Staveley, Clowne and Bolsover - February 2019

I was back in Staveley in February for another trip taking care of my mother.  I have been spending a lot of time here in the last few years and I like to reacquaint myself with various places from my childhood.  A lot of this reacquaintance centers around running in the areas I frequented as a child.   In the more recent past this has been out on the Chesterfield Canal towards Chesterfield (which is undergoing restoration to connect with the River Trent) or the old LNER railway line to Renishaw (which is now part of the Trans Penine Trail).  However on this trip I discovered a new trail out from Staveley to the town of Clowne along another old long disused railway line that has been converted to a bike trail (thank you to the EU for funding part of the conversion).

Clowne Trail near Woodthorpe - Three Bridges

Clowne Trail near Clowne

In my childhood the whole area around Staveley was dominated by the iron, steel and chemical works and a multitude of pits where they mined for coal to power those industries.  The iron works produced great mountains of slag whilst the pits produced similar mountains of spoil.   It wasn’t an endearing landscape, it was black and grey and barren.

Aerial View of Staveley Works

Coal Tips near Ireland Colliery

The Doe Lee the nearest river was used to wash coal and was as black and devoid of life as any in the country.  Things have changed since the mining has stopped and the iron and chemical works are now closed.  The coal tips have been reduced with the spoil being carted away for infill projects.  The slag heaps associated with the iron works are just now being reclaimed as material for various road projects.   As a result the area does not look as foreboding as it once did and the local council has done a nice job in converting these areas into parkland with lakes and foot paths and bike paths.

Bridge over Doe Lea - now a clear running stream

Restored ground near old Ireland Colliery Tips

The new trail to Clowne passes some old landmarks of my youth.  It starts near Seymour where my mother was born and where my grandparents and some 12 kids lived in apparently pretty atrocious conditions.  The local Seymour and nearby Ireland and Oxcroft collieries were where most of the men in the family worked. My uncle Wilfred was a pony handler at Ireland and he was killed in the pit at the age of 18 in an accident.  I, of course, didn’t know him but the family always talks of what a wonderful person he was and how disastrous it was for the family to lose him.

I have read several local histories that identify the Seymour colliery housing as being unfit for human habitation. They were eventually demolished and my mother and her family moved to a farm cottage in nearby Woodthorpe.

The new industry - Distribution Centers

Now all signs of those homes are gone and the area is occupied with several huge warehouses.  The area is close by the M1 motorway and so distribution centers are the new employer in the area.  There are quite a few of these vast and monstrous buildings.  Alas while the pits employed thousands of people, the warehouses are wonders of modern automation and employee only a few dozen people.

Up the road from Seymour, in Woodthorpe, is the Junior School I attended.  It was also the school my mother and all my aunts and uncles went to and to where my cousins children attended.

Woodthorpe Junior School

Further up in Woodthorpe is the church where I attended Sunday School.  Like many churches and chapels it has been sold off and it has now been converted into a residence.  It still looks good though.

Woodthorpe Church

The beauty of railway trails is that there is never any steep incline so they are perfect for running and biking.  Near Clowne the trail enters a cutting that was made through the limestone to take the line into the town of Clowne.  It is quite a beautiful section.

Farm where I spent my first few years

There is a side trail that runs off the trail and up the hill to Bolsover and it makes  for a nice run to visit my mother in her care home (Thomas Colledge House).  I can have a cup of tea with her before running back down the hill to Staveley.  This trail passes through the farm where I spent the first 3 or 4 years of my life.  For whatever reason my mum and dad rented a farm cottage in this fairly remote location.  Neither of them were employed in farming, though my dad worked for the National Coal Board and apparently the farm was once owned by the NCB.  The present owner told me that after I met him on one of my runs.  The cottage is still there though it has been upgraded for modern living.

The Farm Cottage - home for my first years

When I was growing up the farms only grew wheat, barley or oats.  Now the predominant crop seems to be rape seed, the source of canola oil.  As you can see below this is very pretty for a few weeks when it blossoms but then turns a really awful brown.

Rape Seed Fields

So while the town of Staveley has not particularly aged well since the arrival of the mega supermarket Morrisons, the local countryside has faired quite well and if you can turn a blind eye to the M1 motorway and the vast distribution center warehouses it is a nice part of the world.