Bilsthorpe Colliery Branch

This is where the branch line for coal trains from Bilsthorpe colliery [1928-1997] to Mansfield Concentration Sidings, west of Clipstone Forest, crossed the main A614 road. It is now part of national cycleway 6, which skirts Clipstone Forest, once part of the original Sherwood Forest. Bilsthorpe was linked by rail to Ollerton to the north, MCS to the west and Farnsfield to the south. This latter section is now also a cycleway and an extension to the Southwell Trail.

We have cycled from home to Sherwood Pines Forest Park visitor centre and tearoom three times and somehow failed to find the quickest route there on each occasion. This is because there is no signpost on the cycleway indicating at what stage you should leave the old railway route to strike north through the forest via the many possible forest tracks, nor are there any obvious signs in the forest once you are there that lead you directly to the centre, though there are plenty which guide their own cycling routes within the area. This strikes me as a little unhelpful and certainly not indicative of joined up thinking between the cycleway and forest park authorities.