Here are some pics from the SF Walkers Group unofficial walk yesterday....

http://www.rtapper.plus.com/Burbage%20-%20Sheffield%20Forum%20Walk/index.html

Does anyone know what the railings were for? We've included a group member (face masked to protect the innocent) for size.

:)

There was a 'sheepfold' marked on the map. Could it be that?

Edit:Ignore me - I'm looking at the map for your Bamford walk :roll:

Wouldn't have thought so. It's only a small enclosed patch, maybe eight foot square, and very rusted and broken. There obviously used to be a door in the railings at one time. We wondered if it is a grave or memorial, but there is no sign of a headstone or memorial stone or tablet.

I wondered if it could have been a favourite dog's grave, but as there's no marker, it seems unlikely. It's only a few hundred yards away from Ringinglowe Road, near the bridge, on the Burbage side.

You don't think it was maybe round something like an abandoned mineshaft, perhaps? There are plenty of them dotted around though I don't know whether there are any in that area. I don't remember seeing this whenever I've gone to Burbage, by the way.

Is that gate going nowhere as it looks in the photo? Should there be more fence on one side of the gate?

It looks like a sheep pen that's been cobbled together from railings taken from elsewhere.

It looks like a sheep pen that's been cobbled together from railings taken from elsewhere.

It's a very small (and high) sheep pen if it is. I'm not disagreeing, maybe it's worth an (unofficial) forum trip out!

Is that gate going nowhere as it looks in the photo? Should there be more fence on one side of the gate?

Yes, it looks like it was properly fenced in at one time, into a proper square.

Were there any sandwiches and/or thermos flasks in there? If so then it was most likely a walker-pot (like a lobster-pot but for walkers).

Having had the chance to examine this thing in real life yesterday, I now find it even odder....

The gate was evidently very precisely in the centre of one side of this, and there's an indentation in the soil splat in the centre of the square made up by the railings, suggesting it maybe once fenced off some kind of memorial?

Can't see the picture but if it is the bit where I think it is is it not just the source of the burn that comes out further below the crags.

Having had the chance to examine this thing in real life yesterday

Take a spade next time. :thumbsup:

I would suggest that it was the site of a 'Moorland Water Meter'. Further down Burbage Brook between the Hathersage Road and the footbridge that goes to Longshaw, another meter was also (or still is) situated. These recorded the amount of rain that fell on the moorland and the water boards used these figures to calculate the amount of compensation water to release into rivers from dams. Hopefully someone who worked for the former water boards will either correct or confirm this.
However during world war 2. The burbage area was used as a army training ground and though cleared, it may possibly have connections in that direction.

Its for sheep, now disused.

B

Take a spade next time. :thumbsup:
Or a beagle? ;)

its to protect rare plants and flowers.they put them round sites of scientific interest

its a rambler trap invented by woofy stillington from hathersage circa 1895.. they used them when there was a lack of locally produced sosages, they used to bait the trap with various buns and lashings of tea and pop leave it over night, then lo and behold the next morning they could have as many as 4 to 5 bun eating ramblers trapped inside. I shall not elaborate over their demise as it is rather brutal and employs many local folks with git orf moy laand signs and copious beatings untill succumbed.. I must say though to this day the sosages from hathersage butchers still take some beating not unlike the ramblers daft enough to fall for buns and tea:hihi: :hihi: :hihi: :hihi: :thumbsup:

There is a gas pipeline across there, there are white things sticking up and drivable bits between some of them. I wondered if it was anything to do with that. I used to fell run across that moor on all the little sheep trods, great!