The Coffin Walk - Part 02
w/e 22 April 2012
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
 Whilst the Coffin
Walk is a circular five mile route and is one of a series of
Country Walks in and around Erewash, for the purposes of this
website we usually split such walks into smaller sections, walking
each section at irregular intervals, photographing on the way,
and then retracing our steps to our starting point to pick up
the route again further on at a later date. For this particular
section our original plans were thwarted as we shall see shortly
but to reach our starting point at Wilne Cross we parked on a
small car park (right) at Orchid Wood about a quarter of a mile
down the lane from where we finished Part 01.
  We could have returned up the lane
the quarter mile to Wilne Cross and then continued along the
bridleway from there in a southwesterly direction towards Church
Wilne. Care should be taken along this road as there are no footpaths
and traffic travels at speed along the straight road so instead,
we opted to make the wood a short detour and followed a path
between the trees (left) and through the clearings (above) to
rejoin the Coffin Walk via a small footbridge (right).
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The secret to regaining the Coffin Walk through the wood is to
keep bearing right at all the options along the path but even
if you go wrong, the wood is not very big, is a very pleasant
area and you'll soon find your way through it. Even though it
was announced this week that the East Midlands was now officially
in drought conditions following two dry winters, the forecast
for the week was rain, rain and more rain. We decided therefore
that we'd do this section of the walk on Monday before the rain
arrived but even so the bridle path, already churned up by horses,
was quite muddy with some standing water.
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A little further on the conditions deteriorated even
more with the water spreading all the way across the uneven path
which became ankle deep in mud. Our previous walks along this
path have usually been in the autumn and experience told us that
it could be muddy but this is the first time we have seen conditions
so bad that it made it impassable for walkers to proceed in safety
without the aid of wellington boots! So, as we were unable to
proceed any further we returned to the Orchid Wood car park and
drove around to Draycott to attack the section from the other
end. Our revised plan entailed walking the second phase of this
section in the opposite direction to regain the muddy Coffin
Walk path and then turning to continue the original route into
Draycott.
Although named the "Coffin Walk" it is only the route
from Breaston to Church Wilne that is the actual Coffin Walk
after which the five mile route is named. That said path is crossed
shortly before reaching Church Wilne by the Midshires Way which
is the route to follow now.
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  There is an option suggested in the Coffin Walk
leaflet to continue to Church Wilne and St Chad's Water but the Midshires Way follows
the relatively higher and drier ground of the flood bank towards
Draycott. A second stile about half way along the bank separates
the fields and the undulating features in some of them again
betray the ridge and furrow farming methods of the mediaeval
period.
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A prominent feature visible all the way along this part of the
walk is the former Victoria Mills factory at Draycott. Together
with the green capped clock tower, the lace factory was built
between 1888 and 1907 and in more recent times was used by J
H Parry for the manufacture of electrical components. Even more
recently it has been converted into more than one hundred apartments.
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The path along the flood bank reaches Wilne Road - Church Wilne
to the left, Draycott to the right - but our route is straight
across to continue along the flood bank at the side of the River
Derwent.
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  The Derwent
has travelled almost sixty miles from its source on Ronksley
Moor but here is close to its confluence with the River Trent.
The gallows type structure on the river bank (left) is part of
Severn Trent's River Intake Works opposite (right). Despite the
DCAC notice, trespassing is a civil wrong or tort and subject
to civil actions. It is criminal actions that are liable to prosecution.
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This is probably the most picturesque part in this section although
it doesn't last long as the path leaves the flood bank to pass
behind the cottages in the distance.
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Behind the cottages the narrow path passes between buildings
and along a short but winding path flanked by tall hedges to
regain Wilne Lane on a corner in the road.
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Emerging from the narrow path it is only a few more steps into
Draycott and although on;y a couple of miles from the beginning
of the walk in Breaston, the leaflet indicates that a refreshment
stop can be made in the town centre if required. This however
is where we ended Part 02 and to where we will return later to
begin Part 03.
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