Gillfield Wood Swimming Pool, drawing by Mike Roberts

2. The circular features visible between Gillfield Wood and the path to Woodthorpe Hall I believe to be the remains of Home Guard activity during the last war. A searchlight was located in the centre of the field at the bottom of Wings Hill, this was circular. Along the top of the same field running parallel to the drive to Woodthorpe Hall were three or four huts, roughly 30ft. x 18ft. obviously these were square. In the adjoining field moving westwards were two or three circular ponds, of the dimensions suggested by Mr Froggat. These "ponds" I always felt were water filled collapsed mine workings but I cannot verify this. Not so very far away at the top of Mickley Lane there used to be drift mine workings. The ponds mentioned were again circular. I hope this may shed some light on Mr Froggat's questions. I am born and bred in Totley only moving down here on retirement.

Duncan Froggatt, Totley Independent, July/August 2002

VIEWS FROM ABOVE. AN UPDATE.
I am grateful to Mr Roberts of Holsworthy for his letter published in the April edition of the Totley Independent and to Steve Randall of Queen Victoria Road. He also wrote to me on the questions I had posed in February, In about 1990 Bob Warburton wrote a lovely book "Sheffield's Woodland Heritage" with a chapter on Holmesfield Park Woods and described white coal pits there. From the size you describe it seems probable that there are also some white coal pits in Gillfield Woods. As to the swimming pool, a neighbour, Archie Thomas, late of 42 Queen Victoria Road, told me a bit about it. Archie was born in 1903 and was the son of the butler to William Aldam Milner of Totley Hall. He wrote a brief autobiography which includes: "Our favourite ducking hole was the old sheep wash in Bull Wood that is the small wood between the bottom of Gillfield Wood and the field that backs on to the houses of Rowan tree Dell. There was another good pool in the Cricket Wood made by Caprons of Green Oak House and further improved by the sons of Pearsons of St. George's Farm. The pool made by the Milners in Gillfield was too cold it got full of dead leaves but was cleared by the lads of the village around 1932, the main worker was Fred Hoole. I've no idea where Cricket Wood is. He showed me the Gillfield pool and it is where you describe it. He described with glee some of the activities around and in the pool that didn't include much swimming. Incidentally someone tried to dig the Gillfield pool out again about 10 years ago but it has very quickly silted up. If the woods extended into this field 200 years ago then whitecoal pits are a strong possibility. Following Mr Holsworthy's idea that the pits were collapsed mine working I have looked more closely at some geological records. The Geological Survey indicates that the pits are close to an outcrop of micaceous sandstone. It is possible that a thin seam of coal or a seat earth was associated with it but I have not seen any definitive record of it. If, as is possible, this is part of the Grenoside Sandstone deposits, then it is quite possible. The collieries at the top of the hill at Mickley were working some of the better coal seams the Silkstone and Mickley Thick amongst others, that were outcropping there. You can still see traces of the Silkstone outcrop across the field opposite the top of Mickley Lane. The next significant coal seams are to be found in Totley Bents and parts of Dore. The brickworks on Baslow Road is where it is because of the deposits of suitable clay with these coal seams. Thank you for helping provide information about my queries. However, does anyone else know of "Cricket Wood"?

Jo Rundle, Totley Independent, December 2006/January 2007 

OLD TOTLEY
There were activities and pastimes, some for all ages and sexes, others strictly for men only, the pond in the wood being the main one for a time in summer during the early twenties. The river Sheaf rises in a heap of rocks in the second field on the south-west side of Moorwood Lane just past Mooredge Farm from where it flows down the field and under the road at its lowest point and continues down the fields and through Gillfield Wood, part of the Totley Hall Estate, when it is known as Totley Brook. Early in the century Arthur Bradley the Forester and other employees at Totley Hall had damned the brook just above a bend and excavated an area 18ft square by 3ft. deep to make a fish-rearing pond with a pipe inserted to drain off the water into what was intended to be a swimming pool, however, in a short time the tank completely filled with silt and was abandoned. Some time in the early twenties Frank Taylor and Arthur Kirby approached Mr. Milner for permission to re-excavate
the site and create a swimming-pool for the lads of the village, to which he agreed. The pond was not an ideal situation because, still being a part of a flowing stream it was constantly being silted-up and fowled by vegetation from upstream, and although it was often a source of great hilarity, as when one of the village girls dared to gate-crash and was dunked for her efforts, and many of the youths learned to swim in it's muddy waters, it soon became impossible to keep it clean enough even to play around in and was abandoned.

Ann White, Totley Independent, July/August 2011 

CHEMICAL YARD MEMORIES

...I always knew the woods by the name of Gillyfield and, the first time that I saw the name in print, I thought that the printers had got their facts wrong! I remember walking through the woods in early springtime, they were full of bluebells and the sun's rays shone through the baby green leaves of the beech trees, I thought I was in the Garden of Eden. I recall seeing the remains of the swimming pool and wondering why it was there...

Jim Wyte, Totley Independent, September 2011

TOTLEY MEMORIES

My name is Jim Whyte and I have lived in Plymouth since 1962. Picked up a copy of your excellent publication from (what used to be) Gratton's on Totley Rise and was interested in a letter from Anne White, referring to a disused swimming pool in Gillfield Woods. As a boy, I lived at 14, Rowan Tree Dell from about 1940 until I got married and spent most of my spare time playing in the woods. I was very aware of the derelict swimming pool. I often used to wonder who had gone to the trouble of digging out a large hole and fitting up a water supply and outlet. I never did find out, but one year I remember that a gang of local lads let in water from the river and cleared the surrounds of the pool. For a few days the pool was used for swimming by youngsters from the area. It soon fell into disrepair again. I don't remember the date, but would have thought it was in the mid forties.

Listen to what Christine Hibberd has to say in Totley Swimming Pool