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| Posh Pillar and Her Daughters on Jenkin Road |
Travelling on the buses and trains, my visit to Woolley on the 10th of October proved to be my last day out in 2023 but, the following week, after I had to be collected from Treeton when several buses failed to turn up, I co-led another field trip with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group.
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| The Ordnance Survey map of Wincobank |
At the Sheffield Heritage Fair a couple of years earlier, I had met one of group members, Hilary, where we had both been talking to Danny Allsebrook of the Brigantes of Wincobank Hill, which gave us the idea of arranging a visit for our group to Wincobank Hill sometime in the future – to look at the effects of the Don Monocline and to visit the Iron Age hillfort.
Convening at the parking space on Jenkin Road, we firstly went to have a look at The Star Crossed Queen, a star map that was installed in 2011 as part of the artwork project known as the Journey to Hidden Places. Here, Hilary provided an introduction to Queen Cartimandua and her relationship with the Romans and the earthwork known as the Roman Rig.
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| At The Star Crossed Queen |
Returning to Jenkin Road, Hilary then talked about Posh Pillar and Her Daughters, another sculpture that is part of the Journey to Hidden Places, which consists of a column retained from a demolished historic building and farm rollers, which are made from various granites and have poems inscribed on them.
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| Hilary at Posh Pillar and Her Daughters |
Making our way up the track leading to the hillfort, which is surfaced with sandstone and dolerite setts, we followed the line of the southern embankment and ditch, where Hilary further explained that Wincobank Hill provides an example of a vitrified fort and outlined other aspects of its history and archaeological investigation.
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| On the southern embankment of Wincobank Iron Age hillfort |
Wincobank Hill forms a very prominent landmark in the form of a hogback, which can be clearly seen from the Don Valley below and, before the steep slopes became covered in trees, there would have been views across the surrounding countryide and to another Iron Age fort at Canklow Wood in Rotherham.
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| An exposure of the Silkstone Rock on Wincobank Hill |
Continuing south-west along the well used and in places a very eroded path, I took over from Hilary to explain the geology dominated by the Don Monocline, which affects the strata from Sheffield to Mexborough - a distance of approximately 17 km.
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| A viewpoint overlooking Sheffield |
Thin flaggy beds of the Silkstone Rock are exposed along the path at regular intervals, which exhibit the very steep dip of the strata here – up to 30 degrees to the south-east – and are highly fractured. The ground slopes steeply either side of the path and is covered in gorse and other thick vegetation that prevents easy access, so we carried on until we reached a point where there are panoramic views of Sheffield.
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| Following a footpath on Wincobank Hill |
On my previous visit to Wincobank Hill, I walked all the way down to Grimesthorpe, where there is a small quarry with exposures of the Parkgate Rock; however, we didn't consider going any further and retraced our steps to a path that we had discovered on the recce, which leads to an area of Wincobank Wood that was once the site of various industries.
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| A LIDAR image of Wincobank Hill |
A LIDAR map shows lines of bell pits and adits that exploited the coal and ironstone seams that occur below the Silkstone Rock, with other charcoal pits and Q-pits for making white coal. The area has been managed over the years and, in several places, Hilary pointed out various examples of coppiced trees that are associated with its industrial history.
After having our lunch at Tthe Star Crossed Queen, for the afternoon session I decided to take the group to Ockley Bottom and the Thundercliffe Grange quarries, which I had explored a couple of years earlier. The Silkstone Rock also occurs in this part of Rotherham and the area around Grange Park and Kimberworth had a similar history of iron and coal mining, which dates back to the C12, when the monks from Kirkstead Abbey worked the ironstone.
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| A quarry at Thundercliffe Gange |
With me taking the lead during the afternoon, I didn't get much opportunity to take photos but we didn't encounter any points of interest that I haven't already described before; however, when passing Thundercliffe Grange, we met one of the original co-founders of the "co-housing scheme" here, who was kind enough to take the time to tell us about its history.
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| A detail of the joints at Thundercliife Grange quarry |
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