Jacksdale & Westwood - Part 05 - To Pye Hill
w/e 14 November 2010
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
Having completed our circular route through the interlinked
villages of Westwood and Jacksdale arriving back in the centre
of the latter, our final part in this series about the villages
takes us in the opposite direction to Westwood and heads towards
Ironville and Selston ending at the area called Pye Hill.
Turning away from the War Memorial we continue along Main Road
to its junction with Pye Hill Road and Selston Road. The new
Co-Operative building on the right is a recent addition to Jacksdale
standing on the site of the old Picture Palace (opened 1912) that later became
the Grey Topper nightclub. Before being demolished in 2006 it
ended its life as a factory shop and was replaced by this new
building which opened in the June of 2007. Whilst obviously serving
a useful purpose to the residents of the village, personally
I think the architecture of the new building could have been
more sympathetic to its surroundings. The small building with
the blue shutters on the left of the image above is Jacksdale's
NeC@fe offering low cost snacks and IT access.
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From the T-junction our route is to the left into Pye Hill Road
but we'll reach it by first turning right into Selston Road where
we pass Jacksdale Library, one of 61 in the county run by Nottinghamshire
County Council and which offers not only books for loan by children
and adults but also PCs, free internet and email and a range
of information services for the community.
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Turning off Selston Road into Franklin Road leads us to the first
of two churches we'll pass in this part, this one being the Jacksdale
Christian Centre.
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To reach Pye Hill Road, another left turn off Franklin Street
takes us across a pleasant green corridor that has been transformed
from the old railway track that ran through the village into
a recreational area complete with playground equipment for children.
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The leaflet we have been following labels the western side of
Pye Hill Road as "Modern Industrial Units" but some
of these buildings have been here since at least the 1960s with
others probably a little earlier.
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  Even older is the
second church in this part which has the words"Trinity Methodist
Church" above the door (left). At the time of writing consent
has been given allowing a change of use to a residential dwelling
and work has already commenced. Nearing the end of our walk we
follow a lane northwards to two rows of terraced houses. On the
right is Top Row.
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On the left the terrace is called New Row and despite the unmade
road, the buildings today look much smarter than when they were
in the shadow of Pye Hill Colliery.
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Continuing along the lane between the two terraces leads to an
area of open countryside criss-crossed by a number of footpaths
on the former Smotherfly opencast site. This too was the site
of the Pye Hill Colliery and also the Pye Hill Pipe and Brick
Works. So a former industrial area is now a place where the peace
and quiet of nature can be enjoyed and is perhaps a fitting place
to bring this particular Village Trail to a close.
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