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).