Yesterday I kicked off my walk up the Derwent Valley Heritage Way
The primary objective on day one was to get from Long Eaton Railway Station, a bit due east and south of Derby, to Derby city centre.
This may have seemed like undue punishment. However, I am keen to walk the route in its entirety and Long Eaton is the closest starting point to a railway station. It also handily has a train which runs to it from very near where I live in south Birmingham.
Leaving Long Eaton I headed south.
Through a little, strung out town called Sawley, which seemed very pleasant, in a fairly affluent East Midlands kind of way.
I found myself captivated by Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. It is amongst the last of it’s kind. That is to say a 2,000 megawatt thermal, coal fired station. It was these huge coal fired stations in the East Midlands, readily suppliable with coal from nominally “socialist” counties like Poland, which enabled Maggie Thatcher it win the 1984-85 Miner’s Stike.
Either way, scab or not, I was captivated by Radcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.
Soon I crossed the River Trent. Amidst the spectacular industrial landscape between South Eastern most Derbyshire, and North West Leicestershire District. North West Leicestershire District readily merges with Derbyshire. See my Tamworth – Moira or my Willington – Ashby de la Zouch walks for some great strolls in this fascinating borderland region. Here there were many great addition views of Radcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.
I was especially taken with the picture of Radcliffe-on-Soar Power Station against the Leicestershire County sign (when I left Derbyshire briefly). Yes of course Leicestershire is a rural county…
The next phase of the walk was to the actual beginning of the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail. That is to say at the mouth of the River Derwent. There was a lot to see in this section as well.
From where the Derwent reaches the Trent I headed off to the start of the walk
From the so called “Derwent Mouth” the route guided me along the Trent and Mersey Canal which runs parallel with the River Derwent at this point.
Shardlow is one of the midlands great inland ports. Alongside Stourport-on-Severn it is a heritage canal village. It preserves a sense of what it was like in the brief 18th and 19th Century heyday of canals.
After Shardlow the route heads through several miles of pretty monotonous countryside. On interesting feature is the village of Ambaston which is insanely posh.
After that the Derwent Valley Heritage Way goes through a rural phase .
Then the walk continues along the bank of the River Derwent.
Then the walk steadily winds along the riverbank into Derby. Derby is a city which is massively under rated in my view.
Someone living in suburban Derby clearly resents paying Council Tax and is pretty proficient with a graffiti stencil.
I reached the city centre soon enough. Like many Midlands cities Derby was hacked up in the mid-20th Century for cars, and has suffered a little bit more than its fair share of shopping centre developments since then. But it is still a pleasant, compact and interesting place to visit.
On my way to the room above a pub where I was staying, I passed the excellent Derby Museum of Making. It is housed in a former silk mill, built in the 1700s, which is one of the earliest examples of textiles being produced through the factory system. An appropriate place to end the day’s walk.
From the Museum of Making it was a very short walk to my overnight accommodation.
Which was perfectly placed for exploring Derby City centre.
Day 2 of the walk is the longest. 28.5 kilometres from Derby to Cromford. It’ll be intense, but all told it should be a lot less arduous terrain than when I walked from Sheffield – Manchester a few weeks ago. Looking forward to checking out lots of industrial heritage enroute.