Queen Elizabeth II Country Park

The Premier Inn carpark merged into a public carpark for the country park. The carpark was attractive to birdlife, most notably to several Mute Swans and a number of Canada Geese, who pattered about the cars in the search for some easy food. A large winding wheel had been placed in the carpark, no doubt a relic of the Woodhorn Colliery. It was surrounded by takeaway cartons and glass bottles, one of them broken. There was a litter wheelie bin about 10 metres away. It seems it was too far away for some.

I mentally flipped a coin and started walking around the lake anti-clockwise. Almost immediately the rain started and my anorak was on for the day. There were a lot of trees and undergrowth around the trail but there were enough gaps in the trees to get views over the lake. Birdlife seemed to be doing well in the surrounding trees and the lake. It didn't take me long to reach the south end of the lake and after following the trail to the east, I came across the rails of a narrow gauge railway. I could see that these led in to what looked like the Woodhorn Colliery complex. 

Woodhorn Colliery

A sign at the entrance to the site said that Woodhorn Colliery once had the 'Largest spoil heap in Europe.' It stated it with a certain pride. Oddly enough, the surrounding area was remarkably flat. I wondered what had happened to this slag heap. I remember these man-made mountains from my childhood town; I expected to see more evidence here.  Maybe the slag heap had been dumped in 'Europe's largest quarry.' Would that still qualify it as being 'Europe's largest spoil heap?' 

A queue of people had formed at the entrance gate to the site. They didn't seem to be moving. When I joined them, I could see that their average age must have been around 70. Judging by their accents, I'd guess that some of these people could possibly have been previous employees at Woodhorn Colliery. The entrance gates were locked. I wandered over to a sign that said the place was only open from Wednesday to Sunday. It seemed I was unlucky turning up on a rainy Monday. I left the mooching pensioners and walked along the entrance road to the site. This offered views of the winding wheels above a couple of colliery building albeit the view below being blocked by the security fence. As I was watching this, I noticed the line of pensioners were making their way along a path inside the site. They must have a tour arranged. I wondered if anybody would notice if I tagged on to the end of the parade, but by the time I got around to the entrance gate again, I found it locked again. 

Return

I started heading back towards the carpark on a trail through woodland. At the start the trail went through the discarded jaws of a huge dragline bucket. It certainly gave an impression of the scale of the machinery used at the colliery. I branched westwards off the path on to another trail. This crossed the narrow gauge railway again. I wondered whether the railway went to the nearby Lynemouth Power Station. This would have been coal fired around the time Woodhorn Colliery was open for business. I reached the lakeside path and followed this around to the carpark. It was heavy rain now. It looked like Storm Debi had arrived for its finale. 

It was a short walk today, but at least it was long enough to stretch my legs. It was a shame the Woodhorn Colliery site was closed; it looked like it was quite an interesting place to walk around. Next time I have a visit, I'll just have to ensure that it isn't a Monday or Tuesday.