Jean Smithson (nee Creswick)

Gillfield Wood

My family have always lived in Totley and we moved into a newly built house on Main Avenue in 1936 and I suppose even at that early date we were taken for walks through Gillfield Wood, but I think my memories of playing there would mostly be throughout the 1940’s.

 At this time, the wood was in two parts. We would reach the smaller wood from the Rowan Tree Dell end. There was not a proper path, just a well-worn way where we clambered over the ditch which ran behind Rowen Tree Dell, then we would cross the field to the wood entrance. My Grandad used to tell us that this ditch was really an old sunken footpath and that there was a milestone somewhere along it, but though I looked for it many times, I never found it.

This path left Totley Hall Lane then turned leftwards, a line of trees marked the line of the original route. Eventually it crossed Mickley Lane, then went up Bradway Bank to Tinkers Corner. Before we entered the wood, the field was a steep slope and at one point there had been a landslip revealing patches of yellow clay which we as children would mould in our hands but apart from rolling it into a round ball and getting my hands filthy, I can’t remember any end product. The two areas of woodland were separated by a steep, grassy field which was a good place then for picking blackberries. The bigger wood was then entered by either a gate or a style, I can’t remember which. 

River jumping was a regular game for years for my sister, myself and our old playmates the Bellamy brothers (Michael and Gordon). We would walk or run beside the river jumping across every bend as the river meandered along — wet feet and soggy socks were not unusual! Most of our walks through the wood were for the purpose of 'sticking' (collecting firewood). Everyone in those days had a coal fire and needed sticks for the kindling. I remember once meeting Mrs Windle who had already gathered a sizeable bundle of sticks, but as it was such a nice day she decided to walk further with us and she put down her bundle of sticks behind the big rock by the path. This rock was always used as a seat and it made a good resting place for the older folk, however, on this particular day when we returned, all the sticks had been picked up by someone else and we had to go and look for some more for Mrs W. 

There used to be a swimming pool not far away from 'the rock' and it was usually full of dead branches and leaves and only once do I remember the ‘big boys’ swimming there. They had thrown out all the debris and cleared the small channel which fed the pool from the river. On that hot summer’s day as we watched, the lads jumped in and out splashing merrily but the water was quite brown - heaven knows what colour they were when they returned home. In the small wood, the river widened out nicely at one point and flowed over an area of flat bed rock. This made a superb paddling pool and often on hot summer days quite a crowd would gather there to enjoy the cool water. Sometimes some of the Mums would turn up with sandwiches and a thermos flask so that we could play longer before bedtime. In spring, the woods were white with Wood Anenomies, then blue with bluebells. Deep in the big wood (near to where the path through Tims fields entered the wood) there was a group of rhododendrons and it was always a delight to pick a bunch to take home and put in a vase. 

By the river, nearer to Owler Bar, daffodils grew — not the small wild ones but big showy ones, more like the King Alfred Daffodils. My Dad and my Grandparents all called the wood Gillfield (as in Jill) but as we grew older it seemed to become corrupted into Gillyfield. I'm not sure of the date when Batty Langley, the timber merchant moved in, but the wood as we knew it was never the same again. Huge tripods were erected (some kind of hoist I think for lifting heavy timber). The trees were felled and the plant life crushed by feet and vehicles. All was mud and devastation. Well that was about 50 or more years ago and the wood is looking beautiful again. I don't get much chance to visit now but the last time I walked there with my mother, I noted that the in-between field has gone and it is now covered in trees so the two woods are now as one. I have many happy memories of my childhood and Gillfield Wood and I wish you joy in the work you are doing. 

June 2011

Anyone Remember?