Totley Moor
| Totley Moor | |||
| Derbyshire | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Post on Totley Moor | |||
| Range: | Peak District | ||
| Summit: | 1,296 feet SK284788 53°18’20"N, 1°34’26"W | ||
Totley Moor is an open moorland hill I the north of Derbyshire, in the Peak District to the west of Totley (a Derbyshire tonw which has become an outer suburb of looming Sheffield). The summit is 1,296 feet.
The Totley Tunnel runs for three and a half miles under Totley Moor and Longshaw Estate, between Totley and Grindleford stations. It was built between 1888 and 1893 by the Midland Railway for the route between Sheffield and Manchester through the Hope Valley. A large air ventilation shaft rises from a natural cavern, which the tunnel passes through, up to the surface on Totley Moor.[1] The tunnel remains in use today for frequent trans-pennine passenger trains.[2]
Bar Brook stream drains the marshy Totley Moss area, running south to feed the disused Bar Brook Reservoir. It then continues to flow south and into the River Derwent by Chatsworth Park.[3]
Nature and conservation
On the north-eastern side of Totley Moor, Blacka Moor Nature Reserve is managed by the Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust. The reserve covers 447 acres and is part of the Eastern Peak District Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest. The open moor is a landscape of purple moor-grass (Molinia caerulea), heathers and bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus). It provides a moorland habitat for willow warblers, black caps, cuckoos, wheatears, stonechats and whinchats. Red deer are also a common sight.[4][5]
There are three Bronze Age cairnfields along Brown Edge ridge which are protected Scheduled Monuments.[6][7][8] An excavation in 1963 of the site of a ring cairn 23 feet wide discovered cremation remains, urns, a pygmy cup and a hearth. The artefacts are on display in Weston Park Museum, Sheffield.[9] In 1960, following fires on the moor, a Bronze Age shale-working floor was discovered at Flask Edge with shale fragments of bracelets and rings.[10]
Leisure
The moor became is "Open Access" land for the public.
The Sheffield Country Walk bridlepath runs across the moor between Totley and the A6187 road. The Peak District Boundary Walk crosses the eastern side of Totley Moor, running through Blacka Moor Nature Reserve and above Brown Edge, just below the summit.[11]
References
- ↑ Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Vol VIII, South & West Yorkshire: David Joy: 2nd ed; David & Charles; Newton Abbot; 1984 pp. 170–171
- ↑ "Trains at Totley Tunnel East" (in en-gb). https://www.opentraintimes.com/location/TOTLYTE.
- ↑ The Bar Brook: Big Moor
- ↑ "Blacka Moor | Reserves" (in en-GB). https://www.wildsheffield.com/reserves/blacka-moor/.
- ↑ "SSSI detail". https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteDetail.aspx?SiteCode=S2000354&SiteName=peak&countyCode=&responsiblePerson=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea=.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1019904: Cairnfield, linear clearance and ring cairn north west of Moor Edge Farm (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1017111: Cairnfield north of Saltersitch Bridge, Eastern Moors (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1019905: Cairnfield west of Moor Edge Farm (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ "Brown Edge / Totley Circle - Ring Cairn - Totley Moor, Derbyshire". http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/brownedge.htm.
- ↑ "Totley Moor – a shale-working site". https://www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk/facts/totley-moor-a-shale-working-site/.
- ↑ McCloy, Andrew (2017). Peak District Boundary Walk: 190 Miles Around the Edge of the National Park. Friends of the Peak District. ISBN 978-1909461536.