Walk 5 - The Kilburn Colliery Railway (4 miles)
This walk starts from Over Lane by the bus stop and the drive to Nos 148/150/152. Head down the drive, and look for a stony path straight ahead between two walls. Follow this path to a gate to fields. Bear right following the path slightly downhill across fields and stiles. As you approach a gate with stile it is difficult to see the path. Just past the gate look in the hedge to your right and you will see a metal kissing gate. Go through and turn left. Cross the stile to a footpath which crosses some woodland and then across a grassy field used for dog training. Head for the gap in the hedge and turn right onto a farm track looking carefully for a small stile on the left just a few metres up the track.
Cross the stile, head across the field to a small gate where you cross a path and a tarmac drive to another small gate. Through this gate, bear right and slightly uphill heading towards a telegraph pole. Next to the pole is a stile and footpath through houses to the A609. Turn left and head downhill crossing the road where safe. Walk to the layby on the corner next to Glen’s Hens. At the layby go through the stone squeeze stile and head left following the field edge to the field corner. Go over the wooden footbridge and head uphill and slightly to the right as the path skirts a copse.
Past the copse go straight on crossing a tarmac drive and heading for a large gap in the hedge ahead. Keep straight on following field boundaries with the hedge on the right. Head towards houses in the distance and then go through a large field gate to the road. Turn left and follow the road down to the main road. Turn right and go under flyover and then turn left onto Belper road. Follow this as it turns right and turns into Northfield. As you approach a junction with Brickyard Lane look for a footpath opposite and slightly to the right. Follow this between fences and at a junction turn left and continue to walk with fence panels on your left. This footpath follows the track of the old railway line. At the metal chicane head slightly left across the field, through a gap in the hedge and to a concrete footbridge under telegraph lines.
The railway was opened in 1856 by the Midland Railway. This branch line ran from Little Eaton junction to Ripley. The line mostly served the Kilburn Colliery and other businesses. There was a station at Kilburn which was demolished in 1965 opposite the large Station Hotel (now a Day Nursery). Passenger services finished in 1930 although the line remained open for coal traffic until the late twentieth century
Follow the path through trees and turn left onto a broad track. Follow this to a wooden field gate with smaller gate alongside. Follow the path as it bears left alongside hedge and heads uphill to cross the A38 at a cattle bridge. Across the bridge follow the concrete drive and track as it zigzags uphill to a modern house. Continue through the gate and along the path that you crossed earlier. Continue straight on along Openwood Road until you come to a junction with Over Lane. Turn right along Over Lane to return to your starting point.
