Gedling Pit Top

Situation This pit top dominates the local landscape and giving a commanding view over the Trent Valley. Geographically it is situated within the triangle created by the urban areas of Gedling, Mapperley and the village of Lambley. Parking and access The most well known parking and access point is opposite Crimea Farm on Spring Lane, which runs from the junction of Plains Road and Mapperley Plains (the B684) to the nearby village of Lambley. Description and habitat Gedling Pit Top is just about the best of the former colliery sites in Nottinghamshire. It remains relatively untouched and unspoilt by landscaping, although parts of the old spoil heaps have been dressed with top soil and seeded. However, the highest spoil heap represents something quite unique and untypical, as it has not been top-soiled and planted with thousands of young trees (whips) as have many landscaped pit tops.
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Due to the general untouched nature of the site, Gedling Pit Top is simply a joy for the ornithologist or entomologist to work. For those wishing to undertake such a project, here is the chance to thoroughly monitor how the diversity of a large site changes after the imprint left by man. In other words, this pit top is still a blank canvas. There is a glorious opportunity here to watch species move in, become distributed across the site, flourish while conditions are suitable and become scarce as the flora changes or more dominant species move in.
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Gedling Pit Top has many areas of different habitats, ranging from Phragmites bordered ponds, rich in aquatic life, through to the highest spoil heap with its almost tundra-like quality and sparse grassy vegetation. There are developing areas of naturalised scrub and Gorse, limited areas of mixed plantations that thankfully remain much smaller areas than the mass plantings found on other former pit tops and naturalised weedy areas with rank vegetation.
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		Wildlife This is still an under-recorded site, naturally developing (at the moment) which would have an impressive species list if someone was to devote more time there. There is certainly a wealth of invertebrates including Dingy Skipper, Burnet Companion and Six-belted Clearwing. Sheltered areas with St John's Wort hold the leaf beetles Cryptocephalus moraei and Chrysolina hyperici. Summary A visit any time from Spring to late Autumn is to be recommended for anyone with an interest in natural history.