Where has the time gone?

Hello again,

 It seems so long ago but a death in the family, a recurring illness and now a house move mean that I haven't done any wlaking since the beginning of the year.

 I am hoping however to restart once the kids are back at school so September at the earliest, but probably more towards October.

 David

05/03/12 Langwith to Langwith Junction

Today was my last on the Beighton Branch as I headed from Langwith into Langwith Junction.  As I finished my last walk at the bridge where the line crossed the A632, I picked it up the other side of the road, once again the part of the line near the road was impassable

The path on towards Langwith Junction was fine, The first part of the walk was on an embankment with houses backing onto it and it was obvious it had been well used by the locals with blackened areas where fires had been places, also the path tended to be to one side of the trackbed.

Once out of Langwith the track descended into a cutting, which looked so familiar to me, having been in so many these last months.  As we approached Langwith Basset School we came to the only bridge over this part of the line

And of course the attendant pile of rubbish dumped over the parapet

But to make up for this the trackbed then continued through the cutting with trees growing either side, in summer it probably forms quite a canopy and was by far the prettiest part of the line to walk on

Finally we reached Langwith Junction or rather the remains.

Finally they have built houses over what was the mainline towards Chesterfield, here they are to the right of the picture with the Beighton Branch straight ahead

Finally thanks to Glynn Waite, I can also start to include scans of tickets issued on the line.  This one is Langwith Junction issued by the GCR. Many thanks Glynn.

02/02/12 Frithwood to Whaley Thorns

I’m finally coming up to the last part of the Beighton Branch, This walk was from Frithwood Farm (where I first started) on towards Langwith Junction, but actually finishing short of there.

A little past Frithwood farm there is a large sign on a field gate stating Private Land and asking you to keep out, which meant I was straight back into the car and onto Mag Lane, and a view of a private property that has been built over the line.  At this point I carried on in the car to Poulter Country Park, a nature reserve built over the old colliery, here I parked up and started the walk back towards Creswell and picked up the old railway line on the other side of the private residence.

Here the trackbed can be seen clearly as for some reason the farmer farms only part of the field, however the next field is less hospitable.

Immediately after this patch of trees came 2 short branches, 1 link to the Midland line that ran parallel, in the picture the main track is amongst the trees and the midland line runs off to the right

Then a little further towards Whaley Thorns the main branch off to Langwith Colliery runs off to the right also.

There are still sleepers lying around on this part of the branch  although there is no obvious crossing point when you reach the Midland line

Back on the main line and there’s further railway evidence as we walk along, and here the cutting hasn’t been filled in so its similar to walking at Killamarsh and I have to say, a little more realistic looking than when walking through Creswell with its filled in cuttings.

Back at Poulter Park we have the remains of a bridge and a view of the embankment the railway ran along

Of course further along is another bridge crossing the A632 at Langwith which would be my final stop for the day, so with this in mind I scrambled up the embankment to get a look at what was on top

Another part of the trackbed that can’t be walked without a machete. So there it was, I finished in Langwith, but not at the Junction where the Beighton branch starts, that will be done another day.

19/01/12 Killamarsh To Clowne Part 3 (Into Clowne)

Distance Walked 0.75 Miles

Most of it was either on the old trackbed, or where it used to be.

This walk was a tale of two paths.  When I was scouting this last part of the Killamarsh to Clowne route my first thoughts were I would have to descend onto the railway from the bridge over it on Boughton lane, luckily this proved not to be the case.  But first the start, made at the Skate park where I finished part one of the walk. 

                                       

 The bridge and tunnel have long been filled in to make way for a Tesco car park, so this bit was quite easy, and although the trackbed has been built on up to Boughton Lane there was a track that ran parallel.

Once I had reached the road bridge it became clear that I couldn’t just clamber over, but whilst walking a little further down the road, there was a public footpath sign leading towards the trackbed over a field., So waving hello to the 2 horses munching on the grass I followed this and found myself eventually on the old trackbed a couple of hundred yards from where I wanted to be.

I made my way back towards the bridge and this was the first tale of a path, it was very marshy and I ended up wishing I had my wellies on as I trudged back to the bridge.

There I could see what I would have had to climb down to get here and it just wouldn’t have happened.

                                

After a quick look at the blocked bridge, I turned round and made my way back to the public footpath entrance and from here to the Midland Rail line it was a normal everyday footpath, well worn but nice and dry.  Halfway to the line I spotted my first wild fox, too quick for a photograph unfortunately.  I finally managed to reach the bridge over the Midland Rail line (now also disused but with the rails still intact) and a view of the golf course I left on part 2 of this bit of the walk.

16/01/12 Killamarsh To Clowne Part 2 (Barlborough Trading Estate)

If you read my previous post marking the attempt to walk from Killamarsh to Clowne you will know I failed quite miserably, ending the walk at Barlborough just before the motorway.  Today I will attempt to get a little bit closer to Clowne but with time constraints I am expecting to get only as far as the golf course where the LDECR crossed the M.R. Clowne Branch.

I started off looking back at the motorway and as the fence had signs up saying that wild guard dogs roamed loose, I decided against walking back up to it.

The view the other way towards Clowne wasn’t much better so I hiked round the industrial estate and got these views, the first back to where I should have walked from the motorway and the second where the trackbed continued.

So far on this part of the walk I hadn’t really been close to the trackbed, but that soon changed once I had gotten past the Tesco distribution centre.  This is the view back to the motorway from just before the golf course, and the views of the path I climbed up and what I could have climbed up if I had avoided the trackbed and walked on the sanitised council path.

The trackbed would have continued here over part of the golf course, which I quickly walked over and reached the finish for today at the crossing of the old M.R. line.  I couldn’t have gone further as the way was blocked by 2 six foot fences topped with barbed wire.

Overall this was a disappointing part of the walk, although from google map pictures I knew what to expect.   And because I was stopped short of Clowne part three of this particular section is still to come.

16/01/12 Chesterfield Town Centre

Well, after a long break of nearly 2 months, I started back on the walk.  Of course I had to pick the coldest day we have had here for a long time (it was so cold my camera stopped working twice).

For the first walk today I did Chesterfield town centre, concentrating on the area from Market Place Station to the viaduct at Horns Bridge

As can be expected of a modern redeveloped town centre area nothing is left of the original railway station although the Portland pub next door still stands.

Walking from there on towards the viaduct, I cross the dual carriageway where the points system to send the goods wagons to the goods yard was and from here you can see the site of the former Focus store, now torn down (I’m sure it lasted less time than the railway) and where the track used to run.

From looking at the OS maps, I’m pretty sure the railway ran over this bridge, (or this is a replacement) before the viaduct started carrying on towards Horns Bridge. 

The track runs pretty much where a new pathway runs, with superstores either side.  This is quite lucky as I didn’t fancy wandering through Toys R Us in order to find where the Viaduct used to cross, and considering it is on an industrial estate is something of a miracle. There is of course onlt one piece of the viaduct still standing.

From here the line carried on, skirting Hasland and onto Bolehill Tunnel (Duckmanton) Tunnel. 

This part of the  walk stopped here, as I wanted to get 2 in today.  The next part of this particular area will be from beyond the dual carriageway (not seen above, and what used to be the track of the G.C.R. Chesterfield Loop).