The
Unofficial WebsiteWarren Vale
Actually I have managed to find very little published about the Warren Vale
Local Nature Reserve so this is a bit of local knowledge and a lot of talking off the top of my
head. Warren Vale Local Nature Reserve in the sometimes steep-sided valley of the Collier
Brook. The brook rises north of Rawmarsh and flows in an easterly direction to join the River
Don south of Kilnhurst.
The brook flows through Birch Wood, a Heritage Woodland site and through Warren Vale where the area between Hague Avenue, Thorogate and the main road appears to be the site of the reserve. This is an area of woods and glades crossed by public footpaths. When I have walked there the most notable wildlife was the jays. For more information about Birch Wood visit onsite at Recreation in Rotherham >> Parks >> Heritage Woodlands >> Birch Wood, Rawmarsh. There is also an area of rough pasture with scrub which looks as if at one time it was used as an eventing course.
This was the site of Warren Vale Colliery, formerly the Rawmarsh Colliery Victoria Pit, sunk in 1837 and closed in 1897. In the 1970s plantations were set to help reclaim the land though the spoil is still visible in places.
I have done some walking along Collier Brook on the other side of the main road. I have blundered through the disused workings, the old pit and the slag heaps and waded through the dispersed litter from the Dumpit site. Although this area has no designations it is full of wildlife - foxes, rabbits, owls, innumerable species of birds, butterflies, wildflowers and boggy areas of reedbeds with dragonflies and frogs.