Trees in the murk north of Doncaster Road
Well, I was looking forward to Sunday morning because the weather people promised sunshine after a misty start to the day. Purely for exercise. I needed another long walk and of course it would allow me to gather another batch of photographs.
Former coal mining villages south of Barnsley were my goal - almost twenty miles from here. I planned to mostly walk in the nearby countryside. The villages are named Darfield and Wombwell and because of past housing developments they now sit so close to each other that they are conjoined like Siamese twins.
Autumn leaf on the shattered glass of a bus shelter at Darfield
In the early nineteenth century they were both peaceful, thinly populated settlements focused upon agriculture but then coal took over and their populations advanced rapidly. Railway tracks and sidings surrounded the pitheads and terraced streets were thrown up to accommodate battalions of coal miners and their families.
They remain tough places that rather lost their way when the once powerful coal industry was brought to a shuddering halt in the mid-1980's. In the intervening years, they have gradually been reinventing themselves. Wombwell is now home to 12,000 people and Darfield has a population of 11,000. They share a brand new secondary school called Netherwood Academy. Its lofty motto is "Inspiring Beyond Measure". Good luck with that guys!
Trans Pennine Trail heading away from Wombwell along an old railway bed
Clint parked himself on Belvedere Drive to the north west of Darfield. It was ten o'clock and I was having my doubts about the weather forecast. Could the murky mist that clothed the district really lift before eventide? It seemed unlikely and as it happens my pessimism was well-founded but at least it didn't rain.
Bracket fungus on a silver birch tree
I walked for almost three hours in the November greyness before Clint sped me back to Sheffield to prepare yet another Sunday dinner that complemented a tender joint of basted pork loin. Outside darkness descended on a day that had not witnessed even the tiniest shaft of sunlight or a fragment of blue sky.
Old milestone in a Darfield hedgerow
The micro Manager was born at Barnsley
ReplyDeleteThere's now a bronze statue of her next to Dickie Bird - the famous cricket umpire.
DeleteThe nice thing about grey days is no shadows to contend with when taking photos.
ReplyDeleteI was on 23&me today, a DNA site, and found out that I have two cousins living in Sheffield. Who knew?
Perhaps I am one of your cousins. I know what you mean about problems with shadows. The camera is less forgiving than the human eye.
DeleteWe are having more than our fair share of grey days here too, with rain much of the time. I'm glad you walked though because we get to see the photos. I planned to walk but cleaned out a cupboard instead.
ReplyDeleteGood joke River! Everybody knows that the sun always shines in Australia - except at night when it sleeps.
DeleteWombwell! That's not far from Wath-upon-Dearne, were Steve was born and where we used to come every summer for a few days at his Mum's before she moved to Ripon to be nearer her daughter.
ReplyDeleteYou did well with your walk in greyness, finding beauty even in such unlikely places as a vandalised bus shelter.
Wombwell is just three miles from Wath and they have much in common.
DeleteLove the photos, so very Autumnal. I wonder if the old villagers of Wombwell and Darfield were really happy when a new settlement of people arrived?
ReplyDeleteThere must have been tension though of course many of new coal mining families had their roots in agriculture.
DeleteI like the photo of the milestone. My Dad came from Barnsley.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of Barnsley I think of honesty, openness, community and folk who are the salt of the earth but I recognise there must be wrong 'uns amongst them.
DeleteIt's a pity that the sun didn't shine, but you did get some interesting photos. The first one is so typical of a misty winter day.
ReplyDeleteLove the one of the Trans Pennine Trail - there's something magical about walking through a tunnel of trees. Old railway tracks have been put to good use in so many places - they make nice flat pathways - easy to walk along.
Can you see the two little figures at the end of the tunnel?
DeleteDoncaster! Where those evil women on the east coast mainline who talked non stop from London finally left our train. Did I mention they talked non stop? I suppose you normally write very well, but in this post your writing seems almost dreamily good.
ReplyDeleteYou can be so kind Andrew, Why didn't you speak to those women? "Excuse me ladies, my partner and I have, I think, tolerated your endless uninteresting conversation for the past hour. I think that is long enough, don't you? Now would you please cease or move to a different carriage to annoy other passengers? Thank you."
DeleteOur Sunday was similar weather-wise, but we did get a hint of sun in the afternoon. (By which time I'd already finished MY walk!)
ReplyDeleteThe weather people got it badly wrong up here. I am going to sue!
DeleteI like that old milestone. Wonder if Dick Turpin and Black Best use to gallop past it?
ReplyDeleteIt is rumoured that he often dismounted here for a wee wee.
DeleteBeautiful photographs ..... I love the leaf on the shattered glass and the trees on the Doncaster Road. XXXX
ReplyDeleteThank you Jacqueline. You are very kind.
DeleteThis murky grey weather is my punishment for buying solar panels.
ReplyDeleteWhy must the rest of us suffer?
DeleteI love a good foggy misty morning.
ReplyDeleteIt's something we connect with November. I am glad that fog and murk are relatively rare - perhaps six or seven days out of 365.
DeleteDrizzly and gray here today too. I do not mind. But I am not about to go walking for three hours in it!
ReplyDeleteMany of my English ancestors were coal miners but many of them left in the early to mid 1800's, long before the demise of the industry.
ReplyDeleteThanks - that's good to know Ed. Sorry - it's looking like my little trip to the north west of Huddersfield may have to wait till next year now but I have not forgotten.
DeleteNo worries on this end. As I have said, genealogy is a patient occupation. You are not obligated to ever go there unless it suits your fancy.
DeleteAlso, the Huddersfield folks are the exception. They appear to have been a long line of tailors though their American descendants dabbled in mining for a brief time.
DeleteOld mining villages, South Yorkshire.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder what they are like now, which is why I read you and Tasker, while searching YouTube for walking videos in t'North and Black Country.
Doncaster Road. Skeletal trees. Impenetrable mist.
A quest for our collective past. A Walk in Greyness as Meike described it.
Your picture of the milestone is worthy of Dick Turpin as Northsider remarked.
There is a great Ian Nairn video on YouTube about Barnsley in the 1960s.
The more towns were industrialised the more they fascinated me.
*Barnsley 60's.*
ReplyDeleteYouTube. Barnsley Boy.
I thought I had seen all the Ian Nairn videos but this one I discovered last night.
*Nairn's Barnsley Revisited.*
YouTube. Spencer Lodge.
*Barnsley - A Portrait of the Town and its People.*
YouTube. Yorkshire Miner.
Britain has never recovered from the loss of its industries and manufacturing base.