Brick Houses

Another view of "The Cricket Inn".

On the edge of the city of Sheffield.

Two brothers, still in school uniform, are playing football on the playing-field.

With "The Cricket Inn" at the other side of the field.

Viewed across the recreation ground at Totley Bents

According to this site there are 244,282 grid-squares containing land in Britain. An accurate figure of the number of trig points still standing, though, isn't so easy to come by. This is mostly because the serious trig-bagging websites include in their lists the sites of now-destroyed ones, and also often list more minor structures involved in triangulation. (Though I'm sure if I got the hang of various filters in the complicated looking searchboxes it could be done). Online articles celebrating Rob Woodall's completion of all Britain's trig points in 2016 put the figure at 6,190. Since this impressive feat took over a decade though - including a two-year wait for a landowner to grant access to one pillar - it is likely the figure is slightly lower now, due to them being destroyed or moved by landowners (they are not protected structures as a lot of people think), and general effects of the weather. If 6,190 is taken as the figure, though, it means that there is a trig point for every 39 grid-squares, on average. Which makes this tiny part of Britain something of an anomaly I'm sure. Not only is there a trig point in the grid-square immediately West of this one; there is another two squares South of that one. This means that a 3x2 block contains three trig points. Since none of them sit on particularly difficult terrain, there is the very unusual possibility of visiting three trig points on a leisurely two to three hour circular walk. This one's official name is 'Ringinglow', and it first got used in calculations in 1948. There is a moderate steady incline from the North, but on the opposite side the field dips down quite steeply.

This building was rejuvenated once before - hence the title - but it seems unlikely it will be put to any use again. Its original purpose seems to have been as an office, or works building, of a copperas chemical plant - this operated between the 1810s and 1870s. It definitely fell into disrepair shortly thereafter, as it is shown without a roof on a late 19th Century OS map. It then became a farmhouse, which was referred to as both Copperas House and Copperas Farm subsequently, but only as Copperas House on maps. The farm was abandoned in the late 1940s. Not having a chemistry degree, I have been more than a bit out of my depth researching copperas, which is an actual proper substance (completely unrelated to copper it seems) that I had never heard of! The manufacturing of it, though, was a huge industry in Britain from the 1600s to the late 1800s. It was a used to produce sulphuric acid, which seems even to this day to be something of a wonder chemical. Back then it was mainly used for pen ink, and dying fabric. I can't figure out if it was actually black, or as close as they could get to it, but dark marking was its thing, and it was either used on its own to colour things, or in conjunction with other colours which enabled them to bind to the fabric faster. The chemical stuff, as previously mentioned, is a bit confusing to the layman, but basically they got poor quality coal (for coal purposes anyway) known as pyrite out of the ground, and chucked it in a pit exposed to the elements for a couple of years. This stuff turned into green crystals when boiled, and when bolied again and then condensed was ready for action. Copperas was the legally required dye for dark silk in Britain for several hundred years.

An autumn view towards Dore in Sheffield's southern suburbs from Strawberry Lee Lane

I suspect that the rustic model of a bear has been placed here for decorative purposes by the owners of nearby Hallfield Farm.

These impressive driftwood statues have been sited near the end of Strawberry Lee Lane by a local landowner.

These driftwood statues of stags in combat has been erected by a wealthy local landowner who lives nearby.