STANTON-BY-BRIDGE WALK
THE WALK
Stanton-by-Bridge Walk is a delightful ramble through undulating South Derbyshire countryside, but one where extra care is needed because of possible flooding at Black Pool. Choosing a time for the walk when conditions are dry underfoot is the best option.
One of the highlights of the walk is the section that passes through the grounds of Foremark Hall. A Palladian mansion built in 1760, for Sir Robert Burdett, it is now a preparatory department for Repton School. There are several school houses, an interesting old church and a particularly eye-catching ornamental lake that faces the hall.
Anchor Church, set in a sandstone crag, is a fascinating place, partly natural and partly enlarged by man. Sir Frances Burdett extended the cave and fitted a door, so that during the summer he could hold picnics there for his guests.
Ingleby is a pretty hamlet on the south side of the River Trent, where there are a few attractive cottages. A small Methodist Chapel that only seated a dozen worshippers is no longer in use. On the western side is a well-known public house, The John Thompson.
LOOK OUT FOR
Route Point 1 – Village Hall – Across the road from the church, in 1840, Sir George Crewe gave a plot of land to the village for a school, which was extended in 1876 to accommodate children from Swarkestone. However, falling numbers led to the school closing in 1951. Three years later, the buildings were purchased and refurbished by the villagers and opened as the village hall. The Duke of Devonshire performed the opening ceremony only two weeks after a village fete had raised enough money to clear the total amount still owing on the building.
Point 3 – The area around Seven Spouts Farm has long been well known for its natural beauty. Woodland tracks, ponds, and hedgerows contribute to a landscape shaped by centuries of human activity. The farm’s proximity to Foremarke Hall and other important estates suggests it played a supporting role in the local economy, providing agricultural produce and maintaining estate lands. Today, the farm mainly consists of barn conversions.
Point 4 – Heath Wood is to the east of Foremark, where the only known Viking Cremation Cemetery in England exists. Sixty burial mounds have revealed cremated human remains, fragments of pottery, nails, swords and other objects, probably buried in the late 9th century.
Point 5 – Foremarke Hall is a Palladian mansion built for the Burdett family in 1759/61 on the site of an earlier house. During World War I, the British army took it over as a military hospital. World War II saw it being used as an Officer Cadet Training Unit. The military identification plate nailed to one of the pillars of the front entrance is still present. The army left in 1946, and the following year, Repton School moved in and rented the building from the Church Commissioners. In 1967, the school purchased the freehold of the current campus together with 40 acres of land and three cottages. It acts as a preparatory school for boys and girls for nearby Repton School.
Point 7 – Anchor Church, set in a sandstone crag on the banks of the River Trent, a short distance to the north of Foremark. It is a fascinating place, partly natural and partly enlarged by man. Sir Frances Burdett of nearby Foremarke Hall extended it and fitted a door so that during the summer he could hold picnics there for his guests. A new study indicates the cave is likely to be early Medieval and from the 9th century rather than from the 18th century as originally thought. It makes the cave the oldest intact domestic interior in the UK, which may well have been lived in by a king who later became a saint.
Point 9 – In 1968, John and Ann Thompson converted their 15th-century farmhouse into what is now known as The John Thompson Inn. It was the first public house in the UK named after its owner. Large and spacious inside, for many years, it was the home to the longest-established microbrewery, which was set up by the family in 1977 but closed in 2021.
WALK DETAILS
Length: 7 miles.
Start: Roadside parking is available near the church on the western side of Stanton-by-Bridge.
Location: Off A514 Swarkestone to Ticknall road.
Terrain: Well-defined paths and tracks through undulating countryside. There is some road walking, where care is required. The footpath past Black Pool, a short distance beyond Anchor Church, is sometimes flooded, and it may be necessary to turn back and follow the suggested alternative route. The walk along the ridge to avoid flood problems is considered dangerous.
Refreshments: The John Thompson at Ingleby is a good choice. There are pubs, restaurants and cafes in Melbourne and the surrounding area to satisfy all tastes.
THE ROUTE
1. Walk past the village hall in a westerly direction down Ingleby Road. Shortly after passing the speed restriction sign, turn left along a wide track. Follow the track all the way to the end, and turn right along another track that leads you in front of Woodend Cottage.
2. Continue along the track as it starts to widen, keep straight ahead and do not deviate, eventually arriving at a metal gate with a stile at the side.
3. Only turn left when you reach a minor road opposite Ingleby Toft. Follow the road until it bends sharply to the right, when your route is straight ahead along a bridle path. Continue along the bridle path, with a wood close by on your left. After passing a fishing pool on your left, you soon arrive at what used to be Seven Spouts Farm, where you keep to the right and leave by an access road that angles to the right.
4. Cross the Ingleby to Ticknall road to a footpath sign by a metal gate, go over the stile and walk straight up the field, keeping close to the field boundary. At the top of the field, enter Heath Wood by a stile; follow the clear track through the wood.
5. A few yards after leaving the wood, ensure you keep straight on at a cart track intersection to follow a clear path all the way to Foremark. After passing several school houses and reaching a tarmac road, carry straight on to pass in front of Foremark Hall, with the lake on your right.
6. At the end of the drive, turn right along a footpath, and then after a short distance, right again along a minor road. In about 120 yards, go over a stile on the left and angle to the right towards the corner of an area of woodland on the other side of the field.
7. Cross a stile and walk and maintain the same direction across another field with a rocky escarpment close on your right. Leave the field by a stile and walk past Anchor Church along the path by Black Pool to a stile at the far end of the crag. The path is very muddy and often partially flooded even in fairly dry weather, when stout footwear is advisable. If needed, you can turn back and follow the alternative route* shown below.
8. Cross a stile and head slightly to the right for a few yards, before following a gently climbing path to the left, through some gorse bushes and along the top of a further escarpment.
9. Continue across an open field, and go down a fenced path, and after crossing two stiles in quick succession, walk down the next field to the Milton to Ingleby Road and turn left. Follow the road through Ingleby, passing the John Thompson Inn on the way. The road is quite busy, and there is no pavement or grass verge for part of the way, so extra care is needed.
10. After passing the pub, ignore the first road on the right, and turn right up the second road. This road is not normally busy, but narrows at the top, just before reaching Stanton-by-Bridge and the starting point of the walk.
* ALTERNATIVE ROUTE
1. Retrace your steps back past Anchor Church towards the area of woodland seen at Point 6 of the walk, but just before reaching the wood, turn left, up a path that leads you to the road.
2. Go to the left down the road for 500 yards and turn left through a bridle gate.
3. Head across the field at an angle of 45 degrees to go through a stile, walk down a slope and up the other side and continue to maintain the same direction.
4. On reaching a path ‘T’ junction, turn right to re-join the main walk (See Point 9).
STANTON-BY-BRIDGE
