On Day 10 of the #GreatCentralRouteBack we were going backwards to Ruddington. This is not uncommon on the heritage railways I’ve been on. Even on the Great Central Railway at Leicester sometimes the engine was running backwards. We were going backwards, back towards Loughborough although not that much.
Ruddington is an interesting village. We started at the Nottingham Heritage Transport Centre which is a mighty hotch-potch of locomotives of all sorts, abandoned boilers and other parts, buses and coaches in various states of repair and a miniature railway. There was also quite a lot of bric a brac and excellent all day breakfasts.
We walked back into the village to visit the hand frame knitters museum, which was very interesting. It seems that Ruddington was quite a centre for this in the 19th century. The museum still has quite a collection of the knitting frames. Looking for justice for textile workers seems to have been a significant problem then and still is now in the global context.
Walking south from the village we were back alongside the GCR, and we finished our walk in the Country Park.
On Day 11 of the #GreatCentralRouteBack we were looking back to last summer when we walked in this same area, but on different routes. I started walking at Newton on the Five Pits Trail which follows the route of the GCR or goes alongside it in places.
Both in the Hand Frame Knitting and Mining industries, whole families were involved, with both health and education taking direct hits from the working environment. Yet we seem to fail to learn these lessons from one generation to the next.
I was soon crossing the line of the Silverhills Trail which we walked last summer. Bob walked towards me from Holmewood, and we had a picnic near Williamthorpe Ponds, just before the end.
A hot day, we stopped for a cold drink at a pub in the way back, and later on, in the evening, we walked to Tibshelf for some fish and chips. I’d managed over 9 miles in the day which was more like my LEJOG 2019 average, and the best so far this year.
From my remembered bible: There is a time for everything.
For everything…. Thanks.
From a Friend of Scholastica and a member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.
Janet Lees, Tibshelf, 2nd June 2022.