A Trip to Hooton Pagnell by Bus & Train

 

Treeton to Hooton Pagnell by car

Starting at St. Wilfred’s church in Hickleton on 20th August, followed by St. John the Baptist at Ault Hucknall and St. Michael and Our Lady at Wragby, on the first and second weekends of the 2022 Heritage Open Days festival respectively, in September, I successfully undertook journeys by public transport that involved three separate journeys each way, along with St. Lawrence’s church in Eyam, which I could reach using the 2 hourly No. 65 bus service from Sheffield. 

 

Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire

 

During this period, I also planned to visit the Grade I Listed All Saints church in Hooton Pagnell, which is included in the Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire by Peter Ryder. I had wanted to visit this church for a long time but, as with so many mediaeval churches nowadays, it is only opened for services and also for a coffee morning every Wednesday between 10:00 and 12:00. 

 

South Yorkshire RIGS Groups events

 

Within Hooton Pagnell Conservation Area, there are 29 listed buildings, many of which I wanted to photograph for the British Listed Buildings website, as well as a spectacular example of a bryozoan reef that was included in one of the field trips – led by the late Denys Smith - that the South Yorkshire RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) Group arranged for their first 'promotional fortnight'  aimed at the general public.

 

Listed buildings in the Hooton Pagnell Conservation Area

I surveyed this and other sites in Hooton Pagnell in 1997 for the South Yorkshire RIGS Group and again in 2007 when working for the British Geological Survey on the Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment. Furthermore, when undertaking a ’virtual walk’ around the village to locate its listed buildings, using Google Street View, I encountered numerous small rocky outcrops that I wasn’t aware of and I therefore wanted to take a good look at these. 

 

The Doncaster Geodiversity Assessment

 

Having spent the best part of 7 years travelling all around South Yorkshire and into the surrounding counties to undertake day trips like this, using the buses and trains, I would now consider myself an expert in journey planning and, in the months when the weather permitted, this would often include a good walk. 

 

Treeton to Hooton Pagnell as the crow flies and by public transport

As I recorded back in 2019, when writing about my visit to Tideswell in the Peak District National Park, the First Mainline bus services in South Yorkshire had become increasingly unreliable or had been cut back and it therefore didn’t surprise me to discover that the No. 203 route between Doncaster and Wombwell had now been taken over by Stagecoach – with only 5 buses at intervals of 2 hours and 20 minutes running each day. 

 

The Stagecoach No. 203 bus timetable

 

Using the Travel South Yorkshire and National Rail websites, I worked out an itinerary for the day that entailed an X54 or No. 73 bus to Sheffield, where I would catch a train to Doncaster and then the No. 203 bus to Hooton Pagnell arriving at 10:57 – giving me an hour to look at the interior of the church and talk to the people at the coffee morning. 

 

A planned day out from Treeton to Hooton Pagnell

Looking at the timetable of the No. 203 bus, however, I was provided with the options of catching the bus back to Doncaster at 12:27, which wouldn’t give me enough time to further survey the historic architecture and geology of Hooton Pagnell, or at 14:50, which was much more time than I needed – especially since there was no shop/post office, cafe or a place to get a drink at the time – or even a place to shelter if the weather turned bad. 

 

Listed buildings in Thurnscoe

 

The other option was to catch the next bus to Thurnscoe or Goldthorpe at 13:25, where I could photograph a handful of listed buildings and then catch a train back to Rotherham or Sheffield, with the option of a bus that would take me to Wath upon Dearne and connect with another bus to Rotherham, if the train didn’t arrive - which seemed to be becoming more frequent.

 

1:25,000 Ordnance Surveys maps showing paths from Hooton Pagnell

 

This would probably give me enough time to photograph all the buildings that I could get access to in Hooton Pagnell, which are mostly strung out along the B6422 road; however, to take account of the worse case scenario of not completing my task in time or the No. 203 bus not turning up, I planned a cross country walk of up to 3.5 miles that would take me to Hickleton, Thurnscoe or Goldthorpe – via the spectacular outcrop of the Yellow Sands Formation at Watchley Crag. 

The Yellow Sands Formation at Watchley Crag