Heailk two

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

This route has the potential to be a Slow Way open to all users but it does need a bit of attention to achieve that. I walked Ilkeston to Heanor. Planning from the map is a bit of a challenge but the Nutbrook Trail is a good surface although not always in the marked location. No stiles no cattle that I saw.
The annual fun fair was setting up on the exit streets from Ilkeston. Road crossing are good then into the Manners Industrial Estate a reminder of ownership by the Dukes of Rutland. Into scrubby countryside and care is needed to branch right onto a less defined, used but unrecorded path, this I now discover is perhaps faulty plotting. The cycle route is a little further along which I guess would have offered a far better route.
To the east of Shipley Common the map is confusing but the plot is correct. The route leaves the level surface of the cycle route to cross more scrubby ground which I felt spoilt the ease of walking this part of the route.
Back on the cycle track and a cafe offers refreshment at weekends. The temporary closure of Heailk-1 is still in place despite the notice having expired in August 2022. The route to the east side of Shipley Lake is well used and good, having been the access road to the large tarmac area once used as the car park for American Adventure. The site of that doomed project is now being developed for housing so the Slow Way soon joins the access road to the estate.
We turn left at the old pit head winding gear and leave traffic behind. This track has the appearance of an old railway line which served the many mines in the area it's a steady climb to Heanor and I can imagine the steam engines huffing and puffing with a load of coal wagons in tow.
I enjoyed the walk but suggest it's work in progress and needs more investigation to provide a Slow Way open to all.

I was originally planning to walk HEAILK 1 today, from Ilkeston to Heanor, but the Nutbrook trail closure that prompted Stephen to create this route is still in place, so I diverted onto this route and used it all the way to Heanor. This does mean that I didn't follow this route out of Ilkeston, but since I walked 80% of it I feel confident reviewing it and recommending it, at least until HEAILK 1 is possible again.

The photos illustrate the obstruction and the (now expired) closure notice.

The route round the building work is rather dispiriting, accompanied throughout by a high substantial metal fence. Once the T junction NE of Shipley Lake is reached things improved, and I enjoyed most of the remaining route into Heanor, which is probably better than the one used by HEAILK 1.

I did divert from the route very slightly right at the end because the fire brigade were dealing with a substantial fire on Godfrey Street, so I reached the Market Place via Mundy Street and Wilmot Street.

I walked this route from Heanor southwards on a fine day in January. The exit from Heanor is downhill on quiet residential roads with a pavement (Godfrey St, Broadway and Thorpes rd). The Nutbrook trail is picked up on Thorpes Rd. It is surfaced with hard gravel or tarmac along its length. It forms a pleasant woodland walk at the northern end. After 1.8 miles, at the entrance to Lakeside Business Centre, the Nutbrook trail heads south (right) [but this section is closed] and I continued along the lane following the boundary fence of the Shipley Lake building development. This section is easy going but not scenic. When the new access road is reached, turn right to follow it south-west around the boundary fence to eventually reach the Nutbrook Cafe (3 miles from the start). Here we resume our route on the Nutbrook trail. We leave Shipley park and border the Shipley Fields housing estate, still on tarmac. 3.5 miles from the start the Nutbrook trail takes a sharp right turn at a footpath sign. I turned left onto the narrow muddy public footpath which threads its way through scrubby woodland to emerge into the Manners Industrial Estate. Turn left uphill and follow the pavement towards the right. After a few hundred yards a footpath sign on the right marks the next section of the route. The good path crosses a cycleway and climbs to a newly completed residential road. Turn left, then right and follow it onwards to emerge in the town centre.

Enjoyable, but spoilt by the necessity to skirt the development at Shipley Lake. Once the Nutbrook Trail reopens this will be much improved.

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