The next station on our route serves two towns and is thus named Hatfield and Stainforth after both of them. Stainforth is located close to the River Don and is long-established, recorded in the Domesday survey as a small settlement, and later becoming an inland port town of some importance before transforming into mining town in the twentieth century. The name Stainforth is derived from Old English and means “stony ford”, although the development of the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation means that any sign of a ford has long since been eradicated. The neighbouring town of Hatfield is an ancient settlement that was once reportedly the home of a Palace of a Northumbrian Kingdom named Meicen. Hatfield also has a name derived from Old English meaning “field or open land where heather and other shrubs grew” and like Stainforth it became a coal-mining town during the twentieth century. And coal-mining defines these two towns. South Yorkshire’s mining heritage has impacted many of the places visited on our previous walks, but this is the first walk on which it is visibly evident. Whilst both Stainforth and Hatfield have traces of their older history (and Stainforth also has the river navigation), a large section of this walk takes us across the site of a disused colliery, which still has notable relics of its industrial past.
Hatfield and Stainforth Railway Station opened in 1866 as Stainforth and Hatfield Railway Station to replace the older Stainforth Railway Station on the South Yorkshire Railway’s line, which ran close to the Stainforth and Keadby Canal. The station gained its current name in the 1990s when Hatfield became the larger of the two towns, although the walk visits Stainforth first. The station is now unmanned, although a single disused station building survives, for some reason painted a slightly shocking pink colour. From the station follow the approach almost to the junction with Station Road, then bear right up steps to reach the road. Turn right and follow the road over a bridge across the railway track, then follow Station Road for almost a mile, passing Stainforth Methodist Church on the right and Stainforth Cemetery (which includes a war memorial near the cemetery chapel) on the left. Stainforth is another of those towns that has suffered from post-industrial decline and feels vaguely run down, although future developments that are destined to exploit its status as a outer suburb of Doncaster may be about to improve its fortunes, more on which below.
Turn right into Field Road and follow it to the junction with Water Lane on the left. A little further along Field Road, St Mary’s Church can be seen; this elegant church opened in 1934 to replace an older church which became too small for the town’s growing population. Turn left into Water Lane, bearing left along Bridge Hill; on the corner a timber framed building can be seen, which dates from the seventeenth century and is Grade II-listed but rather neglected. Proceed along Bridge Hill to Stainforth High Bridge, which carries the road over the Stainforth and Keadby Canal. Here, detour straight ahead to see Stainforth Bridge, a fine eighteenth century sandstone bridge that crosses the River Don; otherwise, turn right and descend steps to the towpath.
Stainforth Bridge.
The Stainforth and Keadby Canal opened in 1802 and is 14.9 miles long. Despite its name if actually starts from Bramwith rather than Stainforth and connects the River Don Navigation to the River Trent at the tiny and unremarkable village of Keadby in Lincolnshire. Follow the towpath for about half a mile, shortly passing through the beer garden of the New Inn and looking out for a canal basin on the opposite bank that is now used by Thorne Cruising Club. The canal originally re-joined the River Don Navigation at this point via Stainforth Side Lock, the remains of which are located on the far side of the basin. Soon after this, a narrows in the canal marks the site of the now-demolished Ramskir Bridge; just past this, and before reaching a large pipe bridge over the canal, turn right and follow a path round the side of a house to reach Ramskir Lane. Follow the lane between fields until it bends right; here, turn left and follow a public footpath alongside a small stream. On reaching a small bridge over the stream on the right, cross it and continue straight ahead along a footpath that runs between houses to a grassy area. Walk straight ahead across this to the end of a lane, proceed straight ahead to reach Ramskir View, and turn left. Just after passing the junction with Mayfield Avenue on the left, turn right and follow a path across the spoil heaps of Hatfield Main Colliery.
Numbers 1 and 2 Headstocks.
The colliery opened in 1916, stopped in 2001, restarted in 2007, and finally closed in 2015, after which the mine shafts were filled in. This is an area in flux: it is currently being redeveloped as part of a scheme called Unity Park, which is planned to transform more than 600 acres of form colliery land into a mixed use development intended to include housing, a school, industrial space, and a new marina on the canal (more information on the project can be found here). One assumes (and certainly hopes) that the public rights of way across it will be maintained, but it will certainly alter the flavour of this walk as it continues to develop. For now, we follow the ill-defined path across the colliery site, which adheres to the line of Hugh Hill Lane, although this has mostly disappeared. After passing over the brow of the hill, the route of the lane becomes obvious as it curves left and runs downhill to a bridge over the railway. On reaching the bridge, look right for a view of Numbers 1 and 2 Headstocks in the distance; these iconic structures have been earmarked for preservation and have been granted Grade II-listed status, celebrating the area’s coal mining past far more strikingly than the pit wheel memorials we encountered on the Meadowhall and Kiveton Park walks. On the other side of bridge, continue to follow Hugh Hill Lane – here a defined, if muddy, track – which soon turns right. Shortly after passing the remains of a pumping station on the left, the lane reaches Unity Way, a newly opened link road between the motorway and Stainforth as part of the Unity Park development. Cross this and stay on Hugh Hill Lane until it eventually reaches Hatfield and ends at the junction with Victoria Avenue and Cuckoo Lane.
We now walk straight ahead along Cuckoo Lane until it ends at Station Road, and thus enter the historic heart of the town of Hatfield. On the right is St Lawrence Church, a Grade I-listed church much of which dates from the twelfth century, although most of what can be seen today dates from the fifteenth. Take a detour straight ahead past the church to see three pubs, the Ingram Arms, the Bayhorse Inn (to the right along High Street) and The Blue Bell, then return to the junction with Cuckoo Lane. Turn right along Station Road, passing the former Church Lodge on the corner, a building that dates from the eighteenth century and was originally built as a private house before serving as a Workhouse from about 1720 until 1839. After the forlorn landscape of the colliery site, this small area at the centre of Hatfield provides a scenic interlude on this part of the walk, which is now coming to an end: from here, we follow Station Road for nearly one and a quarter miles, finally turning right along the station approach to return to the railway station.
If Hatfield and Stainforth are characterised by the dereliction left by departed industry and the burgeoning hope of renewal offered by modern redevelopment, our next destination is a striking contrast. It is another town, but a far prettier one with many fine buildings, and it boasts not one railway station, but two…