IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Heather Avenue, CHESTERFIELD, S44 5RF

  Walking the Five Pits Trail loop around Holmewood and Williamthorpe Image : Previous – (7 of 21) - Next : Image This north-westerly facing photograph of the trail was taken at the point where the trail enters the Williamthorpe Nature Reserve. The trail at this point is following the trackbed of the Great Central Railway. - - - The Great Central Railway's route from the south, via Tibshelf, continued on toward Staveley with a branch, at Heath Junction, onto the Chesterfield Loop line.

On the A6175, on the way to Heath and the M1 motorway.

  Walking the Five Pits Trail loop around Holmewood and Williamthorpe Image : Previous – (6 of 21) - Next : Image This northerly facing photograph of the trail was taken on the approach to Williamthorpe Nature Reserve from Devonshire Terrace (behind the viewpoint). An OS map surveyed in 1914 and published in 1921 shows that the trail at this point is following the trackbed of the Great Central Railway's route from the south, via Tibshelf, that continued on toward Staveley with a branch via Chesterfield. Beyond the trees on the right of the viewpoint is a small recreation area accessed from Bracken Avenue in Heath.

This row of eight railway cottages was adjacent to Heath railway station (closed 1963).

  Walking the Five Pits Trail loop around Holmewood and Williamthorpe Image : Previous – (5 of 21) - Next : Image This north-westerly facing photograph was taken from the Devonshire Terrace bridge as it crosses Park Road. Ahead are some of the buildings of the Holmewood Industrial Park, which is built on the site of Williamthorpe Hall and Wood and the subsequent Williamthorpe Colliery. A few metres to the right an access ramp takes the Five Pits Trail back onto the former trackbed of the Great Central Railway to continue toward the ponds and nature reserve at Williamthorpe. See also this photograph by Roger Temple:- Image - - - An OS map surveyed in 1914 and published in 1921 shows that what is now Devonshire Terrace was the original route for Heath Road. At this point a bridge (now replaced by this newer version) carried the road over the tracks of the Great Central Railway. These tracks, part of the railway's Derbyshire Lines, were part of a route from the south, via Tibshelf that continued on toward Staveley with a branch via Chesterfield.

Spring is on the way; pussy willow buds starting to open. This is approaching the site of the former Williamthorpe Colliery. The area used to be fields and woodland until, in 1901, the land was leased to the Hardwick Colliery Company. Coal was mined here till 1970.

This bridge used to carry the main road (now the A6175) over a railway line which has now closed. The line has been replaced by the road in the picture.

  Walking the Five Pits Trail loop around Holmewood and Williamthorpe Image : Previous – (8 of 21) - Next : Image This north-westerly facing photograph of the trail was taken inside the Williamthorpe Nature Reserve at the point where it begins to drop down to skirt the northern end of the two main ponds. - - - Although landscaping has removed all evidence of the original Great Central Railway's trackbed, it was here, at Heath Junction, where the railway's Chesterfield Loop branch line departed from the main line that continued on toward Staveley. The Five Pits Trail follows the approximate route of the Chesterfield Loop branch for a short distance before another divergence onto what was the Williamthorpe Colliery Branch line. See also this photograph by Jonathan Clitheroe:- Image