* A 3mins 24s, 52Mby MP4 video consisting of stills and a video of the spoil reversal at Tinsley and followed by some pictures of the still on-going development on the new Waverley Housing Estate, at Orgreave.
* NB: As this is longer than the fixed 3 minute viewing in the Flickr interface, the Video must be downloaded to the desktop to see the full length.
* Right-click on the down-arrow option, the last of the three options to the lower right of the video frame. Select ‘Save-As’ and view..
* With Audio provided by Sheila Chandra and ‘The Enchantment’, from ‘Weaving My Ancestors Voices’
I had assumed, wrongly, that as the Bardon was running 2 hours late, putting it in the Tinsley GBRf sidings outside the large hangar like white building, still not let, while the spoil train was there doing its stuff _and_ the usual in-bound passage of the GBRf container train at around 11:30, would make for the best shot of 3 freights, all in the same place at the same time; sadly, on this day, the container train was also 2 hours late, so its 2 out of 3!
In addition to all this, I had wanted to take a view, once again, of the housing development still going on at the old Orgreave coal and coking works site, now the 4000-house Wavereley Housing Estate.
The video here consists of 3 parts, a set of stills showing the DBS class 66, 66128 having almost fully unloaded its cargo of London Spoil, some 2000 tonnes timing load, and today there look to be at least 6 of the very old, JNA/JRA wagons already unloaded and back in the sidings whilst as these pictures were being taken, another 9 are almost empty, facilitated by the Liebherr LH40 Grabber, which has almost finished its work. In the background in the sidings next to the large white building, the sidings separated from Tinsley S.S., Sorting Sidings, on the right, by a gated palisade fence is GBRf 66726, ‘Sheffield Wednesday’, having been emptied at the Amey Aggregates terminal at the north end of the Yard, has drawn forward and is about to decouple and run around the wagons in preparation for the empty working, 6M01, back to the Bardon Hill quarry. This was the 2 hour, 2400 tonne timing load, late running, after Toton by 35 mins then again at Alfreton south of Chesterfield, by another 80 minutes, arriving here on the 6E97, at 08:31, rather than the more regular 06:39. During the sequence of the still shots, local GBRf staff prepare to decouple 66726 and subsequent shots show it moving forwards to use a short section of the line behind the Spoil Train to enable it to cross onto the line beside its wagons and so run round to the other end. The return working, 6M01 left just 43 mins late, at 11:30, with a 600 tonne timing load haul. The proximity of GBRf 66726, to the rear of the 9 JNA wagons, is easy to see and one of the shots shows the loco slowly moving over the points which, after a driver change of end, will allow it to run back along the other line…
The late running Felixstowe, which should have arrived here at this time, with GBRf 66755/F231, ‘HMS Argyll’, on the regular 4E53, Felixstowe North(GBRf) to Tinsley Intermodal Terminal, 1600 tonne container haul, didn’t turn up until 13:53 and then left to head back south on the 4L53, Tinsley Intermodal Terminal to Felixstowe North(GBRf) at 16:33 with the same timing load, just 18 mins late.
DBS 66128 came in this morning on time with a 2000 tonne timing load on the 6E70, Ripple Lane West Sorting Sidings to Tinsley Yard S.S." and then left, quite late at 18:53 with 800 tonnes of empty JNA/JRA wagons on the 6L55, Tinsley Yard S.S. to the Wembley, European Freight Operations Centre, at 18:53, 52 minutes early.
Its clear to see now that the scene at Tinsley Yard is now dominate by the three types of Freight workings, GBRf Aggregates for the Amey Stone Processing facility at the north end of the Yard, to and from the Bardon or Coton Hill quarries. GBRf & Freightliner locomotives on the container services to and from Felixstowe and heading the along south to the Tinsley Intermodal Terminal. And, finally the new(shh) flows from the excavations taking place away south in London for the HS2 work and terminating at the newly laid, concrete spoil pad, the material taken away by a handful of trucks, to be dumped at old coal workings at Thrybergh.
Once the DBS has propelled its rake of 9 JNA/JRA wagons back into the Sorting Sidings, parking them up alongside the ones already pushed back up there earlier, it too runs round in the Sidings Yard, to couple up a t the other end and prepare for the trip back south, in the evening; this operation can be seen in the accompanying video.
* Waverley Estate
Adrian Wynn makes comment on the first of these shots, as indicated below, but here is the shot he took in 2018-
Flickr: Explore!
with the caption, ‘Of all the appeals to Heritage that domestic house builders currently make, this has to be the most unlikely’. As we drove passed, he was driving, I noticed this advertisement for the properties then being built on the north side of the estate. We immediately parked up and photographed the ‘back-to-back’ houses and, frankly, couldn’t believe what we were seeing.. the shots here show the properties now occupied and I guess, for some, there are an ideal way onto the ‘property ladder’; they actually don’t look all that bad, now that they have had chance to ‘settle in’. My shots show the housing is near A.M.R.C., the ‘Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Centre’ which is still being added too on its site right next to the A630, Sheffield Parkway. The first shot looks east towards Treeton and hidden from view, in a cutting, the North Midland’s ‘Old Road’. Moving along to the north-west side of the site and a large memorial stands, hewn out of rock, with the words, ‘Dedicated to the Workers of Orgreave Colliery. 1851-1981’ and showing, in the background, how the estate is now extending south along both the River Rother and next to it at the other side, the ‘Old Road’. Just visible in the next shot, zoomed into the area shown in the last one, is the grey metal footbridge over the ‘Old Road’ at the end of Washfield Lane; the bridge is above the both the line of concrete pipe sections, and the blue gable ended buildings, the bridge looking diminutive in the extreme! Another view from the commemorative stone looks south-east and reflects somewhat one of Adrian’s other shots, taken here in 1984, before the River Rother was diverted here by R.J.B. Mining, in 2010, see-
Flickr: Explore!
there is clearly a line of wagons stretched out across the site, from a junction off the ‘Old Road’ in the south near Woodhouse, the freight line curving towards the camera and into the site; no sign whatsoever remains of this line, believe, I have searched. The final still shots show the iconic location of Highfield LAne and its bridge, scene of the bitter dispute between the police/government at the time led by Thatcher and the striking miners, serval pictures on Adrian’s blog show scenes from that time, see-
Flickr: Explore!
Flickr: Explore!
Flickr: Explore!
His Blog on the subject of all this, is well worth a read, see-
www.adrianwynn.tightfitz.com/Orgreave Landscape.html
I now quote from a piece on Flickr which was up-loaded on the 21st November last year, it doesn’t seem like almost 3 months ago, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/51690036457/
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Now, a rather startling walk along the bank of the River Rother, from the new road intersection at Highfield Lane which connects the old Orgreave Road and Poplar Lane, into the new access at the north-western side of the vast Waverley Housing Estate; I never imagined the site would reach so close to the River. There is now only a narrow foot-path, very close to and alongside the River Rother, taking the walker towards the Treeton area and the metal footbridge over the river to Washfield Lane. It was, as they say, a real ‘eye-opener’ and the new intrusive building area will change the feel of the place forever, from a quiet area where one could amble and stare, to one where cars, people and their pets will presumably have a great impact on the rest of the Waverley ‘Park’ at the southern side..
The first shot shows a view looking back along the old section of footpath next to the river on the right with, just a short distance away, the boundary fence of the area now awaiting its housing. Orgreave is in the left background where the housing stops and beyond that the hill rises towards Woodhouse. The lake formed after the River Rother was diverted in 2000 by R.J.B. Mining can be seen but it is clear that housing will soon be right on its doorstep as the fence extends to the south on the left, approaching the side of the lake. The 2nd and 3rd shots show close up views of the scene with the type of housing being put up, I guess all the ones visible are now occupied or in the process of being sold. The wind turbine at the Advanced Manufacturing ‘Park’ and some of its structures can be seen beyond the housing to the right; so, looks like there will be plenty of folk happy to have job availability right on their doorstep as well as healthy provision of rural escape as well. The 4th shot, seen before on this site, is the R.J.B. plaque ‘commemorating’ the diversion of the River Rother. In 2012, I produced a Google Earth view of the scene in this area, the views taken in 1999 and 2008, showing the river course, before and after the diversion, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1/49524716073/
The aim was to recover the land which the river traditionally meandered through on its course through the Orgreave site, the shift eastwards allowed that land to be used for the Park and now, this end of the housing development. The River Rother looks quiet here at the moment, but I have seen it when the two concrete groins shown in the picture, were almost completely submerged!
Walking back towards the main road along the old section of footpath and off to the right, fenced in green, the old GCR’s mineral line bridge from Treeton to Orgreave; I also did a ‘Then & Now’ piece on this recently, with a locomotive actually crossing the bridge, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/51156739822/
The narrow space between the river on the right and what will presumably be the garden fences of the new properties is clear to see, how can this ever again be a peaceful place to wander through with housing a few metres away from the waters of the Rother… Back to the road intersection and the development of ‘Sorby Park’, in the corner next to Highfield Lane and the river, can be seen. ‘Sorby Park’ is named after the Sorby family who owned both Rotherwood Hall and Orgreave Hall, they were prosperous coal producers and edge tool manufacturers. Orgreave Hall survived into the early 1990s being used by the N.C.B., National Coal Board, as offices and there are pictures and paintings of the two Hall’s around online; in fact at the end of my ‘Landscape Collection Video, part I’, at 6mins in, at the very end, a view of Orgreave Hall may be seen, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/49182445076/
Some further information about Orgreave Hall-
‘The image is a copy of a painting of Orgreave Hall, by W. Nicholson, the family home of John Sorby b.1755 and later Richard Wilfred Sorby b.1840 his grandson. Although the artist is not known for sure, the painting is of similar style and the signatures match a William Nicholson (Registered Scottish Artist, RSA) 1781-1844.It is not known how much of a true to life depiction or idealized view the picture is or when it was commissioned. It must have been painted prior to Wilfred Richard’s tenure since Wilfred was born in 1840.It is known that Wilfred Richard’s daughter Gertrude Rowena Sorby passed the painting along to her descendants in the Waterfall family. There is an additional photo of Orgreave Hall on this website when it was used as a social club and administrative offices by the NCB. Although a listed building, it was not enough to save it and the building slipped into a poor state of repair, before it was demolished in 1993 to make way for the expansion of the Orgreave Mine and coke processing plant…’
Regarding Rotherwood Hall, from Adrian Wynn’s blog-
‘The novels of Sir Walter Scott were immensely successful from the publication of the first story, ‘Waverley’, in 1814. Initially published anonymously, Scott’s entire work subsequently became known as the ‘Waverley novels’. Edinburgh’s main railway station (1854) is among other institutions that acknowledge, in their name, a debt to the books’ inspiration and popularity. The early novels were set in the Scottish Borders but in 1820 Walter Scott published ‘Ivanhoe’, a story that marked a change from his previous work in both tone and setting. The book described a semi-fictionalised 12th century England through the romantic tale of dashing knight Ivanhoe, son of Cedric of Rotherwood.. The geographical setting of the novel lies to the east of Sheffield at Rotherwood, extending northwards to Conisbrough and south to the woods of Nottinghamshire. The present day Conisbrough, which appears in the book as ‘Coningsburgh’, honours this connection in the names of streets and public buildings including an Ivanhoe Road and a Cedric Avenue. How much the presence of Rotherwood Hall or the adjacent Orgreave Hall influenced Scott’s choice of location for the family at the centre of the story I can’t discover but the description of the approach to the hall, through woods, marsh and over streams, does match the actual topography. What is certain however is that the rural landscape of 1820 was about to change dramatically with the Industrial Revolution and the exploitation of the local coal resources. Rotherwood, Orgreave and the village of Treeton took on a very different appearance…’
So, there you have … origins and time perspective… it sounds and looks a lot more ‘romantic’ than what’s on display here.. not quite sure what ‘Fusion at Waverley’ is meant to be but I guess the housing does not look all that bad considering what could have been erected, there are green spaces, a pub, not sure about a school and shops, and there is of course, plenty of ‘greenery’ about .. but the times of ambling along the ‘old’ pathways with an intent on photographing a freight or steam event on the ‘Old Road’, the North Midland’s line just a short distance away, I think is now well and truly over. Yet another area/site where.. well let me quote Adrian Wynn once more-
‘I’m just editing my images of the village with a view to illustrating some of the structures and activity of the place; it is those images that I most associate with the passage of the year that I have included. They are largely the commonplace sights, those that might be seen with the naked eye, without specialised knowledge or optics. It’s about what might be encountered on a stroll without purpose. A drift…’
Amen to that Adrian…
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