Grassmoor Country Park

Image: © Alan Walker Taken: 7 Feb 2018

  A walk around Grassmoor Image : Previous - (6 of 51) - Next : Image Looking south-west, this footpath in Grassmoor Country Park https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/images/Grassmoor%20Country%20Park_tcm44-194014.pdf runs parallel to Birkin Lane and is part of the Five Pits Trail https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/images/5%20Pits%20lft%20Jan%202014%20web_tcm44-216030.pdf . The trail goes under the Birkin Lane bridge and leaves the country park at this point on its way south-east, passing Wolfie Pond and toward a crossing with Williamthorpe Road. The footpath, leading to the right, continues toward an access point at Birkin Lane. See also this photograph by Alan Heardman:- Image - - - An OS map surveyed in 1914 and published in 1921 shows that the Grassmoor Colliery was serviced by two railway companies, The Midland Railway and the Great Central Railway. The Midland Railway's Bonds Main Colliery Branch line left the main line about 1.5km north-west of here to service another colliery at Temple Normanton. Branching off from that line the company then built the Pilsley Extension line which travelled through Grassmoor Colliery onward to the south of Pilsley before looping back to rejoin the main line at Morton. It is the route of the Midland Railway's Pilsley Extension line that the Five Pits Trail largely follows until it reaches Timber Lane. At this point the Midland Railway and the Great Central Railway branch lines ran adjacent to each other, both servicing Pilsley Colliery, before their routes diverged near the Great Central Railway's Pilsley station. The Great Central Railway's two access routes into the Grassmoor Colliery came from the north and from the east where ran the company's Chesterfield Loop line. To the north was Grassmoor station on the Chesterfield Loop and from here lines near Corbriggs ran into the colliery site. From the east the Great Central Railway constructed their Grassmoor Colliery Branch line to link with the Chesterfield Loop. Both companies are represented in this photograph. On the left, under the Birkin Lane bridge were the tracks of the Midland Railway's Pilsley Extension. On the right were sidings associated with the Great Central Railway's Grassmoor Colliery Branch line. Some distance behind the viewpoint was a bridge carrying the GCR line over the MR line. On the ground no evidence of this structure or its associated embankments now exists.

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