Hiking and walking in South Yorkshire and beyond

 Frickley Country Park  RFM Blue Line  Walking with Peter 27/12/24 This foggy winter walk through the thick of the South Yorkshire coalfield would have been impossible in our younger days but now all the pits are gone and just fields, mounds and monuments remain, thank god. We are the last generation who knew the mining days, what a sobering thought, when we are gone the memory, good and bad, will be gone too. We walked past the recreational ground and on towards Moorthorpe. It was cool, foggy but windless as we left the not very pretty urban area. Piles of burnt rubbish and cans and bottles are always an eyesore. We crossed the railway line passed a few industrial units and joined Broad Lane where we turned off at West Farm and passed this old boat.  We followed the muddy lane down towards Howell Beck limbo-dancing under this very low arch of bushes. It was really low. The hill from the beck up to Clayton Common was again very muddy and slippy and contained these un...

 Cold Hiendley RFM Blue Line  Walking with Peter 20/12/24 We started out from the excellent free car park at Rabbit Ings Country Park on a cool December day with a wintery sky covered in huge expanses of grey stratus clouds.  The route took us under the railway and past the club through the not very pretty, but very typical, old mining village of Royston. On to the Trans-Penine Trail alongside the dis-used Barnsley Canal. This is a branch of the Trans-Pennine Trail which has more branches than Boots. The canal was more like a long thin lake with just a lonesome Swan and a couple of Shelducks. The remains of this viaduct perhaps some day will be pondered over by future archaeologists. We climbed up to a ridge which looked like the bed of an old railway and could see the canal in the bottom become more and more discoloured. At Notton Bridge we crossed the active  railway and descended again to the canal side.   The canal was not very pleasant here, being heav...