Silkstone Saunter V2 - August 2017


Silkstone Saunter walk August 13th

10 walkers met at Dodworth on a lovely sunny day to do this circular 20mile walk unfortunately Sue could not do the walk so Roy armed with Sue's route agreed to lead the walk.

We headed south from Dodworth over rolling hills and green valley’s towards Thurgoland and Cheese Bottom and had a pleasant morning break close to the infant River Don full of fish at this point.

We continued on to Silkstone where we saw a wagon from the wagonway a system on an endless rope had full wagons coming down the valley to the transport for the coal and pulling the empty wagons back up to the mine. We had much needed refreshments in the Red Lion pub and then read about the disaster at the mine when a thunderstorm drowned 26 children working in the mine aged 7 to 12, a reminder of how hard life used to be.

From Silkstone we carried on to Cannon Hall Park and had a pleasant lunch in the sunshine in the park. We then carried on back towards our start and on passing a farm near a bend on a river noticed a peacock on the roof of the farmhouse and was informed by the lady that there was a white one with a chick but we didn't see it.

We then continued on towards our start on this very pleasant day to finish back at Dodworth. Roy led a great walk with little problems on a route he had not fully walked before today which proved his great skills as a walk leader. Well done Roy.