{"id":2552,"date":"2022-11-26T01:47:30","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T00:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=2552"},"modified":"2022-11-23T08:20:21","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T07:20:21","slug":"silverhill-wood-and-pleasley-pit-notts-derbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=2552","title":{"rendered":"Silverhill Wood and Pleasley Pit, Notts\/Derbs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; varwalkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=740,width=1030,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script><br \/> First published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Silverhill.jpg');\" rel=\"nozoom\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52455704154_dc96121519_z.jpg\" title= \"'Testing For Gas' memorial in Silverhill Wood Country Park\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52455704154_dc96121519_s.jpg\" alt=\"'Testing For Gas' memorial in Silverhill Wood Country Park\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52455886430_b154c6fc21_z.jpg\" title= \"Sandstone cutting, Teversal Track\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52455886430_b154c6fc21_s.jpg\" alt=\"Sandstone cutting, Teversal Track\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52454915192_ef908185de_z.jpg\" title= \"Lake in Silverhill Wood Country Park\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52454915192_ef908185de_s.jpg\" alt=\"Lake in Silverhill Wood Country Park\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52454915187_00d95e340d_z.jpg\" title= \"Pleasley Pit chimney\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52454915187_00d95e340d_s.jpg\" alt=\"Pleasley Pit chimney\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52454915067_1186592080_z.jpg\" title= \"Pleasley Pit Mining Museum chimney, engine house and headstock\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52454915067_1186592080_s.jpg\" alt=\"Pleasley Pit Mining Museum chimney, engine house and headstock\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52455886320_1fe4212946_z.jpg\" title= \"The distant headstocks at Clipstone Colliery\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52455886320_1fe4212946_s.jpg\" alt=\"The distant headstocks at Clipstone Colliery\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52455470451_9ecc16c29a_z.jpg\" title= \"The Skegby Track\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52455470451_9ecc16c29a_s.jpg\" alt=\"The Skegby Track\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52454946807_2ca5b06b02_z.jpg\" title= \"The Skegby Track, once a colliery railway\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52454946807_2ca5b06b02_s.jpg\" alt=\"The Skegby Track, once a colliery railway\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"javascript:pwindow=window.open('\/Walks\/prn.php?f=2552','pwin','height=700,width=1000,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');\" title=\"Click for printable version\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Walks\/print.gif\" align=\"right\"><\/a><br \/>\nKids on bikes came skeltering down the hill at Silverhill Wood Country Park. Young buckthorn with bright orange berries, maples, hawthorn and spruce formed a scrubby forest rich in autumn colours, with fine views opening over rolling green country.<\/p>\n<p>At the summit of the hill we came to a seated figure in bronze, a miner in helmet and pit boots, holding up his Davy lamp and scanning it for signs of gas. It was the only clue that beneath the woodland and the hill itself lay the pit heap of Silverwood Colliery, one of seventy-five Nottinghamshire coal mines now closed but commemorated on a plaque below the statue.<\/p>\n<p>Nottinghamshire County Council has done wonders hereabouts, greening the area\u2019s colliery sites, turning slagheaps into woods and industrial railways into multi-user paths. The hill summit at Silverhill Wood is said to be the highest point in Nottinghamshire at 205 m\/673 ft, a claim fiercely contested by several other \u2018highest points\u2019 locally. The Country Park added an extra five metres to the top of the pit heap, just to make sure.<\/p>\n<p>Standing beside the bronze miner we saw Lincoln Cathedral\u2019s towers thirty miles away on the eastern skyline, the crooked spire at Chesterfield and the outline of Bolsover Castle to the north, and north-east the slim chimney at Pleasley Pit, our next aiming point on this walk.<\/p>\n<p>At the bottom of the hill we found the Teversal Track, an old railway in a tunnel of large oak, ash and beech, with views out into a landscape of dip and roll. A tremendously tall embankment crossed the tiny wriggling stream called Merril Sick, and the old line came to Pleasley Pit, closed in 1986 and now a country park and mining museum.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike almost every other redundant pit in the area, Pleasley has retained its tall brick engine house, its 130-ft chimney, and its two gaunt headstocks with their winding wheels over the old shafts. As objects of industrial architecture they are stunning; as memorials to hard, productive working lives, extremely poignant.<\/p>\n<p>A right-angle of two old railways led through more gently rolling countryside. The wind stripped lemon-yellow leaves from the trackside hazels and laid them on the path. We landed back at Silverhill Wood aware as never before of the roadways, levels and shafts hidden under these fields and hills.<\/p>\n<p>\fHow hard is it? 8 miles, easy, mostly flat paths and tracks<\/p>\n<p>Start: Silverhill Wood Country Park car park, Silverhill Road, Fackley, Notts NG17 3JL (OS ref SK 470616)<\/p>\n<p>Getting there: Bus 417 (Sutton-in-Ashfield)<br \/>\nRoad &#8211; M1 Jct 29, A617 to Pleasley; Teversal and Fackley signed from here.<\/p>\n<p>Walk (OS Explorer 269): From side of car park furthest from entrance, follow path. In 100m, left past info board, uphill to miner\u2019s statue (471621). Down steps, left along trail. In nearly 1 mile pass between lakes (477620). Left beside lake to Teversal Track (480617,\u2018Pleasley 2 miles\u2019). Left for 1\u00be miles to T-junction at \u2018Pleasley Country Park\u2019 sign (495640). Right to Pleasley Pit museum (499643). Through car park; left along Pit Lane; in 100m, right along Skegby Track (501643). In a little over 2 miles at \u2018Skegby Track\u2019 sign, right (494616) onto Link Track (sign). In 1 mile at \u2018Silverhill\u2019 sign (479615) keep ahead and fork right on narrow path to road (478616). Dogleg left\/right over barrier into Silverhill Wood Country Park. In 400m left at Lakes; left (477620) back to car park.<\/p>\n<p>Lunch: Carnarvon Arms, Fackley Road, NG17 3JA (01623-559676, <a href=\"http:\/\/thecarnarvon.co.uk\">thecarnarvon.co.uk<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Accommodation: Tap Haus, 219 Leeming Lane North, Mansfield Woodhouse NG19 9EX (01623-625804, <a href=\"http:\/\/taphausmansfield.co.uk\">taphausmansfield.co.uk<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Pleasley Pit Mining Museum: <a href=\"http:\/\/pleasleypittrust.org.uk\">pleasleypittrust.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Info: <a href=\"http:\/\/nottinghamshire.gov.uk\">nottinghamshire.gov.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kids on bikes came skeltering down the hill at Silverhill Wood Country Park. Young buckthorn with bright orange berries, maples, hawthorn and spruce formed a scrubby forest rich in autumn colours, with fine views opening over rolling green country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}