Home Thoughts from Middle England: The Walk to Boothorpe and Beyond

Date: 3rd March 2011

Distance: 4.5miles

A walk taking in the delights of Boothorpe and the great big hole in the ground which I thought was clay extraction but was actually opencast coal mining - what a blot on the landscape. Still - some nice walking. The weather today was grey and very cold. There wasn't an inkling of any sunshine and even the birds were lying low and keeping quiet. After the walk across the usual fields to Boothorpe I turned left and headed down a green lane. There have been many changes round here. The paths have been cleared of brambles and nettles, there are new signs, fences, gates and, most spectacular, thousand of trees have been planted. They stretch all across the fields towards the site of Norris Hall on one side and up to the edge of the mighty hole on the other. I decided to leave the green lane and explore. I ducked right off the path, traversed the mud and entered an expanse covered in trees - all a foot high. I think I could see beech, birch and oak but it was hard to tell as they are just bare sticks stuck in the ground at the moment. I walked to the edge along wide grassy paths and peered into the murky depths of the abyss. Far below me refuse trucks were discharging their loads whilst giant machines shovelled the rubbish into the gaping grey mouth of the tip. Very reminiscent of Sauruman and his Orcs ravaging the trees of Fanghorn Forest except here, as soon as the land is being reclaimed, trees are being planted and not torn up. Eight million tons of coal were extracted from here - yes, eight million tons. It's hard to imagine the scale of the operation and yet it was all happening cheek by jowl with farming and villages and normal life. See the mighty hole in the ground .

I followed the grassy paths past more new trees and pockets of woodland and hedging that escaped the mining destruction. It was very quiet here - not even dog walkers seem to venture this far - a haven for wild life. I descended to Rawdon Road where the path emerged amongst signs of coppicing and repair work to to the footpaths. The National Forest company has been busy here. There are notices warning visitors not to nick the freshly felled wood....

I trotted across Rawdon Road as the cars take no prisoners on this stretch and walked along a section of the new The Conkers Circuit

I then returned to Gorse Lane (the green lane which heads back to Boothorpe). Just by the lane is a collection of ramshackle, prefab buildings which are now private houses but at one time this was the local sanatorium (or so I've been told - not been able to check this). The path then makes it way back to Boothorpe, the lane gently rises and falls, a rabbit hops off into the undergrowth and birds are busy in the hedges. A short walk through a field with fierce looking sheep, another field with skylarks, a inpassable path forcing some traversing of fences and a brisk walk down Blackfordby Lane. Another walk completed.