Bears at Bateswood

We bears have had several indoor days this week, because the weather has been so damp and cold, so you can imagine how excited we were this morning when we saw the sun was shining and Polar said we were going for a walk.

'We're going to Bateswood Nature Reserve,' she told us, helping us into our little felt dufflecoats. 'We haven't visited it before, but it's got a big lake and lots of paths with nice views, even though - like several of our other walks - it used to be an industrial area with mines.

In fact, this park was the site of a mine known as the Minnie Pit, that was famous for a very sad reason. In 1918, there was a terrible disaster here when one hundred and fifty-five miners, including boys as young as 14, died underground following an explosion, along with one of the rescue party. There are several memorials in the area and, fairly recently, the local community planted a little tree for everyone who died.

We bears came out of our bag to explore, but we were very good and didn't climb on the memorials. You can see Grizzly reading the names of the miners who died, which are on the side of a pit wheel sculpture.

Polar told us that a very famous poet from the First World War called Wilfred Owen wrote a poem inspired by the disaster, called Miners.

Hanley Bear, who is very interested in science and industry, explained that the type of coal in this area gave of gases known as firedamp, which are inflammable. 'That's why we aren't allowed to put the kettle on for a pot of tea when we go through the Harecastle Tunnel' he explained to Waverley.

We all had leaky eyes, thinking about the poor human cubs who worked in the mines, and the grown-up humans and the ponies too. Polar gave us hugs and lifted us back up into our bag.

The lovely cheerful daffodils alongside the path helped to cheer us up and so did the view when we reached the top of the slope, as there was a beautiful lake where the pit had been.

'This looks even less like an old industrial site than the country park at Silverdale,' said Endon. 'It's so pretty!'

Checking that there were no dogs around who might chase or bite us, Polar let us out of our bag to explore the lake shore.

By hiding in the reeds, we were able to get quite close to a pair of great-crested grebes, and we saw ducks, geese and coots as well.

'They wouldn't have been here when it was a pit, would they?' said Hanley. 'Sometimes humans do a pretty good job of clearing up the mess they make.'

Exploring away from the lake, we found the remains of an old railway line which used to connect to the Salt Line and came quite close to our village. There wasn't a proper path along it, as it was partly blocked by some fallen trees, but we could get underneath those.

Above the railway bridge we found an excellent climbing tree! Of course Endon scrambled very high into the branches, followed by Hanley.

'I had better look after Waverley,' I said to the other bears, although I don't think I could have climbed that high, as I am quite a nervous bear.

Hanley and Endon were planning to climb even higher, until we heard a buzzard calling.

'Come down, bears!' I shouted. 'In case it sees you and catches you!'

'Boooo!' grumbled Hanley Bear, but he and Endon did as I advised and climbed down, then we all went to look for Polar and Grizzly.

'They've gone up that path beside the field,' I said, using my keen bear sense of smell to detect them. 'We ought to go after them.'

'Let's do some more climbing first,' said Endon. 'These willows are growing too close together for a buzzard to be able to fly through them, so we should be safe, and I think Grizzly and Polar will come back along this path soon.'

We scrambled up onto a long bough that stretched over the path and, sure enough. we soon saw our human guardians walking towards us. We stayed very still until they were right underneath us and then we all went 'Booo!' and made them jump!

We had done lots of running and climbing by then, so were happy to get back into our bear bag for the walk back to the car, around the far side of the lake. Some people walking dogs had arrived too, so it was the safest place for us.

We passed another memorial, but this one was to all the people who had campaigned and worked hard to make the site of the old mine into a country park.