Projects

The tabs on this page take a look back through how the site was transformed from dereliction to the beautiful, tranquil wildlife haven we see today and the different events and projects that have taken place on the site since then.

GREG teamed up with Dearne Churches Together to organise a Christmas at the Embankment Event. There was a Christmas Trail with children finding Christmas characters hidden around the site holding up letters and words that spelt out a Christmas word and phrase; bauble decorating; mince pies and warm drinks and the event finished with everybody gathering around the nativity scene to sing Christmas carols.

Local resident Catherine Slingsby had been busy making poppies from the bottom of plastic bottles and approached Cllr Dorothy Coates asking for somewhere to display these. This started a joint project with the Dearne Area Team and the Dearne Arts Festival Group. Events were held where local people could also make a poppy for the site and over 600 poppies were displayed on the Embankment for the period of Remembrance. They were officially opened by Rachel Harvey the chair of the Wath British Legion.

GREG and the Dearne Area Team decided to host an Autumn Fair on the site and to invite local independent business along to have a stall to promote themselves and aid their post Covid recovery. The event was a huge success with estimates of about 800 people browsing stalls ranging from wax melts, sweets, bath bombs, wreaths, wooden toys, sewn gifts, sensory toys, cards, aftershaves, chutneys and other Halloween and Christmas gifts. In addition to this some local community groups/organisations had tombola’s or ran activities; there was a food and hot drink van, face painting, consultation on improvements for the area and visits from Mr Veggie giving out free fruit and veg and recipe cards. And of course there was the always popular pumpkin carving with children being able to find and pick a pumpkin and then either carve or paint it. The event was hugely successful with lots of positive comments and every stall holder made a profit.

Pippa Emmerson (Stallholder) said, “Well, what can I say the autumnal fair was fantastic, well organised and well set out with lots to do for all ages. There was a wide range of different stalls and the Dearne team could not do enough for stall holders and visitors. Thank you very much x”

The Dearne Arts Festival Group obtained funding for an artist to design and paint a mural on the bridge wall. Artist Lydia Caprani was chosen and she drew a design for a steam train that would have once used the line. After the wall had been rendered Lydia set about sketching the design onto the wall and this was then painted by Lydia and a team of volunteers during a week in July 2021. Unfortunately, due to Covid, the local schools weren’t able to help out as we had hoped.

In July 2019 and 2021 we were proud to open the Embankment for two very special days – ‘Transition Days’. On each occasion we welcomed onto site some 240 Year 6 school children from the local primary schools who were making the transition to Astrea Academy Dearne. They attended along with their teachers to meet each other and staff from the secondary school. The wide-open spaces afforded by the Embankment provided a friendly and welcoming atmosphere for the pupils and staff who were often meeting for the first time and perhaps a little nervous.

The GREG Team and local partners created and ran several interactive team-building and environmental themed activities to keep the children occupied throughout the day. These included shrub planting; making bird feeders; bug hunting; sunflower seed potting; learning about litter and how to reduce, reuse and recycle; carbon foot printing; leaf bashing; making stick people and learning how to tie knots; painting pebbles; writing poems; seed bombs; an interactive solar system workshop; compass reading and telling us how they would like their area improved. They also gained some Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) Awards. This was a day the young people would not forget.

In March 2021 we managed to obtain enough funding to create a better pathway running the full length of the site. The company chosen was one that had done work on the Trans Pennine Trail and was chosen for the ‘soft feel’ to the finish of the pathway. The pathway is a delight to walk on as it feels almost spongy and soft, yet it is very strong.

The team only took a couple of weeks to prepare the ground all the way from the Straight Lane bridge up to the top entrance. The muddy condition of the lower site made the work extremely difficult but it has turned out well, we have ‘passing loops’ for wheelchairs and everybody who uses it says it’s a great job.

The benches and litter bins were also fitted around the same time, allowing visitors the chance to take a breather whist enjoying the lovely views over the site as a whole.

The GREG team decided that it was time to create a magnificent display of spring flowering bulbs, to this end we purchased some 15,000 bulbs from a dedicated supplier who ended up not only discounting but delivering the bulbs to site himself. A small team from GREG set about planting many sacks of Daffodils and Narcissus on the ground next to and on the embankment. We planted hundreds of Bluebell bulbs at the top of the site and hundreds of spring flowering bulbs amongst the fruit trees of the lower orchard. To cater for late spring and early summer flowering we planted thousands of Allium bulbs. These grow into beautiful pink and red pompom flowers, the ones which the bees and insects love so much.

In October 21 we planted even more daffodils to create an extra special Spring time look for the embankment, one which all our local people will be proud of.

As well as planting; platform areas, seating, raised beds, bird viewing screens and a weather station area have been created to provide engaging spaces for visitors and for focus areas for educational visits.

Interpretation boards have also been installed on site, to inform visitors about the history of the site and its development. An artist was also commissioned to create a nature-based story around the site inspiring visitors to explore and see what nature they can spot. To accompany the boards, leaflets have been designed to encourage children to use their senses to find things in nature. For organised activities on site, there are activity packs with bug hunting equipment, binoculars and other equipment to support this.

Tragedy struck Goldthorpe in November 1984, when, during the miner’s strike, two young brothers died whilst digging for coal on the railway embankment. Despite heroic efforts from the community and emergency services they died from their injuries.

The GREG team contacted their family to see if they would like us to provide a memorial stone down at the railway embankment to show that the community had not forgotten such a terrible loss.

We commissioned a local stone mason Dan Jones and poet Ian McMillan to create something special to commemorate the brothers. It was dedicated to their memory by their family on the opening day of our Embankment.

“Stand here and remember. A time not so long ago.
Then turn and face the future. As the apples grow.” Ian McMillan, Poet

In the spring of 2019 the GREG team obtained a dozen fruit trees, varying from old English apples and pears to plum trees. We invited children from Goldthorpe Primary School to come along and plant them with us. Unfortunately, it was a drizzly day but spirits soon picked up as we discussed where and how to plant them. One child asked how long the trees would grow for. We replied that if we planted it correctly it could live for over 20 years and we got the children to imagine themselves coming down to the Embankment in 20 years’ time with their own children and showing them the apple tree and sharing apples from it. “Wow”, was the response from the children.

In 2019 the GREG team managed to procure some 2000 hawthorn ‘whips’. The hawthorn plant is one of the best growing plants for UK hedging and when small and ready to plant is called a whip.

We invited pupils from the Astrea Academy Dearne to join us for a day of planting. It was not only planting the whips but staking and covering with a plastic tube to stop rabbits eating the young trees. There were over 30 pupils setting too with enthusiasm, enjoying themselves in the sunshine and learning something about planting hedges.

As our group started to work on the plans for the embankment, we realised that the existing railway bridge on the Barnsley Road was in a terrible state of disrepair and desperately needed a coat of fresh green paint. We approached our friends at Network Rail and they were only too happy to supply us litres of the correct type of paint for metal bridges.

We also decided that, while we were at it we might as well paint all the old railway bridges in the village. Clearly this was quite a task and other groups also wanted to get involved, so we advertised for help and were pleasantly surprised with the number of volunteers we got.

A team of volunteers from the Princes Trust were the first to volunteer, followed closely by people from our local Goldthorpe Development Group. Many other volunteers came along as we managed to paint all three of the main railway bridges in the village. It was a big undertaking but it really made a difference, we are so proud of the community people as well as the Princes Trust team who helped transform or old bridges.

The plan was to create a new pathway alongside the existing green metal fence adjacent to Barnsley road, this must be capable of allowing access to the old track bed for all members of our community no matter how abled they are. To this end the heavy earth moving equipment came in and over the next 4 weeks thousands of tons of earth was either moved or tipped onto the site of the pathway.

It was a massive undertaking and even included the final tons of good quality top soil tipped and smoothed over so we could start planting of bulbs, flowers, shrubs and trees.

When we opened the site for the first time. We invited all the university students back so they could have a look at it and see what they had helped create.

Clearance started in late 2016. The GREG group, swelled by many volunteers, the Dearne Area Team from the council and Network Rail slithered down the very steep embankment onto the former track bed to start the clearance. Skips were brought in, old furniture hauled out of the site, bags and bags of rubbish cleared. Over the next few months we filled over 40 skips with fly tipped rubbish.

The pond at the very bottom of the site was absolutely filthy, so it was decided to ask the digger driver doing the path work to start to dig out the complete pond. The filth that came out was atrocious, all manner of items, but shortly after we moved it into the skips the whole of the site lost its obnoxious smell. Things could get better after all and we were all spurred on by this simple act.

Climbing of the steep sides of the cuttings and embankments was always a risk, people didn’t just throw things onto the track bed but onto the sides. These were tricky to remove and a dedicated few people strove to undertake this operation. Climbing with the aid of supports was safest, then throwing the rubbish down for collection by others was by far the best way.

Slowly but surely the site started to transform, the smell was gone, the large items of rubbish were disposed of, spring bulbs started to show through where once there were piles of rubbish. It was a mammoth undertaking and one which we all felt immensely proud to have achieved.

At the very start of our project GREG were faced with a large amount of land which had been leased to us from Network Rail, we knew we had to clear all the rubbish out of it but what next? What would we like it to look like in the near future? We realised that we needed some professional help so we asked students from the University of Sheffield School of Architecture for guidance.

The students undertook a Live Project, drawing up scaled plans of the area and giving us suggestions as to how we could utilise the site. The primary concern was making sure the design included a safe access to the track bed. Clearly we could not ask the public to simply slide down a steep twisting pathway!

Different plans were drawn up and gradually the shape of the embankment came to light. Now all we needed to do was build it!