The current state of the site is large piecemeal enclosures and plantation woodland. Between 1976 and 1978 the site was worked as an opencast coal mine (PIN2317). Prior to this, the land was dominated by the spoil tip from Wharncliffe Silkstone Colliery. The mine was sunk in 1853 and continued to be worked for coal until 1967. It was later used as a pumping station. (Gill 2007b). The mine was built on an area of piecemeal enclosure of uncertain date but which is marked as enclosed on Jefferys map of 1775. The opencast works have removed legibility of most previous land uses but the site is still a mound which gives partial legibility of the colliery. The pre enclosure landscape is uncertain but was probably unenclosed land. There is likely to have been mining in the area before the colliery. PIN2317 records a bell pit and a clay pit is marked on the 1855 map.