The Blackburn Brook is a stream in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England which flows through the Blackburn Valley along the M1 and Ecclesfield Road and joins the River Don near the Meadowhall shopping centre. Downstream from the A61 road at Chapeltown the Blackburn Brook is defined as a main river by the Environment Agency, which requires new building development to be at least from the bank side as a flood defence measure and to allow access to the watercourse for maintenance.
Course
Blackburn Brook begins on the northern edge of High Green, the northernmost suburb of Sheffield, which is some from the city centre. It is formed from the waters of Storrs Dike, How Brook and Mark Brook, which meet within the boundaries of Westwood Country Park. Storrs Dike rises on the southern edge of Wortley Hall grounds, a grade II listed park and gardens created in the 19th century. It flows to the east and then the south east to the junction. How Brook rises to the west of the junction, and flows through a reservoir and the hamlet of Howbrook. Mark Brook rises to the south-west, and flows to the north east through Howbrook Reservoir to join the other two streams. The combined flow heads, broadly towards the south-east, passing over a weir, under Westwood Bridge, and entering another small reservoir. The outlet passes into a culvert, which carries it under what was a large refuse tip in 1967, and was the northern extremity of Thorncliffe Iron Works in 1905. Thorncliffe Iron Works and the adjacent Thorncliffe Colliery have been replaced with housing, and after a small pond and a short section of stream, the river enters a culvert beneath the housing by Newton Chambers Road, and emerges some considerable distance to the south-east, where it is joined by Charlton Brook, which rises from a series of springs to the west of the suburb of Charltonbrook.
Both channels are crossed by the Penistone Railway line, and after the junction pass through a culvert beneath a warehouse complex, surface briefly, and pass through another culvert beneath houses and the A6135 Station Road. The brook turns to the south, and runs along the eastern edge of the housing at Chapeltown. It is crossed by the A619 Cowley Lane and the railway follows its western bank. After the B6087 Nether Lane bridge, it continues in a course that is further west than it was when the Smithy Wood Colliery was operational. Much of it disappeared under the colliery waste tips, but it has been diverted around the tip, and follows an 'S' shaped course to regain its original route at the southern end of the site. It then passes through the S35 Industrial Park, under Loicher Bridge, and back under the railway to join up with Whitley Brook, which is also known as Ecclesfield Brook.
Whitley Brook rises as a series of springs to the west of Whitley Hall, an ancient house dating from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, with more recent additions. A doorway carries the inscription "William Parker made this worke 1584", and the building, which is now used as a hotel and restaurant, is grade II* listed. A large lake in the grounds was once the mill pond to Whitley Mill. The brook flows east, and then south-east to Ecclesfield, where it is joined by another small stream, rising to the east of Grenoside, which passes through a hamlet called The Wheel, and then fills a large dam. Nearby is Willow Garth moated site and fishpond, which was close to a Benedictine Priory, parts of which remain, although converted into dwellings. The dam supplied water power to Ecclesfield paper mill, sandwiched between the dam and the south bank of Whitley Brook. The brook continues in a south-easterly direction through Ecclesfield, where is powered Ecclesfield corn mill, Norfolk Foundry and Oliver Wheel, before it joined Blackburn Brook.