Out & About: Kingsmill Viaduct & Newstead Abbey

This week we had a complete change of scenery and went over to the dark side and headed over to Nottinghamshire to visit what we understand to be the site of the country’s oldest railway viaduct which cut across the bottom end of Kingsmill Reservoir. The reservoir was necessary to supply water all year round for the increasing number of water powered mills and in 1837 the 4^th Duke of Portland flooded 72 acres of his land to ensure this.

It all started in 1813 when a railway line was proposed between Mansfield and the canal at Pinxton. The son of William Jessop, Josias was appointed as the engineer and the viaduct was to have 3 arches and be called the Portland Bridge (Viaduct). The first one was constructed from timber but was replaced by stone in 1899. This viaduct is also the 4^th oldest railway bridge in the country. The original use for the railway was to transport the cotton up from the barges on the Cromford canal to the mills in the area and in particular the Hermitage Cotton Mill. The area is now known as the Hermitage Local Nature Reserve.

Kingsmill Viaduct

The Hermitage Nature Reserve through the arch.

Keystone in the Kingsmill Viaduct

Geoff getting a bit close to this swan.

A surprise was just waiting less than 50 metres away from the viaduct when we discovered the Hermitage Nature Reserve established in 2004 complete with Heronry. Iv’e never seen a Heronry before and was very impressed. There was about 5 or 6 birds there already sitting in the trees waiting for the breeding season to begin. The nests are huge and we were told by a local angler there are usually around 20 birds in the spring, so we’ll be heading back around end of March to have a look.

Hermitage Local Nature Reserve

Grey Heron

Part of the Heronry

We had a chat to a couple of photographers who told us all about the Herons and there is also a kingfisher resides in the reserve. The equipment they had was quite expensive just under £900 for one of the lenses. We also had a nice chat to an angler who said the place was full of carp, although there was no evidence of this in his net!!

Photographer on the right

Honest it was this big!!

The river Maun entering the nature reserve.

After we had a stroll through the reserve we decided to go and have a look at Newstead Abbey. We went to the front entrance to the park but if you take in your car there’s a charge and we were only going to be an hour, so it wasn’t worth paying (after all we are pensioners). So it was plan B, we went to the west gate and parked outside. We had our breakfast in the car and spoke to this chap walking his dog, he told us it was only 10 a minute walk to the abbey from where we were parked. We set off down this fantastic Lime tree avenue, it was straight as an arrow, passed a huge beautiful house with 3 nasty looking noisy dogs in the grounds (probably belongs to a footballer). Well 30 minutes later we arrived at the Abbey. It’s a beautiful place with a huge lake, grounds and waterfall

Lime Tree Avenue

Ike

The Upper lake

Waterfall from the Upper Lake

Newstead Abbey

Newstead Abbey estate was first granted to Sir John Byron following the Dissolution in 1540 and remained in the family for 10 generations the first 'Lord' Byron being created for his loyalty to the King during the Civil War. Its most famous for where the Poet Lord Byron lived at the beginning of the 19^th century. The Manor house we see today was created from the Augustinian Priory around the 12^th century, sadly only the west front remains alongside the house.

You have to pay to go into the gardens but we didn’t have time for that anyway, so it was a quick look around then back up to the car.

On the way back we passed Newstead Primary School and stopped the car to photograph these unusual bollards. what a brilliant idea!!