Grange Park in Rotherham

 

A sample of siltstone from the Grange Golf Club

After four successive days out to explore the historic buildings and building stones in Sheffield, which included several Sheffield Board Schools and the Leopold Street complex, my next trip was nearer to home, with an exploration of the area around Grange Park Woods in Rotherham.

 

The area around Grange Park in Rotherham

When looking for green spaces around Rotherham to investigate on the Casual Ramblers website, as with Gibbing Greave and Herringthorpe Wood, I thought that it would make a good walk. Also, in addition to revisiting the quarries that I had briefly surveyed for the South Yorkshire RIGS Group back in 1989, the Fuelling a Revolution leaflet highlights its history of coal mining and quarrying and evidence of this can be seen on the LIDAR map.

 

A LIDAR map of the area around Grange Park Woods

Alighting from the bus from Rotherham at the entrance to the Grange Golf Club on Upper Wortley Road, I stopped briefly to collect a sample from one of the blocks of siltstone that is set on the roadside and continued down to the clubhouse.

 

A block of siltstone at the entrance to the Grange Golf Club

At one point, seeing a distinct valley to the north of the greens that had been cut into the mudstones of the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation, I went to see if I could see any outcrops in the stream banks, but found nothing.

 

A stream on the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation

 

Having printed out a copy of a 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey map, which had so far served me well so far in my rural walks in Rotherham, I couldn't find the public footpath – even though this is part of the Trans Pennine Trail – and after identifying the ridge of Grenoside Sandstone and Greno Woods in the far distance as a landmark, I made my way down the escarpment.

 

A view towards Greno Woods from the Grange Golf Club

 

Although the path that I had taken didn’t seem to be the public footpath marked on my map, I was able to orientate myself by the area of woodland that forms Walkworth Wood and coincides with a ridge of an unnamed sandstone.

 

A view towards Walkworth Wood

Making my way to the bottom of the escarpment, where I asked a group of golfers for directions, I discovered that I wasn’t too far away from my destination and finally arrived at Thundercliffe Grange, dated 1776-85, by John Platt for the 3rd Earl of Effingham. With no access to the front elevation, I just took a single photo for the British Listed Buildings website and went in search of a quarry that I had last seen in 1996.

Thundercliffe Grange