OSMASTON AND SINFIN
WITH STENSON FIELDS
INFORMATION
Where is it? – Osmaston, Sinfin and Stenson Fields are situated about 3 miles to 3.5 miles south of the city centre.
What to do? – head for Osmaston Park and Moorways Sports Village where there is a prestigious Water Park with a 50m swimming pool and other leisure facilities. The adjacent Moorways Stadium provides a home for athletics and other sporting facilities. A new BMX track has been built in the park – enjoy a walk around Sinfin Moor Nature Reserve with its grassland, woodland and ponds – take a trip to Stenson where the Trent and Mersey Canal flows to the south of the settlement. A few yards away from the canal and marina is the Stenson Bubble Inn, 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.
Where to eat? – There are several pubs and restaurants in the area that provide refreshments. At Stenson, there is a popular café by the lock and the Stenson Bubble Inn. The Oast House on the corner of Sinfin Lane and Osmaston Park Road offers a wide-ranging menu.
Other places to visit – Melbourne is set amongst pleasant rolling countryside in South Derbyshire. It has a wealth of historic buildings. A famous country house with formal gardens, one of the finest Norman churches in the country, and a lovely 20-acre pool. Where you can feed the ducks, or just rest awhile and admire the scenery – Calke Abbey, ‘The place where time stood still was the phrase used to describe it. When the National Trust opened it to the public in 1989. It is one of the most unusual English country houses with large collections of birds, ornaments, paintings and photographs – enjoy the views over Mercia Marina, take a boat trip, go shopping and relax at one of the food and drink outlets. At Europe’s largest inland marina, with 600 berths. holiday lodges and lodges for sale alongside the marina.
PROFILE
Osmaston and Sinfin are suburbs of Derby, about three to three and a half miles southwest of the city centre. Originally, Sinfin and Osmaston were separate villages before being swallowed up by the expansion of Derby. Between the two suburbs lies a more industrialised area dominated by the Rolls-Royce works. Sinfin also merges with rapidly expanding Stenson Fields which is in South Derbyshire.
Osmaston
Osmaston, mentioned in the Domesday Book, was once a tiny village. But by the 17th century, the Osmaston Estate was in the hands of the Wilmot family who built Osmaston Hall. Another branch of the same family resided at Chaddesden Hall. The family moved to Catton Hall around 1849. Letting the hall to the Fox family, before eventually selling it and the land to the Midland Railway Company. Who used the hall as offices and laid a railway siding almost up to the front door. They used the northern part of the park to build the carriage and wagon works. The remainder of the estate is now mainly built up, but there is an attractive park and Moorways Sports Village on the southern side of the Outer Ring Road. There is a large shopping centre and several other retail outlets off Osmaston Park Road. Foresters Park Leisure Centre was once the home of Normanton Barracks before its demolition in 1981.
Sinfin
Parts of Sinfin came into the Borough in 1934, followed by more in 1968, which started a rapid housing expansion. It is now divided into two distinct areas which can be described as the “old” and the “new”. The “old” part is bordered to the north by the Derby to Crewe Railway line. The ‘new’ merges imperceptibly with Stenson Fields and is mainly taken up with modern housing. There is a large shopping centre, a golf course, a nature reserve and many other local facilities at Sinfin.
Stenson Fields
The parish of Stenson Fields was created in 1983 from parts of Barrow upon Trent, Twyford and Stenson and sits alongside the parish of Sinfin. It is in South Derbyshire District outside the Derby City boundary. Although it is one of the smallest parishes in the area, it has one of the largest populations. The housing mainly dates from the 1970s. Further development is currently in progress and a huge expansion of the surrounding area is planned in the form of a Garden Village. To the south is the small settlement of Stenson and the Trent and Mersey Canal. The Stenson Bubble Inn is a popular pub with a restaurant, accommodation and seating inside and out. It got its unusual name from a small spring on the downstream side of the lock.
Rolls-Royce
From 1908 until 2007, Osmaston was the main location of Rolls-Royce. When the factory complex was moved just over a mile away to the south at Sinfin. Osmaston’s, Nightingale Road site opened in 1908 to manufacture the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. The rear of the site had a test track called “Miniature Brooklands” which was used to test the cars. Rolls-Royce grew from the electrical and mechanical business established by Henry Royce in 1884. Royce built his first motor car in 1904 and in May of that year met Charles Rolls, whose company sold quality cars in London. Henry Royce was a meticulous, self-taught engineer, but he felt more at home designing and improving his cars than he did in selling them. He needed an extrovert salesman to convince buyers of the soundness and engineering excellence that he had built into his cars.
Charles Stewart Rolls was that type of man. An agreement was reached that Royce Limited would manufacture a range of cars to be exclusively sold by CS Rolls & Co. These would bear the name Rolls-Royce. This led to the formation of what was to become the world-famous company, and to the launch of the six-cylinder Silver Ghost. Within a year, it was hailed as ‘the best car in the world.
The original factory was set up in Manchester, but in 1907 it was moved to Derby. The Osmaston Motor Works were built for Rolls-Royce by Andrew Handyside and opened in July 1908. Nightingale Road was built running from Osmaston Road past the works. All the motor manufacturing business was transferred to Crewe in 1946. The Derby factories were then left to concentrate on the design and building of aero engines, which they had begun just before the First World War.
Osmaston Park
The park is on the southern side of Osmaston Park Road and provides a welcome green space in what is a large built-up area. It has three distinct woodland areas, Ash Wood, Oak Wood and across the road at the rear of Moorways Sports Complex, Elm Wood. The grassland is divided by surfaced paths where visitors may take walks to enjoy watching and listening to the wildlife. There is a Visitor Centre Café and an adventure playground as well as sports facilities. Following approximately £50,000 in joint funding from Derby City Council and British Cycling a new BMX track was opened in late 2021. It is intended for both beginners and advanced riders and offers various riding options. The track is split at halfway providing advanced riders with jumps of different heights and levels of difficulty.
Sinfin Moor
Sinfin Moor covers an extensive area. It is bounded to the west by Stenson, the east by Chellaston, the north by Normanton and Allenton and the south by Swarkestone and Barrow-on-Trent. Horse racing used to take place on the moor. When the Crewe and Harpur Arms at Swarkestone had a stable block that completely encircled its present-day car park. This was used not only for the stabling of carriage horses but for racing horses as well. It was the Lowes, situated on a ridge overlooking Swarkestone, where archaeological excavations in 1955 and 1956 made some remarkable discoveries. The first was of a Bronze Age burial; a year later, archaeologists found even more striking evidence of structures by the Beaker People of about 2000 BC, along with a small amount of Neolithic pottery.
Sinfin Moor Park and Nature Reserve
Oast House public houseSinfin Moor Park Local Nature Reserve is a green space with a variety of natural features, including meadows, ponds and woodland. There is a delightful walk around the Nature Reserve, where you will find ponds, meadows and woodland. Over 100 species of wildflowers have been found on the reserve. The Friends of Sinfin Moor Nature Reserve put on a range of activities, events and facilities for everyone. Young children are provided with a wide range of recreational equipment. Also, there is a Pump track suitable for Mountain bikes and BMX and features jumps, berms and rollers. The Pavilion Café opens on Saturdays.
Foresters Park Leisure Centre
The leisure centre is located on the corner of Osmaston Park Road and Sinfin Lane. It replaced Normanton Barracks built between 1874 and 1877. During the Second World War, the barracks were significantly expanded but they were decommissioned in 1963 and demolished in 1981. The leisure complex is easily recognised by passers-by on the Outer Ring Road by its distinctive pub the Oast House. It is a modern public house in the style of a traditional English Oast house usually found in the southeast and not in Derbyshire.
Infinity Park
Infinity Park is located to the south of the city, next to the world headquarters of Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace. It is intended to attract thousands of jobs, primarily in the high-tech sector. The centre-piece of the park is the iHub, a manufacturing-focused innovation and technology facility, which has Enterprise Zone status. It provides a flexible workspace for start-ups. Early-stage businesses and established high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises hoping to establish themselves or expand their role in the aerospace, rail and automotive supply chains.
