End of the Street

This is the view from the end of my road. It looks east over the rest of the village (Oughtibridge). The woodland to the left is Wharncliffe Woods.

These woods are where the mythical Dragon of Wantley was slain, from an ancient poem that was made into an opera in the 17th Century by Henry Carey.The legend was also recounted in the opening chapter of Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe".

Wharncliffe Crags at the far end of the woods was at the forefront of the development of rock climbing in the 1880's, where earlier rock climbing pioneers such as J.W. Puttrell, turned the activity into a leisure sport. In it's heyday it was the most popular rock climbing venue in the country.

The woods were also important in the development of Sheffield's famous steel industry. Gannister, a mineral that was used to line and fireproof the blast furnaces in the steel was mined from these very woods. This is what made Sheffield. The ruins of the old Silica Firebrick Company can still be found dotted around the woods.

Mountain bike downhill world champion, Steve Peat, lives very near and uses these woods as his local training venue.

Important woodland then, although I was just taking the kids to the park and thought I would have a quick photo...