Walks in the Shire Brook Valley

Walks in the Shire Brook Valley SHEFFIELD Key: Pond/Brook Pathways Cut Grass Heathland (Gorse) Marsh Heather Woodland Built-up areas Rough Grassland Local Nature . Trig Point Reserve Boundary Tarmac Path/Road Area of walks the old ‘Birley Moor’ which was divided into fields in 1799 under the Introduction central part of the Local Nature Reserve are based around the Coisley Hill became Carr Forge Dam Wall Birley East, Beighton former Coisley Hill Sewage Works. This sewage works was known as Nether Wheel. Road Landfill Site, can be Beighton Enclosure Award. Before then it would have been an open The Shire Brook Valley is in the South East of Sheffield about 4 area of heath and scrub used by local people for grazing their opened in the 1920s and replaced earlier sewage works that had Remains of this Nether seen from the Red and miles from the city centre. The general information in the leaflet animals and collecting firewood and foodstuff. Tiny areas of the old been built in the area at the end of the nineteenth century. The Wheel can be seen on Blue Walks. In 2005, this covers the whole of the valley shown on the map above. The four moor heathland still remain with Gorse, Heather and Bracken in the sewage works closed in the extension to the Red site started to be capped walks in this leaflet are based around the middle part of the Shire steep hillside around the early 1990s and a Walk. The rebuilt Carr and will be landscaped as Brook between Normanton Springs and the Beighton Road Landfill Silkstone Ravine and on reclamation scheme was Forge dam, which you a wildlife area. The Shire Wickfield Heath. On the site. This area is criss-crossed by footpaths and bridleways, most Good views over to Hackenthorpe developed to turn the site can see on some of the Brook goes underground north side of the valley of which are fairly flat and easy to walk along. However some are into a wildlife area. Some walks, attracts many into culverts under the landfill sites. was Woodthorp(e) steep, running up and down the hillsides, and go through areas of the old settling tanks different birds including Common, a similar area to that can sometimes be muddy, slippery or overgrown. Birley Moor, and the steep For further information contact; have become wildlife herons. New Housing There are seats along some of the paths so that you can rest and ponds, old metal walkways hillside of Woodhouse Parks, Woodlands & Countryside By the start of the twentieth century the valley was dominated by Much of the land on the sides of the valley has been built on for admire the view. The walks have been planned to explore some of Banks. Woodthorpe View over Wickfield Heath have become new bridges Old Settling Tanks early 1990’s coal mines and the mills had stopped making tools as water power Meersbrook Park, Brook Road, Sheffield, S8 9FL housing. By the mid 1950s, fields were covered and hedges Common has now the valley’s industrial past and the variety of wildlife that lives there. and the manager’s office is Phone 0114 250 0500 fell out of favour. The cottages associated with Carr and Rainbow removed as the Hackenthorpe council housing estate was being disappeared but Woodhouse Banks remains. This is now a mixture As well as this leaflet, waymarkers have been placed along the now the Visitor Centre. A time-line sculpture on the outside of the Forges were still lived in into the middle of the twentieth century built on the south side of the valley. In the 1960s and 70s the of old and new woodland and meadows. One of the meadows is Large print version available on request. route of the walks at junctions to some of the paths. building shows the history of the valley, starting with the dinosaurs but have all since been demolished. Scowerdons estate was built around the site of the old called Sally Clark’s after a woman who lived near the top of the field millions of years ago. Paths around the Visitor Centre provide an Scowerdons or Scourdings farm. The steeper north side of the in the nineteenth century. This meadow still has many grasses and easy walking option and are accessible by wheelchair users. The Footpaths Coal Mining valley escaped the house-building but hawthorn scrub started to wildflowers which were once common in the area. The Red Walk paths go by the ponds where birds such as moorhen and coot takes you along the top of this meadow and gives good views Some of the footpaths and Five different coal seams encroach onto the meadows as they were no longer grazed and nest. In summer parts of the grassy areas are mown but others across the valley to Silkstone Ravine and Wickfield Heath. Visitor Information bridleways that cross the area are run through the valley. other areas were planted with trees. The Red Walk takes you are kept long so that wildflowers such as knapweed can grow. The New areas of heath are developing around part of the old Birley As visitors to this area we ask that you act with the safety and very old routes. They linked the old The Barnsley seam is through some of these areas and gives good views over to interest of all living things in mind. longer grassy areas are good places to see butterflies. East Colliery site on the old spoil heaps and sites of buildings. The villages of Hackenthorpe and closest to the surface. Hackenthorpe. Keep dogs under close control Blue Walk goes through one of these areas of Heather and Birch • Woodhouse and the farms and mills Shallow pits were dug out Please place all dog dirt in the bins provided (by car park/Spa Lane) Old Boundary trees. • that were dotted across the valley. from medieval times on Wetlands Be aware that deep cold water can be dangerous The Shire Brook is an old historical boundary stretching back over Birley East Colliery c1950 • Others provided access to quarries Birley Moor to get this The course of the Shire Woods, Hedges and Trees Be aware that power lines cross the nature reserve at a low level a thousand years. It separated the ancient kingdoms of • and brick making yards and onto the coal. In the nineteenth Brook has altered over Please do not introduce any plants or animals to the ground or ponds Northumbria and Mercia, and for 900 years until 1967, was the There was extensive woodland planting in the late 1980s and early • old ‘Birley Moor’. Almost all are now century the coal mining industry expanded as technology improved the years, some times Please take your litter home with you 1990s which has now formed new woods. Trees were planted protected as Public Rights of Way. Occupation Road boundary between Yorkshire and Derbyshire. In 1967, the City of and deep mining became possible. Several coal mines were • naturally but more often alongside the new A57 Mosborough Parkway and around the site of Please do not pick wild flowers or take away or harm any wild Other paths are modern ones laid Sheffield expanded its boundaries and the land around Beighton • animals that you may see on your walk developed in this part of the valley to mine coal from the Silkstone because of human the Sewage Works. They were a mixture of mostly native species out by the City Council as the nature reserve area has developed. and Hackenthorpe became part of Sheffield. It is not clear when Some paths can become muddy and slippery in wet and cold conditions and other seams. Birley East Colliery dominated the eastern end intervention. Water from New Ponds such as Oak, Ash and Hazel, but also included Larch, Cherry the brook became known as the Shire Brook. On early nineteenth and overgrown in summer. You are advised to wear suitable footwear At certain points on each of the walks you will see ‘A’ frame of the valley and produced coal between 1888 and 1943. It was the brook and other Laurel and Norway Maple. and clothing. century maps the brook is called Der or Beighton and some barriers which have been then used as a mine training centre and closed in the 1950s. There springs that flowed into the valley was collected into a network of More trees and shrubs Please follow the Countryside Code whilst visiting the area. It asks you sections have been known as ‘Ochre Dike’. installed to prevent is a commemorative stone showing the site of Birley East but little dams and channels (known locally as goits) to power the water such as Hawthorn, Elder to ‘respect, protect and enjoy’ the countryside. Copies of the code can motorcyclists from using and Birch have self-seeded be found on www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk else remains. The Red and Blue Walks both take you across this mills. Most of the dams and channels can still be seen, some in over areas that were part of the paths. One of the Water Wheels area. The branch railway that served the coal mines closed in the outline but others such as at Carr Forge are still large ponds. old industrial sites and old main paths which runs The Shire Brook itself was key to early industry providing water for 1950s and since then there has been little industry in the valley. These areas together with the meadows. alongside Stone Lane is turning water wheels. In the early years of the nineteenth century new ponds are good places to These provide food and now part of the Trans- there were five water-powered mills in use along the valley.

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