Hurtling up or down the M1 motorway, past Rotherham and Sheffield, you will pass Canklow Woods. They rise above the lower valley of the River Rother, 200 acres of ancient woodlands of birch and oak, hiding open heathland at the very top. In Victorian times, naturalists travelled to Canklow Woods by coach from Birmingham to collect holly blue butterflies. Sadly, there is little holly or ivy, their larval food plants, now, but the butterflies have returned in recent years. Also hidden from the speeding motorist is the site of a Romano-British settlement. Human activity goes back still further. In Early Man In Hallamshire, published in 1939, Harold Armitage has an entire chapter, headed "The Canklow Bronze", which refers to a Bronze Age axe discovered in the area.

However, it was for fungi that I visited Canklow Woods this week. On a wet and windy afternoon I trudged through the dripping foliage, peering beneath bracken and birch for mushrooms and toadstools. Red fly agaric shone in the autumn rain, in all stages of growth. A close relation, the blusher, had fruited at a junction in the path network. The blusher is edible, according to my books, but it looks too much like the poisonous Panther cap for my liking. There were woolly milk caps and ugly milk caps, this latter well named, being dark olive-green, sticky and slimy. More attractive is the amethyst deceiver, a delicate little toadstool of purple and lilac. There were several species of rusula and a number of boletes, including cep, or penny bun and orange birch bolete. Man's historic occupation of Canklow Woods has left few reminders, although there are a few small quarries in the red sandstone hillside.

There was a plan, approved by the council's planning committee, to build a dry ski-slope down the hill, through the woods, with lights on towers at the top. That was 13 years ago and fortunately, the plan came to nought. It should never have been as much as ink on paper.