Heron Way - 2 Wadworth Yorks

Bus service 22, from Doncaster to Worksop, passes through Wadworth.

The A60 from Doncaster to Worksop.

[1]  From the church walk along Wadworth Hall Road around the playing fields and passing Wadworth Hall on the right.  At the end of the high stone boundary wall on the right, enter a strip of woodland, on the edge of the limestone ridge, and keep left to walk parallel with the road a few metres away on the left.  At the end of the woodland, re-join the road and walk round to the right into Tofield Road.

[2]  Walk down this minor road, with Doncaster in the middle distance ahead.  Turn left at the bottom of the road and walk under the A1(M)/M18 junction - an awe-inspiring sight from below.  Follow the road round to the mast and take the track to its left.

[3] After about 200 metres take the track on the left, walking towards Wadworth Woods.

[4] Follow the path around the edge of the woods until it reaches the M18.  The track runs alongside the motorway for a short distance before reaching a junction of paths.  Turn left to follow the bridleway under the motorway and into Wadworth Woods. Ignore a long up-hill path on the left and keep on the track ahead going slightly uphill through the woods. 

[5] At the end of the woods  continue along the track, known as Paddock Lane, to the road, known as Long Gate.  Turn left along Long Gate for 400 metres Caution - no footway.  Turn right down a bridleway to the left of a hedge.  Pass a small reservoir on the left before rising gently to Lodge Farm.

[6] Turn left at the farm and walk for about 350 metres along the farm roadat, almost to the end of Ant Wood. Take the bridleway  left towards Wilsic Hall School.  The path goes right, then left, and right again, before reaching Wilsic Road.  Turn left and follow the road Caution - no footway, sharp corner, back to Wadworth Church.

Wadworth is a lovely village about 4 miles from the centre of Doncaster.  It is situated on a limestone ridge, with the church being a significant landmark for miles.  There was originally an Anglo-Saxon burial site here.  The church dates from the 12th Century, with two aisles and the south chapel being added later.  The west tower was built in the 15th Century.  By the 15th Century a branch of the Fitzwilliam family of Sprotbrough had settled in Wadworth; there are two fine Fitzwilliam tombs within the church.  During the 2nd World War the church was used as a look-out post for enemy aircraft.

Edlington Woods are the location of many archaeological finds.  About 10,000 years ago, in the final stages of the last Ice Age, Edlington was a place of settlement for groups of early nomadic humans.  The groups had followed the improving climate northwards as the ice sheets covering Europe retreated.  In 2003 the South Yorkshire Archaeological Survey found evidence that these early groups of humans had been using caves and natural rock outcrops in Edlington Woods as shelter and bases for hunting.  Quantities of flint tools from the period were unearthed near to the rock shelters.  At this time the landscape of the area was a vast treeless tundra, with forestation from about 7500BC.