A Walk From Bents Green to Whirlow

 

An information board at Whirlow Hall Farm

It only took me 20 minutes to have a quick look at the historic architecture of Bents Green, where the main building stones are the Loxley Edge Rock, the Rough Rock and the Chatsworth Grit. I then set off to find the public footpath to Whirlow and soon came across Thryft House, which was the first building on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge. 

 

Thryft House

 

This mid C17 farmhouse and cottage is set below the adjacent lane and a high hedge obscures all but the eaves and the stone slate roof. I sneaked a photo from the entrance and obtained partial views by standing on various walls and fences, which provided information to make the think that this is another example of the use of the Rough Rock for walling and the roof. 

 

Thryft House

 

The public footpath skirts the Castle Dyke playing field, which are set on relatively level ground at an average elevation of about 270 metres that is underlain by the Rough Rock, which dips at 6 degrees to the north-east according to the British Geological Survey map. 

 

A topographic map of the landscape seen from Castle Dyke playing field

Looking to the north-east, beyond the interwar housing of Bents Green, in my photo I can make out Tinsley Viaduct and the Blackburn Meadows Power Station at a distance of 12 km and beyond this along the Don Valley is the Aldwarke steelworks in Rotherham at 18 km, with the hills formed by the Parkgate Rock in the distance. 

 

The view north-east towards Tinsley Viaduct and beyond

 

To the east, at a distance of just over 6 km, the immediately recognisable Herdings Park twin towers are clearly visible on the skyline. Set on an outcrop of an unnamed Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation (PLCMF) sandstone at an elevation of 228 metres, this distinctive landmark is visible from many parts of Sheffield. 

 

A view of the Herdings twin towers

 

A little further to the north is the Gleadless Valley, where an essentially rural valley cut into the PLCMF mudstones and shales - now drained by the Meers Brook and its tributaries - was transformed by a large scale housing development between 1955 and 1962. 

 

A panoramic view across the Gleadless Valley

Continuing down the path, a dry stone wall is built with a quite thinly bedded sandstone that I wouldn’t quite describe as typically flaggy, but which would be very likely to have been quarried from the Rough Rock at the quarries at Whirlow that mainly produced flagstones, one of which is now the Whinfell Quarry Garden. 

 

A dry stone wall adjacent to the path from Bents Green to Whirlow

Arriving at Broad Elms Lane, I went to find the late C18 Grade II Listed Whirlow Farmhouse, which I could only photograph at a distance from the entrance to its drive. Enlarging my only photo, I can see that most of the walling stone is laid in courses that are of approximately the same size as a brick, but the gable end in the centre of the elevation is built with larger blocks.

 

Whirlow Farmhouse

 

I then continued to the large complex of agricultural buildings at Whirlow Hall Farm, which is now occupied by the Whirlow Hall Farm Trust – an educational charity for inner city children and others that struggle in mainstream education.

 

Whirlow Hall Farm

 

Only part of the complex, which dates back to the late C18 and early C18 with C19 additions, is Grade II Listed and this comprises a cottage, cowshed, a cruck barn and a bull pen and I just took a few general record photographs of these. 

 

The listed buildings at Whirlow Hall Farm

 

I didn’t examine the stone closely with my hand lens but, from my high resolution photos, I can see that the blotchy iron stained walling stone is clearly plane bedded and the thin laminations are quite typical of the Rough Rock that is found in Sheffield. In contrast, the massive quoins and dressings are greyish in colour and are clearly made from the Chatsworth Grit. 

 

A house with pebbly Chatsworth Grit dressings at Whirlow Hall Farm

Leaving the courtyard after taking photos of the listed buildings, I continued up Broad Elms Lane to look at another range of farm buildings that serve various functions for the Whirlow Hall Farm Trust. A substantial house that I though would be listed was the only building that caught my eye, not least for the use of very coarse grained Chatsworth Grit for the main door surround. 

 

A view along Fenney Lane

 

I continued by walking down towards the A625 along Fenney Lane, which is an ancient holloway and, before the construction of a new turnpike road c.1820 at Ringinglow, was one of the main roads out of Sheffield to Fox House and into Derbyshire. 

 

A view towards the Eastern Moors

 

Briefly stopping to take in the view of the Eastern Moors to the south-west, I carried on down Fenney Lane and passed a tree where fine grained flaggy Rough Rock, which in places consisted of poorly cemented orange sand, could be seen exposed beneath its root system. 

 

The Rough Rock exposed beneath tree roots

 

A little further down Fenney Lane, I went into Whinfell Quarry Garden by the top gate with the intention of finding a memorial by Steve Roche, a stone carver and letter cutter who I had proposed for a potential piece of pubic art at Boston Park in Rotherham. The memorial to Stephen Doncaster (d.2018) is made of Woodkirk stone from the Thornhill Rock near Morley, but it was covered in lichens and I could not determine its colour and texture. 

 

The memorial to Stephen Doncaster

 

I had visited Whinfell Quarry Garden a few times before and, through the efforts of the Friends of Whinfell Quarry Garden, it had become more impressive over the years. I had a quick walk around and, apart from seeing the skunk cabbage in flower, I discovered that gypsum has been used in the landscaping and I obtained a couple of loose pieces to add to my growing rock collection. 

 

Specimens of the Rough Rock and gypsum