From Handsworth to Hawks Wood

 

A retaining wall on the Chesterfield Canal

Entering Week 22 of the COVID-19 Pandemic, in August 2020, having had a very productive walk from Shireoaks to South Anston – via Brancliffe Grange, Lindrick Dale and Anston Stones Wood - my next investigation of the geology and historic architecture of South Yorkshire involved a circular walk from Kiveton Park station to Thorpe Salvin.

 

The geology around Thorpe Salvin

 

On this occasion, I took the X54 from Treeton to Handsworth, where I took a photo of the Jeffcock Memorial Water Trough and Drinking Fountain, with its grey granite from the Cornubian batholith in south-west England and pink Peterhead granite from Aberdeenshire in north-west Scotland.

 

The Jeffcock Memorial

Continuing down Handsworth Road to ALDI, where I could buy some food and drink for the day, I then caught a 52 bus to Woodhouse railway station, where the rough walling at the back of the houses provides an example of cheap stone that would have been brought from the nearest quarry.

 

A stone wall at Woodhouse railway station

Arriving at Kiveton Park station, I then set off eastwards on the towpath along the Chesterfield Canal, passing by the high retaining wall, built in pitch-faced limestone, and the various remnants of old buildings that once formed part of Albert’s Dock – the loading point for the Anston stone that was sent to London to build the Houses of Parliament.

The remains of various walls

Walking quickly along the canal, and passing the various outcrops of the Cadeby Formation and the old quarries here, I stopped only to photograph Thorpe Bridge  for the British Listed Buildings website, to which I have been a regular contributor, and a weathered milestone.

 

A milestone on the Chesterfield Canal

After my first walk along the Chesterfield Canal, while looking at old maps, I discovered that just before Pudding Dike Bridge, in Hawks Wood, there was an old quarry with lime kilns immediately adjacent to the canal and I therefore went to investigate.

 

Crossing Pudding Dike Bridge