Country Song

LETJOG PEAK No 35: Newtonwood Lane, Nottinghamshire (204 metres)

Walk Date: Tuesday 18 July 2023

‘Testing for Gas’: this sculpture stands on the top of Silverhill Wood Country Park, on the re-landscaped site of the former Silverhill Colliery

If I handed out grades to my LETJOG Peaks walks for ‘Exceeding Expectations’ then, of those that I have climbed to date, this one would be in first place! When the alarm went off at six this morning I rose more out of habit than excitement, thinking that I had ahead of me a wet foray to the County Top with the least romantic name of them all: Newtonwood Lane. Most of the other peaks either have a suffix of ‘Hill’, ‘Fell’, ‘Beacon’, even ‘Pike, or they stand alone as totems of the English landscape in the manner of Helvellyn, Whernside, Brown Willy, and The Cheviot. But things turned out today rather better than I had supposed, with my 14-mile ramble covering some splendid countryside and a good helping of historical interest, and although the ‘wet’ bit did come to pass for the second half of my trek it did, if anything, add to the experience.

After parking up in the centre of Sutton-in-Ashfield my walk route (in the dark blue line) followed the Skegby and Silverhill Trails along the course of two old railway lines, then up to the summit of Silverhill Wood, before traversing the woodlands and fields to Ault Hucknall and on to Hardwick Hall, and then up to the County Top of Nottinghamshire on Newtonwood Lane, ahead of my descent via Brierley Forest Park back into the town

This part of our country, the Nottinghamshire coalfields of yesteryear, was hitherto pretty much unknown to me. The former glories of the coal mining industry are etched into the landscape of the region, where the past commercial importance of coal has bequeathed walkers such as me some marvels of railway engineering along the many former railway lines that cross-cross the area and make for level walks on easy footpaths. Additionally, the care with which some of the former collieries have been restored in the interests of wildlife and recreation has bestowed on the land some fascinating corners of countryside that combine pleasant woodland and grassland habitats with reminders of the county’s mining and industrial heritage. Despite all of this it is easy to see how, perhaps, many of the locals might be ambivalent towards such boons when these are viewed against the evident deprivation of the towns. Sutton-in-Ashfield, where my walk started and ended, is a case in point, notable for its shuttered shops and derelict sites that stand out like missing teeth between the betting shops, vape stores and takeaway outlets on the high street. In more vibrant economic times it would be good to think that the necessary investment will be found to improve the built environment in a similar way to the revamped collieries whilst retaining the special character of the local towns. Discourse over, this is how I got on with my walk.

Portland Square in the centre of Sutton-in-Ashfield hosts Europe’s largest sundial, with a gnomon over ten metres high: the structure was unveiled in 1995 in tribute to the historic clockmakers of the town

My path out of the town followed the Skegby Trail along the course of an old railway line . . .

. . . and through a cutting hewn from the local limestone, where the trees cling on for dear life to the rocky embankments

A number of these vintage stone-buttressed iron railway bridges crossed my paths

The platform at Teversal Manor station, where the inscription on the seat reads ‘In memory of Louis Zelickman, Station Master 1946 to 1963’: a victim of Beeching presumably

Leaving the railway paths, my walk climbed through the grasslands and forest at Silverhill Wood Country Park

The top of Silverhill is marked by the statue by Antony Dufor in the first photo above, unveiled in 2005: the summit is just a fraction below the County Top at Newtonwood Lane (seen here to the south-west beneath the mast on the horizon), whilst the plaque on the rock commemorates the area’s mining heritage

Descending the hill towards Teversal I encountered this family of swans

Out into the countryside on another old railway line near Rowthorne . . .

. . . and the path across the wheat fields . . .

. . . leading to the Parish Church of St John the Baptist in the hamlet of Ault Hucknall

Climbing again to the higher ground of Broadoak Hill, my path entered the National Trust’s Hardwick Hall Estate . . .

. . . a gem set within a mile of the M1 Motorway

Hardwick Hall, an Elizabethan country house, is remarkable for its early renaissance style in a new era when fortifying a house was no longer the owner’s prime concern, whilst the extent of the glazing would have been an opulent show of wealth

My lunch spot, under an oak tree in the rain, watching the moorhens on the Row Ponds of the Hardwick Estate

Downhill, and out of the Estate, with some southward views over the Nottinghamshire countryside . . .

. . . then through the fields and paddocks . . .

The County Top of Nottinghamshire, at 204 metres of elevation, is just behind this metal palisade fence; the present summit is actually a man-made embankment enclosing a small reservoir that adds a metre or two to the natural topography

My return down to Sutton-in-Ashfield through Brierley Forest Park passed a memorial plaque to the five miners who perished in the Sutton Colliery explosion in 1957

Back in the town centre, this derelict red-brick railway building was one of many requiring restoration on my route today

And so ended a fascinating day’s walk, as educational as it was enjoyable, and one that will live long in the memory. One of the pleasures of this LETJOG Peaks tour of England is the encouragement that it has given me to explore new places, and it is certainly true to say that today’s destination would not otherwise have been on my list of ‘must do’ walks. This was indeed a day that exceeded expectations!

Clover and trefoil in the meadows near Newtonwood Lane

Born and brought up in Nottingham, Jake Bugg is a singer-songwriter who rose to fame with the release of his eponymous album in 2012, and he now has a further four studio albums to his name. His debut album received generally favourable reviews, with NME praising Bugg’s ‘authenticity and wit’, whilst Chris Roberts of the BBC commended the acoustic sound and the ‘hint of Gene Pitney’ in his vocals. ‘Country Song’, written by Bugg, was released as the second single from the album, and I think that the heading just about fits with my predominantly rural ramble today.

Country Song

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