One River: Into Doncaster

Not a very pleasant day, but as I was keen to get out, I decided on doing the next section of my One River walk. Having failed to find a way through the last section, I started today's leg in an area of Rotherham called Kilnhurst. There was a clear towpath to follow along the Kilnhurst Cut of the South Yorkshire Navigation, with the River in sight, but, as I thought, inaccessible. I discovered further along that there is a footpath, but it is not marked on the map, and to top that, the footpath I was relying on for the next section didn't exist, so I had to walk through a housing estate. I'm now into former mining county, and the whole area is undergoing massive regeneration so it is hardly surprising that the landscape is changing, and with it, the roads and paths. I finally managed to get onto the River itself as I approached Mexborough and left Rotherham for the next borough of Doncaster. It was a short, but very pleasant section (the image here), followed by a stretch with the canal on one side and the river on the other. I finished for today at the former mining village of Denaby Main.  According to Wikipedia,
The village gained notoriety at the close of the 19th century as a result of a characterisation as "The Worst Village in England" in an edition of the magazine 'Christian Budget'. This pejorative piece described somewhere,

"...so repulsive that many who have never been near it will probably refuse to credit the story ...[where]... nearly all the men, and most of the women, devote their high wages to betting, where religion is forgotten, home life is shattered where immorality and intemperance are rife, where wives are sold like cattle, and children are neglected".


A far cry from the desirable waterside residences being build today!