Lyme and Wood Country Park — Attraction in St Helens

Sunday, 21st September 2025 Lyme & Wood Country Park is located on the boundaries of Newton-le-Willows and Haydock on land previously occupied by Lyme Pit and Wood Pit later used for landfill before redevelopment into a country park. In 2009 local schools from Haydock and Earlestown planted a variety of trees on the hill as part of the plans. The park includes many walks, ponds and a memorial to the 189 miners who lost their lives in the Wood pit explosion in 1878. Haydock Forest was awarded Green Flag status in early 2012. The Wood Pit was one of at least 20 collieries in the area operated by the mining company Haydock Collieries. It consisted of the Ravenshead mine and the Florida mine which were linked by a tunnel. The pit had been sunk in 1866. There had been at least two previous major explosions in the area, claiming 26 lives in April 1869 and 58 in December of the same year. The pit had a chronic problem with firedamp and as a precaution, explosives were never used, with miners relying on picks to manually extract the coal. In addition, workers were equipped with specially designed safety lamps to prevent accidental ignition of gas. There are many paths in the park to explore with some good scenic views. Ideal for dog walkers as well as the whole family. There is a small car park to the east side of the park with a small cafe and picnic area. Most of the paths I would consider to be wheelchair accessible. Well...

Fished another of Newton-Le-willows anglers association waters called Ron Hassel Pool, this is quite a shallow water with deepest I have found so far to be about 3ft, you need a Newton AA permit to fish this water and there are no day permits or night fishing permits on this water, I have fished this water several times now and always catch a bagful of silvers and some very mice F1s today up to 2lb in weight, they put up a great scrap today in just 3 hours I had 48 fish most of them Roach, silver bream, several F1s and the obligatory gudgeon, it is an open and flat banking with easy access from the car park, all in all a great place to fish that never fails, today I used red and white maggots and pinkies...

It's a park. Nothing too remarkable it has got some good walking areas and paths marked out but at times the path would sort of disappear and I'm sure I ended up trespassing onto a disused site not too far away from the Tesco in Haydock

Also the car park seems to have been blocked by four or five large concrete blocks which is extremely annoying. If trespassers or travellers (which unfortunately have recently blighted the nearby town of Newton-Le-Willows) are a problem then either employ someone to lock the gates at night or have some sort of system or procedure in place for park wardens to come round and increase visibility.

I must say St. Helens Council have let the...