Starting Point - Mansfield Woodhouse Station. Finishing Point - Alfreton Station. Distance 13 Miles
Pleasley Pit in Derbyshire is a fine example of a Victorian coal mine and is now a scheduled ancient monument and a museum. The museum is open on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. The mine was served by two railway lines, the Midland Railway's line from Mansfield Woodhouse to Westhouses & Blackwell just north of Alfreton and the Great Northern Railway's Leen Valley Line. I decided to combine a visit to the mine with a bike ride on the old Midland Railway route. (I had looked at walking the route and it would have been feasible but I had plans in the evening and the timings for a walk were a bit tight.)
On a train from Worksop to Mansfield Woodhouse the line passed the site of Pleasley Junction. A stretch of the trackbed from the site of the junction is used as a roadway in to a landfill site and is not accessible.
Mansfield Woodhouse
Mansfield lost its passenger railways during the Beeching cuts. The station at Alfreton several miles away was given the name Alfreton & Mansfield Parkway but thankfully in the 1990s services were restored to the "Robin Hood Line" between Nottingham and Worksop. Mansfield Woodhouse's new station just north of the original opened in 1995. The station incorporates the old goods shed as a shelter over a third platform which is served by additional morning and evening trains between Mansfield Woodhouse and Nottingham.
Below - The former goods shed and the platform for turnback services. My through train from Worksop to Nottingham stands on the platform to the left.
With the initial stretch of line from the junction being inaccessible I took Common Lane to where it meets the Meden Trail which is a footpath on the former railway trackbed as far as Pleasley. The railway bridge over Common Lane has been removed and the path climbs up the embankment from road level.
Below - Bridge that carried the footpath from Northfield House over the former railway.
It's interesting to note that on the above map the GNR's Leen Valley Line is still under construction with the Midland Route dominating the map.
The line crossed a stream and Outgang Lane on a series of bridges which have been removed. Here the Meden Trail leaves the railway trackbed to the south but a path crosses the stream to emerge on to Outgang Lane to the north. For details of the paths around this area Open Street Map is useful.
Below - Remains of bridge abutments at Outgang Lane.
A footpath links Outgang Lane and Common Lane following on the north side of the railway embankment. This path was quite overgrown. Paths are shown that follow the course of the railway through fields to the north of Common Lane but some landscaping seems to have been done and the course of the railway is not as evident on the ground as it is on the map.
Pleasley
Pleasley station was just west of Chesterfield Road, it became Pleasley West after nationalisation of the railways to avoid confusion with the station on the GNR line. Nothing remains of the station today. The line was primarily built for coal traffic and the passenger service was always a fairly token service, regular services finished in 1930 with only summer excursions to take miners to the seaside running until 1964 when the line between here and Mansfield was closed completely. The Midland Cottages still stand on the approach to the former station site. A footpath leads in to the Pleasley Pit Country Park established on the site of the mine.
A prominent feature of the country park is the pit itself. The two sets of headgear and their winding houses survive, with their winding engines. Details about the museum can be found on the Pleasley Pit Trust website, the site also contains a detailed history of the pit.
Below - The upcast shaft and its winding house.
Below - Chimney and downcast shaft.
Below - Winding engine for the downcast shaft.
Below - Winding engine for the upcast shaft.
Below - A set of winding control gear from nearby Silverhill Colliery.
Below - Wagon turntable for handling the tubs of coal from the mine.
Below - Reconstruction of the coal face. The museum just includes the pit head buildings rather than the coal workings themselves.
Below - The overhead control room for handling the tubs of coal emerging from the cages from the mine shaft.
Below - The cages that would take miners to the workings and bring coal tubs out.
Below - Stables for the horses that would work down the mine.
Below - Inbye Control hut.
Below - In a compound outside was another winding drum.
Below - Also nearby, a Lancashire boiler.
Below - The upcast shaft headgear and some of the pithead buildings.
Below - The downcast shaft headgear. The shaft was filled in the later years of the colliery when coal was brought out through nearby Shirebrook Colliery rather than the antiquated facilities here. The pit head remained for use of miners and materials. Although some buildings were demolished this did ensure the survival of much of the Victorian mine long enough to be saved for preservation.
West of the mine the line to Alfreton carried on in use for coal traffic until 1981. The old Midland Railway route continues as a footpath known as the Teversal Trail. The nearby Skegby Trail follows the GNR's Leen Valley Line which I intend to walk before too long.
Below - The wide cutting that once accommodated sidings at the site of Pleasley Colliery Junction.
Below - View from the bridge over Batley Lane showing remains of the bridge of the diverging Doe Lea branch. The branch is a footpath as far as Rowthorne as the Rowthorne Trail.
Below - The steep sides of the deep cutting of the single track Midland line towards Tibshelf.
Below - The bridge that took Newbound Lane over the railway has been filled and the path climbs to road height to cross the road on the level. A bit of bridge parapet wall on one side can be seen.
Below - Bridge carrying Peartree Lane over the railway.
Below - Bridge carrying Peartree Lane over the railway (again).
Below - Bridge carrying the railway over Pleasley Road with the wide abutments for the missing spans that carried tracks in to Teversal Colliery sidings.
Where the Midland line crossed over the GNR line in to Silverhill Colliery the bridge has been removed and paths on both routes cross on the level. The GNR line is now the "Link Track" connecting to the Skegby Trail to Pleasley. Here I popped off the trackbed for a visit to the Teversal Visitor Centre for a cuppa and piece of cake. I also bought a booklet about the local railways at the visitor centre.
Teversal Manor
From Teversal the path along the former line continues as the Silverhill Trail.
Below - Reconstructed section of platform with bench and sign at the site of Teversal Manor station.
Below - What looks to have been a milepost made from a length of old rail.
The former Midland branch to Skegby Colliery also survives as a footpath, the Brierley Branch.
Below - The bridge carrying Chesterfield Road over the railway.
Whiteborough
Below - The site of Whiteborough station. The signal is not in its original location, without looking at the map this is evident by it being on the wrong site of the track, it now marks the boundary between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
Below - Not on the old maps and a reminder that the line remained in freight use into more recent years is the bridge under the M1.
Below - Bridge carrying Newtonwood Lane over the railway.
The line passed underneath the Great Central Railway, though there was no evidence left of that route where the lines crossed.
Tibshelf & Newton
At Tibshelf & Newton station the station buildings were at road level with platforms on the line above. The building survived in to recent years, though was about half the size of the building now there so I'm not sure if it is an extension of the original building or a new building designed to look like it.
Below - Looking across the Newton Lane bridge towards the former station.
Below - Bridge carrying the footpath to Banks Farm.
Below - Rails crossing Gloves Lane. Beyond here the trackbed is used for maintenance access to the surviving Erewash Valley line, the route between Sheffield and Nottingham.
Gloves Lane emerges on to Alfreton Road / Tibshelf Road which I followed to the site of Westhouse & Blackwell station.
Westhouse & Blackwell
Below - Site of the former station. The main station building was on the right accessed from Alfreton Road.
I continued to the surviving station at Alfreton by taking the path from Park Mill Drive crossing under the Erewash line with the bridge shared with Normanton Brook and on to the path that follows the east side of the Erewash line (though this was barely passable on a bike).
Below - Bridge carrying the Erewash line over Normanton Brook and the footpath.
