This is not intended as a walk guide
Having parked up in a large lay-by along Far Lane close to the junction with Wildaygreen Lane on route from the eastern moors to Common Side, Nellie and I set off walking roadside past Rumbling Street on an adventurous amble around and about Holmesfield and the Cordwell Valley.
What a glorious landscape was set out before us, an undulating panorama made up of rich pasture enclosed by thick hedgerows with pockets of woodland. Situated between the metropolis of Sheffield, draped over seven hills, and the sprawling conurbation of Chesterfield, the Cordwell Valley is a rural idyll location punctuated with select country houses, old historic halls and characterful properties. According to the National Heritage List for England, the civil parish of Holmesfield contains some 43 listed structures and buildings, and Barlow parish has another 18.
As the lane began to descend we took a footpath on the left leading down through fields past Dobmeadow Wood. Along the side of one field, a sensible farmer had put up an electric fence to protect his pregnant ewes whilst leaving a clear pathway wide enough for me to walk with Nellie on the lead beside me.
Having crossed over Bradley Lane, another footpath took us over a bridge to cross Dunston Brook, beyond which was an uphill trek across several fields and over Highlightley Lane on an ascent to meet up with a most fabulous old holloway track. Flanked by hawthorn, holly and hazel this led us up to Cartledge where we emerged to pass by the front of Cartledge Hall with its unusual projecting stone waterspout gutters. This Grade II* listed Elizabethan house was for a time the home of the prolific writer Robert Murray Gilchrist until his death in 1917.
Going straight ahead at the junction, Nellie and I then followed the road lined by lovely houses to Holmesfield, making our way to the hilltop church that is dedicated to St Swithin. Built in 1826, it stands on a site that has known Christian worship since Saxon times.
Holmesfield was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Its name is said to be a combination of Viking and Angle-Saxon words that meant raised land used for pasture which sums it up nicely.
Castle Hill is said to have some modest remains of a Norman motte-and-bailey castle that was built for the Deincourt family who came from Ancourt near Dieppe in France. John Deincourt created a deer park in 1252 that was situated on the northern side of the hill.
The views over Sheffield from the churchyard are stupendous and far reaching. Some of the gravestones were fascinating, albeit sad, and an insight into Sheffield’s industrial past. John Bennett was a file cutter who departed this life in November 1816 aged just 37. Life expectancy for this kind of occupation was not into old age! His epitaph reads:
Those active limbs that are at rest
Now laid in this cold clay
Here must remain in silent dust
Until the judgment day
Nellie and I now walked on the pavement to Holmesfield Common before heading down Horsleygate Lane for about a quarter of a mile so that we could access a leafy bridleway down to Millthorpe, emerging near the drive to Millthorpe Nursery.
Crossing over at the junction we headed down to Millthorpe Brook where a narrow wooden footbridge meant that I didn’t have to wade through the ford. Now we were on the up again, this time following a lovely footpath on a proper countryside ramble to Barlow Woodseats.
There has been a residence here since 1269, although the current house is Jacobean and dates from the 17th century. We walked to the side of the medieval long barn which is said to be one of the best kept original cruck barns in Derbyshire and the longest in the UK. It is now used as an events venue. I looked up to see two male peacocks on the roof, watching me from above like very impressive and attractive sentinels.
Barlow Woodseats simply oozes history. It was the first marital home of Bess of Hardwick following her teenage marriage to Robert Barlow. As I walked along the muddy track to end our walk, I pondered over the fact that this would have been the route she came all those hundreds of years ago as a very young married woman about to live with her first set of in-laws.
FOOTNOTE BY NELLIE:
I do wish mud would all dry up
As I’m fed up having washes
The boot of mum’s car is iced with gloop
And the kitchen walls have splodges
But it’s nice we now have more daylight hours
With time for long ambles outdoors
Over the hills and through the dales
Go mum’s boots and my four little paws
Nellie xx
