Alone Beneath The Sky: Elsecar to Adwick 24/09/22

16.4 miles, via Stubbin, Jump, Hemingfield, Lund Hill, Tunstall Cross, Everill Gate, Broomhill,

Marle's Bridge, Cat Hill, Kings Stocks, Billingley, Thurnscoe, Willow Heights, Thurnscoe East, Stotfold, Watchley Crag, Numbered Plantations, Hooton Pagnell, North Field, Hampole Field,

Hampole, Five Lane Ends, Skellow, Carcroft, and Carcroft Common.

Autumn arrives and we're already over the total mileage that we managed in 2021, as very few missed walking opportunities, and the extra excursions and exertions of the last few weekends, have us contemplating where this year might be ending up, regarding the very real possibility of hitting a new annual distance total in 2022, and despite making all my measurements in miles and having no functional relationship with its metric replacement, the reality is that we could very easily tilt at 1,000km before the end of my eleventh walking season arrives, the only plausible way to make it to four figures in a year without doing 13 miles twice a week for nine months. That will be our goal as we return to the long trails in South Yorkshire, with a quartet of routes still in mind as we alight at the southwestern extremity of this year's walking field, returning to Elsecar with a northeastern trajectory to pace, starting under the brightness and chill that comes at 9.30am, rising away to head off along Cobcar Street through the terraced enclave of Stubbin, and then downhill into the 20th century estate landscape of Elsecar, finding the footpath that leads us away from Strafford Avenue to meet the path of the incline which rose up the Jump Valley from the canal wharf to Hoyland Silkstone collieries, over which the four-arched Elsecar viaduct carries the railway. The heavily wrinkled landscape of the valley gives our early going some work as we press uphill with Wentworth Road to Jump village, passing the Jump Club and meeting Cemetery Road by the Flying Dutchman inn, taking a right turn to process along by the terraces and semis with a view over the edge of the Knoll Beck valley, where we furtled last weekend, and passing the Hemingfield cenotaph and cemetery as we pass over the railway line again, just south of the short tunnel beyond Wombwell station, and run into Hemingfield village, as the lane declines to pass the Marbrook apartments in the old tavern, with a fine ghost-signed gable adjacent, before coming around to the junction by the Albion Inn. Like everywhere in this corner, the rural, industrial and suburban eras pile up on top of each other, only a short way away from the little colliery site at the valley floor, which seems lost among the tree clad hillsides these days, revealed from School Street and Beech House Road as we press east, making the turn away as we pass between Beech House and Lundhill farms, and find the lane beyond steepening and narrowing as it drops downhill to pass under the A6195 Dearne Valley parkway, passing The Tavern as the lane bottoms out and then rising sharply again up the side of Lund Hill itself, with playing fields perched to one side of us, and the growth of greater Wombwell expanding in the form of the Hillies View estate on the other.

Elsecar Old Station Ticket Office.

Elsecar Viaduct, on the Jump Valley.

The Jump Club, Wentworth Road.

Marbrook Apartments, and the ghost signed gable.

The valley of Knoll Beck, below Elsecar.

The Tavern, below Lund Hill.

Cresting this hill among the suburban houses has us naturally declining again beyond, presenting a more familiar horizon as we come down to the old Wath and Barnsley Road at Tunstall Cross, which is passed over as Everill Gate lane presents itself as the way forwards, getting rudely interrupted by the A633 Valley Road bypass, and the concealed passage of the Dearne & Dove Canal before resuming between the light industry ahead of the bridge over the Trans Pennine Trail on the old GCR lines, also seen recently, before we pass the kennels and cattery and make our way across the floor of the Dearne Valley on the quiet lane across the way from the Broomhill Flash nature reserve. We are then led into Broomhill village, kinda isolated since the redirection of the local roads moved traffic away from it, with its statement terrace and old chapel being regarded before we come up to the Old Moor Tavern and the crossing on Billing Dike, with the old Broomhill Road being reduced to a cycleway as it leads up to the crossing of Marle's Bridge, downstream on the Dearne from Darfield, before we set off on the rise away from the valley passage, tracked on the way to Bolton, pressing uphill through the alignment of the North Midland Mainline and up the edge of Cat Hill, giving us another uphill press that we weren't expecting as the old road seemingly returns to nature. Cresting again, we meet the level run out to the A635, joining the Doncaster Road, east of Millhouses by the Texaco garage and Yorkshire Warm Roofs' showroom, to pass the winding wheel memorial by the traffic island before we join the A6195 Rotherham Road as it passes north towards Middlecliff village, which we turn away from to leave it unseen as the King's Stocks footpath offers as an alternative route east-ish, concealing itself alongside a burgeoning plantation before becoming a field walk along the boundary that leads us to the end of Chapel Lane in Billingley, right next to the modest old chapel itself, removed from the village as if their non-conformist residents had been shunned by the wider populace.

Wath Road, Tunstall Cross.

Broomhill Flash, from Everill Gate.

The Old Moor Tavern, Broomhill.

Cat Hill, and the North Midland Mainline.

Cathill Road.

King's Stocks footpath.

Run up to the war memorial corner where an early lunch break can be taken, before we start to get into the process of crossing a whole bunch of routes blazed in the locality across the summer,starting with the passage over High Street and down the ginnel to Back Lane, to join the field path walk that leads us along the edge of the corn fields, which gives us some good contextual views as we head down to the fall of Thurnscoe Dike, with its channel being followed upstream as flows south from its namesake village, which can be met once we've passed under the old Dearne Valley Railway line, giving us a proper opportunity to observe its statement redbrick arched bridge on this path. We pass through the suburban band via Resctory Lane and Southfield Lane to meet High Street just west of St Helen's church, crossing local route #3 as we join Common Road and Lorne Road as they sweep around the old village heart, leading us to Houghton Road and local route #4 as we cross to Merrill Road to lead us through the extensive mining-vintage estates that have defined the landscape of Thurnscoe, only coming this way as the alternative field paths proved to be too much of a detour, but still finding the urban interest as contemporary development attaches itself to every town regardless of history, as the Willow Heights development grows to the north of Lingamoor Leys road. Enduring paths lead us to the footbriidge over the Swinton and Knottingley Line, north of the railway station, and also the H&BR Wath branch before we meet the Thurnscoe East estate, passing over the fifth and final local path as we press beyond Deightonby Street, with Roman Street leading to the feature crescent where the local pub isn't anymore, before finding the green path that leads up to York Street, with the intermittent sunshine really giving us some appeal contrasts along he way of our uphill press before Brunswick Street drops us out onto Chapel Lane at the estate's boundary, which rapidly becomes a green lane as it leads us towards our projection across one of the notable blank spaces in the locality.

Billingley War Memorial.

The passage over Thirnscoe Dike.

St Helen's church, High Street, Thurnscoe.

Willow Heights, Thurnscoe.

Grange Crescent, Thurnscoe East.

The green Chapel Lane, Thurnscoe.

Beyond parkland and industrial estate, we take a dynamic turn northeast, rising with the farm track that elevates us towards Stotfold farm, in rural isolation beyond the landscape of estates, among the recently harrowed fields, which we pass by to meet the field path that drops down to meet one of the uppermost fingers of Frickley beck before we rise again to one of the high nabs that rise on the plateau on the north side of the Dearne, namely Watchley Crag, barely 100m in altitude and clad in trees but providing an obvious top in this landscape, where a path loops below the rocks, and offers viewpoints around most of the southwestern horizon that gives fine views towards Barnsley and the upstream Dearne Valley. Passing around in the shade we get the reveal to the northwest too, right across the landscape that we've spent so much time in this year, drawing the eye all the way across Wakefield district to the high towers of Leeds in the far distance, all contextualized across the passage of the season and making me absurdly happy to see it all in such bright climes, where I could happily linger for a while, but moves must be made to keep this excursion going, passing around to meet eastbound Watchley Lane, which served the quarry and fields on this highland, drawing us past a quartet of numbered plantations as our attention attempts to focus east, across Bilham Park and toward a distant flatland horizon littered with wind turbines. Eventually we land back on the metalled roads, with Bilham Lane taking us around the corners to Hooton Pagnell cricket club, where we come upon the Butt Lane corner, putting us back in the realms of the known as we pass below the considerable walls, lodge and gatehouse of Hooton Hall, before we rise up the steps that takes us into the yard of All Saints church, where a shaded bench offers a spot for a late lunching session, before we take a poke around the churchyard on its elevated bluff, and then descend back to the roads to see if this village can offer any lanes that I've not seen already on my prior pair of visits as we drop to the top of Clayton Road.

Stotfold farm and Watchley Crag.

The Watchley Crag woods.

The northwestern horizon, from Watchley Crag.

Hooton Hall regarded from afar.

Watchley Lane.

Bilham Park.

Hooton Hall Lodge.

All Saints, Hooton Pagnell.

Three visits turns out to be enough to get the feel for this place, as we rise past the Memorial Garden and rejoin the B6422 as it pushes us north, past the 1903 inn, the Manor farm and The Green at its northern extremity, and we take the right fork at the dividing road to set us off on a new path to the northeast, along North Field Lane which rises to North Field, naturally, along the short edges of the latitudinal fields to the east and past the paths of the thickly hedged balks between them, finally putting the western horizon behind us as we focus on a renewed look to the north and east, as the South Elmsall Depots, the Walton Wood Mast and Drax power station all land ahead of us. We've landed ourselves on one of those lanes that appears much shorter on the map than it is in reality, and letting the bottom corner of west Yorkshire fall away behind us as we scour the distant eastern horizon for clues takes a while, as we descend to Hampole Fields and meet Moorhouse Lane as it comes up to the hillside edge, revealing our proximity to the quarries above Stubbs Hall ahead of us, and to the Hampole windfarm in the east, before coming down between the thick and tall hedges to finally meet the A638, all looking rather brighter than it did only five days ago. So looks at the kennels and the ruin of Hampole Manor all have a better lit aspect than we had previously, before we turn away to the passage through Hampole village, again looking no larger than it dis on our last occasion here, as we pass over the West Riding line and Hampole Dike to progress on past the old station site and the cluster of cottages that still endure in situ, before Leys Lane drifts slightly up this shallow valley side to pick its level, far below the Doncaster Lane track, and take us through the remains of the H&BR South Yorkshire Junction branch, beneath the Horse Chestnut trees that have rained conkers on the lane, and on to the considerable extent of Priory Farm and the domestic makeover that its been receiving.

The Green, Hooton Pagnell.

North Field Lane, and the view to South Elmsall.

Scouring the eastern horizon for clues.

The last look towards West Yorkshire for today.

Mount Pleasant Kennels, on the Doncaster Road.

Hampole Station cottages.

This lane could easily feel like we're being lead deep into the countryside again as the major road sweeps away towards Doncaster to the south of us, but we're much closer to the greater city than could be imagined, with the road noise being a clue, and the giveaway coming as the Doncaster Travelodge arrives at the lane's end, where a footbridge rises us over the A1, with the dual carriageway operating a speed that completely precludes a foot crossing, to land us at the Five Lane Ends corner to the west of Skellow, where suburbia suddenly crowds to the roadside and our intent to hustle onwards picks up, as we press along the side of the B1220, looking south to the Carcroft colliery remnants and Woodlands. Skellow arrives in force beyond the Skell brook, as the old rural village clusters along the sides of Cross Hill and around the Old Skellow Hall, before the 20th century landscape arrives beyond, indicating another village grown by minig as we pass the Skellow Grange WMC, the extensive estate development and Carcroft Miners Welfare park along the side of Skellow Road before we transition across into Carcroft, where more suggestions of a pre-colliery vintage are found on the Chestnut Avenue corner, where the old chapel enjoys its prominent location, across the way from the Asda superstore and the entrance to the long-gone colliery site, now a country park. There's a very old (and small) motor garage along here, along with a house that looks railway related despite its lack of proximity to it, ahead of our turn onto Station Road at the now thrice visited crossroads, where our blast to the finish line starts, meeting our year's eastern border with the passage over the Adwick - Stainforth line, and on through the industrial estate on Carcroft Common, passing over (or through?) Old Ea Beck again and acknowledging the Routemaster bus in the Wilfreda Beehive yard, across the way from gym, play pit and recreation fields ahead of Adwick railway station, where our well maintained pace lands us with the six hour window for the day, closing us out at 5.25pm.