Heritage Walks: Sprotbrough – Tails of Knights and Heroes

The Don Valley Way has several heritage walks. In this series of blogs we are going to explore these walks and the fantastic features that can be seen on them.

A view of the River Don as it flows past Warmsworth (the next village downstream of Sprotbrough)

This time we are going to talk about the Sprotbrough walk Tails of Knights and Heroes. The walk is 2.45 miles or 3.95KM long and is mostly flat with some bumpy tracks in the woodland areas. This walk will take roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete. For more information on this walk click here to see its page on the Don Valley Way website.

The trail starts at the junction of Nursery Lane and Boat Lane. On the corner of these roads is the old toll house built in 1849 for Sir Joseph Copley, and used to collect payment for crossing Sprotbrough Bridge. Sprotbrough Bridge was constructed in the mid 19^th century with the central span being replace in 1897 with Iron work from the Sheffield Company Newton Chambers. As you begin the walk you will see the magnesium limestone known as the Don Gorge. The Don Gorge was formed as it was eroded by glassier flows and more recently the River Don, which flows at the base of the gorge.

The magnesium limestone that makes up the Don Gorge

World War II flying Ace Sir Douglas Barder grew up in a house along the left side of Boat Lane in the old rectory. He was born in London in 1910 but moved to Sprotbrough after his mother married the vicar of the Sprotbrough Church. In 1928 he joined the RAF as a cadet and became a piolet who was known as a dare devil because of his habit of preforming dangerous stunts. In December 1931 whilst preforming unauthorised low flying aerobatics he crashed and had both legs amputated, one above and one below the knee. In 1939 he re-joined the RAF to help with the war effort against the Nazis. He was credited with shooting down 22 aircraft and damaging 11 aircraft before being shot down and captured on 9^th August 1941. Douglas spent the rest of the war was as a prisoner of war. He was knighted in 1976 for services to disabled people. Aged 72 Douglas died in London in 1982.

Sprotbough is mentioned in the Doomsday Book as Sproteberg and predates the Normans (1066) with the name probably originating from the old English Sproter meaning shoot or twig and Berg meaning village. The village mentioned in the book only had 10 households. The lord of the manor in 1066 was Swaine Son of Swarvie but by the time of the Doomsday Book in 1086 was recorded as Rodger De Busli. De Busli or Bully was a Norman Barron, who accompanied William I or William the conqueror Duke of Normandy on his successful conquest of England in 1066. As a reward he was given 86 manors in Nottinghamshire, 46 in Yorkshire (the best county) and others in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.

The Ivanhoe pub along the route gets its name from the Sir Walter Scott novel of the same name. Sir Walter is said to have visited the village and taken inspiration from the area when writing Ivanhoe. He used Conisbrough Castle as part of the backdrop to his novel. The opening lines to the novel show the beauty of the Don Valley. “In that pleasant part of merry England, which is watered by the River Don. There extended in ancient times a large forest, covering the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys which lie between Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster.”

View of Conisbrough Castle from the River Don

At the end of the walk the old Copley Water pump house can be seen as a ruin. It was commissioned by Sir Godfrey Copley in the late 17^th century to extract water from the river and purveying it to the roof of the now demolished Sprotbrough Hall, to gravity feed his gardens. The gardens included the Great Canal, the Little Canal, the Great Fountain and the Curved Pool. The Hall boasted a 35 foot long lead lined heated swimming pool, which had been added in the grounds. The inspiration for the Great Fountain was conceived when the Lord of the Manor visited Chatsworth house in Derbyshire and was shown the Emperor Fountain with its jet of 290 feet by the Duke of Devonshire. The pump, which was powered by a waterwheel, was powerful enough to raise water to tanks 100 feet above. The swimming pool could be filled in 5 hours. The River and pump also supplied the village until the water became too polluted from heavy industry upstream in Sheffield, Rotherham, Chesterfield and Barnsley.

The ruin of the old pump house

To learn more about this walk you should go out with our audio guide! You can listen to the audio guide online or on the Don Valley Way app, available on both the App store and Google Play for free! A big thanks to the Don Gorge Community Group for helping us with the information for this walk.

Click here for the App on Android devices.

Click here for the App on Apple/ IOS devices.

Click here for the Sprotbrough page of the Don Valley Way website.

Click here for the Don Valley Way website.

Click here to learn more about the Don Gorge Community Group who work in the area.

By Project Assistant Anthony Cox

Get to know me – DCRT’S new Young Person’s Conservation Assistant

In this blog we hear from DCRT’s newest member of staff, Beckie Fulton, who has just started her role as Young Person’s Conservation Assistant as part of the Kickstart Scheme, in partnership with the Coalfield’s Regeneration Trust.

Every day, since I was a young girl, I’d think about our planet. All the amazing and beautiful things it has to offer. I’m constantly in awe of the power of the Earth’s processes, in particular, volcanic or geological events.

I was first introduced to thinking about geological hazards and the natural world from a young age, through watching documentaries at home, taking walks through our local countryside and lessons at school. However, my passion wasn’t truly ignited until my grandparents took me on holiday to Naples, Italy, where we climbed Mt Vesuvius and explored Pompeii. Since then I have been hooked!

Living with beautiful places like this reservoir right on my doorstep for exploring, has fuelled my love for the natural world.

So… who am I?

Well, my name is Beckie and I have just joined DCRT as the Young Person’s Conservation Assistant. I graduated from Lancaster University last September with a Master’s in Volcanology and Geological Hazards. Since graduating I have been itching to get into my first environmental job. But due to COVID-19 and my very specialist line of study, finding a job I love has been difficult to say the least.

Through my academic career so far, I have specialised in volcanology and geological hazards and have only briefly covered other environmental issues. One of my favourite memories from my time at university was being able to live for 2 months in Sicily to study Mt Etna and one day I even hiked right up to the crater edge. I have to admit that is probably one of the best days of my life so far!

Standing on the craters edge of Mt Etna – what an amazing view!

So although I have very limited experience in environmental management and conservation, my passion for everything environmental led me to applying to DCRT as part of the governments new Kickstart scheme. This scheme focuses on getting 16-24 year olds into a working environment where they can gain invaluable knowledge and experience which will ensure a long and successful career. I am eager to use this opportunity at DCRT to expand my knowledge and build a career in environmental management and conservation.

So why did I apply to DCRT?

I once came across a quote by Robert Swan who said “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” This has stuck with me ever since, as I believe it to be true. I have talked with many people from different backgrounds and it scares me how little they actually know or care about the natural world. More often than not they have the impression that it is the job of scientists to fix all the damage humanity has caused.

Since I came to this realisation, it has given me the drive to educate people about our natural world. Ignite in them the same passion I have. To get people involved in protecting their local environment, conserving it, fall in love with it.

This is why I applied to work with DCRT, as it is clear that one of their main goals is to reconnect communities with the local river environments and educate people on how to protect them. This is what I am looking forward to most in my new role. Because no matter how small the action may seem, when we all work together we can make a difference.

I am really looking forward to working with everyone here at DCRT over the next 6 months and meeting new people on our volunteer days.

My first Volunteer Day with DCRT