Nature Reserves
Stanley Marsh Nature Reserve
This patchwork of woodland, marshland, and ponds was created by mining subsidence and over the last 50 years has become an important habitat for wildlife. In the 1800s this area was part of Stanley Deep Drop Pit (one of the 5 five working pits that formed Stanley Victoria Colliery). The Deep Drop Pit closed in Tuesday 4th March 1879 after a disaster killed 21 people.
Trees were planted as a memorial to the dead, and since then the area has become a wetland area, surrounded by woodland and a hay meadow. The air is filled with butterflies and dragonflies in the summer and a large variety of birds including kingfisher, green woodpecker and water birds, sparrow hawks that can be seen on the woodland edge.
The area also has a good variety of flowering plants, especially on the hay meadow in early summer. An ancient Black Mulberry stands in front of Hatfeild Hall. Mulberries were planted about 200 years ago in a drive to create a British silk industry. Unfortunately the leaves of the Black variety are not a suitable food for the silkworm larvae.
Over the last few years the group Friends of Stanley Marsh have done extensive work to the area including laying footpaths, new gates and clearing the area. In 2009 the old wooden board walk which had been vandalised was replaced with a new path after Wakefield Council asked the local community what they would like to see at the site. Locals opted to replace the old boardwalk with a solid path in order to reinstate the circular route around the marsh. Waste Recycling Environment Limited provided a £16 000 grant to fund the path, which was constructed by the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers.
Because of this work a well marked path, suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs, leads from the car park around the reserve. Around the area there are still reminders to the areas past, the old spoil heap still remains from the colliery, leading down to the wooden jetty that over looks the marsh land. In the streams alongside some of the footpaths runs a dark orange water, evidence that water is still coming up from the old workings even now. What a site the area must have been 150 years ago.
If you look carefully enough there is also a few air grates, and foundations of the colliery bulidings. Some of the footpaths near the golf course follow the same routes as early tram roads that criss crossed the area in the 19th century. Hatfeild Hall looks down on the whole area, a buliding of great historic importance, now restored it adds a touch of charm to the reserve. Anoter intresting building on the edge of the reserve is Spa Fold. Originally built as offices and stables of the Deep Drop pit if you look at the stone walls from within the courtyard you can still see the bricked up archways which would have been the entrances into the stables. They were converted into housing, and after falling derelict in the 1980s were redeveloped around 15 years ago.
Stanley Ferry Flash, Southern Washlands & surrounding area
Up to the 1980s much of the landscape around this area was industrial; the evidence of this has all but gone from the area. The fields at Parkhill were the site of the Parkhill Colliery up to 1983, worked for over 100 years the site has been completely transformed in recent years, many trees have been planted and meadows run towards Eastmoor. On a clear day you will see rabits running across these fields. The southern washlands nature reserve was a quarry worked for sand and gravel from the 1950s up to the 5 January 1971 when the quarry was blown up.
The day the site was detonated the shockwave was felt as far as Ferry Lane, the locals had no idea what the explosion was because the authorities had not notified people of the event. The sand quarry buildings were demolished in the 1980s during landscaping and planting trees. The area is a popular spot with birdwatchers these days that come from far and wide to see birds such as kingfishers, skylarks and sand martins.
The pond at the Ferry Flash was once agricultural land that became unstable due to mining subsidence. The area was designed as a flood plain when restored, protecting local communities from flooding. During times of heavy rainfall the area will hold up to 300 000 m3 of water, protecting the Lower Calder Valley. Until recently Ferryboat fields was part of the Welbeck Reclamation and Landfill Scheme, but has now been restored and reopened.
The fishing pond at the end of Balk Lane has been cleared in the last 12 months after years of neglect restoring it back to the state it was in years ago. At the top of Balk Lane is the site of the old prefabs, it has also has been reclaimed by nature in the past 30 years.
There are still a few reminders of the streets that once covered the area, occasionally you can see a street light or clothes post in the overgrown areas. Overall the area has drastically changed in the last 30 years, what was once a thriving industrial area with noise of machinery and trains has now long gone.
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