The history I learned can be found over on the Derbyshire County Council Website as well as on many information boards at the park itself. here is what you'll find and also what I have quoted in the Boo...
The history of Shipley Country Park
"The Shipley Estate is an ancient manor mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086), when it was recorded as belonging to Gilbert of Ghent, the nephew of William the Conqueror. Records dating from the 14th century show that the land was used as a sporting estate with a hunting lodge on Shipley Hill and the area was prized for its extensive forest and excellent hunting.
Shipley Country Park has long had an association with coal mining, however, from the mid 1500's, coal mining began to play an increasingly important part in shaping the landscape at Shipley and providing income for the owners. By 1722 coal mining was in full swing on the estate, and around 1765 the Miller Mundy family took over the running of the mines themselves.
With the death of Alfred Edward Miller Mundy in 1920, the Shipley Colliery Company (founded by the Miller Mundy family) took over complete control of the mines and ran them until nationalisation in 1947.
The Woodside and Coppice pits continued in production until the 1960's when they were closed because they were uneconomic. This brought a close to over 250 years of deep mining at Shipley and left behind a legacy of spoil heaps, derelict buildings, polluted lakes and 30 abandoned mine shafts.
Derbyshire County Council determined that a Country Park was a suitable memorial to mining in the area. The National Coal Board obtained permission in 1970 to reclaim the land in the vicinity of the closed collieries by opencast methods. Work started in 1970 and was completed by July 1974. A further two years were spent contouring the site, seeding fields and meadows, planting trees and constructing facilities for the public.
Shipley Country Park opened to the public on 26 May 1976."
Naturally all the text i've just quoted here can be found at http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk and is probably copy write etc etc so I thought i'd just mention that :-) If you would like to look at a map you do so by looking at a PDF on the Derbyshire.gov.uk website
It was a glorious autumnal day in the park today, beautiful colours and the light was great. These images that I took on my iPhone 4S really don't do it justice. You can just about make out the swans in the image above crossing the path in front of us, it was a great moment showing nature in action. We had a thoroughly enjoyable few hours wandering around and the dogs loved every moment of it :-)
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