However, as the last few weeks have been so very busy, not to mention hot, I wanted to find a site close to home that would be quiet with a little walking so I could relax and unwind.
I found Teversal - Trails and all!
This is where the C & CC comes in - it is one of their top certified sites and to join the club gets you pennies off, so it was a no brainer!
So wanting to make the most of the sunshine we set off straight after work on Friday afternoon and were all pitched and settled by tea time!
As I reached for my Kindle, I realised I had not done any reading since returning from America!
After a restless night (so muggy) we made an early start with bacon & eggs before setting off to find the visitor centre. On the way we passed The Carnarvon Arms Pub & restaurant which looked very nice indeed and, strangely, this plaque..............
Teversal, Carnarvon and Tutankhamun - surely not?
So, of course, I had to find the connection. Lord Carnarvon didn't come from Teversal did he?
One thing we can be sure of, Tutankhamun had never heard of Teversal , but over three thousand years later the Carnarvon family certainly had. Almost every village in England had a Lord of the Manor whose manor house was usually built as close to the church as possible. The Molyneux family were Lords of the Manor in Teversal for almost 150 years from the 1700s and financed coal mining operations to extract the Top Hard seam which lay fairly close to the surface. The Top Hard seam was always a good quality saleable coal proving that the deeper seams are not automatically the best. In 1830 Henrietta Molyneux married the 3rd Earl of Carnarvon and became Henrietta Carnarvon whose initials HC are to be seen on buildings around Teversal. The land which the Carnarvon’s held in and around Teversal were eventually sold in the early 20th Century to private buyers and the map showing the plot numbers for auction is held in the Sutton In Ashfield library archives. It was the 5th earl of Carnarvon, the family Henrietta had married into, who financed the excavations in Egypt in the early 1900s leading to the discovery of the Pharaoh, Tutankhamun. The family names are found in locations such as the Molyneux mine off Fackley road, Teversal, famous for the disaster on 2nd April 1869 in which 4 lives were lost after an inrush of water, and Carnarvon Street in Teversal as well as the Carnarvon Arms. So without any doubt, the families wealth used to finance Howard Carters excavation came, in part, from local mining and other business activities.
Well I never ...... and another thing........ D H Lawrence is said to have based Lady Chatterley's Lover on the village!
Anyway I had dinner at the Carnarvon Arms later that day and I would highly recommend it!
Back to the Trails. The trails follow the tracks of the old colliery railway and together with local footpaths provide a network of varied walks.
Silverhill Colliery was in operation from 1862 - 1980 - one of the regions most profitable pits, it was the first to be closed in Nottinghamshire. During the 112 years of coal production 3 seams were worked, the Top Hard, Dunsil and the First Waterloo. The Top Hard seam was worked continually from 1869 to 1948 when it was exhausted. The Dunsil seam was worked spasmodically from 1868 to 1968. The First Waterloo seam commenced production in 1957 and was the last to be worked. It was the first face to be fully mechanised to include power loading, previously the machine cut coal was loaded by hand.
The land, having laid to waste for several years, was re-developed to form the nature park and right in the middle of the trail, marking the highest point in Nottinghamshire, is a bronze Miner holding his lamp.
This photo shows Hardwick Hall in the distance.
The views from the trail were indeed beautiful - the Great British countryside at its best ..........
The dogs, of course, loved the walking and seeing as they had me up at 6:30 am I got my own back by walking their little paws off - giving me quality time with the Kindle!
Super couple of days recharging the batteries!
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