Cossall & Strelley - Part 02
w/e 19 June 2011
All this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490

Since Part 1 I have now measured this walk and it is closer to 6½ miles than the 5 stated in Malcolm Sales' book. However, having covered some sections of the walk previously we are now filling in the gaps and we pick up the route (left) at the end of Part 6 of the Monks Way in Strelley (right) which is about 2½ miles from the start. We will therefore, pass the mid-point somewhere between here and Swingate. Instead of turning left à la Monk's Way, our route this time takes us northwards out of Strelley along Main Street passing Strelley Lodge on the right. There is only one street through the village and as such this still forms part of the long distance path, the Robin Hood Way that we joined earlier.

Main Street ends at Home Farm but a bridle road and the Robin Hood Way continues to the north.

The bridle road is only wide enough for one vehicle but the traffic noise for the next couple of hundred yards increases with every step as the motorway converges from the left. The building just visible over the hedge on the right is Holly Lodge.

At Holly Lodge the bridle road swings to the left and onto a bridge (left) over the recently widened M1 motorway. Now with four lanes each way the improvements have also included new tree and shrub plantings on each side but once across the bridge we leave the bridle road to turn south for a short distance where the existing flora at the side of the path (right) is already mature.

After a short way of running parallel to the motorway, the path turns to the north again (left) and runs directly into Swingate initially along a hedge line to a field currently full of a cereal crop (right). I'm more used to seeing Swingate from Ilkeston so this view in reverse was quite a novelty, the spire of the URC and the tower of St Mary's being prominent on the hilltop across the Erewash Valley.

Swingate itself sits on the high point of the ridge between Ilkeston and Nottingham and from a distance two features are nearly always visible on the skyline. The path from Strelley gently rises to the high point and in this view the water tower, our objective in this part of the walk, can be seen directly ahead just to the right of the pole at the side of the path.

The other feature visible from miles around is the television relay mast that sits in a compound of radio and mobile phone aerials, dishes and control buildings.

The path eventually joins a metalled road that provides access to the aerial site and nearby farm and leads us to the first properties at Swingate.

The plaque on the wall of the first building reads "Gate House" and the road nameplate on the second reads "Swingate" and between the two properties stone gate posts stand either side of the road. In the 1970s and 80s during my working life I had cause to visit the aerial site several times and on each occasion the gate across the road at this point was usually locked which entailed knocking on the door of the Gate House to request the occupant to open the gate. It seems the powers that be are more relaxed about access these days and the gate has now been removed.

A footpath seen directly ahead in the previous image leads straight on to emerge onto the car park of the Queen Adelaide that we last saw in Part 5 of the Village Trail around Kimberley earlier this year (2011). We will continue this "Cossall and Strelley" walk just around the corner from the Queen Adelaide at the water tower and head for Babbington before returning to Cossall. Back to Part 01 Forward to Part 03

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