Thurgoland is a funny name for a village. It has evolved through the centuries. About 1200 years ago it was simply the land cultivated by Thorgeirr who we might well presume was a Viking settler. I parked there yesterday and set off on a long walk I had planned taking me from Thurgoland via Wortley Top Forge to Green Moor where I snapped this picture of the old village stocks:-
A little further along the moorland route that once carried drovers and jaggers in days before railways, canals or metalled roads, I passed by Hunshelf Hall which was mentioned in The Domesday Book though the current main house was obviously built much later:-
From Hunshelf Hall I headed down into the valley of the Little Don and in Sheephouse Woods near Stocksbridge I endured a heavy rain shower. Almost futilely, I sheltered under an old pine tree but it wasn't long before the rain found its way through the canopy giving me a right good soaking. I must have looked like a drowned rat as I plodded up to Cranberry Farm, taking this photograph of the signpost by the nearby crossroads:-
Onwards to Snowden Hill and Little Black Moor thence to Huthwaite Hall. Checking my map, I couldn't find the Transpennine Trail at this point which was puzzling and I only later realised that the disused railway track passed through a tunnel at this point. Silly me! So instead I walked along Huthwaite Lane where I spotted this memorial bench, erected in memory of a young commando called David Marsh who was killed in Afghanistan in 2008. He was only twenty three and his baby daughter, now growing up, will of course never see him again.
Today, Shirley wanted a walk in our autumnal sunshine so we headed off to Chesterfield and parked by Brimington Road to take a stroll by the Chesterfield Canal. Now it accommodates a few narrowboat enthusiasts but it was constructed in the late eighteenth century for the purposes of trade - taking manufactured goods and stone products thirty miles eastwards to the River Trent at West Stockwith. The audacity and "can do" attitude of our Victorian forbears really makes you think sometimes. Here a narrowboat is being guided through the lock at Bluebank:-
Here's Madam Pudding posing by the canal this afternoon:-
Afterwards we had Sunday lunch in "The Mill" on Old Station Road. Delightful, good value home-cooking in an independent community pub. Bizarrely our waitress was from Gold Coast, Australia. I guess it's rather different from Chesterfield where surfers and bronzed beach babes are always in short supply.
Sniff, wipes a tear away ... memories! My dad used to work in Deepcar before he retired and knew this area very well. Many a week, we'd all go out to a pub in Wortley (The Rock, maybe?), a great place for kids to go clambering about while the parents enjoyed a well-earned pint. When I was a teenager, we'd often cycle to Wortley - love the stocks!
ReplyDeleteI think I'll organize a family outing there next time we're over - the pub's probably been turned into a MacDonalds, though...
Brian - Many things have changed since this was your childhood stomping ground. For example we have electricity now and no longer rely on horses for transport. Explain to your son and daughter that if they are naughty you will clap them in the stocks at Green Moor. I shall personally provide fallen apples from our garden. Perhaps you could stick the missus in there too - if she has been naughty? I haven't seen "The Rock" at Wortley and wonder if it still exists.
DeleteThinking back, and talking to my parents, I think the pub was called The Rock Inn and was either at Green Moor or Crane Moor apparently. According to internet a Rock Inn at Green Moor closed down a few years ago, converted into flats. I wonder if this was it. So it's a drive around there at Christmas I think!
Deletea Grand look at two contrasting areas. I never cease to be amazed how quickly the landscape changes in the UK.
ReplyDeleteYou are right there Adrian and it's not just the physical landscape but man's impact upon it too.
DeleteYes human impact. It is a slight problem I have with nature reserves too many of them try to recreate an environment that was there a hundred years ago. They then pop in toilets and tracks with wheel chair access. They bugger it all up. It's a different debate. I can't think of an area where humans haven't left their mark.
DeleteHow about David Cameron's brain?
DeleteI found Sheffield in the Domesday Book -- perhaps you are a descendant of Roger the Bully?
ReplyDeleteNot Roger THE Bully but Roger OF Bully as in Bully-en-Brai, Seine-Maritime, France. You are mischievous but I like you!
DeleteThe Viking past of Yorkshire is something I find most interesting and fascinating. One of my aunts lives on the Danish island of Bornholm (she married a Bornholmsk man many years ago and has Danish citizenship), where the Vikings used to live, too. When I see place names such as Thirsk or Kirkby, I can't help but think you can't get more Viking than that. (Actually, the next bigger "town" to where my aunt lives is called Akirkeby.)
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you were obviously not dressed according to the weather that day. Is that how you caught your cold?
Mrs. Pudding looks so cheerful in her green padded coat. Good pictures (as usual on your blog) of an area I wouldn't mind going for a walk in myself - right now.
Yes those damnable Vikings! Though I am proud to be a Yorkshire pudding I know that I have Viking blood in my veins but I must quickly add that I am not guilty of pillaging nor the other favourite activity of invading Vikings. By the way Miss Arian, I had the cold before I sheltered (showered) under the rain tree..
DeleteAha! The Gold Coast is about a 30min drive...downhill from where I live. Here where I live is classed as being the "Gold Coast Hinterland".
ReplyDeleteMy landlords have been over in the UK for the past six weeks. They're originally from the UK...they've been here in the Land of Oz for over 30 years, but they go back for a visit every year, sometimes twice a year; because they have family there....in Suffolk...Orford, more precisely. A couple of months ago they bought another little house there to put on the rental market. - they had one a few years ago, and then sold it. My landlady spent a week on one of those long narrow-boats with friends - somewhere up north...before her husband flew over. They arrive back home here tomorrow.
It is good to learn that you have civilised landlords Lee. I trust that you show them appropriate respect and curtsey politely whenever you see them.
DeleteWe live on the same property, Yorky...a three acre parcel of land. Their home is up one end and my cabin is down the other. We can often go weeks without seeing each other. I've been going up to "the Manor House" every day while they were away to feed the chickens; and to feed cuddle and give much love to Molly, their cat. I made a lasagne and put it in their fridge for them to have when they got back home (they arrived home 1.30 am, Thurs morning)...after the long flight, I'm sure cooking is the furtherest thing from their minds.
DeleteThey're lucky to have such a civilised tenant! And have been so lucky for the past 12 and a half years!! :)
You say Thurgoland is a funny name and then accept Wortley as if it was not. Strange people Yorkshiremen (not women, though.)
ReplyDeleteKeep your lecherous eyes off our women Graham! They're not for wortley infidels!
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