Hathersage Road

More on last week's tragic accident on Hathersage Road just beside the Piper House access point to Blacka Moor. A report in the Sheffield Telegraph says that "it was not thought" that there was any problem at that stretch of road. I find this amazing. Is the Telegraph's reporter quoting a spokesman at the Highways Agency or some other local politician? And are the words used chosen to shield somebody who does not wish to be directly quoted?

It's always been felt by anyone walking along the footpath towards the Blacka Moor entrance that they could be taking their lives in their hands. And you would need to offer me a fairly substantail sum of money to persuade me to wait at the bus stop.

Let me explain that nobody in the police, accident services or the Highways Department itself can have any reason for being ignorant about the dangers of that point on the A625. There is a scheduled bus stop a few yards from the accident. This is more often to be found deposited some 10 feet below through the stone wall caused by vehicles losing control. The authority has now seemingly given up on repairing the walls because each time this happened in the past a new hole has appeared days later. In fact some of us have often wondered if the practice had now become established to leave holes in the wall and debris from crashed cars as a warning to road users - much cheaper of course than taking proper measures.

Favoured Spot

This morning the cloud rolled over pretty quickly. But then one part of southern Sheffield was slected by heaven for favoured attention. I'm sure it was deserved.

Why a Blacka Moor Blog?

I spend a lot of time on Blacka Moor.
To me it's a special place. It changes with the seasons and over the years. And it has its secrets.
Unlike the other wide spaces on the west/south-west edges of Sheffield large parts of Blacka have been mercifully left alone for 60 years or so. Now all that is changing and I fear it will be for the worse. There is a new breed of interferers who think of themselves as conservationists. I prefer to think of them as managers - land managers. And they have some of the same characteristics as other managers in our increasingly managerialist culture. They want to control everything. To me they are the enemies of everything I enjoy about wild countryside.

This site and this blog is dedicated to celebrating the best of Blacka Moor and at the same time to exposing the unimaginative dealings of these modern philistines who don't know that they are damaging something precious.