A view of the old Clay Wheels area north of the Don at Beeley Wood - 5946/947->7376/380

A clutch of pictures from the beginning of the year, 26th January, in bright, sunny cold weather and at lower right, last night, in dullish, warm, muggy weather, with the vegetation now hiding everything important! At that time, the river looked tranquil and inviting with two lots of works proceeding along the north-eastern and south-western banks of the river. On the far bank, new materials have been bought in to provide firmer access along the bank of the river and over on the far left, the site of the old Niagra Forge, the area has been fenced off and it looks like demolition is about to commence. In the right background is one of the Sheffield Corporation's 1960s/70s answer to the acute housing shortage, the Winn Gardens Estate, on the opposite side of the road, now long demolished, was the 'South Yorkshire Mental Hospital' and in the 1920s, the more unkindly named, 'West Riding Lunatic Asylum'. Behind that area, now largely used for housing since the demise of the Hospital, in the background, the land rises to the start of the other two river valleys for which Sheffield is noted for, the Loxley and Rivelin Valleys; the remaining two being the Porter Brook, joining the River Sheaf at Sheffield Midland Station. As I recall, last night's foray along the road here showed no further change to Niagra Forge so it looks like the demolition of the old buildings has been halted. Moving on to the lower left picture which shows the scene across Clay Wheels Lane and this is the old 'Hope & Anchor Brewery' with two of the now redundant chimney stacks of the 'Electrode Works', behind. The brewery building, once in ownership of Bass-Charrington is now occupied by a locale construction business, Hague Ltd. who have the distinctive red and white logo, now seen atop the front of the building. In 1942, two old-established Sheffield breweries were amalgamated - Carter, Milner & Bird, Ltd., of the 'Hope Brewery' and Henry Tomlinson Ltd., the 'Anchor Brewery' and the combined company took the name 'Hope and Anchor Breweries' but in 1960 the Hope Brewery merged with Hammond's United Breweries & John Jeffrey & Co Ltd. to form Northern Breweries Ltd which later became Bass-Charrington. The site and surrounding land are now given over to heavy aggregate type of workings associated with modern construction and road building.
In the upper and lower centre pictures, are two shots showing different aspects of the large area which belonged to Union Carbide and this area too has now been turned over to 'International Stones(UK) Ltd.' and 'Ballast Phoenix Ltd.', the latter a sustainable source of aggregate, it advertises. The area is part of the Beeley Wood Industrial Estate under ownership of Loxley Land Property, though its sign, and the other two, look somewhat tarnished now, however the site over on the left reeks of stone crushing operations and noise and dust are in the air right up to the G.C.R.'s Woodhead route, at the back of all this. Although none of the 4 chimneys are in use anymore, nor are one or two of the old corrugated metal buildings on the site, there doesn't appear to be any rush to demolish them, where _is_ Fred Dibnah when you need him; though have to say I prefer that the chimneys remain, as they form a somewhat iconic landmark in the Upper Don Valley. The land in front of the 'triad-of-stacks' in the upper picture, was occupied by a sports ground, a bowling green and tennis court around 1955 and there was another sports ground where the new, tall grey building now stands; apparently sporting the smaller of the 3 chimneys from its roof.
Finally, in the upper and lower right-hand two pictures, the lower one shows the best that I could do, having taken the earlier one in January, the lower shot shows passing traction, from last night in the form of one of the evening's steel trains from Aldwarke, transporting its 1000 tonne cargo along to the rolling mill at Stocksbridge. In January, the shot was much more open due to the lack of nearby tree verdure, prolific in the current shot below, and shows the mid-day scene on Limestone Cottage Lane, location off to the right of Limestone Hall Farm. Behind the camera on the other side of the road was the Clay Wheels Rolling Mills another of the areas steel rolling facilities and the power for the rollers was obtained from a Mill Race off the River Don in the early days, a length of the Race still being extant but has been filled in not far off to the left behind the camera. As the earlier shot was taken at mid-day and almost nothing runs on the Stocksbridge branch, apart from the very occasional charter tour and test train sets, there was no traction to include in the shot and, to a large extent, this could also be said of the present shot, taken last night. Fortunately for more interest in the picture than would otherwise have been available, a couple of walkers/runners pass by having come from the direction of the charmingly named 'Nutwood Trading Estate' under the bridge, home to the Bachelors Canning business, part of the works building still extant and in use, and was of course rail connected through a large array of sidings the other side of the line providing equal access into the 'Electrode Works', all still extant on the 1970 OS map of the area. Of course this would have been the time when the Woodhead passenger Electrics, the class EM2's, had stopped from January 1st of that year, but the Woodhead coal trains with class EM1's in charge, from the Wath & the South Yorkshire coal fields, and carrying 1000 tonne coal trains to the Fiddlers Ferry Power Station, close to Liverpool in Lancashire, were still running, at the rate of around 6 per hour, 24 hours a day, throughout the year. Now its just the nightly steel train, carrying billets and blooms up to the north end of the last bit of the Woodhead line, along to Ellen Wood for deposit and subsequent shunting into the works to be rolled down to the correct size at what was the Samuel Fox Steelworks, see-
www.stocksbridgehs.co.uk/stocksbridge-works/
but is now in ownership of 'Liberty Speciality Steels', see-
www.libertyhousegroup.com/our-businesses/liberty-steel/li...
a brighter future, it seems at the present time. With a cheery wave from one of the walkers, and a comment from me that they now form a significant part of the picture, red DBC, D.B. Shenker Cargo class 66, 66xxx, passes north over the Limestone Cottage bridge, its signal box just being just off to the left at the other side of the bridge, the red 66 working the regular nightly steel train from the Aldwarke Steelworks, 6J57, Aldwarke U.E.S. to Stocksbridge Works and, thankfully around 20 minutes early here and cracking on up the 1-in-100 grade to the sidings beyond Deepcar. The return working, 6J58, Stocksbridge Works to Aldwarke U.E.S. was around 33 minutes early but then had to wait at Broughton Lane for the late running, 30 minutes, 6D02, from Tinsley Yard to Immingham steel train, at one stage they were just two signals apart on the GC line into Rotherham Central. The steel train from Stocksbridge lost 20 minutes of its lead waiting for 6D03 to clear the section through Rotherham, and 6J58 arrived at Aldwarke just 11 minutes early... it made quite a noise going back down-grade as well... I heard it rumbling loudly past...

Time to see how the Thai rescue divers have achieved a miracle.. or rather .. just doing their job..

Taken on: January 26, 2018

Tags:

Wadsley Bridge

DBC

Class 66

66xxx

6J57

Aldwarke U.E.S. to Stocksbridge Works

6J58

Stocksbridge Works to Aldwarke U.E.S.

Niagra Forge

River Don

Bachelors Canning

Clay Wheels Rolling Mills

Middlewood Rolling Mills

Wadsley Bridge Works

Limestone Cottage Lane Signal box

Union Carbide Electrode Works

Parkin Wood

Fletchers Bakery

Sainsburys Superstore

GCR

Great Central Railway

LNER

London North Eastern Railway

Neepsend

Oughtibridge

Deepcar

MSLR

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway

Niagra Works

Gannister Mining

Hope & Anchor Brewery

Nutwood Trading Estate

Limestone Hall Farm

South Yorkshire Mental Hospital

West Riding Lunatic Asylum

Rivelin Valley

Loxley Valley

Bass-Charrington Brewery

Winn Gardens Estate « less

Sets appears in: • Wadsley Bridge

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/7.1, 1/800 sec, 28mm, ISO 640 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens:	EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Aperture:	f/7.1
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/800)
Focal Length:	28mm
ISO:	640
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows
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