Aberford Fly Line

Starting Point - Garforth Station. Round trip to Aberford. Distance - 6.5 Miles

Above - One of the Manning Wardle locos passing the Light Arch (Photo from the LNER Encyclopedia)

The Gascoigne family owned several coal mines in the Garforth area but had difficulties transporting the coal mined in the area. They were shareholders in the Leeds & Selby Railway constructed in the 1830s and around the same time built a light railway to the village of Aberford serving a few of their mines on the way. This was horse worked with rope haulage on the steepest section until adapted for steam locomotive use in the 1870s. The Gascoignes sold the pits and the railway in 1920 after which the railway closed in 1924 and the last of the pits in 1930. Remarkably after so long since closure most of the trackbed survives as a footpath, known as the Fly Line after the nickname for the railway.

Even from the early days of horse haulage there was a passenger service using a primitive carriage attached to the rear of coal trains along with a dandy cart for the horse that would haul the wagons back up the line. When the line used locomotives the passenger stock was considerably improved with second hand four wheel coaches.

Much more about the history of the railway can be found on the Parlington Hall website and LNER Encyclopedia.

Google Map

On the old maps the connection between the main line and the Aberford Railway together with the sidings and Sisters Pit is spread across two pages. The mainline connection can be seen at the top of this page -

1908 Map

With details further north on this page -

1894 Map

The site of the sidings and Sisters Pit are now occupied by a Tesco Supermarket. Part of the trackbed is occupied by other retail units (including a pub called The Fly Line) and industrial units. The former trackbed is accessed from Ash Lane. Industrial units occupy the site of Isabella Pit. One of the buildings from the former mine survives.

Below - Old building from Isabella Pit

Beyond the industrial units at the site of Isabella Pit the road becomes a path along the trackbed.

Below - Trackbed near Garforth.

Below - Spoil tips from Isabella Pit in Hawks Nest Wood.

In Hawks Nest Wood a farm worker once lived in an old railway carriage alongside the railway line. A little bit of the remains of the carriage could be seen to the left of the path. The collestory roof is largely intact but such is the state of the remains that this seems to be resting on the floor.

Below - Remains of railway carriage at Hawks Nest Wood.

At the site of Elizabeth Pit the M1 Motorway now crosses over the former railway route, a subway has been built for the footpath.

Lilly Pit Cottage survives and in the trees alongside the path the heaps of spoil from the mine can be seen.

Below - Cottage from Lilly Pit.

Below - One of the line's Manning Wardle locos shunts a coach out of a carriage shed in this photo from the LNER Encyclopidia.

Below - The trackbed north of Lilly Pit.

1893 Map (bottom right of page)

As the trackbed curves to the right the path is a bit rough for an old railway trackbed, possibly a result of years of horse use and this stretch getting muddy in the shade of the trees.

The old map shows a old coal staith. Parlington Lane previously having served as a pack horse route for the coal before the railway was built.

1893 Map

The railway passed to the south of the Parlington Estate, the grand house of the Gascoigne family. Most of the hall is gone now, just part of a wing of it surviving. The Parlington Hall website gives a thorough history of the estate.

Below - Trackbed near the Parlington Estate

The trackbed meets Parlington Lane as both pass the former Gamekeepers house. The Gamekeepers house survives as a holiday cottage. A small gas works also used to turn coal from the Gascoigne pits in to gas for the estate here.

Below - The Gamekeeper's house.

Below - The retaining wall alongside Parlington Lane and the course of the railway.

Below - The Dark Arch. This tunnel was on the original packhorse route of Parlington Lane, not for any necessary of the landscape but to hide the coal traffic from the view of the hall.

Below - When the railway was built the tunnel was too low so the railway had to run around the back of it.

Below - A look back to the Dark Arch with the railway on the left.

Below - Inside the Dark Arch.

Below - The Light Arch is a much smaller structure that was adapted for the railway.

Below - Looking back to the Light Arch with some of the retaining walls.

Below - Former entrance to one of the quarries that lined this part of the route.

Below - Lodge House seen on the above map.

Continuing to the end of the former railway at Aberford the vacant triangle of land formerly occupied by the station and coal depot is still vacant.

Having reached the end of the line I started heading back towards Garforth but took a little detour to look at a couple of interesting features on the Parlington Estate.

A footpath heads north through the field close to the old quarries. Turning left on to the main road in to the estate brings us to the Parlington Arch, a triumphal arch built to celebrate the American victory in the war of independence. This does seem like it could have been seen as an act of treason at the time. It is said that the Prince Regent was due to attend a luncheon at the hall but left when he saw the inscription on the arch.

Below - The Parlington Arch.

Just before the arch on the north side of the road where what looked to be the remains of garages, complete with a ramp for examining beneath a vehicle. Unfortunately I couldn't find this feature on the old maps.

I had hoped I might be able to walk through part of the grounds, perhaps see a view of the remaining fragment of the hall and look for the ice houses shown on the old maps. A Private Property sign made it clear that this way was out of bounds though so I returned to the railway trackbed where I had left it and continued back to Garforth.

 

Erewash Valley Trail - Nottingham Canal and Bennerley Viaduct

Starting Point - Langley Mill station. Finishing Point - Beeston Station. Distance - 11 Miles

The Erewash Valley Trail features footpaths along both sides of the valley with a number of links between them providing several options of circular walks. The path on the east side of the valley mostly follows the course of the abandoned Nottingham Canal. On this walk I started at Langley Mill and followed that route, also checking out the latest link between the two sides of the valley, the Bennerley Viaduct that has recently been reopened to pedestrians and cyclists.

A guide to the Erewash Valley Trail (pdf) shows basic maps of the trail and some background information, though doesn't say much about the Nottingham Canal which the eastern side of the trail largely follows. The canal was completed in 1796, linking the Cromford Canal and Erewash Canal to the centre of Nottingham, providing a more direct route for coal in to Nottingham and serving several collieries on the way. The canal ended up owned by the Great Norther Railway but as was often the case with canals much of the traffic went to the railways and the canal was run down. It closed in 1937 but it was retained for some years. In the 1950s sections within Nottingham were filled. There was a scheme to revive the canal between Trowel and Langley Mill in the 1970s but with the expense of making new bridges for road improvements suitable for navigation the scheme was abandoned at the end of the decade. Parts of the canal route north of Bennerley Viaduct were lost due to open cast mining. Some sections have been filled but sections remain with either water or weeds and most of the route between Langley Mill and Trowel is now footpath or bridleway. More information about the Nottingham Canal can be found on the Wikipedia page

From Langley Mill station it is a short walk to Langley Mill Basin on the Erewash Canal, also known as Great Northern Basin after the nearby Great Northern Railway's Erewash Valley Line. The course of the former GNR is now occupied by the A610 road. 

Google Map

1881 Map

Below - Langley Mill Lock on the Erewash Canal.

Below - The former junction with the Nottingham Canal, the Nottingham Canal toll office can be seen on the left of the picture.

Below - Information board about the Erewash Valley Trail at Langley Mill Lock.

Below - Langley Mill Basin. The Nottingham Canal used to continue beneath where I am standing.

Crossing the A608 from the basin, the former canal route is now occupied by Anchor Road. There is nothing besides the old maps to suggest it was once a canal. 

Where Anchor Road turns a sharp right there was once a rail and road bridge over the Nottingham Canal and the nearby Erewash Canal. A colliery waggonway connected wharfs on both canals to Bailey Brook Colliery. The path along the course of the canal leaves the road where the access to the original towpath would have done. 

Between Anchor Road and Tinsley Road there path starts looking like any path through a wooded area but the outline of the old canal becomes visible, even with some water if there has been recent rain.

At Tinsley Road the original canal bridge survives, the first intact structure on the route since leaving Langley Mill Basin.

Below - Former Bridge Street (now Tinsley Road) bridge.

Below - South of Tinsley Road another stretch where the now almost dry cut of the canal can be seen.

1881 Map (top right of map)

Below - Swing Bridge still in situ. At this point a branch line from the GNR line to Eastwood Colliery once crossed on a bridge.

Below - The former canal continues in its empty state to Newmanley's Road South.

1900 Map

Until the course of the canal meets Bennerley Viaduct the landscape has been obliterated by the open cast mining in the area from the 1970s. Up to Halls Lane the path follows the course of the canal before diverting on to old paths through Newthorpe Farm and a stretch of the former Midland Railway Bennerley and Bulwell branch.

1915 Map

The opencast mining has affected the approach to Bennerley Viaduct from the east, the railway embankment up to the viaduct having been removed. There is now a path through a field and a staircase up to viaduct level.

The wrought iron lattice viaduct was built between 1876 and 1877 as part of the Great Northern Railway's Derbyshire Extension, built mainly to serve the local coal industry. It closed in the 1960s but unlike most metal viaducts it survived due to the costs of scrapping it being uneconomical. More about the viaduct can be read on the Wikipedia page.

Below - Looking along the viaduct from the eastern end.

Below - Looking north from the viaduct across the site of Bennerley Iron Works and the later open cast coal mining site.

Below - The surviving Midland Railway route passing under the viaduct. The remains of the rail access to the open cast site (and previously the iron works) can be seen near the foot of the viaduct.

Below - Returning to the canal, the point nearest the viaduct does have water, though now for use by an angling group.

Below - Bennerley Viaduct seen from the former canal.

Below - An information board about the former canal.

Below - Another view of the viaduct from Newton's Lane.

Below - Looking north along the canal from the site of the bridge that is now replaced with a modern culvert on the widened Newtons Lane.

The water continues for a stretch. As the later Shilo Way crosses over the canal another modern culvert has been used and the path crosses over the road.

A swing bridge crosses over the canal and a bit sticks out of the canal. On the old maps this looks to have been a wharf for a brick works. At this point the Midland Railway's Babbington Branch once crossed on a bridge. At the time of the 1915 map this branch had already been dismantled east of the brick works here. With sidings shown in the brick works it would seem there was some rail traffic from it.

Below - Site of Midland Railway Babbington Branch crossing over the canal.

Coronation Road crossed under the canal and a bridge that carried a railway track to the canal side from Consall Colliery. The footpath diverts to the site of the railway line and crosses the road on a concrete bridge. Though the canal bridge has been removed there is now a pipe bridge over the road. The pipe continues in the dry cut of the former canal to a culvert beyond which the canal has water again. The pipe is presumably meant to prevent the abandoned canal from becoming stagnant. It seems it must be blocked as even in the middle of winter there was algae on the surface of the water.

Below - Algae covered former canal south of Coronation Road.

1946 Map

Below - Site of the bridge carrying a tramway from Consall Colliery to a drift shaft.

Below - A view along the straight section of canal towards Mill Lane.

The bridge at Mill Lane was gone and the canal filled in for the path to cross, though the next swing bridge serving a footpath was still in place.

Below - Former junction with the Robbinetts Arm

Beyond the Robinnetts Arm junction the canal again becomes more weed and less water and is soon found to be mostly filled in. What seems to be a small pond has walls either side of the former canal edges and is in fact the site of a swing bridge.

1881 Map

Below - Site of the former swing bridge.

As the canal passed Grange Wood a couple of short stretches of former canal have water. Amongst the trees alongside the former towpath I found the remains of a wooden hut with a brick chimney and fireplace.

Below - Front of the wooden hut with a hole that appears to have been a window.

Below - Inside the wooden hut the fireplace and brick chimney.

As the village of Trowell has grown modern housing has been built up to the former canal and the route of the canal is now a footpath at the back of the residential area. Where it passes under Nottingham Road the bridge seems to be largely modern but with remnants of the earlier canal bridge such as the retaining walls at the side. Beyond the bridge the weed filled trench of the former canal can be seen again.

Below - Bridge under Nottingham Road, Trowell

1895 Map (top right of map)

Below - The footpath bridge at the top of the above map.

The two cottages and their wooded grounds on the above map survive as a garden centre and the path detours around the garden centre using the footpath shown on the old map.

1885 Map

Below - Swancar Farm bridge.

Below - The point on the old map where the canal narrows. This would have allowed a wooden dam to be inserted in the slot still seen so a section of the canal could be drained for maintenance work.

The Coventry Lane bridge shown on the old map is now the somewhat wider A6002. At this point the Erewash Valley Trail leaves the former canal and continues towards Attenborough and I followed the route of the trail leaflet except for turning left for Beeston station (with more trains) instead of right for Attenborough to pick up a train in to Nottingham and head home from there. In retrospect I should have at least stuck with the route of the canal as far as Latimer Drive as I would have seen the bridge under the railway. Beyond Latimer Drive the former canal has been obliterated by the development of Nottingham. Part of the former canal route is now a water feature at the back of the University of Nottingham Jubilee Campus and the River Leen has been diverted on to the former canal for the final section up to the former junction with the Beeston Canal

Below - One of the other sights taken in on the Erewash Valley Trail, the Hemlock Stone, a pillar of the sandstone on which much of Nottingham is built. In medieval times it was believed that this stone was thrown here by the devil from Castleton in Derbyshire 40 miles away when he was annoyed by the ringing of church bells.