Images of Stuffynwood

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I purchased this aerial shot from Multimap in 2002. Only the laundry - middle of picture - still stands of the original Hall. Nutshell cottages are top middle. The rectangular field at the bottom right, was taken out of the farm estate, hedged and planted with apple trees in 1895 to shield the Hall from Shirebrook Colliery, which was sunk a few miles away in 1896.
Aerial_view.jpg		 Here we have Pleasley Park & Vale Conservation Area. Within its boundary from right to left are Littlewood Farm, Stuffynwood, Pleasley Vale, Pleasley Park and Pleasley Mills.
Cons_area.jpg		 Summer's wild flowers in abundance including rare cow slips growing on the calcareous grasslands. The mature deciduous and coniferous trees in the bkgd were planted 150 years ago.
fauna.JPG		 This shot is from Google Earth showing the site where Stuffynwood Hall once stood on top of the hill. Nutshell Cottages are to the left. In the bkgd is Stuffynwood Farm, where the recently renovated Grade 2 listed farmhouse stands.
google_earth_sh.jpg		 Me & this JCB went south through the roof of a hidden water storage tank.
jcbcellar.jpg
All that remains of the Hall is the laundry.
laundry.jpg		 The old laundry is now just a roost for this barn owl.
resident_barnowl.jpg		 You can see that the limestone strata is not solid but made up of layers containing fissures - this provides ideal drainage for farmland. Old quarries are also evident in the Vale having provided excellent building blocks for walls and buildings in the area. The layers appear to have buckled upwards at the bottom but infact are dunes caused by waves when the land was submerged in a tropical sea, near the equator, 250 million years ago. Sediment deposits formed the layers, baking hard when the waters receded. The composition of this limestone rock contains a high percentage of calcite - the skeletal remains of fossil creatures, which made it ideal for the burning process, chemically changing the calcium content to lime. The pic is taken near the site of an old lime kiln, situated behind Stuffynwood Lodge as marked on old maps an now designated a site of special scientific interest (SSSI). border=
rockface_by_lodge.jpg		 This aerial shot was taken in the 1970's and shows that most of the Hall had already been demolished. Top right are the walled gardens. Top middle - domestic staff living. Middle - the laundry. The main house and a glass house - bottom foreground.
sh_aerial_70s.jpg		 Looking down the hill towards Pleasley Park. This Park was a Royal hunting park favoured by the Norman Lords. The Stuffyns were the Agisters who were responsible for collecting the fines from poachers who stole the venison and timber.
towards_pp.jpg
The thing about dried up river basins are that they make excellent winter entertainment!
vale_in_snow.jpg.jpg		 This view from the site towards the Vale shows the profile of the basin that runs through the Estate that was carved out by the river, which once ran through 1000's of years ago. In the bkgd is Mansfield Woodhouse and beyond. In the foreground is a block of red limestone found on site. It gets its colour from the iron oxide content that also imparts hard wearing qualities making it ideal paving. Trafalgar Square and Westminster use the same red limestone slabs sourced from Mansfield's quarries.
vale_in_summer.jpg.jpg