Sixteen eager walkers gathered at Dronfield Woodhouse Sports and Social Club on a warm and bright Thursday evening. I was leading the walk and had found it to be very muddy when I did my recce, but actually, it wasn’t that bad on the day.
We set off across the recreation ground towards Barnes Lane, a section that we have become very familiar with since our footpath tidying work. At the junction of Barnes Lane and Rod Moor road we turned right towards Tinker’s corner. According to the book “On Your Dorestep” published by the Dore Village Society, Tinker’s Corner is named after local entrepreneur Tedbar Tinker (Twentywell Quarry and Brickworks, Totley Chemical Yard). Here we took a left hand turn down Totley Lane, which soon becomes a footpath. This path runs all the way to the Shepley Spitfire pub (with a short urban section in the middle) where we turned left on a gravel Track. From here it was all uphill to Holmesfield so just before reaching the private road to Woodthorpe Hall we had a coffee break. Feeling refreshed we took one of the two available tracks through a thin strip of woodland, which to my surprise had dried out well after recent rainfall.
From Woodthorpe Hall we took the tried and tested route alongside Holmesfield Woods and through Pearson’s Nurseries. This is a good route if you want to avoid cattle. A short walk down Carr Lane and we were back. Some of us popped in to the club for a drink and a pork sandwich.
Thanks to everyone who came along.
