Botanists at Conisbro’.

June 1891

Sheffield Independent – Monday 29 June 1891

Botanists at Conisbro’.

Yesterday some 900 botanists and friends visited Conisbro’, from Lancashire, the train starting from Oldham. This is the fifth annual visit of the party to the South Yorkshire village, the popularity of the place being in consequence of the many rare specimens which can be found by close investigation of the picturesque crags near the banks of the Don.

Conisbro’ was reached about nine o’clock, and the botanists had fine weather in which to roam about at their own sweet will. The naturalists from Ashton-under-Lyne district were joined by a number of Sheffield botanists, and Messrs. Battery and Shepherd, of Attercliffe, had the merit of finding the rarest plant of the day, the Neotia Nidus Avis (Bird’s Nest Orchid), an orchid.

It is four years since a specimen was found at Whitwell, in Derbyshire, by this society.

Amongst the excursionists were a number who were not such students of nature, and they proceeded in wagonettes either to Doncaster of Roche Abbey.

The parties met in a body at night in a field near the Station Inn, and there compared specimens. Able and interesting addresses were delivered in explanation of the products found, the speakers being Mr W Shepard, J Hannon, Hollerenshaw, H Turner, J. H. Stopford (secretary) and J Ward (chairman).

Under the display, and a large crowd was interested in the naming of the plants and the payment of their medical quality. Several of the speakers expressed a great delight in visiting the crags, which they considered the “English paradise for botanists.”