Following the Grand Photo shoot by the Wortley Fountain the bulk of the riders left to go on the Sight Seeing ride with Rob.

Those left were few, but a happy group. Leaving Wortley Hall up the steep drive felt harsh after a large rather marvellous breakfast. Following the Halifax Road and turning down Finkle Street gives us a swift decent to the Trans Pennine Trail and the entrance to Wharncliffe Woods. This is an undulating area of tracks, the local area's MTB Mecca, we followed the main track around the perimeter. Lots of down hill and a few steep climbs. Finishing the circuit we turn onto a track which runs parallel with Woodhead Road. A mile further on we dropped down an unnamed bridleway back on to the T.P.T. below Wortley, to go into Penistone for a pub lunch. Here we met up with George who joined us for our one and a half hour lunch break. There was a unanimous decision to leave the 8km of up hill to Dunford Bridge for another day, and head back to Wortley via a different route . Returning once again onto the T.P.T. we soon turned off at Thurgoland and rode along the quite lanes of the Don Valley. We came up on Wortley Top Forge, which was not open. We were looking down, through the glassless windows when along came a car wanting to get through the gates. This is the surprising twist. A man approached us and asked if we would like to come inside and have a look. A unanimous yes, and there we were having a conducted tour of the place, with a very lively talk about the the Forge, dating back to 1640 making Wrought Iron. In 1849 with the railways being built all over the place, the Master Blacksmith saw an opening in the market for train axles, Ted our guide explained that wrought Iron was made from pig iron and the more it was hammered and beaten the purer the iron became. We inspected how the Iron Bars were fused together to make the axles, outside we saw workshops for the Carpenters and Blacksmiths,with the stores at the far end. The red bricked Office and Middens.

Ted's talk was so enthusiastic and very interesting. The Forge is open Sundays and Bank Holiday Monday. It's really worth a visit. Leaving the Forge we made our way along the lane until we found another track which was paved with concrete flags. This was a medium climb with a couple of gates but lead us out behind the Church at Wortley. Our ride turned out to be very interesting and we got back to the Hall for our pre dinner socialising.

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