A Walk From Wentworth to Elsecar

 

The Needle's Eye at Wentworth

In the second week of June, having explored Wyming Brook and the Rivelin Valley in Sheffield, where I encountered various strata in the Millstone Grit Group, my next day out entailed a circular walk from Wentworth to Elsecar.

 

A map showing the area between Wentworth and Elsecar

Over the years, I have visited the village of Wentworth, one of my very favourite places, numerous times and I have been to Elsecar Heritage Centre a few times, but I had never explored the countryside between them on foot.

 

A view of the Needle's Eye from Cortworth Lane

Arriving on the No. 136 bus from Rotherham, with a drastically reduced service since my last visit in 2019 that necessitated some careful planning, I headed along Cortworth Lane and turned up Coaley Lane and continued up the hill until I reached the Needle’s Eye, which is built on Kent’s Rock – a Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation sandstone that forms a considerable escarpment in places, from King’s Wood to Rawmarsh.

 

A geological map showing the position of the Kent's Rock

I had visited the Needle’s Eye a couple of times before it was cleaned and, except to take a set of general photos to update my existing record of its condition, I didn’t spent much time further examining it and continued along the escarpment towards Elsecar.

 

Masonry beneath the arch of the Needle's Eye

After a couple of hundred metres, I had a view of the new Holy Trinity church, the old Holy Trinity church and the vernacular buildings to the north of Main Street in Wentworth village and I was surprised to see the distinct scarp and vale topography, which I had not seen before.

 

A view of Wentworth from the escarpment of the Kent's Rock

 

The ridge of Kent’s Rock has an elevation of only 145 metres, but there are panoramic views from the west to the south and I could easily make out the ridge of Grenoside Sandstone forming the skyline at Greno Woods and, with the aid of the zoom lens on my Canon G7X Powershot camera, I could see other notable landmarks – including Keppel’s Column and the Herdings Twin Towers.

 

A panoramic view from the escarpment of the Kent's Rock

Continuing towards Elsecar, the public footpath dropped down into the valley formed by Knoll Beck and another panoramic view of the landscape, on which Hoyland and Jump have been developed, opened up to the north-west.

 

A panoramic view of Hoyland and Jump

Looking at the lie of the land in front of me, I could just about discern the general strike and north-easterly dip of the strata that is typical of the Coal Measures strata in this part of South Yorkshire but, as the British Geological Survey 3D map viewer shows, faulting in the area makes it difficult to interpret the landscape here.

 

Faults shown on the British Geological Survey 3D map viewer

Following the path down through the meadow to a small area of woodland outside Elsecar, I noted very many subangular fragments of what looked like ironstone exposed in the ground alongside it, which had no obvious bedding and is probably waste material from the former Elsecar Ironworks.

 

Fragments of ironstone alongside the public footpath

I don’t know the local source of the ironstone, which was mined locally along with coal since the C14, but the 1947 geological memoir describes a quarry in the Kent’s Rock at Upper Haugh as having beds that include many ironstone nodules and pass into distinct ironstone bands in places.

 

Specimens of ironstone