The Black Track

The Black Track is a green corridor in Nuneaton that follows part the line of the Stockingford Branch Line, a freight route which closed in 1959, the name presumably alluding to coal mined from the collieries that the line once served. The route runs between Chapel End at its north terminus, to just outside of Stockingford, near where the train line would once have connected to the Birmingham-Nuneaton-Leicester line.

It is sandwiched between Galley Common to the west, and Whittleford to the east. Warwickshire County Council’s cycle and active travel map shows it as a traffic-free shared use route, although it has significant issues for everyday cycling. However, there is a lot of potential in the roughly 1.7km / 1.1mi pleasant route.

Starting at the north end of the path, where it connects with Waggestaff Drive, issues are immediately obvious. Users must first squeeze through a narrow K-frame barrier before travelling along a fairly narrow path which then connects to a slope climbing the embankment. That climb is also narrow and rough – this is not an accessible point of access and will likely prevent people wheeling, or those with non-standard cycles, from joining or leaving the route at this point.

Once on the the Black Track itself, if the weather has been fine for a while then it should be a nice enough place to ride, or indeed walk. However, in the wetter and colder months, users can expect the largely untreated surface to turn into a muddy dirt track and cycles may lose traction – some pools of mud can span the width of the path making them unavoidable. This might be fine for some users on a leisure ride where maybe mud isn’t such an issue (and might be part of the fun), but it’s far from ideal for an everyday active travel connection.

At a leisurely pace, the entire length should take about 7-9 minutes to complete. This is a shared space, so expect plenty of people walking, particularly taking their dogs out, so it’s not a route for high speed travel. In addition to the problems of mud, parts of the route can become very narrow, to under 2.5m in places which can exacerbate potential conflict between users. Of course, pedestrians have priority here.

There are a number of mid-route access points, however many are stepped or obstructed and as such have their own accessibility problems and issues for cycling. There are very few open access points – people already in Whytell Meadows can freely access the Black Track, but access to that open space is itself restricted, certainly at some points. So there are a number of opportunities to get on to the route, but they may not be convenient for broader journeys nor accessible for everyone. Again, this emphasises the route as a place solely for able-bodied leisure.

At the south, the Black Track connects with Whytell Pool and Meadows (a broader green space) and Beverley Avenue – but the latter via a narrowly spaced A-frame barrier, another significant accessibility problem. A short way beyond here, a railway underpass provides the link to Stockingford via Kingswood Road. As is common of such underpasses in Nuneaton, this is a narrow, poorly lit, isolated tunnel.

Potential as an active travel route

The Black Track has a lot of potential, especially given significant housing growth in the area. It should form a direct connection between residential estates on either side, though in its current form this isn’t the case – certainly as a year-round route, unless users don’t mind the mud!

Given some improvements, this could change to become a useful all-weather route. The surface needs to be widened to minimise potential between pedestrians and cyclists, it should be levelled, and provided with a tarmacked surface. Access points need to be frequent, unobstructed, provided with a good surface, and with good connections to the road network to allow the route to become integrated to the wider area for useful links.

This isn’t entirely without precident. Weddington Walk to the north of Nuneaton also follows the line of a disused railway. Where it was once a dirt track, it has long since been given a tarmacked surface which allows it to be used year-round. Some access points are unrestricted (although far from all of them) which makes this a more accessible route than the Black Track is at present.

Just beyond the Black Track, the underpass connecting to Stockingford needs some attention. It needs far better through visibility especially on the Kingswood Road side, widening to comfortably accommodate walking, wheeling, and cycling, and good quality lighting to make it a less intimidating place.