Vicar Water and Clipstone Forest, 25th February 2024

Sue's 7½ mile walk today started at the Vicar Water Country Park Visitor Centre, Clipstone and took 16 of us first downstream to Vicar Pond and then on to the Dog and Duck near Kings Clipstone.  There followed good tracks in and around Sherwood Pines Forest Park before we returned to the start.

View from main road of the magnificent Clipstone Colliery headstocks

The start in the Country Park

This 10ft Golden Hand statue in the Country Park was commissioned around 20 years ago by national cycling group Sustrans as a feature of their National Cycle Network

Worth waiting for since dawn

Rear view of the headstocks - once the tallest in Europe

The best view of King John's Palace, the remains of a former medieval royal residence.  It is not known how the building became associated with King John as he only spent a total of nine days there!

Safety briefing at the Dog and Duck

Coffee stop in the Forest Park

Extreme clear felling

Lunch stop on top of a borehole down to the Sherwood sandstone aquifer

Under one of the disused railway lines connecting the colliery to the local power stations

Back into the Country Park for tea and cakes for some

Bestwood Lodge and Country Park and Bulwell Hall Park, 18th February 2024

In surprisingly good weather, Dave's 8.3 mile walk took nine members from the car park of Bestwood Country Park to circumnavigate Bestwood Village and walk round the Mill Lakes on the River Leen.  After passing Forge Mill, we crossed the Leen again, then the tramline, to enter Bulwell Hall Park for lunch at the Golf Club.  Returning to the Country Park, we passed the impressive Winding Engine House and discovered the Dynamo House was open for another coffee stop.  Afterwards we climbed up to the top of the old tip (124m) with excellent views towards Hucknall.

The start near Bestwood Lodge.  Thanks John Y for all your photos

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

First view of one of the iconic sights of Nottinghamshire (the one in the background)

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

First crossing of the Leen

Coffee stop next to the lake

Second crossing of the Leen

Forge Mill (1787), one of only three remaining mills on the very industrialised River Leen, now a cafe

The River Leen having just passed beneath Forge Mill

John orders up a tram to Hucknall on his app ... 

... and hurries to take a photo

Not much of note in Bulwell Hall Park so no photos

Misplaced signal

Junction where a shorter version of today's walk would have joined us

The headstocks and winding house of Bestwood Colliery, 1875 to 1967

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 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

Extra coffee and cake stop.  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

Tip top, 124m, with views towards Hucknall

Good forest tracks back to the start

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

View of Bestwood Lodge across the gardens

Kirklington Station, Halam and Edingley, 11th February 2024

 Elaine's walk took 14 members from the small car park at Kirklington Station, along the Southwell Trail as far as Maythorne and then branched off to pass into Norwood Park for a coffee stop.  Then it was on to Westhorpe, Halam and then Edingley for lunch followed by a short walk along Edingley Beck back to the start

Elaine briefs the walkers

Loading gauge seen near the start.  It represents the maximum size for rolling stock to allow clearance under bridges and between tracks, especially on corners.  Thanks John

Station buildings

The Southwell Trail is 7.5 miles long and was built on the former line of the Midland Railway. It stretches from Southwell to Bilsthorpe and passes the villages of Farnsfield, Kirklington and Maythorne

Maythorne Mill on the River Greet, built in 1785 as a cotton mill to supply the local framework knitting industry with yarn.  It became a silk mill in the 19th century

Norwood Hall - now a wedding venue

One of many fields of the famous Bramley Apple trees in Norwood Park

Another common crop nearby - Miscanthus

The 12th century Norman church of St Michael the Archangel, Halam

Halam Church

Forge Cottage and The Old Forge, Gray Lane, Halam near the bridge over Halam Beck

Avoiding the mud - a diversion down Newhall Lane towards Greaves Lane

St Giles' Church, Edingley - lunch

Wall painting outside Loft Handmade, opposite the church

Today's 6.8 mile walk (in blue) avoiding a broken bridge over Halam Beck and some of the mud (in green)