Shire Brook

It rises in the suburb of Gleadless Townend and flows in a general easterly direction for 4 miles (6.5 km) to its confluence with the River Rother between Beighton and Woodhouse Mill.

[1] The course of the stream has been influenced by human intervention in the 20th century with the brook being diverted underground and flowing through culverts on three occasions as it traverses locations which were formerly landfill sites and extensive railway sidings.

Shire Brook rises as an underground spring at a height of 630 feet (192 m) above sea level beneath the Red Lion public house in the Gleadless Townend residential area at 53°20′41″N 1°25′32″W / 53.3447°N 1.4256°W / 53.3447; -1.4256.

It initially flows NE going beneath housing to emerge on the Jaunty Park recreation and sports grounds as an insignificant and rubbish strewn stream running at the rear of the Birley Vale Industrial Estate.

The final 220 yards (200 m) of Shire Brook’s journey before it joins the Rother is again through an underground culvert beneath the site of the former Woodhouse Junction railway sidings which is now disused brownfield land which was being considered by Network Rail as a location for a new National Engineering Centre before plans were rejected in April 2008.

Another alternative name for the brook was Ochre Dike, due to the run off from mines in the valley which made the water a yellow brown colour.

[5] In 1967 the City of Sheffield expanded its borders south to take in the suburbs of Hackenthorpe and Mosborough and the Brook no longer marked the frontier between the two counties.

The reserve includes Beighton Marsh, an area of reed-grass swamp, situated at its eastern end, which supports birds such as reed bunting, grasshopper warbler and barn owl, as well as mammals such as harvest mouse and water vole.

The Birley Spa Bath House, a grade II listed building was restored with a Heritage Lottery Fund grant in 2001.

[9] Also within the reserve is Wickfield Plantation, one of the few remaining areas of lowland heath and coppiced oak woodland inside Sheffield.