Shire Brook
Shire Brook is a small stream marking the border between Derbyshire to the south and the West Riding of Yorkshire to the north. With the expansion of Sheffield, the stream forms a green corridor through that city's south-eastern suburbs.
The stream rises in Gleadless Townend, in a spring now beneath the Red Lion pub. From here it flows in a general easterly direction for six and a half miles to its meeting with the River Rother between Beighton and Woodhouse Mill.
The course of the stream has been influenced by human intervention in the 20th century with the brook being diverted underground and flowing through culverts on three occasions as it traverses locations which were formerly landfill sites and extensive railway sidings.
Course
Shire Brook rises as an underground spring]] at a height of 630 feet above sea level beneath the Red Lion public house in the Gleadless Townend residential area at 53°20’41"N, 1°25’32"W. The Brook runs in a culvert from beneath the public house before emerging into the open on land between Seagrave Crescent and Lister Crescent. It initially flows north-east, going beneath housing to emerge on the Jaunty Park recreation and sports grounds as an insignificant and rubbish strewn stream running at the rear of the Birley Vale Industrial Estate. It is then joined by an unnamed stream which originates from a spring in Hollinsend Park. After a mile, the brook passes under the A6135 (Birley Moor Road) and swings easterly, disappearing underground, as it flows for half a mile through a culvert beneath the former Normanton Spring landfill site which has now been landscaped and planted with trees. The brook emerges and continues its journey east going through Wickfield Heath and under the A57 road (Mosborough Parkway) before flowing through the Shire Brook Valley Local Nature Reserve on the northern side of the A57.
At this point the brook receives its only sizeable tributary, an unnamed stream which rises at Birley Spa, then flowing north-east down a gorge for half a mile to the Shire Brook valley. The brook then disappears underground again as it runs beneath the former Beighton Road landfill site just to the north of Beighton before entering an area of wetland rich in bird life known as Beighton Marsh.
The final 200 yards of the Shire Brook’s course before it joins the Rother is again through an underground culvert beneath the site of the former Woodhouse Junction railway sidings which is now disused brownfield land which was being considered by Network Rail as a location for a new National Engineering Centre before plans were rejected in April 2008.[1] The brook enters the River Rother at a height of 120 feet above sea level at approximately 53°21’22"N, 1°20’22"W.
History
The Shire Brook has been an important boundary line for over a thousand years. In Anglo-Saxon times the Brook formed the boundary between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria, and since then the border of Yorkshire with Derbyshire, and this role gave the Brook its name. It was also known informally as County Brook.
As the county border, the brook also divides the Province of Canterbury from the Province of York in the Church of England.
An alternative name for the brook in later ages was Ochre Dike, due to the run off from mines in the valley which made the water a yellow brown colour.[2]
Industry
Up to the early 18th century the Shire Brook valley was mostly an agricultural area. However sustained industrial development came into the valley at the start of the 18th century and actually started in Tudor times when Christopher Chapman was producing cutlery at Carr Forge in the mid-16th century.
Like many of Sheffield’s water courses, the Shire Brook’s water power was harnessed for turning water wheels for industry before the coming of steam and electricity. During the 19th century there were five wheels operating in the valley producing power to sharpen scythes and sickles. Several of the small mill ponds that once fed the water wheels still exist along the course of the river. The Upper and Lower Sickle wheels were in the Normanton Spring area, about a mile from the Brook’s source. Further downstream were Carr Forge and Rainbow Forge while the Cliff Wheel was located just half a mile from the Brook's confluence with the River Rother.
The dam at Rainbow Forge no longer holds water and its embankments and stonework are difficult to find amongst the undergrowth. Carr Forge Dam is the best preserved area of water in the valley although its wheel and cottages have now vanished. The site of the Lower Sickle Wheel (also known as Nether Wheel) was excavated in 1988 revealing the foundations of the mill buildings and the pits which held the grinding wheels.
Small scale coal mining took place in the valley from the early 18th century, however it was not until the opening of the Birley Collieries that large amounts of coal were extracted. Birley West Colliery was located just to the south of Normanton Spring, production lasted from 1855 until 1908. Birley East, situated between Hackenthorpe and Woodhouse opened in 1888 and operated until 1948. Shire Brook was culverted under both locations which became landfill sites when the pits closed. Both landfill sites have been capped off and landscaped in recent years.[3]
Shire Brook Valley Local Nature Reserve
- Main article: Shire Brook Valley Local Nature Reserve
The Shire Brook Valley Local Nature Reserve was established in 1999 and extends over an area of approximately 250 acres. The reserve is based around the former site of the Coisley Hill Sewage Works which closed in the early 1990s.
The reserve includes Beighton Marsh, an area of reed-grass swamp, situated at its eastern end, which supports birds such as reed bunting, grasshopper warbler and barn owl, as well as mammals such as harvest mouse and water vole. The Birley Spa Bath House, a grade II listed building was restored in 2001.
Also within the reserve is Wickfield Plantation, one of the few remaining areas of lowland heath and coppiced oak woodland inside Sheffield. The Reserve contain Carr Forge Dam which is fed by the stream which comes down from Birley Spa and is a valuable location for wildlife. New ponds were created in the same area in 1993, known as the Centenary Ponds.
References
- ↑ BBC Yorkshire
- ↑ Gleadless: From Village To Suburb, Pauline Shearstone, {{ISBN|0-9510362-0-3}
- ↑ History in the Shire Brook Valley, Leaflet published by Sheffield City Council, Parks, Woodlands and Countryside Department. Gives history and industrial details