Walton Colliery Nature Park

Walton Colliery Nature Reserve is a wonderful example of how a former industrial site, which once scarred the land terribly, can be turned into a haven for wildlife and walkers alike.

At its peak its employed more than 1,000 men but today, to the unknowing eye, virtually every trace of the former Sharlton West Colliery (to give it its full name) has vanished. The pitheads have gone, along with the miners’ bathhouse, the store for their lamps, and the railway sidings from which the coal was transported away. The tips have been landscaped, woodland has been planted, and the pits from which clay was dug to use in underground blasting are now peaceful lakes, home to geese, ducks, swans and more. Only a little visible spoil from one of the old waste heaps hint that the site was ever an industrial wasteland.

Sharlton West Colliery

The pit was sunk in the late 19th century; coal had been mined on the site for hundreds of years before but it wasn’t until then that better technology enabled the sinking of deeper, more productive shafts. The development of the canal and rail networks also meant coal could more easily be sold and transported elsewhere. By 1930, the colliery was one of the country’s best-equipped, employing around 1,200 men. In 1978, a year before it closed, that figure had dropped to 740 but the pit still managed to produce 230,000 tons of coal.

The last coal was dug at Walton on December 3, 1979, and work on transforming the degraded area into a 178-acre (72ha) nature park began in 1993. The operation wasn’t minor: massive earth moving equipment was brought into reshape the landscape, the site was covered in topsoil, 100,000 native trees including cherry, oak, willow, ash, birch and hazel were planted, and several lagoons were created, along with 6 miles (9.7km) of paths.

The work was completed by 1996 and the park was designated a Local Nature Reserve in 2008. In 2010 a conservation group, the Friends of Walton Colliery Nature Park, created to help Wakefield Council manage the reserve, began a programme of thinning the maturing shrubs and woodlands.

There are abundant signs that nature is re-occupying the site, from the five-spot Burnett moths on the grasslands, to the herons, toads and dragonflies in the old waterways, and the sparrowhawks that flit through the thriving woodlands.

Leave the car park on the well-surfaced path that passes between two metal posts, crosses a small stream, then scales gravel steps to fork left after 65yds (60m) to a grassy plateau. Bear left here on a wide path, which gently descends to a gravel vehicle track. Turn right, passing between two lakes. The lake on the right was once the source of clay used to pack explosives into the coal seams.

At a junction, turn left then immediately right on a grassy path to cross a reed-fringed watercourse and follow it downstream. Look out for grey wagtail, long tailed tit and dragonflies. Re-crossing the stream on a footbridge, turn right along the Trans Pennine Trail, doubling back on the opposite bank to another footbridge over another stream to a junction.

Cross the trail here and keep ahead, up a small rise between plantations to pass the Henry Daley Memorial Garden. The trail reaches another junction: turn right, over a small bridge, on a track that leads past another large body of water on your right. Ignoring junctions off to the right, parallel the railway to a brow where walkers and trains are on the same level.

Bear right here on a gravel path. Keep ahead, swinging left when the well-used path is joined by another from the right. After rounding a corner, fork left to rejoin your outward path back to the car park.