Coalfield stories and open paths
Brinsley
A Nottinghamshire village where colliery memory, D.H. Lawrence connections, wetland landscapes and distinctive pubs share the day.
- Best for
- Colliery history, village pubs and a 5.5-mile circular walk
- Give it
- A half day, or longer if you walk the Steeple Chase
- Don't miss
- The former colliery site, memorial orchard and wildlife pond
The Fox verdict
Mining memory with room to roam
Brinsley rewards visitors who pair its colliery story with a church, a long circular walk or one of the village's individual pubs.
The former colliery grounds bring together a conservation area, memorial orchard, wildlife pond and the village's headstocks story. Beyond them, the Steeple Chase crosses the River Erewash and follows traces of the abandoned Cromford Canal, while St James the Great and a varied pub line-up add architecture, food and local character.
Where to go
Places in Brinsley
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesErewash Meadows
A nature reserve of floodplain grassland and wetland straddling the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire boundary, with its central section known as Brinsley Meadows.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Straddling the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire county boundary; the central section is Brinsley Meadows
The Lion by Olivers
A family dining pub with a nine-hole crazy golf course and table tennis, serving Sunday lunches as well as pub dishes, steaks and a vegetarian stir fry.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- 28 Hall Lane, NG16 5AH
Brinsley Lodge Inn
A food-led pub with in-house butchery for its steaks, alongside fish and chips, gammon, Sunday roasts and a kids' menu; the garden includes a children's play area.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- 56A Mansfield Road, NG16 5AE
- Access
- Dogs are allowed in the lower area of the bar only, where staff provide treats and water.
Walks & outdoors
1 placeThe Brinsley Steeple Chase
The circuit passes Coneygrey and Willey Wood farms, crosses the River Erewash into Derbyshire and traces the former Cromford Canal before returning along a disused railway line.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 3 hours 30 minutes
- Locality
- Starts at the picnic area and car park south of Brinsley on the A608
- Access
- The route has mixed surfaces, moderate gradients and six or more stiles.
History & heritage
2 placesBrinsley Headstocks and former colliery site
The reclaimed colliery site is now a picnic and conservation area with a memorial orchard, wildlife pond, interpretation boards and the trackbed of a disused mineral railway.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Beside the A608 between Eastwood and M1 Junction 27
- Access
- The headstocks were dismantled in December 2023 and reinstallation works began in April 2026.
St James the Great
Built in 1837–38 from Bunter sandstone quarried at Mansfield, the church has two octagonal west towers, lancet windows and a 1919 wrought-iron memorial screen.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Church Lane, NG16 5AB
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Three ways to explore Brinsley
Signature outings
Brinsley's colliery memory
Trace a mining site reclaimed as a conservation area, with a memorial orchard, wildlife pond, interpretation boards and the old mineral-railway trackbed.
Sandstone and remembrance
Look for St James's octagonal towers, lancet windows and the wrought-iron screen raised in memory of twelve village men killed in the First World War.
River, canal and railway
Follow the Steeple Chase across the River Erewash into Derbyshire, along the former Cromford Canal and back by a disused railway line.
The village story
Brinsley Village Guide
Pubs, parish stonework, long walks and the colliery story that shaped Brinsley.
The Lion and the Lodge
The Lion by Olivers has a nine-hole crazy golf course in the garden, a table tennis table, and a Sunday lunch — three courses for £12.50 — with a choice of turkey, beef, lamb or nut roast. It used to be the White Lion, relaunching under new owners in 2022, and the rest of the menu runs to ham, egg and chips, sirloin steaks and vegetable stir fry, with cheesecake or brownies to finish. Reviewers call the food fresh and generously portioned, though service can take the best part of an hour — one visitor's ham, egg and chips arrived as a single thin slice of ham, an egg, and about eight chips.
Brinsley Lodge Inn, a Marston's pub on Mansfield Road, does its own butchery and serves the resulting steaks alongside fish and chips, gammon and Sunday roasts, with BOGOF Tuesdays and a curry night on Wednesdays. One reviewer called it a bland-looking building but said not to let that put you off. Dogs get the lower part of the bar, plus treats and water from the staff, and the beer garden serves Marston's Pedigree on cask.
Micropub, Durham Ox and village shops
The Go Between, a micropub on Moor Road, doesn't serve food, but sits next to a good fish and chip shop and carries three constantly-changing real ales plus real and boxed cider, with a Tuesday quiz night. The Durham Ox on High Street has an open fire, a skittles alley, and a field out back for children while the adults finish their drinks — visitors describe the food as delicious and the pub as pretty, which for a village pub is most of the job done.
Redgate Farm Shop at Coneygrey Farm covers the shopping, along with a post office on Brynsmoor Road.
Sandstone church and circular walking
St James the Great, on Church Lane, is a Grade II listed church built in 1837–38 from Bunter sandstone quarried at Mansfield, with two octagonal towers and lancet windows down the nave. Its wrought-iron chancel screen went up by public subscription in 1919, in memory of twelve village men killed in the First World War.
Walking starts at the picnic area south of the village, off the A608, where the old colliery site is now a conservation area with a memorial orchard and a wildlife pond. From there the Brinsley Steeple Chase, a 5.5-mile circular route, passes Coneygrey and Willey Wood farms, crosses the River Erewash into Derbyshire, and follows the line of the abandoned Cromford Canal back. Broxtowe Borough Council has also extended the D.H. Lawrence Trail to 6.2 miles, linking Brinsley to Eastwood.
Colliery memory, connections and carnival
Brinsley's other business was coal. The colliery opened around 1842, closed in 1934, and at its peak employed 361 men. Arthur John Lawrence was born here and went down the pit, as his own father had before him; his son D.H. Lawrence gave the colliery a thin disguise as "Beggarlee" in Sons and Lovers, and opened his short story "Odour of Chrysanthemums" with it directly: "The pit-bank loomed up beyond the pond, flames like red sores licking its ashy sides in the afternoon's stagnant light." Its tandem timber headstocks, the last of their kind in the country, were taken down in December 2023 after a survey found the timbers rotting; reinstallation began this spring. The Domesday survey valued Brinsley at six shillings and seven pence in 1066, falling to four shillings by 1086, when it was recorded as waste.
Trent Barton buses stop at Brinsley Headstocks and Broad Lane, the A608 runs through to Eastwood and the M1, and the nearest stations are at Langley Mill and Alfreton. The carnival, revived in 1960 by the village postmaster George Mills after lapsing through two world wars, still runs every Father's Day on the Recreation Ground, with decorated carts doing the rounds much as they did when it began as a way of paying hospital bills for injured miners.
Stay around Nottinghamshire
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Nottinghamshire, linked directly to their property pages.
Nottingham
Camila's Penthouse Central Stay with Balcony
- Sleeps 16
- 5 bedrooms
Nottingham
Anna's Central Stay
- Sleeps 16
- 5 bedrooms
Nottingham
Blair's Central Stay
- Sleeps 16
- 5 bedrooms
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Melissa's Central Stay
- Sleeps 13
- 5 bedrooms
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Stephanie's Central Stay
- Sleeps 6
- 2 bedrooms
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Brinsley Headstocks and former colliery site — broxtowe.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- St James the Great — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- The Brinsley Steeple Chase — nottinghamshire.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Erewash Meadows — derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk national body or asset manager
- The Lion by Olivers — thelionbyolivers.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Brinsley Lodge Inn — brinsleylodgeinn.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation