Southwell Trail
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The Southwell Trail is a long multi-user trail, for use on foot, cycle and horseback, that links
Bilsthorpe Bilsthorpe is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England.OS Explorer Map 270: Sherwood Forest: (1:25 000): According to the 2001 census it had a population of 3,076, increasing to 3,375 at the ...
and Southwell in the English county of
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
. It uses parts of the track bed of two former railway lines. It has been designated as a Local Nature Reserve.


Route

The trail starts at Forest Link in Billsthorpe, from where a quiet on-road route is signed to the Bilsthorpe Line Multi-User Route. From Billsthorpe the trail heads south to the site of Farnsfield station. An access path heads west from here to the A614, whilst the trail proper heads east to the site of Kirklington station. From here the trail turns south-east past the historic mill and hamlet of Maythorne to reach its terminus at the site of Southwell station. There are car parks at Forest Link in Billsthorpe, and at the three former station sites of Farnsfield, Kirklington and Southwell. At Southwell, there is a public house, the ''Final Whistle'', next to the end of the trail, which is about from the centre of Southwell town and its famous Minster and Cathedral. Between Kirklington station and Maythorne, the Southwell Trail shares its route with the
Robin Hood Way The Robin Hood Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in the Midlands of England. Length The Robin Hood Way runs for . Route The Robin Hood Way commemorates the famous folklore figure Robin Hood and starts from Nottingham Castle running ...
, a waymarked
long-distance footpath A long-distance trail (or long-distance footpath, track, way, greenway (landscape), greenway) is a longer recreational trail mainly through rural areas used for hiking, backpacking (wilderness), backpacking, cycling, equestrianism or cross-co ...
that links many places with connections to
Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...
.


History

The section of the trail from Farnsfield to Southwell was opened as a railway in 1871, when the
Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...
built a line connecting Southwell to
Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...
. This line, together with a pre-existing line between Southwell and Rolleston, formed the Rolleston Junction to Mansfield railway line, which carried both freight and passenger traffic. The line between Mansfield and Southwell closed to passengers in 1929, but continued to be heavily used by freight trains, especially to and from the
collieries Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...
near Mansfield. In 1931 a new freight line was opened from Farnsfield to
Ollerton Ollerton is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ollerton and Boughton, in the Newark and Sherwood district, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England, on the edge of Sherwood Forest in the area known as the Dukeries. The p ...
via Bilsthorpe, and it is this route of this line that is used by the Bilsthorpe to Farnsfield section of the trail. However, by 1968 all the lines used by the trail had closed completely. In the early 1970s,
Nottinghamshire County Council Nottinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county; the non-metropolitan county excludes the city of ...
purchased the section of the line from Southwell to Farnsfield and beyond to the crossing of the A614, together with the section of the Ollerton branch as far as Bilsthorpe. This was converted into the Southwell Trail, initially as a bridleway. In 2005–6, the trail was resurfaced and converted into a multi-user route.


References

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External links


Discover Southwell Trail leaflet
from Nottinghamshire County Council Cycleways in England Footpaths in Nottinghamshire Rail trails in England