FINDERN WALK
FINDERN WALK
This is an easy, level walk, packed with interest visiting Stenson Bubble, Willington and Mercia Marina. Wildlife enthusiasts will particularly enjoy exploring the numerous short diversionary paths that meander through the fields and woods just off the route of the main walk. Nearly half of the walk is along the banks of the Trent and Mersey Canal, which comes alive with brightly painted boats at weekends and in the summer holiday season.
LOOK OUT FOR
Route Point 2 – Findern with its beautiful Village Green enhanced by chestnut trees and encircled by white posts and chains and overlooked by the church and picturesque mainly whitewashed properties is the starting point for the walk. Soon Crow Park Way the local name for Ash Plantation is reached. Filled with tall ash trees, where crows and rooks used to nest is where the name was derived from. The area covered stretches to the Trent and Mersey Canal and continues along the canal bank to the Twyford and Stenson boundary. It provides easy walking along a well-surfaced track and is very popular with ramblers. The route has been diverted following the building of the A50 trunk road in 1990. Previously it went through the Ash Plantation, where a deep hole was dug to extract clay to line the canal when it was built, in 2017.
Point 5 – Canal Bridge Number 20 was closed for a lengthy period of time following an accident which caused it to partially collapse. Now re-opened, it provides walkers with the choice of heading east to Stenson Lock, or west towards Willington along the canal towpath. Before the Canal Age roads were not suitable for moving large volumes of goods. Packhorses were still relied on in Derbyshire to transport goods – slowly and laboriously. A solution to the transportation problem came when James Brindley from Derbyshire, who could not read or write properly but had a brilliant brain, devised a transport system using canals. The most famous of which was the Trent and Mersey Canal, known as the Grand Trunk, which connected canal systems throughout the country.
Point 6 – Stenson Lock where the coffee shop overlooks the Trent and Mersey Canal, you can sit and take some refreshment, while watching canal boats navigate the lock. The lock is the second deepest on the canal at 12 foot 6 inches in depth and, together with the red-brick road bridge behind it is Grade II listed. On the other side of the café is the marina with the attractive Bubble Inn at the back.
Point 7 – Stenson Bubble Inn is a popular pub with a restaurant, accommodation and seating inside and out. The pub got its unusual name from a small spring on the downstream side of the lock. Stenson along with Twyford, its smaller neighbour, is a civil parish in South Derbyshire. To the north is Stenson Fields, a large housing estate built between the early 1970s and late 1990s. Originally called Sinfin Moor the name was later changed to Stenson Fields, the large area of land to the east retaining the name of Sinfin Moor.
Point 10 – Willington is situated midway between Derby and Burton, close to the A38 and new A50 and is normally busy with traffic. It has been the hub for transport for many years and has an absorbing history. Evidence has been found of habitation in the area long before the Transport Revolution. In 1970, traces of a settlement were discovered dating back to 2,000 BC, constructed by the Beaker People, who are named after the distinctive drinking vessels they used, often found at burial sites. The River Trent passes to the south of the village, and Willington was an important inland port during the 17th and 18th centuries. The arrival of the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1777, replaced the river as the main form of transport. Later still, rail and then the road took over as the main transport providers.
Point 11 – Mercia Marina located alongside the road from Willington to Findern, was a former quarry. It was created from farmland for gravel extraction for use in the construction of the nearby A50. Later it was converted into a fishing lake, before local businessman John Thornton unveiled a multi-million-pound plan to turn it into Europe’s largest inland marina, with 600 berths, holiday lodges, on-site businesses including restaurants, retailers and office space. The marina was opened in September 2008 in the 24-acre Willington Lake, surrounded by another 50 acres of countryside. It is a maturing place to visit with a sensory garden, nature and wildlife trails. The original development has recently benefited, after a long delay, from a £1.7 million project to create a bar/bistro, shops and offices along the Boardwalk, which opened in October 2014, adding a considerable boost to visitor activity. Further development is ongoing.
WALK DETAILS
Length: 4.5 miles.
Start: The walk starts from the village green in the centre of Findern. The village is located just off the A38, south of Littleover, in South Derbyshire (SK308304).
Terrain: This is an easy, level walk along clear tracks and the towpath of the Trent and Mersey Canal. There is some pavement walking.
THE ROUTE
- Facing the Green from the roadside through the village, walk to the right in front of the church, and follow the churchyard wall round into Common Piece Lane. Continue straight down the lane past the cemetery.
2. Where the lane forks, go to the right, past a footpath information board for Crow Park Way.
3. After a short distance go through a stile by a metal gate, there are wildlife sites on either side of the lane, which are well worth exploring. After a short distance, the lane forks and you go to the right through a tunnel under the A50.
4. On emerging from the tunnel, turn left up a wide access road and just before reaching a metal gate, go to the right down a flight of steps and continue straight on. When you reach the Trent and Mersey Canal, turn left and follow the path close to the canal.
5. Walk under a railway bridge and continue alongside the canal beside a field, before turning right and crossing a canal bridge. Once on the other side turn left and walk along the canal towpath.
6. After about a quarter of a mile you reach the crossing point at Stenson Lock, where there is a pleasant café that overlooks the lock.
7. It is worth walking around the back of the café and taking a look round the marina. The Stenson Bubble Inn at the rear of the café attracts plenty of visitors as well as boaters.
8. Return to the bridge by Stenson Lock and walk back down the canal towpath to the bridge that you crossed earlier. This time do not re-cross the canal again but continue forward along the Trent and Mersey Canal.
9. Pass under two bridges in quick succession and the Nadee Restaurant on the opposite bank. Soon after this watch out for a high sided footbridge over the canal, which you could use if you want to cut your walk short (see Route Point 12).
10. When you reach Willington, leave the canal towpath by the car park access road, turn right past the Dragon Inn and then right again by the mini-roundabout. Cross the road bridge over the canal. Once on the other side turn right and follow the pavement towards Findern.
11. Shortly after going over the railway level crossing, go the left to reach Mercia Marina. The views are very pleasant and there is plenty to do if you want to get to know the Marina better. Leave the marina, by the path near the eastern vehicular entrance/exit, which runs parallel with the road. Where the path divides, turn back on yourself to walk along the lower path and under the bridge that carries the Willington to Findern road.
12. Head towards the high-sided footbridge that you saw earlier in the walk, but shortly before getting to it, cross a stile on your left into a field. Walk back up the field to a stile by a metal gate, in the top right-hand corner. Turn to the right and walk along the footpath on the opposite side of the road, which you follow back to Findern. At a road junction, go to the right past the former Wheel Public House, to return to the centre of the village and the starting point of the walk.