Nottingham to Derby

31st July 2018

"Feared by the bad, loved by the good - Robin Hood"

My friend Bob from Sheffield joined me in Nottingham for a day and as it was a "day off" from the trip we naturally did a little bus and tram riding around the city.  There wasn't much else to do; the Castle and associated city museum are closed long-term for major renovation and the only other city centre attraction - a museum of criminal justice - failed to appeal.  We did, however, manage to visit Robin Hood.












1st August 2018
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire are obsessed with Robin Hood and his Merry Men, who turn up everywhere (even as a fleet name for bus company in years gone by), so having visited Robin himself yesterday, today it had to be. . . . Sherwood Forest!

My destination for the day was only Derby - and it's possible to get there on a non-stop bus from Nottingham in well under an hour so I had plenty of time to take in a few other sights. I left Nottingham on the 10.20 "Sherwood Arrow" bus (it doesn't have a number - just a name) and was pleased to find it was a double-decker. We set off out of Nottingham past the site of the annual Goose Fair - one of the largest travelling fairs in the country - and then passed the old "Home Ales" brewery at Daybrook, which is still standing after nearly 20 years of closure. The bus was quite busy with a number of families heading for the various outdoor attractions along the route.

The "Sherwood Arrow "in Sherwood Forest

The Major Oak

I alighted at the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre, just outside Edwinstowe. The rather tacky visitor centre itself was closed and fenced off as I had arrived in the two-week interregnum between the County Council relinquishing the site and the RSPB, who are building a new centre nearby, taking over.  The main attraction here is the "Major Oak", a venerable oak tree in whose hollow trunk Robin Hood (who else?) used to hide from the Sheriff of Nottingham (really).  I remember visiting it as a child, although in those days you could follow Robin's example and hide inside it yourself, which you can't do now.

After a short ride back to Edwinstowe and a change of bus I found myself in my second destination of the day - Mansfield. The town was within the former Nottinghamshire coalfield and we passed an intact pit, complete with winding gear but fenced off from the road somewhere along the way. Mansfield's story is best told in the town's small museum. It's major industries were coal, foundries, shoes, textiles and brewing  but their stories are very similar. All came to prominence in the nineteenth century, grew and prospered up until about 1960 when local firms were taken over my larger national or international concerns followed by decline in the 70s and 80s and, in most cases, complete closure in the current century.  Despite this, I quite liked the town and enjoyed the couple of hours I'd given myself here before embarking on the last bus of the day - a two hour marathon on Trent Barton's "Black Cat" (Trent Barton prefers to name its services rather than number them) route to Derby.

It was far from direct and meandered through western Notts and east Derbyshire via places such as Sutton-in-Ashfield, Hucknall and Ilkeston. The journey was enlivened at one point  when the driver received a message warning him of a traffic collision ahead and subsequent long delays. He told the bus he'd been advised to "divert via Salmon Lane"  but confessed that he didn't know where that was. True to form, several passengers came forward with advice and with their help we found our way round the blockage. This was the second unscheduled diversion of this trip so far, something which didn't happen at all in my 5,000km trip Around the Edge of England!

We passed the top end of the Erewash Canal at Langley Mill basin, where I just glimpsed the narrowboat  Free Spirit, whose blog I follow. No point in getting off to go and say "hello" though as I knew from their blog that they were away (they are back now). Almost immediately afterwards we crossed the county boundary and entered Derbyshire

DERBYSHIRE:  County town -  Derby   

                                                                                               

Derbyshire has escaped relatively unscathed from local government re-organisatons and has remained largely unchanged, losing just a few settlements along the periphery to neighbouring counties and gaining a small area from Cheshire in 1974.  The county town is Derby, although it has always been administered separately from the surrounding county and the county council headquarters is in Matlock.





There was a change of driver at the bus garage in Langley Mill, but no respite for me and I

A Felix Motors bus in 1975

must admit that by now the journey had become rather tedious. There are faster services between Mansfield and Derby but I'd chosen to come this way because between Ilkeston and Derby the route was once operated by a small, independent operator - Felix Motors (the original "Black Cat") and it was all (almost) made worthwhile when we passed through that company's home village of Stanley and what appeared to be the original "Felix Motors" bus garage.  I'm easily pleased.

Due to the unexpected diversion we were about ten minutes late arriving at Derby's new(ish) bus station from where it was only a short walk to the hotel.   In the evening, as a change from the pub I went to an organ recital in the cathedral. I just thought I ought to record that!

2nd August 2018

Today was another "day off" and unlike Nottingham I did spend it largely "off the buses".  I'd done the cathedral the previous evening but I did visit the city museum and the city's two market halls (one modern, one Victorian) as well as having a good look round the city centre.  I did make one short bus ride - out to the suburb of Chaddesden to photograph this unuusal milepost I'd noticed on the way into the city on the Black Cat yesterday.

Lincoln to Nottingham                                                                                   Derby to Chester