Trent Valley Walk

Saturday 9th February 2019

For several years I have been looking on a map at the complex area of wetland between Derby and Nottingham and thinking I would love to do a walk between these two cities. It was something I would like to do but had never done, until earlier this year when a prolonged mild spell of weather prompted me to do the planned walk. I caught a train to Derby and from the station I walked north a short distance dropping down to the tarmac path that follows the River Derwent east. This fast moving river is fed by the waters that fall into the Peak District so is amply supplied and accompanied by loud bird calls on the park-like path I was able to move almost as fast as the water as I followed the river out of the city. Gradually the path deteriorated into a gravelly and eventually a grass/dirt path, but this simply made the walking more interesting underfoot. It is always tedious to have every step taken exactly the same as the previous one, like on a tarmac pavement, but when every step is slightly different and your feet have to mould themselves to every slight undulation of the path this greatly enhances the experience, and is better for your feet.

There was a bit of a cold wind at first but the clouds soon broke to reveal blue sky that made for a rather pleasant day that was good to be walking in and enjoying. The trail I was following, known as the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, accompanies the river into Alvaston Park and short cuts several wide loops of the river until it eventually parts company with the River Derwent to follow a path across a number of fields into the small settlement of Ambaston. From there I had to follow the road south into the village of Shardlow until I reached the Trent & Mersey Canal at the point where, two hundred years ago, cargo from large river boats were transferred onto the narrower canal barges for onward travel through the Potteries eventually reaching the River Mersey near Liverpool. Turning onto the canal I headed east still following the route of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way past various marinas until eventually I reached the end of the trail at the mouth of the River Derwent. The river that I had been following earlier made a brief reappearance only to disappear into the wide River Trent.

A grand bridge took me over the river that I was now going to follow for most of the rest of the walk. On a couple of occasions the river heads into non-navigable sections where a length of canal has been built. The first of these is Sawley Cut which I came upon soon after joining the River Trent and immediately after passing underneath the M1 motorway. At Trentlock I found a beautiful complex of old canal buildings where the Erewash Canal joins the Trent only for another short length of canal to leave the Trent soon after, while passing underneath the railway line from London. Before the River Trent passes underneath the railway line the River Soar, including all the waters from Leicestershire, joins the Trent to head east towards the North Sea. I have seen this watersmeet many times before from the railway, but I had never seen it from the ground so I was enthralled to be there now and walking beside the canal that I had passed over on the train so many times. As I continued east I was now on the route of the Trent Valley Way walking beside the canal that soon merges with the River Trent and finally I entered the area that I had been most keen to explore.

Attenborough Nature Reserve covers a large area of the Trent valley south-west of Nottingham and was what had first attracted my notice when looking at a map of the area. It comprises a large number of lagoons that are the remains of gravel pits that have now flooded and been set aside as a nature reserve. There are many other such examples further upstream on the Trent, but the former pits at Attenborough are the most extensive and have been converted into the largest reserve. I had been looking forward to my chance to walk through the area and see if it was as spectacular as it looked on the map, unfortunately as I made my way beside the River Trent I was disappointed. There were many extensive open bodies of water separated from the river by a narrow strip of land, but I could not see any waterfowl and because it was so early in the year there were no wild flowers to spark my interest. As great as it was to get mild weather in February there still wasn’t the wild flowers to see that are such an important part of my walking.

Since I had a train to catch I didn’t follow the River Trent all the way into Nottingham, and since I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to reach the station I maintained a brisk pace through the reserve until eventually I left the river behind and made my way into Attenborough village to reach Attenborough station. This walk was disappointing considering I had been planning it for many years, but ultimately I think it was the wrong time of the year and I needed to come back later in the spring or summer.