... site of the old Gedling Colliery.
The main period of operation of the mine was between 1902 and 1991 and the pit exceeded one million tons in a year sixteen times between 1952 and 1969. Parts of the mine were over 360m deep with tunnels that stretched out five miles. The mine faces were up to 220m wide and there were 35 miles of roadway below ground. In 1924 at its height of productivity, there were more than 3,884 men working there of which 3,257 were underground. It developed a reputation as the "pit of all nations" because of the diversity of foreign miners who worked there - in the 1960s, ten per cent of the colliery's workforce of 1,400 were originally from the Caribbean.
(Courtesy of https://u3asites.org.uk/files/c/carlton-gedling/docs/2015-07gedlingcolliery.pdf )
The site was opened as Gedling Country Park on 28 March 2015.
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| All Hallows Church, Gedling with an apparently bulging spire, the second highest in Nottinghamshire |
... around the adjacent solar farm.
The colliery site also hosts a methane extraction plant which extracts methane through a borehole and uses it to power generators on site producing "sustainable" energy.
Then the walk took us on high ground above Burton Joyce before descending to cross the Lambley to Lowdham road and then up towards Woodborough and yet more high ground (an impressive 300m of climbing today) before descending to Lambley ...
... and returning along Lambley Dumble ...
