Warren 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. Warren Vale Colliery, formerly the Rawmarsh Colliery Victoria Pit, sunk in 1837 and worked until 1897 was situated here. From the 1970s South Yorkshire County Council established a number of plantations here to help reclaim the land. The LNR was designated in 1993.
This is an area of woods and glades crossed by public footpaths. When I have walked there the most notable wildlife was the jays. There is also an area of rough pasture with scrub which looks as if at one time it was used as an eventing course. Old colliery 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 reed beds with dragonflies and frogs.
For more information about Birch Wood visit onsite at Recreation - Rotherham's Parks - Heritage Woodlands - Birch Wood, Rawmarsh.