A post by by our guest blogger, Lennie Fairhall
With it being “the warmest day of the year so far” I thought I’d fulfil a long-held, though modest ambition, to ride to Cresswell Crags. It’s a beautiful and achaeologically significant place and were it in a more prosperous and well-connected part of the country, rather than the old Derbyshire / Nottinghamshire coalfield, I’m sure it would be more celebrated.
From the railway station I took the Park Square overpass route, rather than the canal basin, to make my way on NCN 627 up Maltravers Road and out along Corker Bottoms, Carbrook Ravine and on to the NCN 67. I was impressed with the blossom, the welcome lack of head-height vegetation encroaching over the trail, and the clear path outside the entrance to Corker Bottoms allotments – a notoious spot in days gone by for broken glass.
Entering the Shirebrook section I was passed by a chap on an electric motorbike with an infant perched on the handlebars between his arms. He clocked my ebike motor. ( Shimano Cargo). “You want to get a Bosch, they’re more reliable”. I refrained from making any suggestions about his passenger arrangements.
I always love the ride over Linley Meadows to Beighton even though the track is rough. You hear skylarks.
The least satisfactory aspect of NCN 67 is the way it goes through Beighton. I always take the TPT Equestrian route; Woodhouse Lane and High Street then turning left on Beeches Grove and Tynker lane before getting to the start of the trail to Rother valley Country Park.
On past the park and heading to Poolsbrook Country Park. It being an absolutely top spring day, the birds were twittering away, and I decided to get Spotify playing Max Richter’s re-write of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on my phone, Bluetoothed through my hi-tech hearing aids. Superb.
So far, so good. But it all fell apart after my little stop at the café in Poolsbrook Country Park. I tried to work out my route from there on to the Clowne Greenway, which would lead me to Cresswell. Yogi Berra may well have said “If you come to a fork in the road, take it” but he wasn’t trying to get to Cresswell Crags. After some meandering around to the far side of the lake at Poolsbrook, I sought directions from a likely-looking bloke out for a good walk with his son. “I’m trying to find my way to the Clowne Greenway”. He looked puzzled. “I live in Clowne but I’ve never heard of it”. After taking a few dead end tracks, a fellow off-road cyclist coming the other way (“I’ve been doing the Barlborough Loop”) came to my directional rescue.
For future reference, get a quadlock or similar mount, a mapping app of your choice on your fully-charged device and navigate with that. And ask everyone you meet. There are no signs, but lots of forks everywhere. Eventually I reached a new industrial development with shiny new blue fingerpost signs and off I went.
It is a great ride, and for about a mile either side of the old Clowne station the trail goes through a lovely deep cutting with virtually vertical walls.
It peters out at Cresswell, and taking a left at the new housing estate by the old signal box, leads via Gypsy Lane to a T junction with a main road (Elmton Road) into the village and a sign which points to Cresswell Crags! From Elmton Road take a right turn on Mansfield Road and not far along there’s a left turn into Cresswell Crags. Lovely.
The visitor centre, café, and loos are at the far end. Next time I’ll set off earlier and spend some time there and take a guided tour.
Back to Sheffield via the A60 to Worksop and the train, via a quick pint at The Mallard pub at the station. Maybe I’m unused to cycling on main roads through the countryside, but I couldn’t help but notice the amount of roadkill on that stretch. A dead creature every 100 yards at least. I suppose it indicates that there is a lot of wildlife along there, but I was told the other day that illegally killed badgers and foxes are just dumped on roads to disguise the real cause of their demise. This didn’t take the shine off what was a brilliant ride on a lovely day.
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