Erewash days of delight

I spent over half my life crossing the Erewash valley without even knowing its name as anything other than that of a borough council or a river; somewhere to be crossed when going to and from other places. Long Eaton and Sandiacre were not more than names. Ilkeston I knew because of the Co-op and the town's lovely museum.

Eastwood is also part of the Erewash valley, even though it is in Nottinghamshire, so it is a town I know a little better, as much for its D H Lawrence Birthplace Museum as anything else.

The River Erewash forms part of the boundary between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and I knew about the Erewash Canal because I crossed it so many times on trips to Derby or Ripley and saw it from a bus at the point where the Tamworth Road and Canal run alongside one another as you leave Long Eaton heading towards Sawley and Castle Donington.

 A Skylink bus approaching Long Eaton town centre along the Tamworth Road, which for about half-a-mile runs alongside the Erewash Canal, on its way to Nottingham.

I always wanted to walk the Erewash Canal – something I finally managed in 2012 and 2013. Walking its seventeen miles  gave me a whole new appreciation of the Erewash valley and its importance. I did my walk in four chunks and have been back since on a couple of occasions. I am in process of creating a separate Erewash page and have created the map beliw to show how easy it is to reach from Nottingham and the buses you can catch. All run frequently, except the 20 (Sundays only) and the 21 (Monday–Saturday). These buses run every sixty minutes.

The northern end of the Erewash Canal at Langley Mill, where it joins the Cromford Canal. It also used to be where the Nottingham Canal ended.

The southern end of the Erewash Canal at Trent Lock, where it joins the River Trent. in the background you can see Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. To see more photographs and information about the Canal, go to the Erewash Canal page in the left-hand column.

A Bestwood outing on a 141

Trent Barton's 141 calls at Bestwood Country Park every hour.

Even better it drops you off right by the Bestwood Village Park Road entrance to Bestwood Country Park and the old Bestwood Colliery Winding House.

  

Once beyond the sign and car park the Engine House comes into view...

...and to its left is the Dynamo House Tearoom — which was my first stopping point on a grey and damp January Saturday morning.

Inside the Dynamo House was full of folk looking at exhibits and displays, all on show for one day only, to support the launch of a new book, The Miners of Nottinghamshire: A History of the Nottinghamshire Miners’ Trade Unions Vol.4 1980–1985 by David Amos.

It was a great display and you can see it for yourself, as David is doing a reprise in Nottingham Central Library's Local Studies Library (Angel Row, in the city centre) on Tuesday 25 March at the Angel Row History Forum, 10.30am–12pm.

I took this picture of David with his book. A similar photograph and a review of his book was published in  the Nottingham Post a few days ago.

There is an information panel outside the Winding Engine House, albeit a bit faded. This is part of the panel, which tells you that the engine is the only existing twin cylinder vertical steam engine on its original site and is now a scheduled ancient monument. Bestwood Colliery opened in 1872 and the engine was commissioned in 1873 and was used continuously until the Pit closed in 1967.

The Winding Engine House opens every Saturday, 10am–12pm, from Easter until October, but a couple of volunteers were kindly taking groups round. Inside was an impressive model showing what Bestwood Colliery once looked like and I took this photograph of one part of the model.

A lift takes you, first, to level one where a brakeman used to control up to sixty ascents and descents an hour. From his position he had a view of the stockhead. The man at the controls is avery realistic looking dummy. 

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a photograph of the cylinder, but I did manage to take two photographs of piston rods and supporting iron and steel girders.

This photograph shows the vertical piston rods which went to cylinder at a lower level.

The lift then took us to the second level, virtually in the roof of the engine house, where our volunteer guide, Malcolm Carter, showed us the eighteen foot diameter wheel drum around which 'the rope' (actually a steel cable of many strands capable of supporting loads of up to 120 tonnes — six times its maximum permitted limited), which was tested every few months.

What I found interesting was the fact that the drum's brakepads were made of oak and lasted 'many years'. The drum was also had weights to ensure that it was correctly balanced, so that it always operated smoothly. New weights were fitted when the drum was refurbished as part of the preservation process, but are not considered as good as the original balancing weights, because the engine is now noisier than it was when actually carrying loads.

Our guide Malcolm worked at the Colliery from the age of fifteen and started in the engine house, which he helped to maintain. 'Lives depended on us, so we took our work very seriously'. 

The last thing Malcolm showed us was a section of 'the rope', looking more like a work of art than something on which lives depended. It was a fascinating thirty minutes and a great example of Nottinghamshire's industrial heritage.

The 141 runs between Nottingham Victoria Bus Station and Sutton-in-Ashfield and also takes you to Newstead Abbey and Mansfield town centre and its excellent Museum & Art Gallery. Not the most direct route by any means, but a wonderful example of a working bus route serving lots of small communities, so come Easter why not spend an hour one Saturday morning at Bestwood Country Park, visiting the Winding House, then catch the next 141 to Newstead Abbey for lunch, then tea in Mansfield after a visit to town's museum.  A great 'History by Bus' day out I promise you.

The website Sherwood Forest Visitor has this excellent map of Bestwood Country Park (see below), but like so many websites it has no information about bus services. Otherwise a great website well worth looking at.

Here is one I made earlier

My wife Susan and I are planning to move from Lenton in Nottingham after thirty-five years to a smaller house in Beeston or Chilwell once we have sold our house. It's still early days, but we are well into a massive clearout of things and in one long unopened box I found a copy of the Mansfield Museum Visitor No.2 from 1976 which included a map by me.

It has not copied as well as I had hoped, but it just about readable.  I drew the map by hand, then the A4 sheet was put into a typewriter and the information typed in. Back in the mid-seventies we lived in Mansfield and the world of buses was very different then. For one thing, bus companies were, almost exclusively, in public ownership, with such names as Mansfield & District, Midland General, as well as Trent and Barton. Both separate companies before merging post-privatisation.

Some of the museums and galleries shown have gone (the Museum of Costume and the Midland Group Gallery, both in Nottingham, to name two). Others have come along since and, at some point, I intend to turn Historybybus into a website which lists all routes to heritage related locations which begin and end in Nottinghamshire.

The point of sharing this with you is to show that this not a new idea. In another box I must have at least one copy of a leaflet promoting the now defunct County Council 'Sherwood Forester' summer weekend network of services which once linked the county's heritage sites.

The idea of promoting buses as a means of exploring history is far from new and I have seen guides from the 1930s. In the seventies we did own a car, but I still preferred to visit places by bus so that I could enjoy the journey and actually see far more than I could from a car.

Another point about the map above is that it was compiled without the help of a computer. I had to find out all the information by going to all the main towns shown.

The map was accompanied by text and I include an edited extract below:

Between Bolsover and Clowne, the No.3 travels along an escarpment which looks down into the valley below and reveals a panorama of industry, with the Peaks clearly visible in the distance and, on the return journey, Bolsover Castle is dramatically revealed as the bus rounds a bend.

Travelling to and from Newark by bus (from Mansfield) offers the chance to view the River Trent and Southwell Minster in ways otherwise impossible.

The X53 offers a glimpse of Scarsdale Hall which reveals this ruin in all its splendour and it is just possible to imagine the Hall as the place it must have been in the past.

And I end with a reference to the then 63 bus, now the branded Pronto service between Nottingham and Chesterfield: How many passengers on the 63 to Chesterfield notice the roof of Hardwick Hall? Occasionally, it is bathed in sunlight and hovers on the horizon, above the trees, as the bus climbs the hill between Pleasley and Glapwell. Then it was a double-decker bus route. I also suspect the trees will have grown taller in the near-forty years since I wrote those words.

Looking back I may have missed my vocation, but back in the seventies buses were going out of fashion and we all wanted cars. Even my own use of public transport declined as buses became less frequent and more expensive, but the good news is buses are coming back into fashion and with travel cards and passes more and more of us are using buses again.

Next week I plan to write about a visit to Bestwood on Saturday, so watch this space.

A 1902 tram ride through Nottingham

An opening still shows a tram in Station Street approaching its junction with Carrington Street, where it will turn right and head towards Lister Gate, the Old Market Square, then into Queen Street and right onto Upper Parliament Street before turning left into Milton Street and the Victoria Station.

A friend has sent me a weblink to this six minute silent film in the British Film Institute (BFI) Archive showing a tram ride from the railway station on Carrington Street to what used to be Nottingham Victoria Station (now only its clock tower remains as part of the Victoria Shopping Centre).

If you do not already have it installed, you will be asked to download the 'BFI Player' and agree to terms, but just follow the instructions. It's easy to do.

The blurb with the film says that it follows the same route as the present day tram. This in incorrect. It follows none of the same route, but it is still wonderful to watch and recognise landmarks which still exist.

The BFI Archive is a fantastic resource and once you begin looking, you can find yourself still look hours later.

Enjoy.

Nottingham City Centre by Bus Map added

The Nottingham Post took me by surprise when they told me that they intended to use my bus column about The Sherwood Forester today. I had expected the story to appear on 13 January and I am still working on my list of places you can reach on Nottingham buses, plus some maps as well, so please come back again, as I will be adding more every few days.

Today I have added part of a Nottingham 'History By Bus' Map I am working on and hope to add two further sections over the next fortnight, so please bear with me…  (in the meantime see right-hand column).

I have also added a Heritage Walking Map I produced in 2007 and was published as part of a walks guide I published with Dunkirk and Lenton partnership Forum.