Findern Trent and Mersey Walk is an easy, level walk that visits Stenson Bubble, Willington, and Mercia Marina. Wildlife enthusiasts will particularly enjoy exploring the numerous short diversionary paths that meander through the fields and woods just off the main walk’s route. Nearly half of the walk is along the banks of the Trent and Mersey Canal, which comes alive with brightly painted boats at weekends and during the summer holiday season.
LOOK OUT FOR
Route Point 1 – Lower Green, or Bumpton as it is known locally, is the home of the Methodist Chapel. It was opened in 1835 with a tea party, which has become an annual tradition. The chapel has a well at the front and a garden, both of which were renovated in 1984 by the Brownies. Consequently, they won the National Aid Cherish Conservation Competition for their initiative and hard work.
Point 2 – Crow Park Way, the local name for Ash Plantation, is filled with tall ash trees, where crows and rooks used to nest and from which the name was derived. The route has been diverted following the building of the A50 trunk road in 1990. Previously, it went through the Ash Plantation, where a deep hole was dug to extract clay to line the canal when it was built in 2017.
Methodist Chapel, Findern
Crow Park Way
Point 5 – Canal Bridge Number 20 was closed for a lengthy period following an accident that partially collapsed it. Now reopened, it allows walkers to choose between heading east to Stenson Lock or west towards Willington along the canal towpath.
Point 6 – Stenson Lock, where the coffee shop overlooks the Trent and Mersey Canal, is where you can sit and enjoy some refreshments while watching canal boats navigate the lock. The lock is the second deepest on the canal at 12 feet 6 inches in depth and, together with the red-brick road bridge behind it, is Grade II listed.
Canal Bridge Number 20
Stenson Lock
Point 7 – Stenson Bubble Inn is a popular pub with a restaurant, accommodation, and seating inside and out. The pub got its unusual name from a small spring on the downstream side of the lock. Stenson and Twyford, its smaller neighbour, are civil parishes in South Derbyshire.
Point 11 – Mercia Marina, located alongside the road from Willington to Findern, was a former quarry. It was created from farmland for gravel extraction to construct the nearby A50. Later, it was converted into a fishing lake, before local businessman John Thornton unveiled a multi-million-pound plan to turn it into Europe’s largest inland marina, with over 630 berths, holiday lodges, and on-site businesses, including restaurants, retailers, and office space.
Stenson Bubble Inn
Mercia Marina
WALK DETAILS
Length: 3.5 miles.
Start: Findern Trent and Mersey Walk starts from the car park on the south side of the Church at Lower Green. The village is located just off the A38, south of Littleover, in South Derbyshire (SK308304).
Terrain: This is an easy, level walk along clear tracks and the towpath of the Trent and Mersey Canal. There is some pavement walking.
Refreshments: Find a Café near Findern Village Green, Nadee Restaurant, Dobbies Garden Centre, and Mercia Marina, where there is a good selection of restaurants, cafés, and a pub.
THE ROUTE
Crow Park WayFrom the Lower Green car park, walk down Common Piece Lane, passing the Methodist chapel on your left and the cemetery on your right.
Where the lane forks, go to the right, past a footpath information board for Crow Park Way.
After a short distance, go through a stile by a metal gate, there are wildlife sites on either side of the lane, which are well worth exploring. Soon, the lane forks, and you go to the right through a tunnel under the A50.
When you emerge from the tunnel, turn left up a wide access road. Just before reaching a metal gate, go down a flight of steps to the right and continue straight on. When you reach the Trent and Mersey Canal, turn left and follow the path close to the canal.
Walk under a railway bridge and continue alongside the canal through a field. Turn right and cross the canal bridge number 20. Once on the other side, turn left and walk along the canal towpath.
After about a quarter of a mile, you reach the canal crossing point at Stenson Lock, where a pleasant café overlooks the lock.
The Stenson Bubble Inn is at the rear of the café and attracts many visitors and boaters.
Return to the bridge by Stenson Lock and walk back down the canal towpath to the bridge that you crossed earlier. This time, do not cross it but continue along the towpath of the Trent and Mersey Canal.
Pass under two bridges in quick succession, with the Nadee Restaurant on the opposite bank. Soon after this, look out for a high-sided footbridge over the canal, which you cross into a field.
Continue straight ahead along a boardwalk for a few yards before going over a stile into another field** where you turn left and head to a stile by a metal gate, in the top right-hand corner. (**diversion -bear left and follow the surfaced path to Mercia Marina, later leave the marina and turn left along the road to rejoin the main walk at Point 11.)
Cross the stile onto the Willington to Findern Road and turn right to walk along the footpath back to the walk’s starting point.
