Maltby Commons
Maltby Commons Local Nature Reserve stretches from Outgang Lane to Dike Hagg. Access is from Outgang Lane opposite the entrance to the colliery and from Stoney Well Lane off the Tickhill Road. It is situated on an area of Southern Magnesian Limestone and supports some plants rare in Rotherham like Grass of Parnassus, Lady's Mantle and Marsh Orchids. Maltby Commons was declared a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) in 2000 as it supports a wide variety of wildlife in grassland and ancient woodland areas.
The area consists of common lands at Far Common, Low Common and Pieces Bank. The land is part of Sandbeck Estates but the public have rights of access on foot and there are public footpaths through the site. Low Common Nature Reserve occupies the southwestern corner and was established by agreement between Sandbeck Estates and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust in 1971. It contains Maltby Low Common which became a SSSI in 1970. Pieces Bank was included in 1987. The SSSI was designated because Low Common supports a mosaic of grassland communities with a diversity of flora not known elsewhere in South Yorkshire.
The Low Common and Pieces Bank are designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). You can find out more at Recreation - Rotherham's Parks - SSSIs - Maltby Low Common & Pieces Bank. The Low Common has been managed by The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust since 1971.
The time of year being the Easter holidays, the day being fine for a change we took our leaflet for Maltby Commons and went on a long(ish) walk about the place. Now I wish I could say that it was a pretty place to visit but it is not. Whatever the value of the nature reserve at Maltby Commons and the other Sites of Special Scientific Interest that form part of the site; pretty it certainly is not. To one side there is the railway and the White City, to another Maltby Colliery, although to the south and west are farmlands and the estate of Sandbeck Park. The commons are boggy in places, dry in others, some footpaths are OK, some muddy and full of ruts and puddles. The electricity pylons run overhead.
The tyre tracks everywhere indicated the recent presence of Greater and Lesser Spotted Bikie Boys. Cars have been joy-ridden, crashed and fired here. Rubbish has been dumped. Air rifles have been fired. I know that it was early in the year but there was little wildlife. There were banks of wood anemones, scarce patches of daffodils and lesser celandine, pussy willow and gorse in bloom. There were lots of spiders, a few large bumble bees and a wide variety of small birds, but of larger creatures, only dogs and their walkers were in evidence.
There is a small car park on Stoneywell Lane. No access for wheelchairs or motorised buggies because of the anti-bike gates, and no metalled paths. Most of the site is flattish, unless you come in at the Pieces Bank end where there is as you might have guessed a steep bank, so walking is not difficult, bar the mud.