Stamford, Barnack and Burghley Park, 31st May 2026

Starting in the free, long-stay car park in Wharf Road, Stamford, Scott led eight members on a 9.2 mile walk out of the town, passing the remains of St Leonard’s Priory, then between the River Welland and the railway on the Torpel Way to Barnock for lunch at St John the Baptist Church. After lunch, we walked through the Hills & Holes Nature Reserve to join the Hereward Way (aka Ermine Street) and through Burghley Park to London Road and back across the river to the start.

Thanks John for the photos.

The briefing - Wharf Road car park

St Leonard's Priory - jointly refounded by William the Conqueror and the Bishop of Durham in about 1082

River Welland

Uffington Signal Box

One of the many buildings in Barnack made from the local limestone

The Old Chapel, Barnack

St John the Baptist Church - lunch

Arising from the rubble of a mediaeval quarry, Barnack Hills and Holes is one of Britain’s most important wildlife sites.  The unique hummocky landscape of the Hills and Holes was created by quarrying for limestone. The stone, known as Barnack Rag, was a valuable building stone first exploited by the Romans over 1500 years ago. Quarrying continued in mediaeval times when the Abbeys at Peterborough, Crowland, Ramsey, Sawtry and Bury St. Edmunds all used Barnack stone, and the monasteries frequently argued over the rights to it.

Barnack Windmill is a tower mill built of Barnack stone in 1797.  Its commercial use as a mill ceased in 1914 and for a time it stood derelict. Its interior machinery survives complete and the mill was restored in 1959–62

Burghley Park.

Fine avenue of trees in the park

North and South Bottle Lodges - entry to Burleigh Park

   

Back over the River Welland

Creswell Crags and the Welbeck Estate, 24th May 2026

 Sue took 9 members on an 8.2 mile walk through Creswell Crags Gorge, through the small hamlet of Belph, along field paths and some minor roads, to the Welbeck Estate before heading back to Creswell.

Thanks John and Terry for the photos.

Sue briefs the members at the Visitor Centre car park

Creswell Crags Gorge and lake

The cliffs in the Creswell Crags Gorge contain several caves that were occupied by Neanderthals and modern humans during the Last Glacial Period, between around 60,000 and 10,000 years ago

Pin Hole cave on the Derbyshire side of Creswell Gorge

More caves

Whitwell Quarry

Tarmac's 200 acre Whitwell Quarry produces high purity dolomitic limestone which is burnt in the kilns of the on-site lime processing plant for use in refractory products and steel manufacture. Other grades of limestone present at the quarry are used principally to produce agricultural lime and aggregates.

Coffee stop

Near the Welbeck Tunnels

Memorial dedicated to the five Canadian aircrew who died when their Wellington bomber from RAF Gamston crashed close to this place on the 5th August 1944.

Bestwood Country Park and the River Leen, 17th May 2026

Starting at the overflow car park on Bestwood Lodge Drive, Dave's 5½ mile walk took 14 members and guests through the woods of the Country Park past Alexandra Lodge and round Bestwood Village to the Mill Lakes on the River Leen.  After returning to the park, we passed the magnificent Bestwood Colliery Winding Engine House before stopping for an early lunch and coffee at the nearby Dynamo House.

Further excellent tracks in the park took us round and then up the landscaped colliery tip for views in all directions before descending through the woods to Bestwood Lodge and the start. 

Thanks John and Terry for the photos.

The start at Bestwood Lodge Drive

Bestwood Country Park

 Alexandra Lodge (1877), now the base for the Park Rangers and a study centre

The Old Rectory on Park Road

Goats meeting the GOATS (or vice versa)

Mill Lakes - now a nature reserve but once the site of a water mill, one of several in the Leen Valley

Wildlife on the lakes

After the coffee stop near the lakes

Some of the advertised wildlife

In the 18th century,  a series of leats were built along the River Leen east of Hucknall as part of the famous Robinson cotton milling empire. These channels took water from the River Leen and used it to power a number of water mills along its course.

Returning to the park on the part of the National Cycle Network

The Winding Engine House is the last remaining part of Bestwood Colliery - one of the busiest coal mines in Nottinghamshire and the first in the UK to produce over a million tons per year. The winding engine lowered colliers into the mine shaft, and winched mined coal up to the surface.  It houses a large winding engine, originally powered by steam.  At its peak, the mine employed 2000 men

The headstock and Winding Engine House of Bestwood Colliery, 1875 to 1967

Inside the Engine House, a diagram of how it used to work

Exhibition created by local volunteers

On the recce - a scary trip up to see the winding gear in action

The Dynamo House is the former electrical sub-station serving the colliery and is normally open only between 10am and 12 noon on Saturdays and Bank Holidays.  Tours of the Winding Engine House are run from here

Interesting display of the history of Bestwood dating back to the early days of coal mining in the area.  Other displays go back to the middle ages, the Doomsday Book and the Iron Age

The top of the old tip (124m) with excellent views towards Hucknall and Nottingham

Bestwood Lodge, now a hotel, is a large 19th century country house originally a medieval Royal Hunting Lodge set within what was once a part of Sherwood Forest