Landscaped park associated with the former Langold Hall. (1)

There was a scheme of Ralph Knight's in the middle of the 18th century to build a country house and park on the Yorkshire-Nottinghamshire border close to the village of Firbeck, but he died in 1768 and nothing came of the plan. In 1818 the idea was revived by Henry Knight and the foundations of the new Langold Hall were laid, but that idea also came to nothing, although the lake for the intended park was excavated to the south-east, using a series of four existing lakes and ponds. A weir was constructed in the 1890s between the north lake and the west lake including what appears to be a bridge with a single arch, which is popularly called either the `boathouse' or the `icehouse', and at some point before the lake was silted and vegetation grew, its use as a boathouse was possible. In 1911 a survey was carried out south of the main lake to ascertain the existence of a suspected coal seam, and in 1923 preparations were made to exploit the resource, including two mining shafts and five and a half miles of railway sidings. This was all expanded in 1927 and the site was designated as Firbeck Colliery, complete with the dedicated collier village of Langold built in 1923-27. The lake itself is situated south-west of Langold village and 500 metres north-west of the centre of mining operations, and was used as a leisure facility for the Langold miners, principally for fishing.
In 1946 the coal mining industry was nationalised, and the National Coal Board expanded the leisure facilities. A lido, or swimming pool, had already been constructed, but this was rebuilt in the early 1950s and a bandstand added 100 metres to its south-west. In addition concrete and steel piles were built round the perimeter of the main lake to assist in fishing activities, but the surrounding woodland was left to itself, and today Dyscar Wood to the north of the Park is designated as an SSSI. In 1968 the mine was closed and the 162 hectares of the Park was vested in the local authority, the mining equipment was completely removed, and children's playgrounds and refreshment facilities were added. Today it is impossible to tell that in the 1950s the area half a kilometre to the south of the present Park boundary was a mass of railway sidings, shaft headgear, a 55 metre high chimney to the engine house and other industrial equipment. The derelict remains of these facilities are just to the south-west of the cricket ground.
The site lies on the Middle Permian Marl of the Upper Magnesian Limestone and is 40 metres above mean sea level, although to the south the land rises to the man-made hill of Firbeck Pit Top, 81 metres high. The woodland of Costhorpe Plantation to the east of the main lake is undulating with a drop to a dry lake bed. There are two main vehicular access points to the site with car parks - off the A60 Doncaster Road and off the end of Church Street in Langold. A permissive path circumnavigates the main lake, which crosses at the weir, and there is another permissive path along the southern shore of the west lake, and in addition there is a footpath through Dyscar Wood and several permissive paths through the other woodland areas.
Langold Lake is on the southern edge of Langold, the former pit village, and Dyscar Wood is to the west of Langold. North of the lakes there is open grassland (presently under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme) leading to Crow Wood around Langold Farm, and to the south there are more grassland fields and one arable field then the prominent Firbeck Pit Top. To the east there is the A60 Doncaster Road. The disused buildings of the former Firbeck Colliery are to the south east of the site.
Langold Lake, or lakes, are in a line from the south-west to the north-east 1.9 Km long and 166 metres wide at its greatest, and a dry lake bed lies further north-east. A wooded landscape surrounds the lakes to the east and north, the Costhorpe Plantation (east and south-east) and Dyscar Wood (north). The woodlands are ash and wych elm woodlands, albeit with the cover of wych elm now much reduced because of Dutch Elm Disease. Yew is common throughout the woods along with pendunculate oak and silver birch and of note is the occurrence of hornbeam, with several small trees in the Doncaster Road Plantation.
The main entrance to the Park is from Church Street at the south-west corner of the village of Langold closed by steel loop-topped railings and a steel height barrier before the tarmac road running south. On the left is the mixed deciduous woodland of Costhorpe Plantation and on the right an open triangular area of grassland which forms a clearing within Dyscar Wood. The road expands into a triangular parking area, but the playing field and children's play area to its west are not within the Park boundary. A footpath then connects with the east end of the main lake, passing on the way a group of 1970s brick and steel huts from which refreshments are sold. The east end of the lake is dominated by a concrete revetment and the lake has obtrusive steel pilings to its perimeter as far west as the Bandstand Field. This field is another open grassland area with Costhorpe Plantation to its east and a thin screen of trees to the south which marks the southern boundary of the Park, a boundary which cuts north-west to the lake and which follows the water as far as the weir. The strip of woodland with its wild flowers which shadows the lake is also outside the Park boundary, and the same situation recurs on the northern shore, which takes the visitor back to the concreted east end past timber fishing stages which project into the water every thirty metres or so. Around the weir are thickly wooded areas and through the screen of trees on the north side of the lake are views over open grassland towards Langold Farm and Crow Wood.
The western lake is much smaller, shallower and very overgrown, although this appearance is preserved through careful maintenance, and while there is a path along the south edge of the water it is seldom used and this narrow tail of the Park is designated as a nature reserve, and is one of some importance in the county.
A second vehicle entrance opens off Doncaster Road to the east and the tarmac road passes through the Doncaster Road Plantation to a second small car park and a 1970s single-storeyed brick café. The open grassed area to the north undulates up and down, but apart from a small strip adjacent to the east edge of the Costhorpe Plantation this is outside the Park boundary. From the car park a wide tarmac path winds south between the two plantations and eventually peters out in an area of former pit workings outside the Park boundary, a boundary which seems to cut across the woodland in an arbitrary manner before turning south and then west to link up with the Bandstand Field.
SOURCES
-Langold Park Draft Management Plan. Bassetlaw District Council (2008)
-Pevsner, N and Williamson, E, Buildings of England. Nottinghamshire, 2nd ed. (1979), 92-93
-Sanderson, G, Sanderson's Map: 20 Miles around Mansfield (1835)
-www.virtual-village.co.uk/langoldlake (accessed 11 February 2009)
The park has not been designed as such but has instead arisen for other reasons and has no relationship with any primary building and has no formal planting. Its primary date in the 1920s includes only the lake, the woodland to the east only becoming associated with it from 1968.
Langold Country Park, is not recommended for designation, for the following principal reasons:
*DATE: Although the lake was formed in 1818 there was no other activity until the 1920s, when the resource was used for fishing and other recreational activities.
*DESIGN INTEREST: The area was lightly developed between 1927 and the 1950s, primarily as a nature reserve without any attempt at formal planning or enhancement, and there is no guiding hand behind it.
*FORMAL PLANTING: There is no formal, or even informal, planting of any sort.
* GROUP VALUE: There are no buildings of any significance associated with it. (2)

Historic England, 2021, National Record of Historic Environment (Digital archive). SNT5271.

<1> OS, 1909, 1:2500, County Series 1909 (Map). SNT1015.

<2> Bill Wilson, 2009, English Heritage Listing File (Unpublished document). SNT6514.