Dave led twelve members on a 7.7 mile walk starting at the Brierley Forest Country Park in Huthwaite. The park takes its name from the former colliery on the site, officially known as Sutton Colliery but known locally as Brierley Pit after the Staffordshire miners who came from the area of Brierley Hill to sink the pit in the early 1870s. After a pleasant walk in shade round the park and a diversion to a disappointing Hardwick View (an alternative peak at 190m - see later), we turned north to cross the River Meden and reach the Teversal Trail and the Teversal Visitors Centre for refreshments. We then climbed up on good tracks to our second peak (204m) at Silverhill with its iconic Testing for Gas sculpture with views in all directions. Returning to the Teversal Trail via Fackley, we lunched at Teversal Station and then followed the trail to Chesterfield Road which we took to reach our final peak at Strawberry Bank (202m) before dropping down to the start.
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| Commemorating the 20 miners who were seriously injured by fire and the five men that died of their injuries in the Sutton Colliery (Brierley Pit) disaster on 21st February 1957 |
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| Teversal Trails Coal Garden, incorporating a variety of artifacts from the local colliery, marks the entrance to the trails - coffee stop |
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| Teversal Colliery plate. One of many in the Visitor Centre |
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| Climbing up to the second peak - originally a mine spoil heap on the site of the former Silverhill Colliery which closed in the 1990s. |
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| The bronze statue, Testing for Gas, shows a kneeling coal miner with a Davy lamp. It was created by artist Antony Dufort as a tribute to the miners of the Nottinghamshire coalfields and commemorates coal mining at the 85 Nottinghamshire collieries (see below) |
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| The names of the principal collieries in the county, 1819–2005 |
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| Views of Lincoln Cathedral (perhaps) to the east and Hardwick Hall to the north (with a bit of help from AI) |
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| The site at Newtonwood Lane (not visited this time due to overgrown paths), although unmarked (and unremarkable!) at a location on the edge of a service reservoir, like Strawberry Bank is considered to be natural and at 205m is now officially the highest point in Nottinghamshire |
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| As seen in Fackley Q - What's the connection between Teversal and King Tut? A - The 5th Earl of Carnarvon owned Teversal Manor. He led the famous 1922 expedition with archaeologist Howard Carter which discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. |
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| Lunch at Teversal Station |
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| Strawberry Bank (202m) - the highest habitation in Nottinghamshire |
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| Brierley Forest Country Park Visitor Centre - more refreshments at the end |
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| Showing both today's route and an earlier one to the Newtonwood Lane peak |