Boxing Day Snow

On Boxing Day night, Mother Nature snow bombed South Yorkshire with more than a sprinkling!  

In my mind, that constitutes a White Christmas!

I hope that you all had a great one. xxx

Hope to Grindleford Walk

On Saturday, instead of battling in the shops with the Christmas throng, I joined our walking group  for a final walk of 2014.  We caught the train locally and changed trains in Sheffield.  We caught the train out to Hope in Derbyshire.

 We followed the river down towards Grindleford.

 The scenery was spectacular all the way.

 Most of our gang were dressed seasonaly!

 There was plenty of water flowing - the river was quite full.

 A fair few of the group had cried off the walk as they had succumbed to winter coughs and colds.

 We finally caught the train back from Grindleford station to Sheffield where we waited in the "Sheffield Tap" restored Edwardian station pub until it was time for our connection.

Another brilliant ramble and a great one to end the year on.  Here's hoping for many more in 2015

Rabbit Ings Walk

Our walking group walk today was slightly different to ones that we had done in the past.  We are usually astounded by the fantastic scenery around us, but today we were in the middle of the old decimated South Yorkshire Mining heartland, on an old coal tip that has been handed back for nature to re model and reshape.

 Long term readers will know that I get very excited about a "named" brick.  Each colliery needed thousands and thousands of bricks and so they all had their own brickworks.  Like the collieries, hardly any of these remain now.

 So these that we found are like real treasure to me.

 It is sad that these industries don't exist here now - so many jobs lost for the breadwinners of families, and nothing to replace them.

The old coking plant remains working here, but not for much longer.  It has been the last independent producer of Coke in the country, but noticed has sadly been served to all the chaps working here - another loss of 140 jobs.  I thought it looked mean and moody on our walk today - exceptionally spectacular and very photogenic.

 And even though we had grey skies, from the top of the old tip, they too looked very spectacular.

 They were holding a craft fair in the Tipi when we got back and they had a lovely warm fire going and a hot dog stand - which we partook in.

I didn't expect to enjoy this walk as much as I did.  But it does make me sad to think we were here at the very end of this area's mining history.

Sheffield

So the following day, we were in Sheffield.  I wanted to take a photo of "Turners View" from Meersbrook park.  We found this fabulous street art by "Faunagraphic" - on of our favourite Sheffield artists

 The walk to the top of the park where the view of Sheffield is, is very steep!

 But you are rewarded with a very good view of the city from up here.

 There is a print of the original painting  by Turner on an information board, but I remembered that they currently have the original on show in the Millenium Galleries, so after we had dropped the young man off at the railway station we went to have a look at it.  It's tiny - but very lovely.  In fact the whole exhibition "Picturing Sheffield" is excellent - so much so that we are planning a re visit.

 We were treated to a glorious sunset in town.

 This unusual building is now the students union for Sheffield Hallam University.  It was originally the ill fated museum of popular music which didn't really take off.

 And I spotted loads of these fantastic window paintings in all the trendy bars and cafes - I don't know which artist has done these but they are great.

 We hurried past the delightfully lit Lyceum....

 and on to meet friends who had obtained some cheap tickets for the Ice Hockey match for us.

A full day, doing nothing in particular, but lots to entertain us all.