Carbrook Ravine Nature Reserve

The entrance on Fishponds Road

Entering week 16 of the COVID-19 Pandemic restrictions, in July 2020, after a couple of weeks of generally wet weather since my exploration of the geology and historic architecture in the Shire Brook Valley and Woodhouse, I set off to investigate Carr Brook.

An Ordnance Survey showing the Carr Brook

During a previous walk to Bowden Housteads Wood, I crossed over a bridge on the Mosborough Parkway and saw an area of open grassland and woodland that I later discovered formed part of the Carbrook Ravine Nature Reserve, through which the Carr Brook flows.

A  view of the Carbrook Ravine Nature Reserve

Taking the No.73 bus from Treeton, I alighted at the Richmond Road/Hastilar Road South bus stop and then quickly walked down Hastilar Road North, which passes through the inter-war Woodthorpe Estate, where I discovered that large groups of youths were making no attempt to apply social distancing.

 

Hastilar Road South

Richmond Road follows the line of a watershed, with Shirtcliff Brook and Shire Brook to its south-east flowing down to the River Rother and Carr Brook to the north-west flowing down to the River Don. The Carr Brook is first seen on the map in Woodthorpe Ravine but, before I got that far, I saw the entrance to Carbrook Ravine Nature Reserve on Fishponds Road and went to investigate.

 

The entrance on Fishponds Road

Apart from the large sandstone boulders and the decorative railings at the entrance, which incorporate artwork made by schoolchildren, there is nothing to see in this section and, rejoining the nature reserve at Spinkhill Avenue, I eventually came to the Carr Brook.

 

Flaggy sandstone in the streambed of the Carr Brook

Following it through the woods, which are underlain here by the mudstones, siltstones and thin sandstones of the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation, although I could occasionally see small broken pieces of flaggy sandstone in the streambed, I saw no rocky outcrops in the banks.

 

A geological map of the area

I arrived at an open space at the edge of Bowden Housteads Wood, where there is a large expanse of water that I assumed was an old millpond; however, looking through old Ordnance Survey maps dating back to the C19, I could not see any old mills marked on these but, on the 1939 map, I discovered that this is actually a swimming pool.

 

The old swimming pool

When planning this walk, it was my intention to explore the part of Bowden Housteads Wood on the north side of the Sheffield Parkway and, having established that the only places where I could cross this road were to the east side of the A57 junction, I made my way up the slope towards the path above the east side of the Carr Brook.

 

An exposure of subsoil

At the top of the well worn path, the subsoil was occasionally exposed in places and loose pieces of flaggy sandstone could be seen at the surface. Turning to look at the course of the Carr Brook to the north, I was surprised to see that whereas it had previously flowed down a very shallow valley, the east bank now formed a steep escarpment.

 

A view down to the Carr Brook