The Moss

For other uses, see Moss (disambiguation).

The Moss
The Moss, just to the north of Troway.
Location
Country	United Kingdom
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Coalpit Wood, Coal Aston, Derbyshire
• elevation	518 feet (158 m)
Mouth
• location	River Rother at Eckington
Length	4.8 miles (7.7 km)

The Moss
source near Jordanthorpe Owler Car Brook tributary (from Lightwood) Sickle Brook Site of Foxholes Wheel tributary (from Charnock Hall) Troway Brook tributary (from Dobholme Wood) Mill Pond Site of Skelper Wheel Scythe Manufactory mill pond Birleyhay Bridge Robin Brook Ford Lane Bridges, Ford Site of Ford Wheel Site of Sough Wheel Ridgeway Brook Never Fear dam and wheel tributary (from Plumbley) Site of Fields Wheel tributary (from Plumbley) Footrail Dam Site of Lower Carlton Wheel Footbridge near Plumbley Colliery Site of Park Mill (flour) Gashouse Lane Bridge Weir A6135 Sheffield Road Bridge site of saw mill B6053 Rotherham Road Bridge Weir for supply to RVCP River Rother

The Moss is a brook in North East Derbyshire, England.

When Rother Valley Country Park was built in 1980s, constructors used water from The Moss to fill the lakes.

Name

The name of the river derives from Moss Beck, which means 'stream through marshy ground'.

Course

The river flows through the Moss Valley and through the villages of Geerlane, Birley Hay, Ford and Eckington. Several areas of woodland are traversed, including Coalpit Wood, Long Wood and Eckington Park. The main tributaries of The Moss are the Robin Brook, the Owler Car Brook, Sickle Brook, Troway Brook, Sloadlane Brook, and Ridgeway Brook.

The source of the Moss can be found just to the east of Jordanthorpe Parkway (B6057 road). The source is a natural spring which lies in an area of woodland called Coalpit Wood. The stream flows broadly eastwards, and is joined by several other streams, all rising from springs within woodland. Owler Car Brook flows to the north west through Whinacre Wood, Cook Spring Wood and Owler Car Wood to join the south bank, and soon afterwards, a larger stream flowing southwards from Lightwood through Newfield Spring Wood joins on the north bank. Sickle Brook rises to the west of Troway and flows through Mires Spring Wood and Brownstorth Wood to join on the south bank. Below the junction, where there is a ford across the river, the surrounding land is less wooded, although there are patches of trees. Another tributary rises from springs in Charnock Hall, and flows southwards through Charnock Wood, Carterhall Wood and Ryall's Wood to reach the north bank, and Troway Brook rises to the east of Troway and flows northwards. As the river passes Geer Lane Farm, there are a number of ponds on the northern bank.

As it approaches the hamlet of Birley Hay, although considerably smaller than it was in 1886, which supplied a scythe manufactory. Below the outlet weir is a small grade II listed 18th century cottage which was associated with the manufactory and a warehouse which also dates from the late 18th century. The millpond and part of the water-powered forge still exist, but are not listed structures. Soon afterwards, a small river flows northwards to join the south bank. It contains two large mill ponds, the lower of which powered the Skelper Wheel, while the higher pond does not appear to have had a separate function. A bridge carries Geer Lane over the river to join Ford Lane, which then crosses back over the river and the Robin Brook at the hamlet of Ford. Robin Brook flows southwards from Base Green, and joins the north bank of The Moss just below the bridge. Another mill pond lies just to the north of the river, whereas most of the previous ones have dammed the main channel. If formerly powered Ford Wheel. There is another mill pond to the south of the river, which was filled by a stream rising at Bramley abd flowing northwards. It once powered Sough Wheel.

Neverfear Dam, a little further downstream is, like the Ford dam, on the north side of the main channel, which flowed over a weir to continue on its way. The dam, a term used locally to describe the body of water, rather than the structure that creates it, powered Neverfear Wheel. Next the river reaches the site of Field's Wheel, where there are three weirs, but little remains of the dam. Beyond it, the river was once crossed by a tramway, which ran along the south bank from a shaft, and then turned abruptly north to ascend up a long inclined plane to buildings at the top of the slope. It had been removed by 1898, and sometime between 1923 and 1937, Footrail dam was constructed at the site of the crossing. The body of water stretched back almost to the weirs at Field's Wheel, but by 1967 it had been reduced to a small pond to the north of the main channel. Carlton Wheel Dam supplied Carlton Wheel, which was another inline pond with a weir at the outlet. Lady Ida's Drive crosses just below where the weir was, and to the south of the river is the site of Plumbley Colliery, a scheduled monument because it is a good example of a late 19th century coal mine. The remains include the Seldom Seen engine house, a Guibal fan house, the remains of coking ovens, and a conical spoil heap. It was operational between 1875 and 1914.

As the river approaches Eckington, there is another weir by Gasworks Lane Bridge, which formerly supplied Park Mill, a flour mill which was no longer marked as such by 1967. Eckington gas works was located on the south bank of the river, which then passes under the A6135 Sheffield Road and the B6053 Rotherham Road. There was once a sluice by the first bridge, which fed a saw mill by the second, but the building had been demolished by 1923. The river passes along the northern edge of the Rotherside Road Business Park and joins the west bank of the River Rother, which flows to the north at this point. At the southern edge of the business park, Eckington Mine was a drift mine where coal continued to be extracted until it unexpectedly closed in 2019. The site has since been made safe by the Coal Authority.

Moss Valley

Moss Valley is the name of the valley carved out by The Moss, located in North East Derbyshire, just south of Sheffield, England. Nearby settlements include Charnock, Troway, Eckington, Mosborough, and Ridgeway.

Moss Valley is home to the Eckington Woods and Bluebell Woods, the latter being a local term coined because of the quantity of bluebells which cover the woods in the springtime.

The valley, which is formed by The Moss and its tributaries, covers an area of about 10 square kilometres (3.9 sq mi).

Industry

Moss Valley, due to its location next to a river near several coal seams and rock outcrops, has seen much industry over its history.

Moss Valley has a long history of quarrying and mining. Most of the quarries and mines are now closed, but several are still open. The coal mine near to where The Moss flows into the River Rother, Eckington Coal Mine (a drift mine operated by Moorside Mining Co. Ltd.), is still open; as is Sicklebrook Quarry in Sicklebrook (near Troway).

There are also several mills in the valley. In several locations, The Moss has been dammed to create reservoirs and mill ponds.

There was a corn mill at Birley Hay in the early 16th century, but a cutler's wheel was erected a little before 1599. The millpond was formed by a dam across the valley, which was called Fortitude Dam on a map dating from 1796. The wheel was owned by William and John Mullins at that time, and there were ten griding troughs. The operation was expanded in 1836, when a forge was constructed, and a second water wheel was added to allow it to be worked independently of the grinding wheels. A range of nearby buildings were associated with the scythe manufactory, and scythes were made there until the 1930s, but during the Second World War, the forge was stripped of all its machinery, which was melted down for the war effort. The wheelhouse and the warehouse remain as do the millponds, dams and watercourses, but are on private property, although they can be seen from a nearby public footpath.

Park Mill was located close to the parish church in Eckington, and is thought to be the site of a watermill mentioned in the Domesday Book. A mill on the site was mentioned in documents dating from 1480 and 1581, but it was rebuilt in the early 19th century, as a sale document from 1828 describes it as a new stone-built corn mill. The rebuild probably followed a serious fire in 1826, and the new building had three floors, stabling for three horses, and a tiled roof. Another serious fire occurred in 1904, and on 24 September 1931 significant damage occurred when the mill dam gave way, resulting in the end wall being destroyed and part of the roof collapsing. Nevertheless, it was rebuilt and continued in operation until the mid 1940s. The two storey building was demolished in the late 1950s or early 1960s. In the mid-19th century, it had an overshot wheel which was 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter and 2 feet (0.61 m) wide. However, a painting dating from 1953 shows it with a backshot wheel at that time. No details of its internal machinery are known, although two pairs of stones are visible in a photograph taken at the time it was demolished.

Moss Valley used to be renowned for its excellent sickle and scythe production.

Sport and recreation

Moss Valley is popular among walkers, ramblers and cyclists. On a bank holiday the woods can be very busy with people, families and groups exploring the woods or linking the woods into a wider walk. Mountain bikers are a common sight in the area, and several trails are popular amongst local cyclists on both the Mosborough and the Eckington sides of the valley. The two ponds on the Ridgeway side are used for private fishing, and there is a car park at this end, as well as the Bridge Inn public house.

Wildlife

Multiple locations in the Moss Valley have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest by English Nature.

The main Moss Valley SSSI consists of a 25.9 hectare strip of land along both banks of the Moss, starting at Bromehead Wood (just east of Ford) and ending at the Gashouse Lane road bridge just outside Eckington. It has been designated as an SSSI due to its value as a high quality habitat for invertebrates. This site also includes about 5 hectares of the increasingly rare floodplain grazing marsh habitat.

Three distinct locations in the valley have been designated as part of the Moss Valley Meadows SSSI, mainly along the side valley of the Robin Brook, one of the Moss's main tributaries. The northern section of the SSSI is the largest and consists of a large area of forest clearings in the Near Hill Clough Wood and the Far Hill Clough Wood immediately to the south of Charnock, a southern suburb of Sheffield; the site is located mainly on the southern bank of the Robin Brook, with the clearings in the trees supporting a meadow habitat. The central section of the SSSI is located further south along the Robin Brook, close to Hazlehurst Farm, in forest clearings in Parson's Wood and the neighborouring Joshua Holt woodland on the southern bank of the Robin Brook. The southern section of the SSSI is located in an area of open land just outside Geerlane, on the southern bank of the Moss where it is joined by the Robin Brook.

Another two distinct locations in the valley have been designated as part of the Moss Valley Woods SSSI. Both are located on the southern slopes of the valley, high above the Moss. The western section is the larger of the two, located in a section of Whinacre Wood, Cook Spring Wood and Owler Car Wood to the north-east of Coal Aston. The eastern section is located in an area of Moor Mires Wood, Mires Spring Wood and Brownstorth Wood, between Sicklebrook to the west and Troway to the east. There is a variety of common English woodland wildlife in the woods. Species often seen include badgers, hares, roe deer, foxes, rabbits and owls. The 85 species of moths and butterflies includes the white-letter hairstreak.