Unique and interactive maps that take you from the town to beautiful surrounding walking trails, co-created with the community in Shirebrook.

Bolsover Compass – Shirebrook Trails has been a community arts project funded by the Bolsover Compass partnership.

The main aim of this project was to raise awareness of the stunning walking trails, surrounding the town. We achieved this through working with BLAST Youth Ambassadors, Anthony Bek Primary School, Park Infant & Junior School to co-create interactive maps, audio tracks, and films in collaboration with Sally Anderson Illustration and FilmCity.

We ran 8 different sessions with each of the groups. After getting to know each other and sharing the plans for the project, we focused on consultations with each of the groups. We spoke about what they already knew about walking in the area, how much they already did, and what was stopping them from doing more.

We then moved into the ‘creation’ phase of the project and began to turn all the ideas we had discussed into audio & visual artwork. The majority of which you can find on this page and the area-specific subpages.

To celebrate and share the work that has been produced, we held launch events in each area. Friends, family, and the wider community were invited to come along and walk each area’s route to the trail together, and complete ‘The Bolsover Compass Nature Trail’ found on each of the maps.

Project Coordinator, Nathan Hamer said “The legacy of this project will come from the stories and memories that will be created by following the maps to one of the surrounding trails, and then carrying on to find new paths and trails that people can share with family and friends when they’re out walking together”.

We encourage you to explore this page and all the pieces created as part of this project. Then, if you haven’t already, pick up a map and explore the beautiful trails surrounding Shirebrook.