The Whittlestone Walk - Part 03
w/e 12 February 2012
All this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490

When we started this walk in November and December 2011 it was under grey skies but the trees were still displaying some autumn colour. Since then we have had a relativeley mild winter over the Christmas and New Year period and even throughout January but as we entered February, some wintry weather was forecast. So with snow imminent we set off one bright and sunny but cold and frosty afternoon to follow the third mile of this five mile route. We resumed our walk at the end of Coronation Road (left) in Mapperley Village where the white building opposite once housed the village shop and Post Office. The shop has now closed but the Old Black Horse pub seen just beyond the conifer in the same picture continues to trade. Our route from here though is to turn left at the end of Coronation Road and to proceed a little way down Mapperley Lane (right). The route is through open countryside to the right of Mapperley Lane and we will complete the third mile back on the lane between the village and the High Lane but before taking a footpath almost opposite Church Lane it is worth pausing for a moment to view the modern A-framed Holy Trinity Church that opened in 1966 replacing the old building that had to be demolished due to mining subsidence two years earlier. The leaflet for the Whittlestone Walk mentions some "unique stained glass windows" (left) which after a checkered history were installed in the main doors to the church. (See Mapperley History link for more information).

The footpath opposite the church leads to a stile into the fields and a notice fastened to the post asks walkers to keep to the footpath but although the waymarkers point in the general direction of Mapperley Park Wood the actual line of the path is not obvious. All you can do is aim for a gate in the middle of the fence that crosses the filed half way down the hill where another notice repeats the same request.

On reaching the gated access to the wood a similar notice proclaims that the wood is private property and again that walkers should keep to the path. A map incorporated into the notice shows a straight line through the wood but again any semblance of a path is far from obvious.

As we went further into the wood the exit gate on the opposite side was visible but there was no sign of the "two wooden footbridges" crossing Mapperley Brook and the frozen ground gave way to soft bog-like conditions underfoot. After picking our way through the undergrowth and leaping across the brook I turned for this shot of the bog whilst slowing sinking into the soft earth.

Exiting the wood we continued up the north facing frost covered slope to a stile in the hedgerow.

The stile leads up to an old railway embankment which once carried the branch line of the Midland Railway serving Mapperley Colliery. In the 1970s the track bed was concreted and used by opencast vehicles. This view along the embankment is eastwards towards Mapperley Lane. Beyond that the track continues towards Ilkeston and is the same track that we followed near Head House Farm when walking towards Mapperley Village from the Nutbrook Trail in Part 2.

A few steps in the other direction is another stile taking us into another field to continue in a generally south westerly direction alongside the hedge.

The path is much more obvious now even without the aid of the frost and viewed from another stile and footbridge over a brook the route can be seen turning into the trees about halfway along the next field.

Where the path turns a waymarker points the way across a gulley but the fence on the other side that is mentioned in the leaflet is no longer there and is another reason why the leaflet is not currently available. My copy is 12 years old! The gulley (left) and the raised track (right) however do mark the position of a tramway that ran from the Blue Fly Shaft of West Hallam Pit to the Nutbrook Canal.

After crossing the gulley a sharp left turn leads to another stile under an overhanging tree from where it is a straight run across a couple of fields back to Mapperley Lane opposite the entrance to Brook Farm (left). Although not strictly part of the Whittlestone Walk, a short detour can be made from here by following Mapperley Lane back towards the village to visit the site of Mapperley Castle. That is precisely what we did in May 2008 when we also returned to Brook Farm and continued along the bridleway towards Ilkeston which in effect is a section of the Whittlestone Walk and constitutes Part 3A of the walk. The next part therefore can be seen by clicking the link below which means that we will have seen parts of this route in three of the four seasons and maybe, by the time we continue with the next part, spring will be upon us. Back to Part 02 Forward to Part 03A

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