Alone Beneath The Sky: Fitzwilliam to Swinton 09/07/22

14 miles, via Kinsley, Shaw Hill, Hemsworth, Common End, Hague Hall, South Kirkby,

Bird Lane, Clayton Common, Clayton, Knabs Hill, Thurnscoe, Highgate (Goldthorpe),

Bolton upon Dearne, Bolton Bridge, Hound Hill Bridge, Manvers industrial park,

Golden Smithies, and Swinton Bridge.

It's taken a while to get here, but as we head out for this trip, its seems that we are due the first day of the walking year that will remain bright and warm for the duration, having seen several days of heatwave conditions not coincide with the weekends, or having had promising days landing prolonged spells of gloom and surprisingly low temperatures along their paths, and we aren't able to get in early to start ahead of the heat, as our travel window is again being dictated by the availability of trains, with our decision to fill July with more modest distances than we pressed in June looking like a rather smart choice in the circumstance. With another route to the south in our plans, we alight at Fitzwilliam station at 9.50am, and meander a way over the footbridge and down the ginnel, both colorfully decorated, to pick up our path from the exact point we arrived here in April, by the Hill Top terrace and straight onto the B6273 Wakefield Road, to spend much of the early going on pavements traced in 2015, over three different routes, past the King's Meadow academy, and the community centre and across the suburban amalgamation with neighbouring Kinsley, home to the greyhound stadium and the pub called the Kinsley with the old terraced streets around it, before the countryside arrives beyond the care home and the very concealed former church. The lane pushes uphill, passing the perimeter of the Hemsworth Waterpark as it rises up Shaw Hill, as well as the fields that bound the town cemetery before we arrive in its initially suburban landscape, with the stone terraces sitting on the road crest before we come down to meet St Helen's church, still mostly concealed by trees on its perch before we join Cross Hill again, as tangling with our previous trio of routes into South Yorkshire is going to be a bit of a theme for the day, passing the trio of pubs and joining Market Street as it rises up between the Tesco store, the notably large Job Centre and the Community Centre and its War Memorial garden. At the division of the Rotherham Road, by the Costa, KFC and Farmfoods store, we spilt away from our first route to Thurnscoe with the B6422 Kirkby Road as it leads south through the Common End portion of the town, noting the YMCA's shed, the former Victoria Inn and the old Hippodrome theatre in among the terraces as we are led away to the open fields beyond the Albion WMC, giving us a look towards Upton Beacon and Walton Wood mast as the landscape falls away to the east, and we come out to meet the A628 bypass road, on the H&BR mainline route, with the house of its Hemsworth & South Kirkby station still in place at the roadside.

Fitzwilliam station footbridge.

The Kinsley, Kinsley.

Wakefield Road terraces, Hemworth.

Hemsworth Community Centre, Market Street.

The Hippodrome theatre, Common End.

The view east to Upton Beacon and Walton wood mast.

We're tangling with the last leg of the Wakefield Way as we come downhill by Hague Hall farm, passing its lodge house and over its eponymous beck, confirmed as flowing directly towrds the river Don from here, and following the Hemsworth Road as it rises among the rural fields of burgeoning grains that conceal the scarring of the coal mining workings of South Kirkby colliery off to the east, as well as the industrial park that has claimed most of it site, barely visible as we pass over theri driveways and come back up to where we last passed across this conurbation, meeting the Co-op store and Ball Park farm as we meet White Apron Street. Our path across South Kirkby will take us up Mill Lane, among some of its most enduring terraces with the Royal British Legion and the Independent Club (lloking like it was established in someone's house) to be found among them as we pass among the spread of the estates betond before we meet the Morrison's Daily store on the Stockingate corner, where we cross to join Broad Lane, which maintains a pavement to ensure safe access between the South Kirkby academy and the Common Road primary school before leaving us to fight the traffic on the narrow lane as we head back into the countryside beyond the playing fields, to soon enough meet the rough bridleway of Bird Lane. That gets us tangling with the last leg of the Wakefield Way again, tracking it down among hedges and ranges of trees before that splits off to approach Howell Wood, while we keep at a remove to the east of it as we pass outside the Field of Walking Experience again, dropping down to pass over Howell Beck and out of West Yorkshire, to immediately get the feeling that South Yorkshire is utterly committed to putting thick hawthorn hedges everywhere, as we can feel contained for quite a while before we spy an opening towards the Frickley Colliery country park and rise on along this forgotten country lane, among many goldening fields that have no obvious farms tending them.

Hague Hall Lodge, Water Lane.

The rise of Hemworth Road to South Kirkby.

Mill Lane, and the RBL Club, South Kirkby.

The narrow Broad Lane.

Howell Wood from Bird Lane.

Frickley Colliery from Bird Lane.

A wider and harder farm track appears as we rise up among the fields of Clayton Common, quite a fierce press as the midday sun beats down, elevating us enough to give us some more useful contextual looks back to the north, from Brierley Gap at one side to the Upton/Walton Wood high points on the other, before we crest up to meet five forgotten lanes converging to the north of Clayton village, illustrating how the modern world didn't claim all the ancient tracks that it could have, with the southbound Common Lane being the only one with a metalled surface as it drags us back toward admittedly rural civilsation. This is the third Clayton we've found in the West Riding, and it might be the one we could call East, though it's not a large place while being one of very few settlements of note on these particular hills, where a bench is offered for lunch and a change of seasonal gear before we press on among its farmsteads, cottages and suburban attachments at Chapel Hill and Back Lane, where we press to its eastern end, with the main street unseen as we crest over the watershed into the Dearne Valley, which is revealed as we press down Clayton Lane, placing us north of Thurnscoe and back among the landscapes that we've been delving into over the last month. Barnsley lies off to the far west of us, visible through the haze and beyond the wind turbines at the valley's angle, with signage greeting us into its borough as we realize we've actually been in Doncaster borough since we crossed the county boundary, before we witness a horse and trap causing a traffic standoff on the lane by the boarding kennels, and then progress over the crest by the Knabs Hill copse, getting a clear sightline to the distant Emley Moor and Holme Moss masts as well as down to the much nearer village of Great Houghton as we come down to meet the top edge of Thurnscoe village, by the Robert Ogden school for the Autistic.

Looking back to Bird Lane from Clayton Common.

Common Lane at the five lane ends junction.

Chapel Hill, Clayton.

Clayton Lane, arriving in the Dearne valley.

Barnsley lingering on the western horizon.

The Robert Ogden school for the Autistic, Thurnscoe.

This route is indeed going to tie up the loose ends of the high season's excursions as we come down the suburban frontage to cross the B6411 Houghton Road at the west end of the village, joining Common Road as it directs us east past the council estate houses and on to what remains of the old Thurnscoe village, clustered around St Helen's church with its distinctly Wren-ish tower, and on down the High Street past the Little Theatre and the Butchers Arms inn, ahead of the local WMC and some rather striking terraced frontages before we pass around the grounds of Thurnscoe Hall, which is almost completely obscured by suburban growths. A sharp southwards turn takes us onto Thurnscoe Bridge Lane, directing us past a stuccoed council estate block, which looks strikingly like the Nether Hall estate in Leicester, as we are drawn out of the village and into a green space, proving that these settlements at the east of Barnsley borough are yet to have fully become one, which takes us through the embankment of the spur that linked the lost Dearne Valley line to the contemporary Swinton & Knottingley railway, which sits to the east of us as we pass by the Highgate greyhound stadium and adjacent scrapyard inside the triangle, where the DVR and the A635 combine at it southern end. Thus we rise up with Nicholas lane towards Highgate school, and the passage over the Barnsley Road, just west of Goldthorpe station, continuing south along the long terraced frontage of the block on the far side of the lane, and the Highgate house development to our left before we pass through another embankment, of the recently acknowledged H&BR Wath branch, and head on down Highgate Lane, among suburbia and the playing fields ahead of Carrfield Primary Academy, and not seeing an obvious boundary between Goldthorpe and Bolton upon Dearne before we land among the redbrick council state houses of the latter.

Houghton Road, Thurnscoe.

St Helen's church, Thiurnscoe.

Thurnscoe Bridge Road.

Highgate Greyhound stadium, Nicholas Lane.

The terraced front of Highgate Lane, Highgate.

The H&BR Wath Branch, in the Goldthorpe - Bolton landscape.

By the cemetery, we join the path alongside its northern perimeter wall to bring us onto Furlong Road, the B6098 so it can lead us into the old heart of Bolton upon Dearne, past the Wesleyan Chapel, Station Hotel and old School, none of which endure in their current usages as we pass over Station Road, just west of Bolton on Dearne station, and thence down past the old Co-op store and the church of St Andrew as we seal up a new boundary on the Field of Walking Experience and then carry on south into the unknown as Angel Street draws us downhill among all of the urban vintages to the village's end, on the bank of the river. A bench presents itself for watering in the shade before we cross over the Dearne at Bolton bridge, and get no signage that welcomes us into Rotherham borough as we go, with the Mexborough Road taking us over the river island to meet the Dearne viaduct (taking the railway over the valley on an elevated passage that I'd never noticed on any of my many trips over it in the past), and we then meander across the valley floor among the post industrial fields on Bolton Common, noting the Trans Pennine trail passage and the bypassed Bolton Mill bridge at the laneside before we come around to Hound Hill bridge and the rise up the south side of the Dearne valley, getting a view downstream across the fields to Adwick upon Dearne before we head under the railway line again with Bolton Lane. This draws us into the Manvers Industrial Park, where depots and commercial units have grown to claim the vast site of Manvers Main Colliery, once one of the largest in the county, which once had two major railways running across it, with nothing of the NMR mainline or the GCR's Barnsley line even being hinted at as we pass over the A6023 and along the Golden Smithies Lane as we are elevated up to the hinted path of the Dearne & Dove canal, ahead the Humphrey Davy house of the University of Sheffield and the campus of Dearne Valley college, above which the view upstream on the Dearne valley toward Barnsley is revealed across the barley fields.

Bolton upon Dearne cemetery.

The old Co-op store, Angel Street, Bolton upon Dearne.

Dearne Viaduct.

Downstream Dearne valley view.

Manvers Industrial Park, and the A6023.

Upstream Dearne valley view.

Our route rises, taking us to the west of our destination town and also onto the Dearne - Don watershed, and as the suburban reach of Swinton stretches uphill, we need to make our way down into it and away from the front looking over the fields of Golden Smithies, and thus our familiar eastwards passage is set as we take a left onto St George's Avenue as it leads us downhill to Church Street, landing across from the Ring O' Bells inn and just down from St Margaret's parish church and the War Memorial, before the A6022 runs us down through the middle of Swinton, past the Methodist chapel and the rustic frontages ahead of the main shopping drag. Pass the Robin Hood inn and note another Butchers Arms on our trail before the drop of Station Street kicks in beyond the civic centre and the Co-op store, dropping us down among the ranked terraces on the hillside, with the old Free Library and The Vic WMC prominently placed among them, as we are brought down to the corner by the derelict or refitting Station Inn, sufficiently far ahead of schedule to not make for the interchange station immediately and instead pass under the railway, beyond the Swinton WMC and the old station building to find what lies beyond at Swinton Bridge. The stub end of the Dearne & Dove canal is passed over, still in water beyond its initial lock flight, which is itself occupied by a boatyard and thus can't be examined in the detail it deserves, but we can aim towards its neighbour, heading down the suburban Dun Lane to find the Coronation Road rec beyond the Swinton Lock activity centre, which allows us a brief visit to the banks of the Don Navigation, the next best thing to meeting the River Don itself, just that bit too far off to the south of us, and with a new valley met and our waterways interest satiated, we need to head back to where we diverted from so we can arrive at Swinton station for our ride home, landing at 3.30pm.