Doncaster to Swinton 05/09/22

13.2 miles, via Frenchgate, Grey Friars, North Bridge, St Mary's Bridge, Richmond Hill,

 Sprotborough (Park & Bridge), Levitt Hagg Wood, Warmsworth, New Edlington,

  Nearcliffe Wood, Conisborough Viaduct, Kingswood, Kilner Park, North Cliff Hill,

   Denaby Thicks, Denaby Wood, Old Denaby, Denaby Common, Hooton Common,

    Kilnhurst Bridge, and Kilnhurst. 

For Monday of our long weekend, we're ready to get on the trail again, admittedly not all that early as train services are dictating the time window available, but not quite ready enough as my first train connection out of Morley gets cancelled, which puts me in an immediate time hole, though it allows me plenty of time to organize tickets beyond my WYMetro travel area, unfortunately going on a total mind vacation while doing this and managing to get my mCard boundaries confused, purchasing one that doesn't permit me to ride the LNER express service out (and costing extra £s!), meaning that we have to wait for the local service at Leeds, and burning nearly an hour of viable day before we've even started. It's thus 11.10am when we get out of Doncaster station, heading back the way we came after a fashion as we take a turn into the Frenchgate shopping centre, certain that a path must lead through to it's north end, found by traveling up to, and down from, the food court and through the bus interchange, under North Bridge and around the back of the B&M store, so that Grey Friars Road might take us along the Don Navigation waterfront, and around to a circuit of three sides of St George's church, Doncaster Minster that does much for giving the city more than the status of 19th century railway town, it's Gothickry to be admired before we close the loop by passing up onto North Bridge. All local routes to the north side of the Don have to go this way, passing the Halfords and Boots Optician on the Marshgate island, to lead over St Mary's bridge by the Three Horse Shoes and onto the traffic interchange with the division of the A638 and A19, leading us under the avoiding railway line and onto new pavements on our desired southwesterly trajectory as we join Sprotborough Road as the town's suburbia fans out on the fields away from the riverbank, looking like it had a couple of distinct bursts of growth in the mid 20th century, on the stretch from the Screwfix store to the Community Library. We've travelled some way along, past the Sainsbury's Local, the Newton Arms inn and the Goldsmith centre before we feel that we ought to be looking at the map, as we are finally blazing a long trail across E279, not that route finding is particularly important yet as it's still straight forward road travelling as we rise to pass over the H&BR-GCR joint line / Trans Pennine Trail for the fourth time, and follow the ascending Melton Lane as it passes the Levett and Richmond Hill schools, and carries on through the council houses and 1980s suburbia before it peters out, revealing open fields to the south above the green and woods shrouded passage of the Don, and the council grit depot to the north, before the A1(M) passes below us.

Doncaster Station interior.

Friargate bridge and Canal Depot, Grey Friars.

Doncaster Minster, church of St George.

Crossing the River Don, at St Mary's Bridge.

Sprotborough Road, Doncaster.

Richmond Hill school, Sprotborough Road.

The motorway just about keeps Sprotborough separate from greater Doncaster, though it's had plenty of suburban growth of its own a satellite village, immediately in evidence as we join Park Drive beyond the North Lodge which was once the driveway though the parkland to Sprotborough Hall, now both lost (uniquely in this quarter) under the residential growth, with noting aside from vintage trees reaming as we wend our way down to the village centre,  beyond the Methodist church to find St Mary's looming above the traditional village centre, around its stores and greens, where we pause for feeding, as despite being only 80 minutes into the day, it's already lunchtime. The afternoon stretch then take us away dowm Boat Lane, around the old rectory and down among the houses that cling to the wooded valley side as we are led down to meet the old Toll House at the north end of Sprotborough Bridge(s), which leads over the channels of the Don Navigation and the River Don and the island between them, showing up the dramatic location of the Don Gorge before we are forced up the far side of it, through the trees of Levitt Hagg wood on a rough path to avoid the long switchback of Mill Lane, carrying on through the trees before joining the road again among the high fields, that offer a look northeast to Doncaster as our tack pushes us southerly. Then it's back into the greater city again, passing over the railway line to Swinton by what might have been Warmsworth station bridge, before we slip into the suburban band that reaches down the Sheffield Road, pacing along its admitted western extremity among the semis and bungalows around the primary school before crossing over the A630 by the Lotus inn and the community library, meeting the terraced front of Edlington Lane as the B6376 sets off towards Maltby, far beyond our purview for this year, though we just about get to the top of New Edlington and it cemetery before we make our turn off west at Warmworth Halt by the industrial estate, the name of which ought to indicate that we are about to start a railway walk. 

North Lodge, Sprotborough Park.

Park Drive and St Mary;s church, Sprotborough.

The Don Navigation at Sprotborough Bridge.

Levitt Hagg Wood.

Suburban Mill Lane, Warmsworth.

Terraced and Estated Edlington Lane, Warmsworth.

The access road by the Polypipe factory and logistics depot follows the alignment of the H&BR-GCR joint line (between Braithwell and Aire junctions, if you can locate either of those), becoming a cycleway beyond their extremity and then changing routes onto the Dearne Valley Railway at the point where they historically crossed, settling on the infilled cutting as it sweeps through the fields in sight of Conisborough Water Tower, before taking a dive downhill into the greenery choked rock cutting that passes under the high arched, and relatively new, Doncaster Road bridge and into the extremely chilly glade beyond. Having passed through Newcliffe Woods, the object of this route becomes obvious as it leads out onto Conisborough Viaduct, already noted as among the last of its kind, towering over the southern end of the Don Gorge and revealing the downstream view to its namesake castle and town, also showing lengthening shadows across the meadows below and the Cadeby quarries in the north as we cross, not the only person up here despite the bind it proved to get here, and being blessed with sunshine just makes it all the better on our 10 minutes of passage across, not that I'll be heading below to get some better lit pictures as the sunlight is on the wrong side, and instead we'll join the Trans Pennine Trail beyond. Stick with the DVR alignment as it passes above the still used Conisborough Tuinnel, before path shuffling settles us onto a unique route aside from the pair of disused lines on this hillside, notably not using the H&BR South Yorkshire Junction branch, which sits to the north and needs to be examined in all its thorny tree-choked joy by the remains of the Constitution Hill footbridge, and keeps at a remove as we pass west through the wild growth that has overtaken the site of Cadeby Main colliery, feeling the heat of the late summer sun before we meet the false trig pillar that indicates the way into the avenue of birch trees that takes us down to the Kingswood Centre, and our only contact point with a prior trail along the course of the day's travel.

Walking the H&BR - GCR Joint line.

Walking the Dearne Valley Railway line.

Doncaster Road Bridge, Newcliffe Wood.

Conisborough Viaduct, looking West.

Conisborough Viaduct, looking East.

Walking the Trans Pennine Trail (H&BR branch on the right).

Consiborough Castle overlooking Cadeby Main.

The birch path to the Kingswood centre.

Over the Don we go via the permissive route over the access bridge, dropping us by Conisborough station, where new route finding to the west immediately follows as Colliery Road lead us up past the Kilner's Park housing development and across the railway to pass over the A630 by the Cadeby colliery memorial, and then carry on straight ahead up Crags Road between the low flats blocks, to meet the paths on the wooded side of North Cliff Hill, rising above Denaby in the valley and below the suburban reach of the Conanby estate on the hilltop, boosting us above the merging Don and Dearne valleys, and offering a fine spot to break for a second lunch break. The way across High Melton, Barnbrugh and Goldthorpe can be traced in the north, and upstream to Barnsley and Emley moor, giving us one of the summary views for 2022 as we keep on the main path that doesn't take us up or down unnecessarily, gradually tracking southwesterly with the Don as it passes Mexborough, and heading into the rough woodlands of Denaby Thicks before we drop out on Hill Top Road, rising up from Denaby and cross to meet the footpath of a forgotten lane that traces a way across the field boundaries, with the views shifting south, to the upstream Don and its flow down from Rotherham, and to the distant fringe of the Dark Peak. Grange farm is the only feature on this hillside that's immediately identifiable, frequently hiding behind a headge that's been cut but still standing too tall to be seen over, before we shift with the path into Denaby Woods, where much off-road cycling seems to have been done, which might have confused the route down to Old Denaby, which is met at the top of the suburban close of The Green, and leads us down to Denaby Lane to turn us southwest, away from the coal-age settlement that stole its name at the valley floor, and on among the suburbian enclave that has grown up here, retaining little of the vintage flavour and offering few views into the valley's locality as we pass The Manor pub and restaurant, and Top Fold farm at the village end.

Th Cadeby Main Colliery Memorial, Doncaster Road.

The path up North Cliff Hill.

The view over Denaby, Mexborough and the merging Dearne & Don valleys.

The southern horizon, above the upstream Don valley.

Grange Farm and Denaby Woods.

'Old' Denaby.

It's verge-less road walking as we pass above Denaby Common, getting little sense of our proximity to Mexborough to the north of us until we've drawn away past the Quarry Plantation corner, where we can look west across the valley toward Swinton, still an hour's walk distant thanks to the location of the Don crossing, and pressing south against too much work-day home-time traffic as the view across Hooton Common guides the eye to the next settlement down the valley, Rawmarsh on the rising hillsdie the southwest and the Liberty Steels plant at Aldwarke in the valley below, one of the few major enduring remnants of that local industry in the landscape. It's a haul heading down here, with the feeling of evening setting in long before we get down to the Toll Bar house by the junction with the B6090 Kilnhurst Road, where a westerly turn puts us back on a footway and sets us on course towards the finish line, following a slow moving flow of traffic over the Don for the last time at Kilnhurst Bridge, with Hooton Road then rising us over the Don Navigation and the enduring metals of the GCR by the derelict Ship inn, with Victoria Road leading us past the old Methodist chapel, modern Community Resource Centre and old village school, before crossing the main railway line above the MR's Kilnhurst station site, below the parish church of St Thomas. Note the Kilnhirst Colliery memorial in the churchyard before Highthorn Road lead north and finally inbound, rising uphill above the railway, canal and river through the suburban and estate expansion of Kilnhurst, cresting by the local surgery and The Rock tavern, before dropping down to meet the Swinton border, and taking a turn onto Lime Grove (which my brain immediately recalls as an old BBC studio, which again undulates its way on, past the Brooklands Junior Academy while offering views back east across the 1980s suburban rooftops over the Don Valley to where we were walking an hour ago.

Looking over Denaby Common to Swinton.

Aldwarke steelworks and Rawmarsh, beyond Hooton Common.

The River Don at Kilnhurst Bridge.

Kilnhurst station house and the railway bridge.

The Rock Tavern, Highthorn Road, Kilnhurst.

Lime Grove, Swinton.

Arriving by the still derelict Station Hotel, we can close the day out with 500 miles on the season passed and the boundary for the Field of Walking Experience shifted further south, probably as for Down County as it will be getting this year, returning us to Swinton station at 4.25pm, having travelled quickly enough to have finished in time for the service an hour earlier, if we'd scheduled ourselves better getting to the start line for 10.15am and not had a massive brain fart during the morning, still, 15 minutes spent here on a late afternoon certainly isn't boring, as five local and express trains pass by before we head away.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5798.1 miles

2022 Total: 509.4 miles

Up Country Total: 5,317.4 miles

Solo Total: 5462.5 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 4387.9 miles

Next Up: A Railway Walk that I've had on the slate for 8 (Eight!) Years...