Afternoon walk: Thorne Moors

Many people haven't heard of Doncaster's famous raised peat bog or mire system that combines with others spanning the borders of South Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire forming the Humberhead Peatlands, part of the Humberhead Levels landscape.

Humberhead levels

But they should, as the reserves' importance is underlined by Thorne & Hatfield Moors Conservation Forum, who explain "the acidic peat of the Moors creates an environment in which few bacteria survive and where there is minimal free oxygen. This inhibits the process of decay and has allowed a veritable Domesday archive of four millennia to be preserved."

The wider area is mostly flat, arable farmland, but remnants of wetland such as Thorne Moors are a Natural England National Nature Reserve (NNR) whose management's main aim is "to create an internationally renowned, unique wetland landscape, supporting thriving communities, economy, ecosystem services and wildlife".

Along with other remnants, these moors make up one of England's twelve Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs), this one a partnership of 15 organisations listed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust as:

Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council
North Lincolnshire Council
East Riding of Yorkshire Council
Environment Agency
Natural England
The University of Sheffield
The University of York
Ouse and Humber Drainage Board
Isle of Axholme and North Nottinghamshire Water Level Management Board
Shire Groups of Internal Drainage Boards
English Heritage
RSPB
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (has a very informative website about management of the levels)

In times past it was called Thorne Waste, suggesting the area was disregarded by previous people, however a trackway was discovered in 1972, built in the Bronze Age

Peat was extracted commercially here from the late 19th century, with increasing mechanisation in the 20th - a visit to an abandoned peat factory not far from here was reported here in April.

Environmentalist action in the last half of the 20th century led to the land becoming common and a nature reserve, significantly thanks to campaigning by self confessed "bad-tempered old sod" William Bunting, an early eco-warrior who would patrol the moors with "revolver, swordstick, machete, wire-clippers and business cards". Geoffrey Lean's full 1997 article is published on the Independent's website and there's more information on this remarkable character on another blog.

Angered by no footpaths appearing on a 1952 map, Bunting set upon a lifetime campaign for access across the moors, studying legal speak in order to challenge what he saw as their illegal enclosure. His work helped stop waste dumping from Drax power station and his group, Bunting's Beavers would build dams to counteract their destruction by Fisons in their endeavour to extract the peat.

This 1953 OS map does show some footpaths. Thorne Colliery is shown on the left

Thorne Colliery, 1953

As open access land, under the Countryside & Rights of Way Act (2000), the public can "walk, ramble, run, explore, climb and watch wildlife as they are given the freedom to access land, without having to stay on paths". Doncaster Council has a useful walking map of Doncaster which shows public access routes and this area is shaded red to denote all of it accessible.

Some paths are grassy, some boggy, some overgrown, some with planks laid down to help passage in places. There's woodland, open bush and plenty of bog. The area is popular with birdwatchers - this is one of the few British hideouts of the reticent nightjar. The adder - Britain's only native venemous snake lives here, and there's diverse plant life. Various insects were seen including dragonflies, butterflies and various coloured "fly" flies.

Near the outskirts, the shaft wheel from Thorne Colliery at Moorends recreation ground

This seems to be some remains of the colliery 

En route

Temperate woodland near the start of the reserve

Couldn't work out the exact function of this water receptacle.

This is a view from the raised platform in the middle

A thoroughly recommended place to explore - the visit took in just part of an area which includes Goole, Crowle, Rawcliffe and Snaith & Cowick Moors, the latter detached from its parish several miles away. The size of the place means there's only so much you can see in one visit!

Heritage walk - Gowdall & Braithwell Railway: Warmsworth to Edlington

With a few hours to spare and in the mood for a walk, it was decided to investigate the route of the Hull & Barnsley and Great Central Joint Railway - also known as Gowdall & Braithwell Railway - which passes very close to where I grew up.

The line opened in 1916, connecting the Hull & Barnsley and Great Central Railways and was solely used for freight. Wikipedia states the first closure came in 1939, with this southern part of the line used for the storage of 'cripples' - wagons repairable but with no time and no facilities to do the work during the war.

Now the line is fragmented by housing estates, roads and motorway, but the lines of trees which mark its path make it clear to see from aerial maps.

Here is a 1952 map of the first half of our walk - we are following the curving line running from top to bottom, starting where it finishes its role as a part of the Trans-Pennine Trail from Sprotbrough at the 'clothes hanger' bridge over the River Don.

After the bridge the byway turns away up and right, and the route of the railway line continues straight on, turning into a boggy ravine.

The line then went under the main Doncaster to Sheffield line - this tunnel has been filled and sealed.

At the top of the ravine, overlooking the mainline, these trees on the left mark where the line would have emerged at the other side - a housing estate on the Balby-Warmsworth border sits over the route here.

We can reconnect via Guest Lane bridge which goes over the existing tracks nearby. Lines of trees within new housing estates mark the way (Heath Court and Mulberry Court).

There was a cutting here as the late 1980s which went through a bridge (under the bollards below) under the A630 - I remember playing underneath during the time it was being filled. It delineates the current border between Balby and Warmsworth.

The line went under Barrel Lane between these old trees and emerges as an overgrown raised bank in front of a small public space behind Lingfield Crescent.

The line now dissolves into the A1(M), then a long private driveway, and reemerges as the wall of the former bridge over Common Lane.

We used to ride our bikes up there but now the bank is overgrown. It went over Lord's Head Lane, but except for a drop towards the road, no trace of the bridge remains. Houses break the way briefly:

Just around the corner from this point is Warmsworth Park, which used to be lime kilns:

After the small estate, we cross Edlington Lane - there would have also been a bridge here. The rising road in the photo below is our route and is now called Warmsworth Halt - a reference to Warmsworth Goods Station. The line ran up here and also branched off to the left (where the trees are below), circling back towards Yorkshire Main colliery and then joining up with the Dearne Valley Railway.

Close by is the former pit-head wheel at the entrance to Yorkshire Main Miners' Welfare Club, with another further up the road behind Yorkshire Main Officials Club'.

We are also very near the site of the former 'Edlington for Balby, Doncaster' station on the Dearne Valley line. Our old map of the second half shows detail of both lines in this area - our route starts at the top and curves to the left; the east-west one is the Dearne Valley:

Other points of interest elsewhere on that map include the site of Blow Hall Manor, a site of a Roman coin hoard and on the far right, Alverley Grange or Hall. I got these from a great website which has many old Ordnance Survey maps.

As we continue up Warmsworth Halt, we are near the entrance to a water tunnel running to Conisbrough is still there - unfortunately I missed it but it must be somewhere on the right of this photo, among the trees.

At the end of the road the route turns back into a footpath and we are now walking along the western outskirts of Edlington.

We pass the point where the line crossed over the the Dearne Valley line and bearing left, continue on the dwindling path.

Note sure what this curved line of bricks would have been part of. We continue straight on.

Further on within the trees on the left of the above photo, evidence of the line in the form of a wall:

Finally we reach the Brickpit area, and the pleasant Martinwells Lake (marked as Gravel Pit in the earlier old map) and the footpath continues towards Conisbrough - maybe worth a continuation walk in the near future!