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Derwent Valley: Bumbling along to Belper

The name Belper comes from Beaurepaire, meaning pleasant retreat, and the town certainly lived up to its name on this sunny day. Even the car park had a good view!


I started off across the market place and past St Peter's Church. There were three crosses in the churchyard and an unusual Easter garden - I've never seen one like this before.




The road went up past a dinky pub, with a view of the old mill, down by the Derwent, on my left. I would be getting a closer look later.


mill in centre, above the orange extension

The next section was a long straight path squeezed between lots of back gardens. This must have been an old route which had a modern housing estate built around it. I met nobody until, at one point, a lady cutting her hedge, another woman coming the opposite way with a pushchair, and I all converged at the same time. We made way for each other with very British apologies.


old gate posts; new houses

Eventually the path escaped from the housing estate and crossed meadows boundaried with tumbledown stone walls. I could see Heage Windmill over to my right. Passing an abandoned farm and an aluminium factory, I came out on the road to Nether Heage.


Nether Heage with windmill behind

I took a short detour into the hamlet, which totally confused the OS app. It never really recovers if you get off course, even when you join the plotted route again later on. Nether Heage contains the marvellously named Spanker pub (on Spanker Lane); a short piece of road called Guide Post, and a Methodist church clinging to the side of a hill.



A footpath, a lane, and another footpath took me over a ridge and down to Newbridge Road, which sloped steeply towards the Derwent. Just before it reached the A6, the road managed to go over one railway line and under another within 100m, which I thought was quite a feat. You can see the junction between the two lines from the bridge.




I crossed the Holly Lane bridge over the River Derwent for the fourth time - this one is definitely winning the award for the most-crossed crossing! Then it was straight up the other side of the Derwent valley, and along Whitewells Lane to Blackbrook. That diagonal line of houses is Newbridge Road, and the bank of trees to the left of the radio mast is where the land drops down to the Amber Valley. The Derwent runs right across the middle of the photo, but you can't see it at all.


Sheep, cattle, goats and geese watched me as I made my way along the lane and down towards Wyver Lane Nature Reserve. On the way was a large wall, and a sign telling me that this used to be a firing range to train the Belper Volunteers.




firing wall to the left of the road

I was confidently expecting a bench or two at the nature reserve. It would be a perfect spot to sit down with some lunch and watch wildfowl on the lake. Unfortunately, there was only a bird hide - I didn't fancy having lunch in there - and a gate upon which two people were already leaning.


So I continued along the lane to Belper, where I reached Beaurepaire Gardens. There were plenty of benches and lots to look at as well. "God bless this seat," read the memorial sign for the bench I chose, and I gave a hearty "Amen" as I collapsed onto it.




It wasn't far to go now. (The OS app said 5 miles, but what did it know.) Over Belper Bridge, past the imposing brick block of East Mill, and back onto the A6 at The Triangle. I poked my nose into Christ Church, which was full of colour and smelled of incense.




Then I walked up Long Row, built to house millworkers, and had a look at the Unitarian Chapel, erected by Jedediah Strutt, the patriarch of the mill-building Strutt family. I went through Belper Memorial Gardens and crossed the busy A609 to return to the Coppice car park, where my sun-heated car awaited me.






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