Rawmarsh and Swinton - Part 3

 

Hoober Stand on the escarpment of Abdy Rock

Having had an excellent start to our investigation of the area around Rawmarsh and Swinton, with the discovery of the Abdy Coal and associated strata, Dan and I set off to find the public footpath that would takes us to the first “Roman Ridge” marked on the 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey map.

 

A map of the area between Rawmarsh and Swinton

 

After a short walk on the path that runs north between a housing development and Warren Vale, we arrived at Birch Wood, where the Collier Brook, a tributary of the River Don, occupies a valley that has been cut through the Abdy Rock into the underlying softer rocks.

 

Birch Wood

 

The main intention was to find the best path that would lead us to Wentworth Road, on the north side of the valley and hopefully discover a “Roman Ridge”, but after seeing the magnificent “The Monster of Birch Wood” by Jason Turpin-Thomson – in the form of a Viking longship – I forgot all about it when walking up the other side of the valley back onto the Abdy Rock.

 

The Monster of Birch Wood

Arriving at Wentworth Road, we headed west until we reached the public footpath at Warren House Farm and followed this to the north, down the dip slope of the Abdy Rock, where I immediately noticed an old waste tip, which I later discovered was from the Warren House b Colliery – one of many collieries that once operated in the area.

 

The sites of former collieries in the area

On this part of the walk, I hadn’t expected to find any rock outcrops but, as with my recent exploration of the area around Kimberworth, the panoramic views of the landforms in front of me gave me a much better appreciation of the Oaks Rock – a sandstone that forms a considerable escarpment throughout its outcrop.

 

A panoramic view of the escarpment formed by the Oaks Rock

Continuing down the path towards Abdy, I was surprised to see a large expanse of relatively flat ploughed land. I thought that this must be underlain by the soft mudstones on the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation, but it is actually mapped as the Abdy Rock.

 

Agricultural land on the Abdy Rock

 

A little further down the path, a field boundary dotted with a few small trees marks the position of a section of the northern branch of the Roman Rig, which on closer inspection comprises a raised dyke only a couple of metres heigh, with a ditch on its south side.

 

The Roman Rig at Abdy

Walking along the path through Wath Golf Club, the path is packed full of lumps of a dense blueish slag like material with a glassy appearance, which is one of the waste materials from the nearby Rockingham Works that was set aside and sold for use in road repairs.

 

Waste material from the Rockingham Works

Carrying up through Wath Wood, the Roman Rig reappears, this time with a larger bank and ditch but, as with the previous section at Abdy, it doesn’t follow any topographical feature and at the top end of the wood, it has been obliterated by housing.

 

The Roman Rig in Wath Wood