This walk links the older village of Ollerton, home to the Hop Pole Hotel and picturesque watermill on the River Maun, to the town that was built to house the various mining communities who moved into the area to work in the pits, including many Polish men.
Partly following a train track where no trains run, and passing by the Sherwood Energy Village, the future emerges in the form of the most modern playground you will ever have seen (and which you will want to play in, with the pit tip – now covered in trees – in the distance).
Skirting the local shops, and heading up towards St Paulinus Church, the walk loops back on itself, taking in the newly established garden that is one of several community ventures that are rooted in the old Ollerton landscape that is beginning, like the rest of the area, to shift and change.
We’ve gathered a rich array of local voices for this walk, alongside a series of five stories that tell of life in Ollerton from the sinking of the pit through to its demise. And linking it all together is our narrator, a nineteen year old girl with a fierce imagination and a deep love of the place she has grown up in (beautifully read by Karli-Rose Morris).
Here’s a sneak preview!
Sherwood Voices 