Skip to main content

Dove Valley Walk: finding the mouth of the Dove

The Bonnie Prince Charlie Way was really just a fill-in walk until I could start my next big excursion. Gloopy though the BPC was, I knew it wouldn't actually be flooded, whereas the bits of ground I was tackling next had had ducks paddling on them for most of the winter.

 

The grand plan is to start from my house in Findern, reaching the start of the River Dove. I can then follow the Dove to Uttoxeter, making up my own route, as this section has no official waymarked path. At Uttoxeter I join the Staffordshire Way up to Rocester, then the Limestone Way beyond that. It stays near the Dove for a while longer. Then it cuts across the southern Peak District to reach Matlock. At Matlock I can pick up the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, heading south through Derby to reach the River Trent at Shardlow. The Trent has its own relatively new Way, leading back to Repton and then, eventually, home. The map shows a rough idea of the route.

If only it would stop raining long enough for me to get across all those flood plains.

Walk 1

Well, finally, it did. Sort of. I set out from Findern to Newton Solney on a day of extremely mixed weather. One minute I was considering ice cream; the next I was getting pounded by hail!

Willington
 

The rain was falling as I walked along the Trent & Mersey canal towpath, but by the time I reached Willington, the sun was turning wet streets into mirrors. I crossed the Trent on the Victorian stone bridge (opened 1839, freed from toll 1898) and dropped down to the flood plain beyond. This is a sheet of water when the river runs high, but today was just occasionally squelchy. 

Trent & Mersey

Willington Bridge


I came across a new waymarker for the Trent Valley Way. One flooded stile defeated me, but there was a passable route along the other side of the hedge. 



Sadly the only crossing of the Trent here is for a pipeline, so I had to content myself with taking photos of the mouth of the River Dove from the other side of the water. Actually, I needn't have bothered, as there's quite a nice photo on this sign!

River Dove meeting River Trent


Newton Solney is a pretty little village on the road between Repton and Burton. I stuck my head in the church, and admired a flowering cherry tree by the village green.


 

My return route took me through fields of very long grass - so long it flopped everywhere, like shaggy hair. When I reached Repton I stopped by the Repton School science block for a drink. The sun was warm and I wondered if I might treat myself to an ice cream at Mercia Marina. But an ominous dark cloud approached and threw hail at me. By the time I got to the Marina I was thinking longingly of hot chocolate. I decided I was too wet and cold even for that, though. Best head for home and get dried out.


Heading towards Repton spire

Findern - Newton Solney: 12.4 km / 9.2 miles

15 April 2024

Walk 2

I persuaded my parents (who are actually interested in such things) and the rest of my family (who thought it was a poor excuse for a day out) to join me on a tour of Claymills Pumping Station. This is a restored Victorian sewage pumping station with four massive steam-powered beam engines. They were in steam for the bank holiday weekend and were really quite an impressive sight. There was a good collection of smaller steam engines, too, and many enthusiastic volunteers.




Conveniently, Claymills happens to be situated near a path which leads to the other side of the Dove-Trent confluence. The public rights of way presumably date back to when this was a major crossing point, so I warned the rest of the family that we might need pith helmets, and we set off on our expedition to the mouth of the Dove.


 Actually, it turned out to be a clear track for most of the way. We encountered a bit of mud, lots of swans, and a WWII pillbox. Helmets were not required, but sunhats were - it was surprisingly warm.

Theo in a pillbox

 
big house in Newton Solney

We reached our destination successfully, and admired the view back across the Trent to Newton Solney, then followed our tracks back to the car park.

Claymills - Dove mouth and back: 4.3 km / 2.7 miles

5 May 2024

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Greece is the word! Part 2: Epidaurus

For the first part of our Greek holiday, see here . Day 4 - continued After much waiting around, we acquired a hire car and set off for the second part of our holiday. I am so glad that Graham can get into a strange car in a foreign country and drive away with no problems. I would be a nervous wreck. Even Graham was a little spooked by the Athens traffic - very narrow lanes crowded with cars and buses, and mopeds zipping in and out of every available gap. I had left Google Maps set to "avoid tolls", which meant that we stayed off the fancy new highway and took the old road towards Corinth instead. There was practically no traffic, so although it was slower, it felt very relaxed. We passed hills, hotels and oil refineries. Along the way, we stopped at a supermarket for supplies and drank Green Cola at the beach over the road. Crossing the Corinth Canal at Isthmia, we started heading south through the mountains of the Peloponnese. The sky had been growing darker and darker, and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Derwent Valley: Derby City and the Derwent Pilgrimage

It was 8 am and I was already hayfeverish, headachey and hot. Why on earth was I setting out to walk through the middle of Derby, when I could be up in the hills of the Peak District? No one was forcing me to do this section. I could skip it entirely. But I knew I wouldn't, because this was the next part of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way. And besides, I had a suspicion that it would be better than it looked. Alvaston Park was certainly a good start. It's a wide sweep of green grass and mature trees. I used to come here quite often when the boys were small. I was glad to see some of the planets were still there - although Mars has had a lot of feet standing on it, I think. Here's a tiny Toby in 2013 with Mars... ... and a more battered Mars today. Alvaston Park I kept off the roads for a while by following a cycle route. Even when I joined the traffic, it wasn't bad. The factories and office blocks had roses outside. This road, now the A5194, used to be the A6 coming in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Greece is the word! Part 1: Athens

The last few times we have been on holiday, my family has asked, "Mum, are you going to blog about this one?" It's felt like an overwhelming task. For a start, we now have FOUR phones with photos on, rather than one digital camera. Also, I regularly write quite long blog posts about three-hour walks. How on earth will I summarise a full week's holiday? But this time, I thought I should try. It's one of the most enjoyable holidays we've had in a while, and I've definitely done too many Peak District posts recently. Everyone needs a change of scenery. So here we go, jetting off to Athens. Day 1 We landed at Athens airport in a looming thunderstorm, but the worst of the rain held off until we'd made it safely to our apartment. Graham had earmarked a nice little restaurant called Lolos for dinner - eating shell-on prawns in tomato sauce was a deliciously messy experience - and we went to bed early after our 3am start. Day 2 Next day we climbed Philopappos ...
Post a Comment
Read more