When Rother Valley Country Park was built in the 1980s, constructors used water from The Moss to fill the lakes.

[2] The river flows through the Moss Valley and through the villages of Geerlane, Birley Hay, Ford and Eckington.

[3] As it approaches the hamlet of Birley Hay, which is considerably smaller than it was in 1886, the river powered a scythe manufactory.

Robin Brook flows southwards from Base Green, and joins the north bank of The Moss just below the bridge.

There is another mill pond to the south of the river, which was filled by a stream rising at Bramley and flowing northwards.

The dam, a term used locally to describe the body of water, rather than the structure that creates it, powered Neverfear Wheel.

Beyond it, the river was once crossed by a tramway, which ran along the south bank from a shaft, and then turned abruptly north to ascend up a long inclined plane to buildings at the top of the slope.

The body of water stretched back almost to the weirs at Field's Wheel, but by 1967 it had been reduced to a small pond to the north of the main channel.

[8] Lady Ida's Drive crosses just below where the weir was, and to the south of the river is the site of Plumbley Colliery, a scheduled monument because it is a good example of a late 19th century coal mine.

The valley, which is formed by The Moss and its tributaries, covers an area of about 10 square kilometres (3.9 sq mi).

[14][15] Moss Valley, due to its location next to a river near several coal seams and rock outcrops, has seen much industry over its history.

The enclosure map of 1796 showed a small building, but no mill pond, while a document from that time referred to it as Woollin Wheel.

The works lay empty, and in 1944 the machinery was dismantled as part of the war effort, but the ironwork remained on site until 1946.

[18] The wheelhouse and the warehouse remain as do the millponds, dams and watercourses, but are on private property, although they can be seen from a nearby public footpath.

The pond is located to the north of the river, and is fed by a goit which leaves the main channel further to the west.

Robin Brook feeds into the goit, although there was an arrangement to allow excess water to be diverted back into The Moss.

[21] Sough Wheel was built shortly before 1796 on a tributary which runs northwards to join The Moss on its right bank.

[22] Never Fear Wheel was powered by a pond to the north of the main channel, which was fed by a long goit, leaving the river where the Ridgeway Brook joined it.

[27] Park Mill was located close to the parish church in Eckington, and is thought to be the site of a watermill mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Mountain bikers are a common sight in the area, and several trails are popular amongst local cyclists on both the Mosborough and the Eckington sides of the valley.

The two ponds on the Ridgeway side are used for private fishing, and there is a car park at this end, as well as the Bridge Inn public house.

Multiple locations in the Moss Valley have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest by English Nature.

The northern section of the SSSI is the largest and consists of a large area of forest clearings in the Near Hill Clough Wood and the Far Hill Clough Wood immediately to the south of Charnock, a southern suburb of Sheffield; the site is located mainly on the southern bank of the Robin Brook, with the clearings in the trees supporting a meadow habitat.

The central section of the SSSI is located further south along the Robin Brook, close to Hazlehurst Farm, in forest clearings in Parson's Wood and the neighborouring Joshua Holt woodland on the southern bank of the Robin Brook.

[34] The water quality of The Moss, which only appears to cover the stretch from Ford to the River Rother, was as follows in 2019.

The river has not been classed as good quality because of physical modification of the channel, which prevents the free movement of fish, and discharges from adjacent agricultural land, both of which affect the fish population, with sewage discharge, incidents, and the presence of the invasive North American signal crayfish, which affect invertebrates within the river.

Like many rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS) and mercury compounds, none of which had previously been included in the assessment.

[36] The river was part of a larger survey into the distribution and spread of American signal crayfish undertaken in June and July 2012.

It tried to establish whether all invasive crayfish had spread out from a single infestation in the Don catchment, or whether they had been introduced at multiple locations, and the survey supported the latter conclusion.

[39] The fact that The Moss flows through woodland for most of its length is thought to be a factor in their spread, as such bankside vegetation provides both shade and refuges for them to thrive.