Route 6: A walk from Grenoside to Whitley

Distance: 4 miles
Time: Allow 1.5 hours

A moderate walk, with some surfaced roads / tracks, but with some sections through woods and across fields. Some stiles. Good views across farmland. Boots or stout shoes needed.

Refreshments: Numerous public houses in Grenoside.

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The Route Points of interest are shown in bold

From the Old Red Lion public house go down Lump Lane to reach Norfolk Hill, continuing down to reach the Norfolk Arms. Cross the road (with care!) and continue about 200 yards down Whitley Lane to a public footpath on the right.
Turn right onto the footpath and follow it across the field to the small hamlet of Middleton Green. Turn left to pass in front or the row of cottages (one of which has a sign indicating it was once a school) and immediately take the public bridleway on the left (signposted Transpennine Trail) after the houses, keeping the hedgerow on your left, and cross the fields to Whitley.
At Whitley village turn left and go about 100 yards up the road (Whitley Lane), passing converted farm buildings dated 1896, to a public footpath, signposted Trans Pennine Trail (TPT), on the right. Take the footpath and follow the lane straight on to a group of cottages at Wood End.
At Wood End, turn right leading North on the Trans Pennine Trail which is the lane running between the cottages. As the lane bears right and turns into a private drive to a house, turn left on a path up the bank on the opposite a large yew tree to a wooden stile leading into a field. Continue straight ahead on the footpath, keeping the hedge on your right, across the fields to Green Lane Farm. Pass in front of the double arched barn (dated 1825), cross the farm track and go slightly right to the footpath up some stone steps into a field. Continue straight ahead across the field to reach a stone stile. Go over the stile and up the hill to the corner of the wood. Go over a stone stile into the lane (Elliott Lane).
Turn right up Elliott Lane, passing Barnes Green House on the right. The other large house which can be seen further to the right across the field is Barnes Hall. The stone walls bordering the lane here are mostly covered in ivy which is very attractive to butterflies. When you reach the main road (A61) turn right and continue on the footpath, crossing the road at Bracken Hill then cross the A61 (with care!).
Continue up the unmade track opposite on the public byway until you reach an A-frame gate at the end of the track leading into Greno Woods. Turn left onto the wide, level track and carry straight on. Eventually a path joins from the right. Follow the low wall round to a gate at the end of the woods by the houses.
Go through on the track between the houses. This path becomes a paved lane leading back to emerge on Main Street just above the Old Red Lion public house. Turn left to return to the starting point.

Details

Start: Old Red Lion public house, Main Street, Grenoside S35 8NY

Public Transport: For information on public transport ring the South Yorkshire Traveline on 01709 515151 or visit www.travelsouthyorkshire.com

Car Parking: On road at Grenoside. Please park sensibly.

Public Toilets: None on route

Refreshments: Numerous public houses in Grenoside.

Points of Interest

Barnes Hall

The present hall was built by William Smith in 1824, demolishing an earlier c14th hall on the same site. Barnes Hall was the home of the Smith family until the 1950s. The former physical education teacher training college at Wentworth Woodhouse was named after one of the last inhabitants of the Hall, Lady Mabel, who lived here from the time of her marriage until her death in 1951.

Grenoside

The name Grenoside was first recorded in the c13th as ‘Gravenhou’ from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘graefan’ meaning a quarry, ‘o’ from the Old Norse ‘haugr’ meaning hill and the modern word ‘side’, altogether meaning a quarried hillside. In the c19th quarrying was an important industry in Grenoside. Woodland crafts, such as basket making and clog-sole making were also specialities in this area, and light metal trades such as nail making, cutlery manufacture and file-cutting also took place. Grenoside was also the birthplace and location of the Walker brothers’ first foundry and steel furnace. They later operated iron and steel works at Masbrough.

Greno Woods

The woods are now owned by Sheffield Wildlife Trust but the woodland has been managed since at least medieval times. Timber was used for building and the underwood for making charcoal, clog soles, brushes and baskets. From 1950 the Forestry Commission managed the woods for conifer production and planted large areas of larch and Scots pine. Some remain, interspersed by sweet chestnut, beech and oak.

The Old Red Lion

This public house was a coaching inn on the Sheffield to Huddersfield and Halifax turnpike road.

Whitley

The name Whitley means ‘a bright woodland clearing’. J. & M. Jones, in their book ’Whitley Hall - an illustrated history’ note that in the c19th, although this was an agricultural area, there was also a strong tradition of metal-working. People produced goods such as nails, forks and files in small workshops attached to their cottages. The farms and cottages of Whitley probably once formed part of the Whitley Hall estate.

Whitley Hall

Records show a house called Launderhouse occupied the site of the present Whitley Hall as early as 1406 but the oldest surviving part of the present building dates from 1584. From the early c17th to the late c18th the Hall was the home of the Shirecliffe family, until it was sold and became a boy’s boarding school for some 80 years. Whitley Hall became a hotel and restaurant in the late 1970s. For more information see J. & M. Jones (2002) Whitley Hall - An illustrated history.