Category: Medium Walks

In the spirit of the University of the Third Age, our Medium Walks group set off recently from the University tram stop for our first ramble of 2025.

We followed a route through the newish Science Park, round the much older Dunkirk pond, then over the main railway line using the Stewart Adams bridge, named after the inventor of Ibuprofen. After a pause to watch cars being very quickly reduced to bits in the cruncher at the Sims Metals recycling site, we carried on to the canal towpath at Thane Road. The old footbridge over the canal which we had planned to use is currently closed for renovation, so we carried on around the new road at the perimeter of the Boots site. A large amount of housing is currently being built, and we wondered about the future of the part of the site still in use by Boots.

We then reached the western end of the University campus, and decided to try out the facilities of the Student Union at the top of the hill – these were found to be ideal, both inside and outside, and the weather was as good as can be expected for mid-February.

Our March walk will be another local walk, at Bestwood Country Park. We always welcome new members, just use the tab on the homepage of our website to get in touch.

John Tedstone

Our popular photo quiz took place again in January, in and around Nottingham City Centre. Our 22 walkers, assembled into four teams, were each given a sheet with 28 photos and a list of streets. The object was to locate as many individual features as possible – these varied from small stone carvings to date plaques, street nameplates, lamps and a variety of usually old items, often being several floors up. The photo shows 3 of the plaques we were all looking for.

Each group needed to work out a route, with locations spreading out as far as Sneinton Market and up to the Ropewalk area. A good plan was to have a short coffee stop in the nearest Wetherspoons (other pubs are available), to try and optimize the route, which came to over 4 plus miles for each group. Care needed to be taken to avoid giving away locations, particularly if another group was sighted coming the other way!

Thanks to John Saunders and David Jackson for once again compiling the quiz. After an interesting morning for everyone, in reasonably benign weather, they set themselves up in the Three Crowns pub at Theatre Square, where the winning team was decided, and where we settled down to a welcome buffet.

This walk marked the start of our 2025 programme. New members are always welcome – just use the tab on our website to get in touch.

John Tedstone

Our last walk of 2024 started in the centre of Jacksdale, north of our October walk from Brinsley, but still in the Erewash Valley nature reserve. The weather had been much less wet before this walk, so the going was what the horse racing world describes as ‘good to firm’.

After a mostly uphill climb, we crossed the border from Nottinghamshire into Derbyshire near the hamlet of Jubilee, walked under the preserved Midland Railway and had our coffee stop at the reservoir where the ‘Pinxton arm’ canal joined the Cromford canal. The canal as built started in Cromford, where a stretch is preserved and operational, and met the Erewash canal at Langley Mill. Closed to navigation for many years, many stretches have been lost to reeds, but the course is easy to follow, and some of the locks remain partly intact.

We paused to look across to the imposing stone building, which is now converted into apartments, but was built by the Butterley Company for its workers. For anyone who travels to London St. Pancras on the train, it is worth a look upwards at the roof, which was manufactured by the Butterley Company.

We returned to Jacksdale through the nature reserve, where our walk leader had arranged for us to eat our sandwiches in the very accommodating Poachers Ale House.

Thanks to Paul Haigh for stepping in at short notice and leading a very pleasant walk to end the year.

Our October walk set off from the Brinsley Headstocks car park for a circular walk, which headed across to the route of the old Cromford Canal and proved to be very good trainspotting country.

Our walk leader Paul Haigh outlined the history of Brinsley pit, where we paused by the site of the headstocks. These were recently newsworthy when they had to be dismantled due to the unsafe condition of the timber. The adjacent land has just been prepared for the planting of an orchard of 27 fruit trees, to commemorate the miners who lost their lives while working at the pit.

The going proved to be quite muddy in parts, after recent rain, especially the day before, as we headed northwards, towards Westwood and Jacksdale. After a slightly damp lunch stop, we returned to Brinsley via the White Lion pub for most of us, and the obligatory photo stop.

A very pleasant walk, without travelling far from home.

Our final walk of 2024 will be on Monday 18^th November, and before then we will be planning our walks for 2025, which will start in January.

New members are always welcome to join this group; just use the email tab on our website or have a chat with me at the main monthly meeting.

John Tedstone

For our latest walk, we set off from Chilwell tramstop and headed for the River Trent, through the Attenborough nature reserve. We had a perfect late summer day, in contrast to the gales and rain early this year, when we first planned this walk, and which we reluctantly postponed at the time.

We paused at the popular Lock-keepers’ cottages, at Beeston lock, where we had our coffee stop in their garden, and where an obliging customer took our group photo.

We then set off along the canal towpath, and wondered why we kept passing groups of people walking the other way, all with their identity cards, and not really suitably attired for walking!

It was good to see the canal well used by narrow boats, and we also saw a group of volunteer litter pickers at work. We finished our walk with our picnic stop at the new Broad Marsh landscaped area, which was already looking well established in the very sunny weather.

Thanks to Philip and Liz Attenborough for planning this walk for us all. Our next walk will be at Brinsley on Monday 21^st October, and we always welcome more members in this group.