We are getting nearer. In fact we are nearly back to places we know well. In 1998 we moved up to Sheffield as a family and there are places in the #GreatCentralRouteBack on days 12 and 13 that featured in family life from that time.
Day 12, I started walking at Inkersal on the Transpennine Trail, albeit a section I’d not walked before. Bob drove up to Rother Valley County Park and walked back towards me. It was a lovely walk, shady and pleasant, sometimes beside sections of the Chesterfield Canal which is under going restoration. At Rother Valley we ended with a well earned ice cream.
Day 13 was a ramble round Sheffield. We lived in the city for 10 years until 2008. Visiting again some things seemed the same while some had changed. There had been changes to some road junctions and bus services but the ammont of wayside rubbish and the bored faces of the shoppers at Meadowhall seemed much the same. As for Meadowhall itself, there were definitely more doughnuts.
We went to Darnall to visit a section of the GCR still in use although it now runs into the Sheffield Midland Station. The highlight of the day was a seam hauled service going to Buxton which followed our local train into the station: Bahamas 45596.
We walked over to the site of the Sheffield Victoria Station where the restored war memorial to the workers of the GCR who died in WW1 is now situated.
A short walk to The Wicker, we found an interesting Ethiopean resturant for lunch. Back through the city centre on foot, we caught a tram there to Meadowhall where we picked up a few bits and pieces to take for an unpromptu tea with friends.
Former railway lines come in three categories on the OS map: disused, dismantled and disappeared. To be fair the last isn’t a category. It’s just what seems to have happened to much of the GCR route: it’s no longer visible on the ground. Those are the lost sections which we have not been able to visit on this #GreatCentralRouteBack. But thankfully there have been other sections to revisit and enjoy.
It’s good to be back on more familiar ground. I am certainly tired and I’d perhaps forgotten just how tiring long distance walking can be day after day. Not many more days left of the #GreatCentralRouteBack now.
From my remembered bible: those who want to build the kindom of God should rember that, like ploughing, looking back is of limited use.
God grant a quiet night.
From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.
Janet Lees, Sheffield, 4th June 2022.
Nearly home! Well done, both xxx