Chellaston Walk - Trent and Mersey

Chellaston Walk 

Trent and Mersey section

January 2010

We left the walk at Swarkestone Lock, staring at thick ice which even after a week of thawing was still three or four inches thick.

Iced in boats at Swarkestone

The surface of the water is unblemished by cracks so its clear that no boats have passed along the canal since the cold arrived nearly two months ago. Beneath the ice all the sediment has settled and the canal is now gin clear, giving an unimpeded view of thee the debris which litters the bed.

Impassable Trent and Mersey

The walk continues up the towpath for about a mile and a half, only leaving the Trent and Mersey at the third bridge near Sinfin. Here you cross over the railway line giving fine views of the cooling towers of the mothballed Willington power station. 

Willington cooling towers

Then you carry on down a lane till you get to a couple of steel gates with a stile to the left which gives access to an indistinct path over meadowland. Hold fast to the right of the fields and you find yourself approaching Barrow upon Trent, a pretty little South Derbyshire village with a cluster of Parish Council owned cottages at its heart called either The Row or The Pinfold. This used to be a fenced area to hold cattle.

The Row, or The Pinfold - Barrow upon Trent