A Further Exploration of Treeton

 

Specimens of Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation sandstone

Having purchased my Estwing 20 oz brick hammer, I discovered that there had been a mix up with the holster but this was soon remedied and, finally having the equipment that I would need for my next phase of geological exploration in and around South Yorkshire, I wanted to go and try it out.

 

Treeton Wood and Hail Mary Hill Wood

It was now week 50 of the COVID-19 Pandemic, in the last week of February 2020, and having spent the morning helping with the maintenance of St. Helen’s churchyard in Treeton, I bumped into my next door neighbour Dan, and we decided to make the most of the afternoon sunshine and go and have a quick look at Treeton Wood.

 

A geological map of the area around Treeton Wood

I had walked through the wood on the main paths a few times before and I was aware of its general topography and Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation geology but, except for an exposure of rocky subsoil, I hadn’t seen any bedrock.

 

Fly tipping in Treeton Wood

Dan is a chemist who works in the waste disposal industry and we were both dismayed at the extent of the fly tipping in the layby and along the edge of several parts of the wood. Taking photos that I would then pass on to Rotherham MBC for clearance, we headed into the woods to look at some of the landforms.

 

A small scar in the hillside

We had often talked about various features there, especially those that are recorded by the South Yorkshire SMR as being multi period earthworks – which I had never identified – but the only feature I had noted was a small scar in the slope, from which I obtained the first rock sample with my new hammer.

 

A view down the escarpment

I had used a LIDAR map to closely examine the topography when planning walks to Treeton Wood and Hail Mary Hill Wood and in one of my previous short walks I had encountered lines of buried worked stone alongside some of the paths, but we didn’t find anything of great interest – except on an area of relatively flat land, where someone had built a den, and there was a shallow rectangular excavation with no obvious purpose.

 

An excavation into the bedrock

We then dropped down the escarpment to the south-west corner of Treeton Wood, from which we followed the course of Treeton Brook along its edge to the point where it is culverted. Although there were occasional exposures of flaggy sandstone and siltstone, the large horseshoe found by Dan – washed down from the field above – was the most interesting thing that we discovered.

 

A horseshoe from Treeton Brook

Leaving Treeton Wood, the path runs above the culverted Treeton Brook for a short distance, but it still gets very muddy here in wet weather and, as seen by the distinct runnel, there must be times when it overflows and starts to cut a new course.

 

A runnel above the culverted Treeton Brook

Continuing to Hail Mary Hill Wood, where Treeton Brook re-emerges from its culvert, we skirted around the bottom of Hail Mary Hill and took the path that runs up onto the escarpment of Treeton Rock, which then continues to Treeton.

 

An excavation in the Jones Homes housing development

Here, at the back of the new housing estate that is being built by Jones Homes, I was interested to see that a large pit had been excavated into the bedrock, as part of the drainage works, although I couldn’t get a good view of the freshly exposed rock through the heras fencing.

 

A temporary exposure of the Treeton Rock

Carrying on along the path, to one side the ground slopes steeply down towards the River Rother, with the escarpment here once quarried for the sandstone used in many of the older, mainly agricultural buildings in Treeton – along with the Rotherham Red sandstone, which was quarried at Bole Hill – but I didn’t see any rock exposures.

A short walk in Treeton