Bitholmes Wood

BITHOLMES WOOD is situated roughly seven miles north of Sheffield City Centre and two miles south of Deepcar Village, near Stocksbridge. The main entrance to the wood faces Wharncliffe Crags which lie beyond the east bank of the River Don.
There’s mixed opinion as to the meaning of the name Bitholmes. History shows it to mean a place where people have lived. Sheffield University archeologists have found flint arrowheads and other tools used by Netherandrial Man on and around the Bitholmes site.
There has not always been trees on the site, there is evidence to view that the site was once a large clay mine on three levels, there’s also evidence to view that Ganister was heavily mined on this site.
Ganister is a black coloured rock that when broken into pieces looks like coal. Ganister was used to line blast furnices so that Iron Ore could be melted down into liquid form ready for casting into moulds.
History also tells us that the Bitholmes was the deer hunting grounds of local Norman Lords, they built large watchtowers so that their Ladies could admire the thrills of the hunt without participating.
The watchtowers are now gone, the Bitholmes is now covered in a mixture of broadleaved trees, the undergrowth densely covers over the earth’s scars caused by men digging for Clay and later Ganister. However, in autumn and winter it’s easy to see the high plateurs of the three levels where the clay cliffs look down on you.
Bitholmes Wood is a truly magnificent place to visit, but please stay on the footpaths provided for it’s unsafe to wonder about this wood without a ranger accompanying you, some of the Ganister mineshafts have not been capped and still lay open, unseen under the dense undergrowth.