Barnstone and Granby, 3rd March 2024

 Val and Dave's 4.4-mile walk today took 16 members from the Barnstoneģ cum Langar Community Centre northwest on very muddy field paths before turning right along a Parish Paths Partnership bridleway to reach the River Whipling near Granby Lane.  Following it upstream for a short distance, we turned towards Granby itself before crossing Barnstone Lane.  Poor ground conditions forced us back onto the lane for a while before we turned off it to enter the woods covering the old landfill site eventually reaching Works Lane and heading back to the start.

Barnstone cum Langar Commumity Hall

Dave warns us about possible changes to the advertised route

And away we grow in improving visability

Coffee stop near the River Whipling, a tributary of the Smite which it joins near Whatton

The last rambler to attempt the muddy fields around Barnstone and Langar didn't quite make it

Woods covering the landfill site

Methane wells.  The sign reads: Risk of explosive atmospheres.  Keep at leat 2.2m from all wells unless specifically instructed otherwise.  Smoking is not permtted on site.
Must check with Val whether this was covered in the Risk Assemment.

Barnstone Landfill Site and system for burning off the methane collected from all over the site and flaring it off safely.
The flare is fitted with a telemetry system that allows engineers to start, stop, interrogate and download stored data from an office in Coventry. The system texts out on alarms, power cuts and shutdowns and also texts the end user when it is back on line and operating!

There has been an industrial site at Barnstone since 1864, using the locally produced Blue Lias limestone. Cement production began in 1885, using one of the first rotary kilns in the UK. This innovative approach was to set the tone for Barnstone as a site that tried new ideas and technologies. This first kiln has been retained by the plant as a piece of our industrial heritage.

In 2006 the kiln, which was of 1930s vintage, was closed. The plant then evolved into a grinding, blending and packing cement facility and remains so to this day.

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

On display in newly opened Clipstone Headstocks Museum

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