Nine of us gathered outside the Barnes Lane shops feeling a little nervous about the predicted thundery showers that were forecast. Nevertheless we were looking forward to discovering new footpaths in an area we don’t often visit. Our walk leaders were Nicola and Julie.
Nicola had found this walk on the Dore Village Society website which explains that Dore and Totley people could not be buried at Dore until November 1829. Up to then the dead had to be carried to the mother church at Dronfield and this walk combines two routes that would probably have been used for this purpose.
We set off walking down Stubley Lane to the well concealed squeeze gate half way down Stubley Hollow. This is one of the routes that links up with the Dronfield Barn Round Walk and we followed this way marked route all the way to the track that comes up from Bowshaw farm. The last part of this section was an enclosed path that ran above the Bradway tunnel. Julie gave us details about the construction of the tunnel which was completed in 1870.
From here we successfully avoided any flying golf balls as we followed the footpaths across the Dore and Totley golf course. The next part of the walk was urban, taking us down Twentywell Lane and across Abbeydale Road. From here a mixture of footpaths and quiet roads took us to our lunch stop on the village green at Dore.
The route back to Dronfield was initially along pavements but we soon linked up with a riverside path running parallel to Bushywood Road. After crossing Abbeydale road we had a short section of lung challenging uphill that took us onto Prospect Road and ultimately to Tinkers Corner. The last leg of the walk was along Barnes Lane, the section of the Dronfield Barn Round Walk that we help to maintain.
At the end, we all commented on how much we had enjoyed the walk and how it had been something different to our usual excursions. Many thanks to Nicola and Julie for discovering and leading this walk.
