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.
