Whitfield Valley and Chatterley Whitfield

I love a place where nature has taken industry back. From Ford Green Hall you head north through Whitfield Valley nature reserve, past reedbeds and along a stream that used to run under mountains of colliery spoil.

Then the trees part and there's Chatterley Whitfield Colliery, the first mine in Britain to produce a million tons of coal in a year. The red brick buildings and chimney are silent now. You climb to the top of the landscaped spoil heap for a view right across Stoke, with Mow Cop on the skyline, then loop back south on a smooth cycle path.

Good surfaces most of the way, so it works well in winter.

Highlights

• Chatterley Whitfield Colliery
• Spoil heap viewpoint
• Whitfield Valley nature reserve