Bestwood Country Park

On Saturday we joined with friends from Beeston in Nottingham and others at a free event organised by the Nottinghamshire Local History Association.  The setting was the 690 acres Bestwood Country Park and in particular what remains of the former Bestwood Colliery.

We were taken on a guided tour of the Winding Engine House which was once the driving force of both the colliery and iron works at Bestwood.  Below you can see the Winding Engine House, headstocks and cage over the now fully capped down shaft.  The up-shaft has been demolished.

This vertical, twin-cylindered winding engine, built in 1876, is the only one of its kind left in Britain preserved thanks to a group of local people who banded together in the 1990s to save the winding engine for future generations.  Those of us with ancestors who were colliers, coal hewers and miners (and I have lots of those) as well as the odd tailor, saddler, cheese and butter maker, iron founder, ferrule maker, farmer, lace maker, dress maker and nail maker.  My grandfather was an ostler who went to work down the pit to look after the pit ponies and suffered from miner's lung in his later years.  When I saw the cage I thought about his father, my great grandfather who, in March 1907 was killed, not at this colliery but one on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire borders, when the cage he was travelling in broke and tipped and threw out three of the occupants.  He was one of them,  the survivors were left hanging in the cage until they were rescued. The empty cage at Bestwood was a chilling sight.  The colliery finally closed in 1967.

Inside the Engine house was quite amazing. The guide told us it is made with top quality materials with a fine and elaborate finish even in the timber roof.  The wheel now runs on electricity but the mechanism of the steam charged engine is still all there, in fact, as the guide told us, if they ever took it out the brick housing would collapse.  There is easy access to the ground floor and a modern glass lift to the floors above.  

The only other part of the old buildings still standing is the Dynamo House, a former electrical substation which now houses photographs and information about the history of the Bestwood Coal and Iron Company in its heyday as well as documents and artifacts.  Children can dress in period costume and the Friends of Bestwood Country Park and the Bestwood village WI provide refreshments on Saturday mornings between 10a.m. and 12 noon.

After lunch we went over to the opposite side of the Country Park to walk in the woods there.

Before Bestwood Park became a hot bed of industrial activity it was a Hunting Forest and part of the larger Royal Sherwood Forest.  It was popular with the local gentry and visiting monarchs who would come for hunting.  In medieval times there was a hunting lodge here and the area was enclosed with pale fences and ditches to become Bestwood Park.  My main interest in seeing this part of the park is its connection with Richard III for it was here in August 1485, where he had travelled from Nottingham Castle, his castle of 'care' to enjoy a few days hunting with friends when he heard that Henry Tudor had landed at Milford Haven and was making his way across country, he left Bestwood Lodge on 19th August to make his way towards Leicester and on 22nd August to his end on the battlefield of Bosworth. 

 The enclosed park remained in the hands of the crown and it was on a visit to here by Charles II and his mistress Nell Gwynne that he gifted the Lodge and park to Nell and their illegitimate son the 1st Earl of St Albans.  During Queen Victoria's reign the 10th Duke of St Albans made many changes to the estate.  These include the building of the new lodge, the building of the grand entrance at Alexandra Lodge and establishing the Bestwood Coal and Iron Company. He and his Duchess were also responsible for the creating of the colliery village and the housing of the colliery workers there.

The lodge is now an hotel and after our walk down to the Alexandra Lodge (above) we stopped there for a sit in the cool lounge with a pot of tea.

Above and below - photos of the present Bestwood Lodge

Inside the lounge was cool and airy

We sat in the cool leather chairs and drank our tea before walking back to the car park.

A lovely, companionable day out with friends with a history lesson or two along the way.