From Woodhouse, we head further down the Sheffield-Lincoln to visit Kiveton Park, a rare (possibly unique) surviving example of a village still served by two railway stations. This walk includes both and can be started from either, although the directions below are from Kiveton Park Railway Station, the most southerly extant station in Yorkshire; beyond this, the line runs next into Nottinghamshire. Kiveton Park is an ungainly village, originally a hamlet until the nineteenth century when Kiveton Park Colliery was sunk and the demand for local housing suddenly increased. As such, it lacks a real village centre and is essentially the nineteenth century equivalent of a “ribbon development” strung out along either side of a main road. Since the colliery closed in 1994, it has largely become a commuter village, like (as noted previously) several of the other former mining villages we shall encounter as we explore South Yorkshire. More appealing is the tiny adjacent village of Wales, which shares its name with the country of the same name (from an Old English word for “Romanised Celt”) and boasts a handful of historic buildings including a twelfth century church. The biggest draw of Kiveton Park is its location on the Chesterfield Canal, as well as the presence of Kiveton Community Woodland, a large area of mixed woodland, grassland and wetland reclaimed from the site of the closed Kiveton Park Colliery.
Kiveton Park station first opened in 1849 and was rebuilt in 1884 and during the early 1990s; the original Station Master’s house survives as a private dwelling. From here, cross Dog Kennels Lane, continuing straight ahead along a footpath on the left of the Station public house, which follows a track between a steel works and a stone quarrying company, shortly turning into a footpath next to a fence. It’s an odd area, a semi-industrial, semi-rural patch of land with the rusting hulks of steel machinery looming next to the path. As the path enters a band of trees, the walk gets more scenic: take the right-hand path at a fork and follow it to the edge of a field, then bear diagonally left across this to a hedge on the far side. Look back whilst walking across the field to see the tranquil oasis of Lodhe Hill Pond at the bottom of the hill. At the top of the field, over the hedge, Kiveton Hall can be seen, a Grade II-listed building dates that from the early nineteenth century and was built on the site of much-older and long-since demolished Kiveton Park. This vanished building, which gives the village its name, was the seat of the Dukes of Leeds; its replacement, and the nearby farm buildings, are probably the oldest surviving dwellings in the village.
Turn right and follow the path to the corner of the hedge, then turn left and then follow the path as it curves right and joins the drive running through Kiveton Hall Farm to reach Kiveton Lane. Turn left and follow this downhill until it ends at Red Hill, then right past the Kiveton Park Mining Memorial on the corner. This memorial is made from a pit wheel, and it is one of several to be found all across South Yorkshire; it is not the last such monument to the area’s vanished coal-mining past that we shall encounter as we explore the region. After passing the memorial, continue past the Saxon Hotel then along Red Hill through the centre of the village, soon passing the small red brick Catholic Church of Blessed William Richardson (the building was originally a Salvation Army Citadel). The road becomes Station Road and reaches Kiveton Bridge Railway Station, which opened in 1929 when it was decided that Kiveton Park station was deemed too far from the centre of the village. The station originally had wooden platforms, which were replaced in the 1950s and the whole station was rebuilt in the early 1990s.
Cross the bridge over the railway track and continue to follow the road, which shortly becomes Wales Road and enters the village of the same name. This immediately feels more like a traditional rural village than its larger neighbour, largely due to its handful of historic buildings; as we turn left along Church Street, there is a war memorial topped with a statue of a soldier on the corner, whilst slightly further along Wales Road, the Grade II-listed Old Granary can be seen. Proceeding along Church Street, we soon pass the Church of St. John the Baptist on the left; this Grade II*-listed church was originally a chapel-of-ease in the large parish of Laughton-en-le-Morthen and is one of South Yorkshire’s small but important collection of Norman churches, with parts dating from the twelfth century. The tower dates from the fifteenth century tower and the whole church was much enlarged in 1897. Directly opposite the church is an example of that other crucial village hub, the local pub, eponymously named the Duke of Leeds after one of the local landowners mentioned previously.
Church of St. John the Baptist
Church Street shortly becomes one of those single-track bridleways deemed worthy of being named on the map (Stockwell Lane) as it passes St. John the Baptist Cemetery. We follow it until it passes through a band of trees, then turn left at a crossroads and follow a path next to a disused railway cutting. This formed part of a short branch line opened by Midland Railway to a pair of collieries at Norwood. At the end of the cutting, continue straight ahead, ignoring paths off to the left and right, to the edge of Kiveton Community Woodland. Here, follow the path to the left as it runs between a housing estate and the woodland to end at Colliery Road. Turn right and follow Colliery Road past the former Colliery Offices; now Grade II-listed, the distinctive and unusual Gothic building dates from 1875 and is the only surviving remnant of the colliery above ground. From here, the road soon becomes a path running across Kiveton Community Woodland, which includes three lakes that form the purpose-built fishery Kiveton Waters, which we pass to the left of to reach Hard Lane.
The Old Colliery Offices
After crossing the lane, we continue straight ahead along a path signposted as part of the Cuckoo Way, a long distance footpath that follows the towpath of the mostly-restored Chesterfield Canal. This scenic and interesting canal runs for 46 miles from Chesterfield in Derbyshire to West Stockwith in Nottinghamshire and was one of the last canals built by the engineer James Brindley, who died before it was completed. It was authorised by an Act of 1771 and opened in 1777, but closed completely in 1968. Since then, all bar nine miles have been restored and works continues to complete the restoration project. The canal runs under meadow adjacent to the path via the disused Norwood Tunnel, which is 2,884-yards long and collapsed in 1907 due to subsidence caused by Kiveton Park Colliery; it remains one of the last major challenges to restoration of the Chesterfield Canal. Amongst the many proposals that have been suggested for overcoming the problem are reopening the tunnel, reopening part of the tunnel and combining it with a new surface route, building a completely new tunnel, and using a parallel railway tunnel instead. However the issue is eventually addressed, it is likely that it will form the very last step in full restoration of the canal.
As the path approaches the end of the tunnel, it reaches a gate and descends to the towpath of the canal, with the bricked-up eastern portal of the tunnel visible on the left. From here, we follow the towpath, making the most of the short section of the Chesterfield Canal that we shall follow on this walk; since most of the first third is in Derbyshire and the remaining two thirds in Nottinghamshire, we shall not encounter this particularly waterway again as we explore Yorkshire. Shortly, the stepped Harthill Feeder outlet can be seen on the opposite side of the canal, just past which some moorings mark the current limit of navigation. Beyond this point the canal has been fully restored and is navigable to its junction with the River Trent some thirty miles away. The towpath shortly reaches one of several Grade II-listed bridges on the canal (Dog Kennel Bridge No. 31) and climbs up to the road to switch to the opposite side. Here, we part company with the waterway: after crossing the bridge our walk concludes with a left turn to return to Kiveton Park Railway Station.
Having explored the Sheffield–Lincoln line’s stations in Yorkshire, we now return to Sheffield and then head north-east along the line to Rotherham, Doncaster and beyond. After the rural surrounds of Kiveton Park and Wales, the next few walks are decidedly more urban in nature. In fact the first stop on the route to Doncaster is at a station built to serve a shopping centre, but which is the starting point for a walk that is far more interesting than one might assume…
Comments