Colliers Wood Country Park

Colliers Wood is one of those 'back home' places I've been intending to check out for a while, just down the road from DH Lawrence's home town of Eastwood.

When I was young, this area was Moorgreen Colliery, a pit-yard with mounds of coal and waste, with winding gear, and all the necessary surface offices and repair shops. Earlier than that, my granddad drove trains moving coal from pit-head to the main line junction, but I only remember heavy lorries thundering along narrow streets and making windows shake.

At some point after I moved away, the pit closed, a new industrial estate was built on part of the site, and this new community woodland created. All that now remains of all that industry are the renovated coal-truck and winding wheel by the car park.





I chose a bad day to visit, as this pond had recently been drained to remove goldfish! Presumably they once lived in a tank or a garden pond, but they'd been let loose here a while ago, and were upsetting the eco-balance of the pondlife.

There are two way-marked trails around the park, named Barber and Walker after the original pre-NCB owners of the mine - the longer has a short road section, so we took the shorter (it was also easier on Dylan)















Walk round the park at a smart pace and it wouldn't take long. I'm an ambler though, and like to stop and investigate flowers and trees along the way - and at this time of year there's plenty to be seen, from flowers to blossom.

Felley to Moorgreen - evening stroll

It's necessary now to visit my parents several times a week, and I wanted to add something a bit more fun into our trips, so, with the lovely weather we've been having, I decided to check out Google maps and Streetmap for possible interesting places to walk. 

I stumbled on this path after our recent visit to Felley Priory bluebells woods. It starts not far from there - in fact from a farm named Felley Mill - and follows a stream towards Moorgreen Reservoir, then alongside it, although at a distance. 

It's a pretty walk, mostly flat with a good path if you stick to the bridleway, heading through mature woodland with swathes of garlic in flower at this time of year, smaller clumps of bluebells, and sneaky glimpses of the reservoir (access to its banks is reserved for fishermen)

I over-estimated the distance though, and before we knew it had reached the 'B' road at the far end of the reservoir.

Moorgreen reservoir as seen from the road

Beauvale Lodge at the
turning-around point

It's not far from Eastwood, at the heart of DH Lawrence country, and at our turning round point I found an information board with details of a 5 mile walk exploring further afield - perhaps one to try another time.

garlic in flower

It's yet another of those areas which despite being close to the area I grew up in, and having driven along that particular stretch of road often enough, I've never explored, so something to add to my #60things list.

Going home - Brinsley Headstocks Country Park

Driving home after visiting my parents this weekend, we stopped off at a small country park where the village pit once stood.

 The pit itself closed long ago - in the 1930s - but when I was a child the headstocks still stood alongside a seemingly enormous 'slag heap' overgrown by weeds and saplings, and, despite warnings about uncapped mine shafts, I remember being taken there on walks with my mother, and playing among the ruins. In my memory, it's a wild, untamed place, with narrow tracks twisting through brambles, and leading who-knew-where. 

Now, it's been 'tamed'. The headstocks were taken away for several years, the site cleared, the shafts filled. Then the headstocks were brought back and a country park created around them, with proper paths and information boards.

For many the place's importance comes from the association with local author DH Lawrence - his father was born in a nearby cottage, his aunt and uncle lived in another (which he used as the setting for a short story,"Odour of Chrysanthemums") - but for me it's just a bit of disappeared childhood. It's tidier and safer now, no doubt, but nothing like as exciting!