A Walk From Woodhouse to Treeton

 

A detail of the Orgreave Colliery Memorial

Having reached the end of Shirtcliff Wood, I crossed over the road to Flockton Park, which lies on mudstones from the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation. It is quite boggy in places and, although I hadn’t noticed it the previous summer, a spring was flowing at the edge of the path.

 

A spring in Flockton Park

Walking quickly through the park to Retford Road, I stopped to have a look at the stone used for the facings of a series of late 1930's semi-detached houses, which reminded me of the ‘ginger nut’ stone used in most of the old buildings in Handsworth.

 

Sandstone faced 1930's houses on Retford Road

Passing through the estate of similar houses to get to Waverley Lakes and Park, I was interested to see that some of these were faced with sandstone, but the quoins and dressings were actually artificial stone and not a coarser grained massive sandstone, as would normally be expected.

 

Artificial stone quoins and dressings

Making my way onto the landscaped old coal waste tip that overlooks the Waverley Estate, I stopped to view the distant ridge of the Rotherham Red variety of Mexborough Rock, upon which Canklow Woods and Moorgate in Rotherham are set.

 

A distant view of Canklow Woods

Looking closer at the area around Treeton, there are panoramic views of the escarpment of Treeton Rock, which runs from Treeton to Hail Mary Wood and Falconer Wood and then further south-east towards Swallownest and Aston.

 

A panoramic view of the escarpment of Treeton Rock

Although the views from the highest point provide an excellent opportunity to observe the dominant landforms in this part of Rotherham, the reclaimed tip is very badly drained and the virtual absence of topsoil has limited the vegetation to the barest of coverings.

 

The Orgreave Colliery Memorial

 
For these reasons, I don’t find it a pleasant place to walk but, on this occasion, I wanted to go and see a memorial that was made by the Sheffield sculptor, Andrew Vickers. It is dedicated to the workers at Orgreave Colliery, which closed in 1985 and, together with Orgreave Coking Works, made way for a vast opencast coal mine.

 

A block of fine sandstone with laminations of reddened silt

 

As with other parts of the Waverley Estate and the Advanced Manufacturing Park, various large blocks of silty sandstone from the opencast mine are scattered around. These exhibit good examples of ripples on the exposed bedding planes and fine laminations of reddened silt – both of which showed up clearly in the late afternoon sunshine.

A ripple marked block of fine sandstone