Beeley Wood is a
woodland
A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...
in the north of the
City of Sheffield
The City of Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Sheffield, the town of Stocksbridge and larger village of Chapeltown and part of the Peak Di ...
, near
Middlewood,
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...
, England. It is one of 35
ancient woodland
In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...
areas within the Sheffield city boundary. An ancient woodland is defined as a site that has been continuously occupied by woodland from the year 1600 or before.
Overview
The woods are situated on the eastern side of the
River Don between the village of
Oughtibridge
Oughtibridge ( ) is a residential village in the north of Sheffield within the bounds of Bradfield civil parish. The village stands north-west of the city centre in the valley of the River Don. The population of the village has increased si ...
and the Sheffield suburb of Middlewood. The most common access from the Middlewood end of the wood is from the end of Clay Wheels Lane or from Middlewood Road South over the Don by the Rocher footbridge. The woods cover an area of approximately and slope up quite steeply from the river gaining around in height before ending at farmland. The wood is traversed by two public footpaths;the lower of these is a pleasant and recently re-covered riverside walk which is part of the
Upper Don Walk
The Upper Don Trail formerly known as the Upper Don Walk is a 15 mile long recreational multi use trail which links the centre of Sheffield to the village of Oughtibridge with various sections continuing out towards Stocksbridge and Langsett Re ...
, a scenic walk by the river from the centre of Sheffield to Oughtibridge.
[www.waterscape.com.](_blank)
Gives some details of Upper Don Walk. The other public footpath runs the length of the upper wood at its highest point; there are many other paths not marked on the
OS map. Beeley Wood is traversed by the famous
Woodhead railway line
Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...
; there is one level crossing and one footbridge for pedestrians to cross the line. The woods are home to a large colony of
bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...
s and all three species of
woodpecker
Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...
native to Britain can be seen in the woods. In
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season)
Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...
there is a large covering of
bluebells on the woodland floor. Wilson Spring Wood, a small area of wood, classed as an ancient and semi natural woodland, measuring approximately lies to the north-east of the main wood, separated by an area of farmers' fields in width.
History
The earliest written reference to Beeley Wood is in a deed dated from 1161 in which the monks of
Ecclesfield Priory
Ecclesfield Priory was a religious house of Benedictine monks, lying in the village of Ecclesfield, north of Sheffield in Yorkshire, England.
History
Early history
Ecclesfield Church and a mill in the village were in the possession of St Wa ...
were given permission to graze their flock every year from January to Easter in a large wood stretching from Birley Edge down to the River Don. Beeley Wood is a surviving part of this large wood and part of it is still called Priory Wood. In this 12th century document the wood was referred to as "BYLLHAUWODE" which is derived from the two
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
words Billa and haga and means Billa's enclosure and suggests that the woodland was originally attached to an
Anglo-Saxon farm belonging to Billa.
[Woodland Heritage Manual 2008.](_blank)
Gives etymology and history. Further mention was made in a document released upon the death of Thomas de Furnival in 1332 when Beeley Wood was named as one of eleven locations under the heading of Woods, Moors and Commons. Under this agreement people were allowed to graze their animals in the wood. However, by the 16th century Beeley Wood had become a
coppice
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeate ...
wood in which the pasturing of animals was discouraged. At the end of the 16th century Beeley Wood was one of eleven coppice woods in Sheffield which were mentioned in a document drawn up for
Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury
Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury, 7th Earl of Waterford, 13th Baron Talbot, KG (20 November 1552 – 8 May 1616), styled Lord Talbot from 1582 to 1590, was a peer in the peerage of England. He also held the subsidiary titles of 16th Baron ...
.
![River Don in Beeley Wood](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/River_Don_in_Beeley_Wood.jpg)
By the 1890s the coppicing of Beeley Wood along with the other coppice woods in Sheffield was coming to an end because of reduced profits and woodland management problems. The wood was allowed to become a "high forest" with the strongest growth of a coppiced tree allowed to grow into a fully grown standard tree. Many of the older and sickly trees were cleared away at this time and replaced by saplings of trees that were not native to the Sheffield area, such as
beech,
sweet chestnut
''Castanea sativa'', the sweet chestnut, Spanish chestnut or just chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. A substantial, long-lived ...
,
common lime and
sycamore
Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the ancient Greek ' (''sūkomoros'') meaning "fig-mulberry".
Species of trees known as sycamore:
* ''Acer pseudoplata ...
. In late 1898 the
Duke of Norfolk's forester planted Beeley Wood with of timber trees such as
ash,
elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...
, sycamore,
birch
A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...
, lime, sweet chestnut and
beech. The young trees were ordered from a nursery in
Cheshire and were delivered to
Wadsley Bridge railway station.
[''"Sheffield‘s Woodland Heritage"'', Mel Jones, Gives historical details.] In 2011 the
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England.
The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...
approved funding for a five-year plan to improve the unmanaged habitat of the wood; under the scheme an area of will be coppiced and a further will be thinned to allow more light and warmth into the wood and therefore improve conditions for wild flowers, insects and birds.
[information board at site. Gives details of modern day coppicing and thinning.] In February 2016 the
Environment Agency removed the middle two-thirds of Beeley Wood Lower Weir on the River Don as part of a scheme to allow the free migration of fish and let the river return to a more natural form.
[ Environment Agency](_blank)
Partial removal of Beeley Wood Lower Weir.
Mining and quarrying
Although not apparent today, Beeley Wood was once an area of industry with mining and quarrying taking place.
Ganister
A ganister (or sometimes gannister ) is hard, fine-grained quartzose sandstone, or orthoquartzite,Jackson, J. A., 1997, ''Glossary of geology'', 4th ed. American Geological Institute, Alexandria. used in the manufacture of silica brick typically ...
was the material that was mined; this is a type of hard
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
used in the manufacture of
silica
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...
bricks used to line
industrial furnace
An industrial furnace, also known as a direct heater or a direct fired heater, is a device used to provide heat for an industrial process, typically higher than 400 degrees Celsius. They are used to provide heat for a process or can serve as r ...
s. The
Drift mining
Drift mining is either the mining of an ore deposit by underground methods, or the working of coal seams accessed by adits driven into the surface outcrop of the coal bed. A drift mine is an underground mine in which the entry or access is abov ...
method was used because of the slope of the land in Beeley Wood and the mines went into the hillside for a long way and to a great depth. The fact that the wood is on a slope enabled gravity trackways to be used to transport the Ganister down to the valley bottom. The Ganister was also quarried in at least one location in the woods and the overgrown remnants of a large quarry can still be seen today. The largest of the mines was the Beeley Wood Mine, owned by the Silica Fire Brick Company and managed by J.T. Minnis for many years, in the 1920s and 1930s over 30 workers were employed and 12 ponies were used.
[''"The Forgotten Mines of Sheffield"'', Ray Battye, Gives details of Ganister mining in Beeley Wood.][List of Mines in Great Britain and the Isle of Man, 1908.](_blank)
Gives some details of Beeley Wood Mine. In recent years the
Coal Authority
The Coal Authority is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). On behalf of the country, it owns the vast majority of unworked coal in Great Brit ...
have inspected and fenced off various old shafts in the upper part of the wood.
Other industry
There is other industry on the eastern (Middlewood) fringes of the wood with the Beeley Wood Works situated at the end of Clay Wheels Lane, this is currently occupied by the Abbey Stainless Steel Company but has a long history dating back to 1749 when it was known as the Nova Scotia
Tilt
Tilt may refer to:
Music
* Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992
* Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993
* Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979
Albums
* ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981
* ...
Company.
[www.ehs.org.uk.](_blank)
Gives dates for Nova Scotia Tilt. For many years there was a large
Union Carbide
Union Carbide Corporation is an American chemical corporation wholly owned subsidiary (since February 6, 2001) by Dow Chemical Company. Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers befo ...
factory (formerly owned by British Acheson Electrodes Ltd., formerly Electrode Company of Sheffield Ltd., ) in this area manufacturing carbon electrodes for the steel industry, graphite rods for the nuclear industry and related products but this closed several years ago with the site lying disused for some time. In 1976 the plant employed 850 people with a subsidiary works in Wincobank, Sheffield, employing a further 150 people. The site received planning permission in January 2009 to be used as a "Recycling Village" run by the firm Ballast Phoenix Ltd. who will initially recycle the ash from Sheffield's main
Energy from Waste incinerator.
[Sheffield Telegraph.](_blank)
Gives details of "Recycling Village" at eastern end of Beeley Wood.[Veolia Environmental Services.](_blank)
Gives details of Sheffield's Energy from Waste scheme.
References
External links
The management behind the Beeleywood site
{{Authority control
Parks in Sheffield
Forests and woodlands of South Yorkshire