After posting yesterday the sun came out and I enjoyed a beautiful walk. We are staying in the middle of miles of old colliery railway tracks which have been converted into greenways. Horses, cyclists and walkers share these tracks which wander between nature reserves………the latter haven’t reached maturity yet but it is still an impressive undertaking.
Pleasley Colliery. this was opened in 1873 and closed in 1983. It is now being restored. It is open to the public but wasn’t yesterday which was a pity as they have a wonderful steam winding engine. The slag heaps have been landscaped and a couple of lakes created. Home to Blackheaded Gulls and a couple of Cormorant as far as I saw but looking at the web site they have recorded an impressive list of sightings.
Grazing the reserve were two flocks of these impressive Black Sheep. I’m guessing they are Hebrideans . They could be Black Welsh Mountains but I seem to recall the latters horns curve the other way.
The south and north shafts with the winding house. They have made a good job of the outside.
Headgear on the south shaft.
Headgear on the north shaft.
The remains of an old Lancashire boiler. The only view I could get through chain link fencing.
A good job I’m not baking…………the cake would, like the mine, be overdone.
Have a good day, the weather forecast is fair so I’ll have breakfast and wander in the other direction later.
See, i was right Adrian to wish you a "sunny Wednesday"! It happens!!
ReplyDeleteAll these mining equipment are beautifully well restored and maintained by the look of them! It's important to not let them decay as they are a little opening on the history of the region and when you talk to people in the Uk you realize that many of them had a distant relative working in the mines! I didn't have to visit a tin mine while i was in Cornwall (another major mining area) last month but it will be the next visit's purpose. Thank for all these stunning (sunny) photos and a good day to you!
I've only seen a few all-black sheep on Lewis. There was a small flock (a flocklet?) near me last year for a short while. Mind you seeing a sheep on Lewis is a noteworthy event these days.
ReplyDeleteAdrian, I found these last two posts really interesting. they give an insight into the history of one of our, once great, industries. It's rather sad to see how it came to such an inglorious end!
ReplyDeleteI guess it's all in the name of progress? That's what we're led to believe anyway!
And not forgetting the excellent set of images...[;o)
Good to see that the evil witch didn't completely destroy everything.
ReplyDeleteCracking set of pictures Adrian.
Beautiful pictures, who or what made those towers, they're bigggggg.
ReplyDeleteHI Adrian...so interesting reading all this history ...and you know I remember hearing about the things you spoke about in your previous post Scabs and all that going on...and I loved the last two photos on that post !!
ReplyDeleteYou sure do see some interesting things like in your post today....it would be fun to be able to go back in time and see what it was like then ( only for a few days, mind you lol) Some good is being made of the area which is nice!!
Like you shots of whats left and being done there!!
Grace
It looks like a lovely place to visit... lovely images.
ReplyDeleteHope you get a chance to go inside and show us some of the machinery. The outside looks to have been well done - thanks. as ever, for the educational tour.
ReplyDeleteDee Bee, you were right.......I like old industrial heritage.
ReplyDeleteGraham, they must have sent them all down here.
Trevor, I can't help feeling that we will regret the closure of all these pits. Opencast mining makes such a mess.
Keith, thanks. She did her best.
Bob, five miles or so away the headgear at Clipstone is the highest in Europe.
Grace, I am enjoying myself here. It will be much better when the nature reserves get a bit more mature.
Andrew, it's well worth a day out.
John, I have got so far behind with comments that I've now both been inside and posted the result.
Impressive pictures, I was vaguely reminded of Blaenavon for a minute.
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