Not many people would expect to start a walk starting from Meadowhall Shopping Centre to take in spooky abandoned railway stations, ancient woodland and an Iron Age Hill Fort, but that’s exactly what I did on Sunday, in preparation for my next nature writing walk and workshop. Here’s the link to book your place. I hope that my blog post will intrigue and entice you to come along.
The walk starts at Meadowhall Interchange, and I found a good route that takes just over two hours of slow walking time. A lot of it is uphill, but it’s worth it for the view and Wincobank Hill is absolutely amazing. If you are joining me on Saturday, please bring a packed lunch, water bottle, a waterproof jacket and your phone / camera / notebook / sketchbook to capture the experience.
We’ll meet on the tram platform at Meadowhall Interchange at 10am on Saturday 8th June. You could come by tram, train, bus or you could park nearby in the Park and Ride car park.
We will then walk across the pedestrian bridge into the shopping centre. It’s always fun to be going somewhere different from most people, and rather than retail therapy under bright artificial light, we are heading for a complete immersion in nature, a few streets away from the urban East End of Sheffield.
I followed the route on this website: https://www.exploringyorkshirebyrail.com/post/meadowhall-trail and it worked out really well, with lots of new discoveries to explore.
At first, the walk skirts the shopping centre alongside the river. This may seem like a detour, but it’s worth it for a few reasons. There’s a nature reserve running along the banks of the river and at the moment, it’s in full bloom. There are also interesting historical things to notice, including Hadfield’s Weir, dating from around 1600.
Turning a corner onto Weedon Street, another unexpected place appears – Rag’n’Bone Sheffield, an arty, bohemian cafe, in what used to be a monumental mason’s yard! https://www.facebook.com/RagnBoneSheffield/ It would be rude not to stop off here for a quick coffee/cake, look around and a quick writing session, but it’s so close to the start of our journey that it would be easy to get distracted, so we won’t linger too long, for fear of not reaching our destination.
From here’s there’s a busy junction, familiar to anyone who’s ever driven to Meadowhall shopping centre, but even here are interesting historical details. The phrase “redundant span” written in official-looking paint on a bridge has led me to discover that the Brightside railway bridge we pass under is a disused bridge that goes nowhere these days. Colliery Road is blocked off to traffic and looks deserted and wooded, eventually disappearing into a spooky-looking tunnel under the railway. But we’ll carry on under the bridge towards the Crown Pub, turning left up Station Lane. It’s easy to imagine that this was once bustling with people travelling to and from work at the steelworks and foundries, but today it’s abandoned, apart from some flytipping.
It’s obvious that this was once the approach to a fairly substantial railway station, one you’ll whizz through if you catch a train to Meadowhall Interchange, Rotherham or Leeds. The bridge over the railway lines is open, but the steps leading down to the old platforms at Brightside Station have been removed and blocked off, adding to the eerie atmosphere. The station has been closed since 1995.
Across the road, the Railway Pub looks inviting, but we need to keep walking! Crossing the road and following the path at the side of Holywell Road, there’s a magnificent view of Sheffield Forgemasters steel works. The other side of the road is deeply wooded, with wild roses growing everywhere. It’s the perfect Sheffield contrast. After a couple of minutes, we’ll reach the Brightside Colliery Memorial, a tribute to the miners who died in accidents in the nearby mine that closed in the 19th century.
From here, there’s a path that runs steeply up a wooded embankment, emerging into Beason Way Open Space, a lovely meadowy space, through some more woods, into another field and up a steep path, emerging around the back of some lock-up garages! From here, we take a turn into suburban Sheffield on Beacon Way and Wincobank Lane, and this is where our wild adventure really begins.
There’s a spooky old house that looks abandoned, apart from smoke rising from a brazier in the overgrown garden. Someone seems to be doing it up – but very slowly. When it’s finally restored back to its Victorian glory, it will be beautiful. On one side of the road is a cluster of Victorian terraced houses, on the other side, ancient forest, rising upwards in the only steep hill for miles.
Following the path uphill through the trees, the modern world quickly falls away. This forest is a small glimpse into what Sheffield must have been like when it was part of Sherwood Forest, hundreds of years ago. But the history goes back further than that – to the pre-Roman Brigantes tribe of Britain, who built a fort here around 500 BC.
The steep stony path through the trees may go back to Roman times, certainly medieval people would have used it, and it leads straight to the top of the hill. The view over towards the north and west of Sheffield is stunning, and the outlines of the hills are unchanged for centuries. That’s what I like about Sheffield so much – you can always see trees and hillsides!
Right at the top, there’s an open area, brimming with plant life, where you can see the fort’s ditches, and this is another great viewpoint – in modern times, over to the M1 bridge at Tinsley, Meadowhall and the Ikea. You can see why the Iron Age tribespeople would have found this hill so special. On our walk, this is where we’ll stop for some lunch and to take time to write about the walk so far and the beautiful setting.
Just beyond this point is the site of a World War Two machine gun turret, and the path that runs downhill over the ridge from this point has been carefully cobbled in bricks, probably dating from the World War Two era. Then the path emerges onto Jenkin Road, one of the steepest roads in Sheffield, and world famous for being used for the Tour De France tour of Yorkshire in 2014.
From here. the path runs through Wincobank Community Woodland, and it feels miles from anywhere, but it soon emerges into urban Sheffield again. There’s a real sense that Wincobank is a village – with its own village hall and Victorian Church. This road has also had a brush with international fame, as the home of Brendan Ingle‘s boxing gym, which I once visited long ago as part of an old job, and met the legendary man.
At the bottom of the street, turn left, under a bridge with some intriguing post-industrial wasteland on both sides, the end of the walk come in sight in the form of the old railway track transformed into a smooth path, the Blackburn Valley Trail, that leads us straight back to Meadowhall Interchange.
But there’s some more intrigue – emerging onto the path is the unmistakeable wooden rooftop of a Victorian country railway station – the former Meadow Hall station. It’s been closed to passengers since 1953, but it still has an evocative atmosphere, particularly surrounded by deep summer vegetation.
I hope I’ve given you an enticing taste of what this walk has to offer! I hope I haven’t spoiled any of the surprises, and I hope you find it inspiring. See you on Saturday!
Anne Grange Writing 