Part 07 - Through Fox Covert
w/e 18 November 2018
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
Information for this series has been sourced from
various places including the"Long Eaton Centenary Town Trail"
leaflet (CTT) and the"Long Eaton Townscape Heritage Initiative"
booklet (THI).
As we descend the ramp from the footbridge over the Erewash Canal
into West Park our objective in this part of the Town Walk through
Long Eaton is the cemetery to the north of the park. We could
easily just haave followed the path or walked across the grass
but instead we doubled back from the ramp to pick up a path to
the south alongside the canal.
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This led into Fox Covert Nature Reserve and the top of a flood
bank that runs through it, a popular area with dog walkers as
we were about to find out.
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We climbed down a flight of steps from the flood bank to pick
up the Nature Trail in the Reserve which led to a board walk
through what is described as "marshland" although fortunately
it was quite dry.
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A leaflet about the site also describes the area as "tranquil
unspoilt countryside" that has "remained relatively
undisturbed." I think this picture of the path through the
part of the site to the south of the flood bank is testament
to that.
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The path led back to the flood bank and after climbing back up
to the top a passing gentleman informed us that in wet weather
the concrete channel fills up with water. In the seventeenth
century this was all arable land and in 1819 it was owned by
Lord Harrington of Elvaston Castle.
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The Nature Trail continues on the northern side of the bank and
we again descended a flight of steps to continue the walk. The
path was not clear and after wandering around trying to find
our way through the site we spotted some steps through the trees
only to find they were the same ones we had descended only a
few minutes earlier.
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Climbing back up to the top of the bank we met a lady walking
three dogs (seen here towards the left of the picture). She told
us she lived locally and had never been able to find her way
through that part of the Reserve so we didn't feel too badly
about it. We walked with her and her dogs along the flood bank
to the edge of Fox Covert before descending again into West Park.
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As we walked across West Park we spotted the place where we should
have exited Fox Covert but it is worth pointing out here that
Lord Harrington leased the area to a local family of builders
who extracted clay for a thriving brick making business. When
that ended the Harrington Estate planted trees to provide cover
for foxes - hence the name by which it is known today.
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The northern extent of the Reserve which is roughly square in
shape is bounded by Golden Brook which runs through the park
and which we crossed near the pavilion and children's play area,
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Turning right after crossing the brook we passed the Bandstand
of 1935. The cemetery wall is visible here on the far side of
the park and it is from there that we will continue in the next
part.
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