Twenty three of our members and one dog met in the car park behind Coal Aston Village Hall on a pleasant Thursday evening. Our walk leader Adrian had promised there there wouldn’t be any mud on the walk, was this a first for this year?
The first part of the walk was an urban stroll through the Holmesdale estate to reach the entrance to Frith Wood on Stonelow Road. In no time at all we reached Callywhite Lane and after a short stretch on the pavement we took the track into the woods. We stopped briefly in Metapic Wood for a drink and then continued on to Half Acre Lane and the Boardwalk. We then followed the enclosed track leading uphill to the “Unstone Line”. At this point Adrian warned us about the upcoming climb that runs alongside the gardens of the terraced houses known as Springbank and continues all the way to Summerley Lower Road. This path initially runs next to the old tramway that used to link the coal mines at Unstone Main and Apperknowle.
Whilst walking along Summerley Lower Road we spotted a pair of buzzards circling and then the more rare sighting of a red kite. With the hills almost over, we crossed a few more fields to arrive at “The Riddings”, a steep slope that was used for sledging in the winter. After descending the slope we cut through the far end of Frith Wood which took us onto Firthwood Road. We were now almost back at the village hall.
On arriving back we thanked Adrian for leading us round a very enjoyable loop of Unstone and Summerley with some of the party calling in at the Royal Oak to take their chances in the music quiz.
Sorry this photo is a little dark. It was into the setting sun and came out very dark and despite my best efforts to brighten it using a photo editing package it’s still not great.