmoor Rock formation is extremely variable in the Sheffield region and here the sandstone is subordinate, with mudstone and siltstone being dominant. It is only possible to see the various rock types at a distance, but I thought that it would be a good place to bring an afternoon session of a full day field trip to an end.

 

Another view of the Greenmoor Rock at Marmion Road

    

A Geological Recce in Nether Edge

 

An information board on Union Road

 

A day out in the Peak District National Park is always a pleasure, with my trip to Edensor, Chatsworth Park and Beeley being particularly enjoyable, and it has served the Sheffield U3A Geology Group very well since it was formed back in 2007. 

 

A Geological Trail by Peter Kennett

 

The Wednesday before, I was unable to attend a field trip that had been arranged to the Manifold Valley, but my next outing a week later was to prepare a short walk to supplement a visit to the Sheffield General Cemetery (SGC), which had been proposed for the November field trip. 

 

The Stone Spiral

 

I have to say that I wasn’t keen on this idea, because I had been to the SGC a few times, to follow the Geological Trail (2001) by Peter Kennett - who had consulted me when preparing the Building Stones of Sheffield (1999) – and to see the Stone Spiral (2004) and I knew that it would take no more than 2 hours for our group to complete this, especially since the different stones in the Stone Spiral were now barely discernible.

 

The Building Stones of Sheffield

 

On this occasion, however, my friend Catherine, who I had helped with the Bolsterstone Graveyard Project had volunteered to lead a walk – at a time when the COVID-19 Pandemic and poor health had led to a sharp decline in the number of group members who were able or willing to organise and lead our field trips.

 

The former north lodge to Kenwood House

 

A typical field trip starts at 10:30 am and finishes by 3:30 pm and my idea was for Catherine, with my help, to show the group around SGC in the morning and spend the afternoon walking from the Kenwood Hall Hotel to Ecclesall Road – to look at a wide variety of historic architecture and finish with some exposures of the Greenmoor Rock.

 

The former stable block to Kenwood House

After completing a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in and around Nether Edge, I shared my Language of Stone Blog posts with the Nether Edge History Group Facebook page. I received some very interesting comments on these, including a proposal for me to give a talk or lead a walk for the group and an invitation to visit the stable block to Kenwood House, which the owner was restoring and converting to residential use. 

 

Views of the former stable block to Kenwood House

 

Janet kindly showed me around the exterior of the old stable block, explaining that the limestone used for the restoration – and apparently to build the house and Grade II Listed north lodge too - came from the Once-a-Week Quarry near Sheldon in Derbyshire, which is the last remaining supplier of ‘Derbyshire fossil marble’.

 

Crinoidal limestone at Kenwood Hall Hotel

 

On my previous visit to Kenwood Hall Hotel, which I had first encountered after visiting the nearby Psalter Lane Methodist Church during the 20I8 Heritage Open Days festival, I took a good set of photos of the house and garden These were subsequently lost after a failure of my external hard drive and, having asked at the hotel reception for permission to take some more, while I had another look at the crinoidal limestone, I set off towards the old centre of Nether Edge. 

 

Kenwood Park on the 1894 Ordnance Survey map

 

Kenwood House (1844) was designed by William Flockton for the cutlery manufacturer George Wostenholm, who developed the surrounding area as an upmarket residential area, which is an early example of town planning, based on Boston in the USA. 

 

Views of Kenwood Road and Cherry Tree Road

 

Along Kenwood Road, several large architect designed houses were built as part of this development. Within 1 km, several large quarries worked the Greenmoor Rock for general building stone and this stone has been used for most of the garden walls and for some of the houses, with Derbyshire gritstone dressings, but from the roadside it looks that some of the sandstone may have come from other rock formations in Sheffield – Chatsworth Grit for gatepiers and coping stones and Crawshaw Sandstone for walls. 

 

Kenwood Lodge

 

Continuing past Kenwood Lodge, I quickly walked along Cherry Tree Road and Union Road until I reached the junction with Osborne Road, where most of the late C19 terraced houses were built in fine grained muddy grey sandstone, with some iron staining, which is obviously Greenmoor Rock. 

 

Late C19 terraced houses built with Greenmoor Rock

 

Crossing Osborne Road, the former United Free Methodist Chapel is built with Greenmoor Rock walling, with Chatsworth Grit for the elaborate door surrounds, pediment, cornice and for the other dressings. On this part of Union Road, there are a few interesting buildings where different sandstones have been used, including the Grade II former workhouse and its lodges. 

 

The former United Free Methodist Chapel

 

Arriving at Lyndhurst Road, the wide road junction here needs care when crossing, especially with a group that are not as quick at avoiding cars as they used to be, and from here Union Road ascends the dip slope of the Greenmoor Rock until it reaches Brincliffe Edge Road. I stopped briefly at the former Wesleyan Methodist Church, now the King's Centre, to have a look at the yellowish sandstone used for the dressings, which I think may be Grenoside Sandstone. 

 

The former Wesleyan Methodist Church

 

Just before the top of Union Road, a pair of early C20 semi-detached houses caught my eye, with polygonal rubble walling that I have only seen on a few occasions in South Yorkshire, including where used for churches in Grenoside and Whiston.

Semi-detached houses with polygonal rubble walling on Union Road

The Conservation Area in Beeley - Part 2

 

Beeley Brook at the Devonshire Arms

 

Over a distance of 500 metres, since leaving St. Anne’s church, I had encountered a wide range of agricultural buildings, attached farmhouses and cottages that varied in age from the mid C17 to the late C19 – all built with locally quarried Ashover Grit with stone slate from Beeley Moor for roofs. 

 

A map of architectural development in Beeley Conservation Area

Continuing my walk around the Conservation Area in Beeley, starting at Brookside, the barn to the south of Pynot Cottage dates to the C18 and was built by the 5th Duke of Devonshire around the same time as the Dukes Barn. It is not not listed but, being built with gritstone with stone slate roofs, it adds to the character of Beeley and the Chatsworth Blue paint marks it out as a Chatsworth Estate property. 

 

A C17 barn on Brookside

 

Turning sharply to the west towards the centre of Beeley, I immediately came across a small bridge over Beeley Brook, which flows down from Beeley Moor to the River Derwent and forms an attractive feature in this part of the village. 

 

A bridge on Brookside

 

Noticing an old wooden gate leading to a public footpath, I followed this for a short distance past a small plantation that I thought might be the site of an old quarry in a small spur that is marked on the geological map as Ashover Grit, which is detached from the main outcrop.

 

A view of the Old Hall and Pynot Cottage

 

I couldn’t see any rock exposure anywhere but, from this vantage point, I had a good view of Pynot Cottage and the Old Hall. Continuing up the path to open ground, I took a few photographs for a panorama of Burnt Wood, which was where the quarries that suplied building stone for Beeley are located, before retracing my steps to Brookside.

 

A panoramic view of Burnt Wood

 

Beeley Brook runs alongside the road and I followed this down Brookside and passed a pair of semi-detached cottages on its north side that appear on the 1883 Ordnance Survey (OS) map, but which the map in the Conservation Area Appraisal marks as C17, C18 and C19 buildings.

 

Houses on Brookside

Just beyond these is the late C19 Brook House, an unlisted house with two ground floor bay windows that was built sometime between the publication of the first and second editions of the OS maps, which were surveyed in 1879 and 1897 respectively.

 

Brook House

 

A couple of houses have been built to the south side of Beeley Brook, but I didn’t take any note of these at the time and was more interested in the bridges that provide access to them. These include a modern bridge that is not much more than a concrete slab and a much older arched bridge that leads to an unlisted C18 house.

 

A bridge over Beeley Brook

Nos. 1 and 2 Brookside Cottages were designed by G.H. Stokes, who was articled to Sir George Gilbert Scott before joining the architectural design team at the Chatsworth Estate in 1847 and going on to marry Joseph Paxton’s daughter.

 

Nos. 1 and 2 Brookside Cottages

 

Next to these is the mid C19 The Square, which is also by G.H. Stokes and has a Y-shaped plan. Much of Beeley’s architectural interest is derived from the organic development of the buildings, but this is more reminiscent of those seen in the model village of Edensor and Pilsley.

 

The Square

 

On the opposite side of the road is the Devonshire Arms, which was converted in the mid C18 from three dwellings to a coach-house to serve the turnpike routes. Beeley Brook is culverted here and Brookside opens out to form Devonshire Square, where it meets with Chapel Hill.

 

The Devonshire Arms

 

The Grade II Listed C18 old post office and Holmes Cottage to the west, which are listed for their group value, occupy the other side of Devonshire Square. I took a few general record photos of these and the adjoining Devonshire Cottage, before taking a short walk up Chapel Hill.

 

The old post office and adjoining buildings

 

There are no listed buildings here but the Old Smithy and the former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (1890), which replaced an older chapel that was built further down the hill, are of local historic interest. Another building with Chatsworth Blue paint and an estate design that caught my eye was a building that is named School House, but it is not marked on any maps or referred to in any documentation that I have seen. 

 

Various buildings on Chapel Hill

The last building on my list for the British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Beeley was the late C18 Fold Cottage, which I photographed from the Devonshire Arms car park and from the entrance to the property on Chesterfield Road.

 

Views of Fold Cottage

 

I didn’t venture any further along Chesterfield Road but, except for the village hall on School Lane, these were the only C20 buildings that I had seen on my walk around Beeley, with Nos. 1-4 apparently being built at the end of the 1940s - as ‘Homes for Heroes’ on land given to the Local Authority by the Duke of Devonshire.

 

Nos. 1-4 Chesterfield Road

 

Since alighting from the No. 218 bus in Edensor, I had taken photographed several historic buildings in the village, revisited St. Peter’s church, walked through Chatsworth Park to Beeley, where I had also taken a good look at St. Anne’s church – all in 3½ hours without taking a break.

 

The bus stop in Beeley

 

Although it was more than an hour until the next No. 160 bus was due, I went to find the bus stop and was very surprised to see the wonderful bee friendly construction. With the sun starting to shine on what had been a generally cloudy day, it was tempting to spend an hour in the beer garden of the Devonshire Arms, but I settled for a quick pint of Chatsworth Gold before walking back to Chatsworth House. 

 

A pint of Chatsworth Gold