TinnerStreet

A Sunday afternoon or evening walk often meant a walk partly through the village, before breaking away from the 'built-up' area, and into the countryside. The walks I describe all took place in the 1940s and 1950s, so don't try to follow them to the letter now; there may have been changes. In fact, in some areas, we all know there have been changes!

The walk through the village (of Kiveton Park, that is - we always considered Wales to be purely an add-on). In a way, it was at that time (still is, to me). Before the mid 1800s, Kiveton Park - technically a hamlet, as it had no church of its own - was part of the parish of Harthill until it was transferred to the parish of Wales. During those times, Kiveton consisted of about a dozen farms, but after the coalmine was opened, it expanded greatly, while Wales, by comparison, stayed as it always had been, a sleepy little place.

In its heyday, Kiveton boasted a population of over 6,000 people, while I would think that Wales never reached 1,000. And that's including the cattle. was always pleasant. Yes, it was a pit village, and perhaps it was a little dirty, as pit villages tend to be, but it was nice. And the dirt was only that of an industrial setting, be it steelworks, factories or coal mines, and not the dirt of neglect by its people. They were as proud of 'their' village as anyone anywhere, and kept their houses and gardens clean and smart. So, it was no hardship to walk through the village before breaking out into the countryside.

At the top of Wales Road, we turned left at the war memorial in the Square into Church Street, and past the old stone cottages. Further up on the left was the parish church, the church of St John the Baptist, with elements from 1275, and the tower built in 1400s, and newer parts added over the years. Directly opposite, as is the wont, is the Duke of Leeds public house, although in my day, it was known as the Leeds Arms.

Now don't get confused; this Duke of Leeds has nothing to do with Yorkshire, except that he built a magnificent home in Kiveton, but the Leeds refers to the castle in Kent. Off the track completely, and we haven't really got into the walk, is that the home, which was on Kiveton Lane on the way to Todwick, was demolished in 1811 by the Duke after he lost a wager with the Prince of Wales. Makes you wonder what would have been demolished if he had won, doesn't it?

Further on, and past a couple of farms, lay the cemetery, and here you had a choice of path.

The path to the right showed views over towards Norwood, Killamarsh and Beighton, over into Derbyshire, you could say. Now, the same view has, in the foreground, the M1, with traffic moving northward to Sheffield, Leeds, and places further north, and in the middle ground, the Rother Valley Country Park.

This path leads to Norwood Wood, known locally as the Bluebell Wood, and the Norwood end of the Norwood Tunnel carrying the Chesterfield Canal. This was our preferred option, as the saying now goes, but it wasn't the one generally chosen by mum and dad. The path went alongside two fields, through a small gate, and then over a stile, and dropped down towards the wood. Near the bottom, a railway line emerged from a short tunnel, one which had been used by the shunting locos from Kiveton Pit, taking wagons from the pit to West Kiveton pit, closed well before my time, and to Norwood pit, again closed down earlier. I cannot remember seeing the line used, though we were always warned about going through the tunnel, as 'the locos will get you'.

Shortly the path split, the left fork going into the wood, climbing to the top of the hill, down to the other side of the wood, that boundary being part of the Yorkshire/Derbyshire border. The path went over a stream, and finished in Killamarsh, though we only used it once. The right hand path came across the old buildings of West Kiveton on the right, and the canal on the left. Backtracking along the canal at the lower level brought us to the closed up entrance to the canal tunnel itself. We would then walk down the hill, past the locks, and various buildings and ponds, through to Norwood. All this area was fascinating to us, but not, evidently to our parents, or we would have gone there more often.

Their preferred option involved taking the path, or really track, to the left at the cemetery, as it did pass two farms (then, at least). From the top of the hill, next to the cemetery, the view to the south and east was varied. To the south, the roofs of houses in Woodhall and Hartill could be seen, with undulating land, slowly climbing from the valley below us to those villages. To the southeast, the view showed the coalmine and the tips, not a really pretty sight, and to the east, the far end of the village. We would walk down the track for quite a way, then through a wide gate, and again have a choice. Choice one, to the right, took a path which wound in and out, until meeting another track coming from Woodhall.

In those days, on the right near Woodhall was Woodhall Pond, a favoured fishing spot. It was actually built, or dammed, at least, in about 1780, to produce water, in conjunction with the Killamarsh Pond, for the canal, so that it would always be in water. The four miles of the canal which included the tunnel was the summit of the canal, and had long series of locks on both the Norwood side and the Thorpe Salvin/Turnerwood side. Anyway, these two ponds replaced the water which was 'lost' due to lock operation. Alas, Woodhall Pond is no more, or at the most, just a relic of its former self, as hard on the right as you walk up the track is the M1, the route of which took it through the pond. Stone cottages appeared, the road was paved, and at the road junction, a left turn took us onto the road to Harthill. This was a part of the walk which seemed boring to me, as there was little to see.

Just before reaching Harthill, which didn't really take that long, Harthill Ponds were just off to the right, and again, theses were man made lakes. (First of all came Pebley Ponds, further south on the Mansfield Road, then Harthill Ponds themselves.) They were built to provide water for the canal (the eastern portion of the summit this time) and Kiveton Pit before it had its own supply. Soon we passed the Methodist Chapel and the Blue Bell pub, and turned left into the main street.

There was evidence of age here, with most of the cottages being of stone, and presently the Church of All Hallows - which was started in 1080 by the son in law of William the Conqueror - appears on the right, accompanied on the left by the Beehive public house. Now we had another of our choices. We could continue along Hard Lane (straight on for Kiveton Park) or turn right at the church into Thorpe Road, and then left into Manor Road a little way along, which took us to Kiveton Park station. The second choice added a few miles to our route, so usually, we chose the easy option, Hard Lane, hehehe.

Through Harthill, we had reached the high point of our walk, so from here, we dropped downhill for a short way before another short climb. At the top of this rise, to the left, we had the reverse view of the pit and its tips, with more detail, if you liked that sort of thing, of the pit top buildings and the winding wheels, while to the right, green fields over towards the eastern end of the canal and Kiveton Park Station. Straight on?

Kiveton Park, the corner of Hard Lane and Station Road. The Station in Station Road did not refer to Kiveton Park Station, but Kiveton Bridge Station, near where we lived at that time. Again, though we had a choice before reaching the village. We could walk up to Station Road, and turning left, walk through the village from the east, or we could take Pit Lane, more properly called Colliery Road, and our choice usually depended on whether we were tired or not. I can tell you, Pit Lane usually won! A walk of about a half mile took us through the pit, and along the side of the railway, to Kiveton Bridge Station, near where we lived.

Oh, just before we fall asleep from exhaustion, let me take you back to the bottom of the track on the left of the cemetery. When we were here before, we took the path on the right, but there was another way.

The path to the left took us over the top of the eastern end of the short shunting loco tunnel, down towards the two tips. Between the two was a foot tunnel, placed to protect walkers, and cattle (from the droppings through it), from soil and rocks falling from the buckets as they made their way high in the air to drop their load on the second tip. From here, a bridge took us over a stream, probably the Derbyshire Dyke which fed Harthill Ponds, on its way from the Ponds to the south, and where we crossed it, on its way to the Canal. Follow the path, and it took us to the rise just south of Harthill, which meant a much shorter walk. This alternative often meant that we would take the Station Road route to go home.

Footnote: The Chesterfield Canal Trust has a series of guided walks, along the towpath alongside the canal, and where changes have been made, around obstacles. In fact there is even a booklet published of canal walks. A point of interest - the Chesterfield Canal narrow boats, unlike most on other canals in England, always used horses, and never 'resorted' to engine power. This meant that while the narrow boat would be 'legged' through the tunnel, the horse would be walked from one end to the other. The Canal Trust has recently been able to have signs erected along this path joining the two portals. You are welcome to use the signs, of course.