Distance: Around 7 miles

Difficulty of the Terrain: Medium

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps

Walk across the gentle rolling hills of southern Derbyshire and the National Forest from the Railway Station at Willington, across the River Trent and through the small town of Repton, to the National Trust’s “unstately home” Calke Abbey.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

A Very “Unstately Home”

Have you ever fancied visiting the set of a horror movie?

If the answer is “yes” then Calke Abbey (pronounced “Chalk”), near the southern easternmost tip of Derbyshire close to the county boundary with Leicestershire, might be for you. If the answer is “no” it may very well not be… But the grounds and parkland are excellent, and vast in scale, amongst the best that the National Trust who owned and manage the property possess, so it is well worth visiting just to experience them.

Gifted to the National Trust in 1985 by the Harpur family who had owned the land since the 1620s, Calke Abbey came into the National Trust’s possession towards the end of the great stately home acquiring spree that the organisation engaged in between the 1930s and the 1980s. An act – which in my view very unfortunately – colours the organisation’s image, resource allocation and indeed the general public’s perception of what Britain’s heritage is, and consists of, to this day.

Doubtless mindful of the enormous number of stately homes it already possessed and which they presented to the public in a state of finery, a decision, considered radical at the time, was taken by the National Trust to present Calke Abbey in the rundown state that they acquired it.

To this end if you visit the property, which was constructed right at the start of the 18th Century, on the site of an Augustine Priory dissolved during the Reformation in 1538, you encounter it in the state of severe decay that the National Trust acquired it. The property was extensively conserved in the late 1980s so as to keep it steady in the state of decay that they found it, however, the creepy environment of a rotting country mansion has been fully retained.

From the conversation I had with a volunteer in one of the rooms as I was going around, one interpretation of the National Trust’s decision to present the house in this way is as a tribute to the era of decay that the great estates and great houses went through in the 20th Century.

This I suppose is the Downton Abbey, vaguely reactionary interpretation of the property’s presentation. Perhaps being more gothically minded and deeply critical of landed wealth and landlordism more widely, I prefer to see it as being a horror film set. Fixed in its mid-1980s state of decay, when very little work had been done on the house for 100 years, it would be perfectly possible to enjoy visiting the house with its pitch-black dank cellars, creepy kitchen spaces, grim collection of stuffed birds, fish and other animals and so on, as a kind of haunted house attraction. Indeed in the form of the “Unstately Home” tours that the National Trust runs at the property out of season this is increasingly the interpretation of the property that the Trust is leaning towards, not least to engage younger audiences.

However, my preferred take on the property is that it represents something of the horror that the power of landed wealth represents. We are of course all familiar with this in modern popular vampire lore, as well as some ancient myths, in the figure of the aristocratic vampire preying upon the blood and the young on the nearby peasantry. 

Calke Abbey in its steady state of decay shows this in house form. All of the items, such as the hideous and cruel stuffed birds and other animals, as well as numerous other hideous trinkets represents the materialisation of centuries of exploited labour by farmers, quarry workers and others on the Abbey’s estate crystalised into mountains of dusty tat. All that labour and the lives of countless people congealed into a shabby, mould mansion and its vile contents. 

As in the conventional interpretation I was offered by the volunteer guide this illustrates the decay of the country house over the course of the 20th Century as landed power entered a semi-terminal decline, being eclipsed by wealth extracted through industry, natural resource mining and above all finance. However, rather than being something to mourn I think that this something to be welcomed, and whilst I found the house a deeply unsettling and creepy place to visit, I am pleased that I did so. 

This makes Calke Abbey a fascinating place to visit. The first National Trust house I have enjoyed visiting for many years. Alongside the grounds which are vast, very varied and well worth visiting in their own right, it would be great if the National Trust made similar interesting and thought provoking curatorial choices when presenting their other properties.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps

From the platforms of Willington Railway Station where this walk begins, take the steps down onto the main road through the centre of the village.

Once on the station’s tiny forecourt turn left.

After a very short distance you reach a bridge on your left which carries to the railway line across the main road leading to Repton.

Turn left down this road and pass under the bridge.

Follow the road for several hundred metres through a residential area with a handy little Co-op.

Along the way you pass one of the East Midlands’ distinctive old churches on the left.

Just after passing the church – also on the left – down a road of houses you get your first glimpse of the imposing cooling towers of Willington Power Station.

Willington Power Station stopped generating electricity in the 1990s and most of the building’s on the site such as the turbine halls, boiler plant and coal bunkers were demolished long ago. Five of the station’s cooling towers remain, however, and have become something of a landmark. I vividly recall them being a landmark when I used to frequently take the train to and from York when I lived there in the early to mid 2010s. They have become such a minor icon for the urban exploring, modern ruin and modernist subcultures that they starred in an episode of Channel 4’s Drones in Forbidden Zones some years back.

Continuing along the road you leave the houses behind.

Soon you reach the banks of the River Trent, which alongside the Severn to the west, is the midlands region’s great river.

You cross the Trent via an impressive stone bridge constructed in the 1830s.

There is an excellent view of the channel of the river and the power station ruins at Willington from the centre of its span.

On the other side you cross a flat expanse of flood plain approaching the little town of Repton.

Somewhere in the fields to your left, not far from the spire of the church on the edge of the town, lies the site where the 9th Century “Viking Great Army” held a winter camp, and buried their dead. A distant reminder of when this territory slap bang in the centre of the country was heavily contested by warring monarchies in the Early Medieval period. 

Walking across flat ground along a good pavement makes it possible for you to cover ground very quickly at this point.

Presently you reach the outskirts of Repton.

These days Repton is a prosperous little town firmly in the commuter belt of all of the midland’s major urban areas. It is also home to a gigantic public school. Which I was vaguely interested to see in the flesh, having read about it as a young child in Roald Dahl’s autobiography. Several midlands towns, such as Bromsgrove just south of Birmingham, are home to large, fabulously well resourced private schools. However, due to its size relative to the town that gives it its name, Repton is in a rather different league.

A short distance into the town, amidst the buildings of the school, which has premises on both sides of the road you are walking along, turn left.

This leads you a short distance past yet more school buildings to the town’s main square.

Here turn right and follow the road down the High Street through the town centre.

Having walked along the road for some distance, leaving the centre of the town behind, presently you come to Pinfold Lane on your left.

Turn left onto Pinfold Lane and follow it for some way.

Pinfold Lane is lined with a mixture of Victorian cottages and more recent infill, little estates of post-World War II housing constructed between the 1960s and the present day.

After a short way it takes quite a sharp bend round to the right.

Having turned round this bend you follow the road as it slopes gently and steadily uphill for some distance.

Presently you approach the edge of the built up area.

Here you keep to the road on the right passing a white washed pub called The Mount Pleasant.

Straight ahead of you just after the pub, keep walking straight and head onto a steeply sloping brick paved track.

This track leads you uphill past the buildings of a converted farm also called Mount Pleasant.

After the last ex-farm buildings fall away the track turns into a footpath running across fields.

Follow this path as it runs uphill for some distance.

Near the crest of the hill you come to another footpath, also well trodden, which emerges from the hedgerow.

When you reach it, turn left and follow the path across the field.

It stretches off into the distance looking towards some wooded hills forming part of the National Forest.

Repton is on the edge of the National Forest. The National Forest, is a 520 square kilometre expanse of tree cover, lying between Burton-upon-Trent and Leicester. Predominantly in the North West Leicestershire and South Derbyshire District Council areas, the purpose of the National Forest is to regenerate this western chunk of the East Midlands region both ecologically and economically after centuries of being churned up by extractive industries. 

To your left as you walk, there are great views across back towards the River Trent and the cooling towers of Willington Power Station.

Presently you reach a wooden fence.

Follow the path through it and continue walking as it slopes downhill hugging the hedge line.

The path levels out and intersects with another path.

Here crossover the point where the paths interchange heading right. Follow the path you are now on towards the hedgerow.

Once at the hedgerow keep on following the path downhill.

At the bottom of the hill the path passes through a hedgerow out onto a lane.

Having reached the lane, turn left.

After a very short distance along the lane a driveway leading past a few houses comprising a tiny hamlet called Saw Mill appears on your right.

Turn to the right and follow the driveway down past the houses.

A short way after the houses the track approaches another cluster of buildings.

Once you reach these a sturdy signpost in the middle of the yard points left through a gate onto a bridleway.

Head through this gate and follow the track uphill.

The surface of this track is somewhat uneven but it is generally possible to make very good time on this section of the route.

At the top of the ridge you pass under a major power transmission line running down towards the distant cooling towers at Willington.

Continuing on the bridleway it runs across a series of fields.

Presently the track takes a sharp right turn and runs down towards a copse.

Head straight through the copse and keep following the track on the other side.

Running slightly uphill, across attractive open countryside, the path continues fairly straight for quite some distance.

Presently near another set of pylons the track crosses a field boundary to the right and then takes a slight left.

The path then runs straight along the line of the field boundaries for quite some way. Passing a distinctive, squatted, weathered tree, shrouded in ivy.

A little further along, past another distinctive tree, you come to a metal gate.

Walk through the gate and keep heading steadily downhill along the track on the other side.

Presently the track emerges onto a grassy meadow on the edge of the village of Ticknall.

Follow the path as it runs around the edge of the field towards the village’s church.

Just before you reach the churchyard on your right a path runs off across a small playing field.

Head off to the right and cross the playing field.

On the other side there is a gateway, walk through the gate and head down the path on the other side, which runs between a roped off horse paddock and a series of back gardens.

At the bottom there is a gate leading onto the road through Ticknall.

Head out onto the road and walk a short distance along it heading left.

Take care on the road as it can be quite busy and vehicles travel along it fast.

Presently before you reach the middle of the village there is another road heading off to your right.

Turn right and walk along this road heading past a pub called The Staff of Life on your left, and a distinctive old style red telephone box on your right.

Shortly after passing the red phone box on the left hand side of the road a footpath runs off between houses.

Cross over the road and head down the snicket way between two back gardens.

At the bottom of the path you come to a style bearing the logo on the National Trust. This is a sign that you have reached the Trust’s significant landholdings around their unusual, and pretty creepy, “unstately home” Calke Abbey. 

Somewhere around here is approximately the halfway point on the walk.

Once across the style follow the path as it runs diagonally to the right across a field.

Right in the corner of the field you come to a style set in a hedgerow.

Head across the style and then head straight, again in a diagonal direction heading right.

Soon you reach a set of hedges with gates in it that lead onto a green lane, or sorts, paved with yellow gravel.

Cross across this track and head across the style on the far side.

Following the path as it slopes off to the right across a grassy field.

At a stand of trees which makes for an imposing boundary, there is another style which you cross.

On the other side of the style you are standing on the National Forest Way.

Turn right here and follow the path as it curves round.

Soon you reach the perimeter of Calke Abbey’s parkland, represented by a wall and gatehouses.

Keep on following the path around the edge of the estate passing through gates on the way.

Presently the path runs down into a shallow wooded dell.

On the other side it continues across fields.

Keeping on the path you pass a car park for Calke Abbey, and the nature reserve and reservoir which are situated close to it.

Continuing on the path, after some distance you reach a tamacked country lane.

Once on the lane turn left.

The road you are walking on approaches a bend.

Here there is a footpath sign on your left pointing through a gate.

Turn through the gate and begin following the footpath.

It slopes steadily uphill until you reach a metal gate for vehicles with a wooden gate for pedestrians next to it.

This leads onto a track which runs across parkland for some way.

Presently you reach a paved driveway which you can follow heading to your left in the direction of Calke Abbey.

The main house and its imposing stable block on top of a hill come into view on your right as you approach.

Once you reach the stable block this is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

One option for getting back is to continue your walk for a further 3 or so miles to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. This town just over the county boundary in Leicestershire has frequent buses until the evening heading to Burton-upon-Trent and Leicester. Alternatively if you return to Ticknall then there is a fairly good service until late in the day running north to south between Derby and Swadlincote which you can catch. Derby offers trains running to all points of the compass. Whilst Swadlincote has a frequent bus service to Burton-upon-Trent from which trains run both north and south, and where if you bought a return from Willington and you are heading south then your ticket will be valid.