Stoney Middleton Revisited - Part 1

 

Welcome to Stoney Middleton

May 2025 had began well with a walk from Edlington Wood to New Edlington and then on to Conisbrough, which gave me a further insight into the geology of South Yorkshire – first acquired when identifying the RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) and then undertaking the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment, while temporarily employed by the British Geological Survey.

 

Stoney Middleton and Coombs Dale on the Ordnance Survey map

 

I had started the year by helping friends in the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, to identify various features in the Burbage Valley, which was one of the RIGS sites that I had identified for its Geotourism value back in 1995, when working with the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust for the Peak District National Park Authority/English Nature, and for my next day out I decided to have another look at Coombs Dale – another site that I had surveyed for this project. 

My Photo Challenge for Stoney Middleton

My plan was to combine this with a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Stoney Middleton, which I had briefly visited with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group in 2017 and again in 2019, when I had another look at the exposures of Carboniferous Limestone before visiting St. Martin’s church. 

 

The geology around Stoney Middleton

 

Alighting from the No. 65 bus from Sheffield at the Toll Bar stop, at the side of the road I couldn’t help but notice the outcrop of the irregularly bedded Eyam Limestone Formation (ELF) which form natural crags and quarried faces along Middleton Dale – with an extensive cave system to the north that has been exploited by lead miners.

 

An outcrop of the Eyam Limestone Formation on The Avenue

I walked east along The Avenue for a short distance, where there was once a flour mill, which has been used by the bootmakers William Lennon and Co. since 1904, and an industrial building that still retains its lifting gear. I could also see the rear of the former malt house and a warehouse, which are both Grade II listed buildings and are now in residential use. 

 

Various buildings seen when walking along The Avenue

Very many of the buildings marked on the 1897 Ordnance Survey map still exist, with these being within the boundary of the Stoney Middleton Conservation Area, and the part of the village that I explored for my Photo Challenge has a wide range of architectural styles. 

 

Stoney Middleton on the 1897 Ordnance Survey map

 

Retracing my steps, I stopped to take a photo of the Millstone Grit built octagonal former toll house (1840), which an information board for the Stoney Middleton Heritage Trail states is the only Grade II listed chip shop in the country. Although Middleton Dale is a natural limestone gorge, it also says that the creation of the toll road required blasting of the rock in 1830. 

 

The former toll house

 

I stopped again to photograph a few cottages on the south side of The Avenue, where Carboniferous Limestone is used for the walling and Millstone Grit for the dressings, which is a pattern of building seen throughout the White Peak. 

 

Houses on The Avenue built with Carboniferous Limestone

On the north side of The Bank, the foundations of a cottage and a high garden wall are formed by another outcrop of the ELF, which shows various beds that are quite different to those that I had seen next to the bus stop. 

 

An outcrop of the ELF along The Bank

Although I had briefly surveyed many RIGS in the Peak District National Park and visited other sites with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, I have really only scratched the surface of the Carboniferous Limestone. In the geological memoir to accompany the Sheet 99 map - The Geology of the Country Around Chapel en le Frith – the grid reference given for the section described on pp. 98-99 coincides with this outcrop. 

 

An extract from the geological memoir

 

The handful of photographs that I took just show the general characteristics of the outcrop, which is becoming overgrown, but these are enough to show the subtle variations in the beds of the ELF - including discontinuous beds of chert - which needs many years of fieldwork and a very good knowledge of palaeontology to properly interpret. 

 

The outcrop of the ELF along The Bank

 

I had my Estwing hammer with me and was therefore to obtain a small specimen, which has developed a pale grey patina that is a characteristic of Carboniferous Limestone; however, its fresh surface is very dark grey and an examination with a hand lens reveals a very fine grained micritic texture with no fossils.

 

A specimen of micritic limestone obtained from The Bank

A Further Exploration of Conisbrough

 

St. Peter's church

Arriving on Doncaster Road after walking from New Edlington, my first stop was the green space on the corner with Crookhill Road, which I was very curious about when seeing it from the top deck of the bus on the way to Doncaster. 

 

Quarries marked on the 1854 Ordnance Survey map

I had thought that this space and similar others along the main road were likely to have been old quarries and, although the main area of quarrying was along the Don Gorge, the 1854 Ordnance Survey (OS) map, shows that several small quarries worked the Cadeby Formation. 

 

A general view of the landscaped quarry on Doncaster Road

A few exposures of limestone are still seen, but the quarry has been landscaped with stone walls being built and seating added to provide a small community space; however, it isn't on the website that lists the parks and outdoor spaces in Doncaster and I don’t know when it was created.

 

A remnant of a quarry face

 

Continuing along Doncaster Road, it wasn’t long before Conisbrough Castle came in to view, with its keep and south-eastern part of the curtain wall in clear view. Whether its from the top deck of the X3 bus, as it descends Castle Hill or when passing it on the train to the north, I never tire of seeing one of my favourite castles.

 

Conisbrough Castle

 

From this viewpoint, I could also see Cadeby Cliff and Constitution Hill on the Magnesian Limestone escarpment beyond the River Don, with views towards High Melton and Barnburgh Cliff – all of which I had seen when undertaking the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment. 

 

A view towards Cadeby Cliff and Constitution Hill

 

Just 50 metres further down the road, the terraces of houses that form an L shape on the corner of Doncaster Road and Highfield Lane is very unusual, in that the masonry of the walling comprises uncoursed polygonal blocks. 

Views of the terraced houses on Sheffield Road and Highfield Road

These houses were built at some time between 1890 and 1901, when the OS maps were revised for the 1892 and 1903 editions respectively, and I had also seen this style of masonry at Whiston Methodist Church (1866) and the church hall of St. Mark’s church (1884) in Grenoside.

 

A view of the terraced houses on Sheffield Road and Highfield Road

 

I will probably never know why these very modest houses should be designed like this, and further investigation would be best undertaken by a local historian, and I continued my walk along Doncaster Road/Sheffield Road. Continuing past the area locally known as Five Lane Ends junction, I then took a few general record of  photos of the Grade II listed late C18 Red Lion public house for the British Listed Buildings website. 

 

The Red Lion public house

 

I stopped briefly to take a couple of photos of Kearsley Brook, which is culverted in places and is frequently subject to flooding around Five Lanes End. Save Our Greenbelt have emphasised that the existing problems with flooding may be exacerbated by runoff from the proposed Whitestone Solar Farm at Conisbrough Parks. 

 

Views of Kearsley Brook

 

Having moved from the Cadeby Formation on to the underlying mudstones and siltstones of the Pennine Upper Coal Measures Formation, I then set off up New Hill towards the centre of Conisbrough, which is set on a fault-bounded outlier of the Cadeby Formation. 

 

A geological map of Conisbrough

 

I had so far walked nearly 8 km from Edlington Wood and, stopping in a couple of places when winding up New Hill, I did think that it might have been better to have caught my bus on Doncaster Road, rather than continuing up what is quite a steep hill. 

 

A view of New Hill

 

Its steepness is reflected in the use of retaining walls on Chapel Lane and Beech Hill, which are reinforced with large buttresses. I noted a small outcrop of limestone next to the wall on Chapel Lane,  which makes it quite possible that these retaining walls mark the line of a more extensive outcrop, as seen elsewhere in Conisbrough at The Crags. 

 

A retaining wall with buttresses on Chapel Lane

 

Continuing up West Street for a short distance, I turned right onto High Street where I stopped to take a couple of photos of The Priory, another building on the British Listed Buildings website, but being rendered has little of interest to this Language of Stone Blog. 

 

The Priory

 

Whenever I am in Conisbrough, I always make a point of visiting St. Peter’s church, which is the oldest building in South Yorkshire, although it is now only opened for services and special events. I therefore carried on along High Street and took advantage of the bright sunshine to take a few photos, before catching the X3 bus from Church Street. 

 

St. Peter's church

Settling down with a book for my journey back to Rotherham, as the bus passed down through the housing estate on Micklebring Grove, the fields of oilseed rape to the south of Sheffield Road and the view of the radio masts in the distance caught my eye. 

 

A view of Conisbrough Parks from Micklebring Grove

 

On my previous day out, I attended the Save Our Green Belt Coffee Morning to support their campaign against the proposed Whitestone 1 Solar Farm at Conisbrough Parks and then walked from Micklebring to Clifton, to see how the landscape would be affected. 

 

Another view of Conisbrough Parks from Micklebring Grove

 

Although the fields growing oilseed rape in the foreground would not be affected, the land surrounding the farm in the mid distance, together with the fields up to the foot of the Magnesian Limestone escarpment, would be largely covered with 3.5 metre high solar panels.

 

The Masterplan for the Whitestone 1 Solar Farm

  

A Brief Exploration of New Edlington

 

A detail of a monolith in the Edlington Community Woodland

It took me just over an hour to explore Edlington Wood, where the Cadeby Formation had a few features that I had not seen before and, after arriving back on Broomhouse Lane I walked quickly up to Cross Street, where I turned right and crossed over Edlington Lane and carried on along Market Place towards Martinswell Lake. 

 

New Edlington on the 1931 Ordnance Survey map

 

New Edlington is essentially a town that was built around the Yorkshire Main Colliery, with the housing built between 1909 and c.1922 and, when I visited in 1997 and 2007 to survey New Edlington Brick Pit for the South Yorkshire RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) Group and for the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment respectively, a swathe of semi-detached houses had been demolished to leave an area of wasteland. 

 

An information board in the Edlington Community Woodland

 

On this occasion, however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this part of New Edlington had since been regenerated and was quite unrecognisable, with the Martinswell Health Centre and housing occupying the site and the Edlington Community Woodland being established in 2017. 

 

A stone table and benches in the Edlington Community Woodland

 

The former allotment had become very overgrown and a dumping ground for fly tippers, but it has been regenerated with tree planting, using 20 species, to create a forest school and a new green space for the community. It includes several picnic tables and benches and a seating area, which are made with locally quarried dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation. 

 

Stone seating in the Edlington Community Woodland

 

The same limestone has been used for three monoliths that are decorated with the crests of the Hill Top Academy, Edlington Victoria Academy and St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School, whose pupils designed the figures that have been cut into their faces. 

 

Monoliths in the Edlington Community Woodland

 

Having wandered around to look at the various stone tables and seats, I had another look at the southern and western sides of Martinwells Lake, which coincides with the New Edlington Brick Pit RIGS. In 1997, a bed of gypsum or anhydrite in the Edlington Formation was exposed at the edge of the lake, but the water level was much higher in 2007 and was no longer visible. 

 

An exposure of the Edlington Formation at Martinswell Lake

 

On this occasion, I could again only see the red calcareous mudstone of the Edlington Formation and my intention was then to see if any exposures were still visible in the New Edlington Brickclay Pit SSSI, which is located to the north Martinwells Lake. 

 

The geology of the area around New Edlington

The entry in the Geoconservation Review (1995) states that the site, which was selected in 1986, had been covered and the satellite view on Google Map showed that the area around the remaining quarry face was very overgrown. 

The LIDAR map showing the site of brick pits in New Edlington

On the LIDAR map, this quarry face is outlined but, when I was unable to find the beginning of a path that is marked on Google Map, but does not appear on the Ordnance Survey maps and is not marked with a signpost. I temporarily lost my way and my priority was then to find a way across private land to get to Doncaster Road in Conisbrough, which was achieved with the help of a local dog walker who I had seen crossing the field. 

 

A view along the path to the north of Martinswell Lake

Geology in Edlington Wood

 

Concentric circle patterns of an unknown origin

When attending the Save Our Greenbelt Coffee Morning in Braithwell, my friend Lindsey from Micklebring asked if I had ever been to The Crags at Edlington Wood. Although I had undertaken a survey of potential RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) in Doncaster in 1997 and resurveyed these for the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment in 2007, I was not aware of it.

 

Edlington Wood on the Doncaster Heritage Map

A Google search shows that it contains Scheduled Monuments - Roman settlements and later earthworks - and other enclosures, is designated as a biological SSSI for its ancient woodland, and is also locally listed as a Historic Park and Garden and there is a rock shelter where Upper Palaeolithic flint tools have been found.

 

The geology around Edlington Wood

 

Following on from my investigation of the geology and building stones of Clifton, I took advantage of a fine day on 1st May 2025 to explore this and then walk back to Conisbrough via New Edlington, where I hoped to see the New Edlington Brickpit SSSI. 

 

Wild garlic in Edlington Wood

 

Alighting from the X2 bus from Rotherham at the Broomhouse Lane/North Street stop, I made my way across an open field to a well used path around the northern boundary of Edlington Wood - which is actually privately owned but nonetheless frequented by walkers - and was greeted by wild garlic in full bloom and, a little further east along the path, a burnt out car.

  

A burnt out car

The path that I followed is set on calcareous mudstones of the Edlington Formation, which is on the downthrown side of a fault that coincides with the alignment of The Crags and I had expected to see a well defined linear feature, as at Barnburgh Cliff. 

 

A view of The Crags

 

Getting closer to the first outcrop that I saw, I immediately realised that is this location of the rock shelter and, looking at the massive dolomitic limestone of the Cadeby Formation, there is no well defined bedding or bryozoan reefs - as seen at North Cliff Quarry in Conisbrough. These are a feature of the lower Wetherby Member and their absence and the abundance of voids suggests that this could be the Sprotbrough Member. 

 

A rock shelter

Looking at the surrounding landscape, many large blocks of limestone seem to have become detached from the main outcrop and have rotated and slumped to various degrees, which may be related to movement along the fault. 

 

Rotated and slumped blocks

 

Many isolated blocks, which are covered in ivy and other vegetation, are scattered around the lower slopes as seen in Anston Stones Wood - where the formation of the gorge has led to the undercutting and cambering of these large blocks, which have slid downhill for some distance. 

 

A detached block of limestone

 

The covering of vegetation and very uneven ground formed by these slipped blocks, which have their edges rounded in many places, made it quite hazardous underfoot and difficult to move around and it was some time before I was able to find a place where I could discreetly obtain a specimen with my Estwing hammer. 

 

A view north from The Crags

 

Eventually finding a location, the piece that I obtained is crystalline and very open textured, with a couple of small crystal lined vughs. The geological memoir describes the limestone in and around Edlington Wood as having “granular, oolitic and cellular varieties”. 

 

A specimen of dolomitic limestone from The Crags

 

Returning to the footpath and continuing eastwards, I could see further highly vegetated outcrops with a very irregular outline and what would probably be described as rock shelters, which are probably formed by movement of the blocks and not karst processes. 

 

A view of The Crags from the footpath

 

The thick undergrowth didn’t make it easy to gain access to these, but it wasn’t too long before I found a place where I could get close without much difficulty and take note of the similar movement and rotation of large blocks. 

 

A slumped block of limestone

 

In this location, much of the outcrop has quite a different character, with it appearing to be composed of angular pieces of limestone in the form of a breccia, although the covering of moss and algae mainly obscures the surface.

 

A detail of a breccia

In one place I encountered a vertical rock face, which doesn’t appear to be typical along these crags, and this has a joint plane that separates the body of the limestone from a smaller section that will eventually become detached. 

 

A view of brecciated limestone and a fault plane

 

I didn’t spend any time looking for evidence of movement along this plane, such as slickensides or displacement of bedding planes, but the small section is composed of breccia and it is therefore possible that this marks the position of the mapped fault. 

 

Another view of the brecciated limestone

 

On one face of the limestone, I was intrigued to find several markings that comprise a series of concentric circles, which I originally thought must be lichen or another organism; however, when enlarging my photos, they seem to be part of the rock and do not have an organic texture.

 

 Another view of the concentric circle pattern in the limestone

 

Having completed a brief investigation of The Crags, I again returned to the footpath and continued until I reached an open field where there is a panoramic view to the east. Unknowingly, I was right next to the Roman hut and oval enclosure and when finding another path to get me back to the entrance, I passed other sites that are marked on the Heritage Gateway map, but was completely unaware of them amongst the surrounding trees.

 

A panoramic view across the field to the east of Edlington Wood