Saturday, 9th March 2019
Woooohooooooo! A walk longer than half a mile!! And in a different county to boot!
After a fabulous week on my stained glass course where the only walking I did was around the grounds of the hotel accommodation (racked up a stonking 2.5 miles in 4 days doing that - kworrr) I toddled off to my nearest stained glass supplier which is in Barnsley, South Yorkshire to get a few bits and bobs.
I think I drove through every type of weather condition on the way there and saw half a static caravan dangling off the Ouse Bridge due to the gusty, high winds - bit scary if I'm honest.
Anyway, by the time I'd got there, got my glassy bits and bobs and got back to my car, the sun was out so I decided to have a little leg-stretch. I moved my car off the main street to a free (yes FREE) car park "just up the road" with the intention of having a leisurely mooch around the Elsecar Country Park and reservoir - a walk of a whopping total of one mile I believe. My other intention was to have a cuppa and bun in the cafe within the park but it was shut (boooooo). So, I mooched down the road to see if I could get onto the canal side and discovered the
Elsecar Heritage Centre which showcases the history of the Elsecar Colliery so I had a good ole nosey around there followed by a pit-stop in the lovely little tea room within its bounds. There's lots of little craft type shops and an enORmous, sprawley antique-type place that's well worth a rummage.
After that, I found my canal path and wandered along that to the road, where it was a simple left-turn to walk back through the village (or is it a town? not sure - it seems quite a big place in a small sort of way!). By which time I'd forgotten I'd moved my car and had a moment of panic when it wasn't where I thought it was!
So here's some pics of my pleasant, easy walk in blustery sunshine, starting with my mooch around the parkland and reservoir:
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| Bandstand in the park |
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| Outflow for Elsecar Reservoir |
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| Outflow from the Reservoir side |
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| Nice, easy paths (but still a bit muddy in places though) |
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| Looking across to the urban sprawl of Hoyland |
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| Arty-farty pic of a drain! |
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| Blackthorn in bloom |
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| Looking across the reservoir towards Wentworth |
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| Lovely daffodils enjoying the sunshine |
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| Avenue of trees back in the parkland again |
A few pics from my little mooch round the heritage centre:
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A cloth map for the princely sum of
two shillings and sixpence
- does that translate to a fiver in modern money? |
And finally, a couple of pics from the canal walk:
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Lock gates
- don't think they've been opened in a while though |
A right nice little moochabout in the blustery sunshine. My tendon didn't give me any gyp (though I did have my trusty Meindls on) and I would have quite happily walked further if I'd had a map to give me an idea of where all the footpath signs led to. I have to confess though, I'm desperate to get out for a longer, wilder and more woolly walk that involves a rucksack and packup.
Anyway, I'm counting this as a "partial County-Bag" seeing as previous walks in South Yorkshire weren't recorded on ViewRanger and don't have a proper write up becuase they were added several years later. I really need to do a few more miles before I can officially call South Yorkshire "Bagged".
