The Five Pits Trail Williamthorpe loop

Image: © Alan Walker Taken: 31 Oct 2017

  Walking the Five Pits Trail loop around Holmewood and Williamthorpe Image : Previous – (2 of 21) - Next : Image At the modern day end of Old Colliery Lane in Holmewood there is a small car park. The photograph shows the Five Pits Trail at the exit from the car park, which is just to the left of the viewpoint. Ahead the trail continues on, which at this point follows the trackbed of the Great Central Railway, toward the ponds and nature reserve at Williamthorpe before joining the main route of the trail at Wolfie Pond. The original Old Colliery Lane continues to the right as a footpath into the Holmewood Industrial Estate, which is built on the site of Hardwick Colliery and its railway sidings. - - - An OS map surveyed in 1914 and published in 1921 shows that Hardwick Colliery was serviced by two railway companies, the Midland Railway and the Great Central Railway. The Great Central Railway's access was a route from the south, via Tibshelf that continued on northward toward Staveley with a branch via Chesterfield. The Midland Railway's Pilsley Extension line passed close to the west and the company built its Hardwick Colliery Branch to the colliery from that line.

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