Helen Moat continues her hike along the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, taking buses that ply the A6 enabling her to enjoy this linear route in stages.
Duffield to Belper
Starting from pretty Duffield, cross the flood plain to Bridge Inn. Veer left at the pub to walk the pavement of Duffield Bank. The bucolic views across town to the hills beyond more than make up for the road walking.
Duffield Bank becomes Makeney Road. On reaching Makeney, continue down as far as Holly Bush Lane.
Turn right and continue to the top where it becomes Dark Lane. A stile on your left at the beginning of the unsurfaced lane takes you up and over fields to a narrow path on an edge.
This is a particularly lovely stretch of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way (DVHW) with expansive views of the valley dotted with woodland, pasture and farm dwellings tucked into the hillside.
You’ll catch glimpses of the mill chimney in Millford, a reminder of how prevalent the mill industry once was along the A6 corridor.
Cross Shaw Lane and continue to Grange Farm. Go through the gate and turn left to follow its farm track to the edge of Belper.
Turn right onto Holbrook Road, then left onto a path at the top, passing Melbourne Court. Straight on brings you into The Park, a lush, bird-filled Local Nature Reserve.
The path eventually drops down to Coppice Brook (well signed with the purple and yellow DVHW markers) then up to Market Place. Cross over to King Street, then turn right into Green Lane.
This is a fascinating part of Belper. You’ll pass the Old School House, an engraved sign above the entrance door informing you the building was a Unitarian Sunday School between 1721 and 1855. It’s now a trendy pub.
As you continue along Green Lane, you’ll pass quaint streets of mill workers’ cottages: Field Lane, The Orchard, Field Row, Joseph, George and William streets and the even cuter Field Row, Short Row and Mill Street.
Perhaps prettiest of all is the cobbled Long Row with its tiny cottages and colourful handkerchief gardens.
Stop at the bridge and take in the railway line below, cutting through Belper, but thoughtfully designed to be out of view below the mill workers’ cottages.
You can read on the information board how the mill industry shaped the town, driven by the great industrialists and engineers, specifically the Strutt family dynasty and George and Robert Stephenson.
From the right side of the bridge, you’ll see the imposing East Mill of 1912 with its four corner turrets, Italianate tower, seven stories and long rows of windows.
You’ll emerge at the A6, close to the mill, where you can catch a bus south towards Derby or north towards Matlock.
If you have to wait for the next bus, no problem. Grab a cone from the ice-cream van or coffee from the Swiss Tearooms in Belper River Gardens and enjoy the views of the mill, the weirs and waterbirds after an easy four-mile saunter.
Starting from the North Mill, take in views of the weirs and Belper River Gardens before crossing the Derwent River to Belper Lane, then Wyver Lane.
The quiet road is lined with pretty cottages on one side with their pretty gardens on the other sloping down to the river. You’ll be rewarded with a different perspective of East and North mills as well as the gardens from this side of the river.
I’ve never walked this lane before, and it was a lovely surprise. Once past the cottages, there’s only one dwelling at its end, so there’s little traffic.
The route passes a nature reserve, home to snipe, oystercatcher, heron, black-headed gull, cormorant, lapwing and an array of ducks, including pochard, shoveler, wigeon goosander, teal and tufted duck.
Surfaced road turns to farm track, and as it sweeps a corner, the DVHW heads straight on through a farm gate into a field.
There’s a steep climb to Whitewells Lane. Turn right along this high-level road with great views of the railway line as well as woodlands and hillside settlements that grace the other side of the valley.
Where Whitewells Lane meets Holly Lane, keep straight on into Birches Wood, turning immediately right to drop down a footpath alongside the drystone wall boundary separating woodland from road.
The path emerges at the bottom of Holly Lane. Cross the bridge over the Derwent and turn left to walk the pavement in Ambergate.
Continue along Matlock Road until you reach Chase Road on the right. Head up it and under the railway tunnel to the Cromford Canal, dropping down to the towpath at Poysers Bridge.
From here the DVHW heads northwest towards Whatstandwell. This part of the canal is a nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The Cromford Canal in its heyday ran almost 15 miles, connecting Cromford with the Erewash Canal. The 6.5-miles of remaining waterway is popular with walkers and cyclists.
Along the towpath there’s a good chance of encountering moorhens, coots, grebes, mallards and swans, while the woodlands of Crich Chase are inhabited with woodpeckers, finches and tits. I recently saw a kingfisher on the water but haven’t seen water vole for decades.
It’s striking as you walk along to see five modes of transport squeezing through the valley side by side: canal, towpath, railway line, road and river.
On reaching Whatstandwell, drop down Main Street to the Family Tree for a pub lunch or drinks.
To finish this just over 5-mile ramble, head back along the A6 towards Whatstandwell Railway Station, where there are also bus stops.
Whatstandwell to Matlock
Returning to Whatstandwell, head back onto the towpath on Cromford Canal. The shallow waters continue to enchant with their waterfowl.
You’ll pass a lovely waterside cottage with a hamlet of houses behind, duck under a long canal tunnel, ramble past Lea Wood Nature Reserve before reaching the recently restored Aqueduct Cottage. Florence Nightingale, whose family owned the cottage, was said to have visited tenants there.
From here, the Derwent Valley’s heritage becomes increasingly visible. You’ll pass Lea Wood Pump House, The Wharf Shed and railway carriages and railway workshops at High Peak Junction.
Here, goods delivered along the canal from Cromford Mills continued their journey by rail to Buxton, then across the country before the railway was dismantled. There’s a shop at the Junction and outside seating.
From here, the character of the canal changes. The water is deeper, accommodating Birdsfoot, the canal boat that makes tourist trips between Cromford Wharf and High Peak Junction.
The colour of the water changes too from chocolatey brown (or green from duckweed) in the nature reserve to blue grey. The outlook opens out to meadow and hill with the first views of Cromford appearing.
Explore the gloriously revived Cromford Wharf and Mills before heading up the path above the River Derwent. You’ll emerge at gates onto the A6.
There’s nothing for it at this point but to tramp the pavements to Matlock Bath. You’ll pass Masson Mill, sadly closed presently.
It’s another world as you enter Matlock Bath with its seaside-like cafés, chippies and souvenir shops. On the edge of the Victorian spa resort, turn right over a bridge that takes you onto High Tor.
The views from the top, taking in Gulliver’s Kingdom, Heights of Abraham and Matlock Bath, extending out to Cromford and Black Rock, are incredible.
Continue downhill towards Matlock with expansive views of the town spread out across the hillside. Turn left at the bottom of High Tor, then right to follow the Derwent as it meanders through Derbyshire’s county town.
You’ll come to a bridge that takes you into Knowles Garden. Another left turn leads into Hall Leys Park.
The park ends in the town centre where you can grab a bus homeward after a delightfully varied just over 6-mile walk full of industrial history and idyllic nature.
READ MORE: Walk from Derby to Duffield via Derwent Valley Heritage Way
