Country Park
Grassmoor Country Park is situated three miles to the south of
Chesterfield in Debyshire. It is also the gate way to the pits trail so
is the perfect place to begin your walk on the 5 pits trail with a picnic center and car park there.
The grassland is left uncut till late summer allowing a veriety
of grasses and wildflower to flourish these provied nectar for for a
veriety of butterflies and insects including the Orange Tip, Red Admiral and Small heath .
There are two ponds on the site both remnants of the coal mine
and provied a valuable wetland habitat of open water , vegitation and
slopping banksides.
On a summers day a visit can produce a dazling display of
Dragonflys including the Emporer,Brown Hawkers,Southern Hawkers and
Four Spotted Chaser
The ponds also provied refuge for the rare Water Vole were they can use the bankside to create their nework of chambers.
There are plenty of footpaths which you can use to
explore the large areas of broad leaf woodland plantations with areas
of Lodge Pole Pine and wild flower meadows
In 1980 the colliery site was an opencast minning site.Then in
1989 reclamation of the site began and Grassmoor Country Park was
created
CLICK ON THUMBNAIL TO ENLARGE
Grassmoor pit
At the begining of the 1800 centuary small scale coal extraction for local use with the digging of shallow bell pit was used
Grassmoor clliery was opened in 1846 and by 1896 there where 60 miles of underground workings
in opperation and eventually it had six shaftrs in opperation and employed up to 3000 people
It was the first colliery to have pit baths installed in Derbyshire which where built in 1929
in 1933 there was an explosion which caused the death of 14 men and 8 where injured
In 1950 it merged with Williamthorpe collieryand all the coal was turned up at Williamthorpe
which then closed in 1970 .There was also coke ovens on the site which was supplied by the pitt
the National coal board training cetre was situated adjcent to the colliery.Miners throughout
Derbyshire traind at the cetre before going down the pit it is now used as a buisness park
click on picture to enlarge
click on photo to enlarge
.
