Repton Village Website

Repton - historic capital of Mercia

Walk 2 - Twyford Ferry and Foremark

Distance 5 1/2 Miles. Time 2 ¾ Hours

An extension to this walk by about ¾ mile via Foremark Church is also included.

Please follow the country code:

Guard against fire.

Fasten gates.

Keep dogs under control.

Keep to paths.

Avoid damaging fences, hedges, walls or growing crops.

Leave no litter.

Do not pollute streams, ponds or cattle troughs.

Protect wildlife, plants, trees.

Respect the life of the countryside.

Start:	St Wystan’s Church
Buses:	Trent/Barton Buses Villager V3 from Derby or Burton
Car Parking:	By church or car park in Burton Road
OS Map:	Pathfinder 1:25,000 Series Sheet SK22/32 Burton-onTrent
Waymarks:	The walk is waymarked with yellow arrows on green discs or signposts throughout most of its length.
Footwear:	Footpaths can be very muddy in places during winter months and after prolonged rain, suitable footwear should be worn.

Park in front of the Church. Walk to the Cross and turn left down Brook End. To your right is Boot Hill and also The Boot Public House. The high stone wall was originally built for Repton Priory and now encloses Repton School’s cricket field. The famous English cricketer C. B. Fry learned the game here and he is buried in St. Wystan’s churchyard. Notice the plaque set in the wall where the water-course of the old Prior Mill once stood. There is a hump-backed bridge over the present brook. See the cast-iron notice on it. The Brook Farm tea rooms are on the left. Where the road turns sharp right for Milton keep straight ahead and continue up to the top of Monsom Lane.

Turn left at the end of the lane and follow the track which takes you alongside the Old Trent Water on the left. This waterway is probably the route taken by the Viking army when it invaded via the Humber and the Trent before over-wintering at the Saxon settlement of Repton in AD873-4, using the church as one corner of its fortified ditch encampment. The modern course of the Trent is nearer to Willington than to Repton. Look out for chaffinches, wrens and yellow hammers in the hawthorn and blackthorn hedges. Swans, kingfishers, herons and cormorants are often seen here as well. Also look for flocks of long-tailed tits flitting between the trees. Wrens and tree-creepers may be observed.

Ignore a farm track off to the right and continue ahead and follow the footpath, crossing a stile on the left of a gate and continue ahead on the track. There is a distant view of Twyford Church to your right. Cross a stile on the right of a gate and then turn right and, keeping the hedge first on your right, and then another hedge on your left, continue straight ahead heading towards Twyford Church in the distance. After crossing several fields and stiles you reach a lane where you now turn left towards the river, but ignore the entrance to the Derby Angling Association’s car park. Follow this lane to a gateway and stile and climb over on to the grassy riverbank. Go and stand by the large wooden post and look across the river to the corresponding one on the Twyford side. This is all that remains of the chain ferry which once provided a vital crossing on this route between Repton and Derby before the building of the Willington toll bridge in 1839. The ferry remained in occasional use until the late 1930's but the ferry-boat and its chain were still in existance in a 1958 photograph. The large pebble-ash house to the right is Tywford Hall (rebuilt in 1725-50).

YOU NOW HAVE THE CHOICE OF TWO RETURN ROUTES:-

(1) For those wanting the shorter route:- Return to the lane and walk back along it, past the disused waterworks on the left until you reach a T-junction, which is the Milton to Foremark road. Turn right here and walk into Milton, entering by the Coach House on the corner. Continue straight ahead along Main Street until you come to the footpath sign on the right which takes you through the yard and outbuildings of the farmhouse. (A public house further up the main street on the left is the Swan). For the remaining directions see section (3).

(2) If you wish to take the long route via Foremark Church, then continue on the track from the ferry crossing point, with the river on your left. Go through a gateway and head diagonally right across the field to the right of the track-way. At the far end of the field look out for a new stile, cross and follow the right-hand edge of the next field, looking for a single-plank footbridge. Turn left after crossing this bridge and follow the footpath diagonally to your left across the field to another footbridge. (If the path is not discernable you may have to follow the field edge on two sides until you reach the footbridge.) Cross this bridge and head diagonally across the next field, leaving the pylon on your left. (This field can be swampy!) In the far corner you will see a stile and then a track which leads you to the Milton-Ingleby road. Notice a fine ash tree on your left, and then a hazel/willow copse. Go over the stile, cross the road and take the track immediately opposite, and you can see Saint Saviour’s Church ahead. It is well worth a closer look as it was built entirely in 1662 in the Gothic style. It has a fine pair of wrought iron gates at the east end of the churchyard by the famous Derbyshire smith Robert Bakewell (1685-1752), and inside it retains its original box pews and a triple-decker pulpit, but do not expect the church to be unlocked.

Just before the church, to your right, you will see a waymarked stile. Go over it and go straight ahead at the end of the copse noting a pond on the left. Go straight across the next field, over the stile and go ahead between the water-trough and the pylon. The path goes downhill to a gateway by the brook, which can be very muddy, before which a stile to your left leads through to a bridge on your right, and then to a path leading to Milton village. By the brook you may see yellow breasted grey wagtails. Go almost straight across the road and find the stile next to the farmhouse, and then follow the directions from section (3).

(3) Walk through the farmyard and under the archway, continuing past the outbuilding to the far end of the yard where there is a narrow footpath leading to a wide grassy track. Cross a stile and follow the track across a field with the hedge on your left, and then over open fields heading towards Repton Church. Cross two more stiles and then head towards the houses, aiming for the corner of a close-boarded fence. Note the undulations in the last field; these are the result of mediaeval ploughing methods and are known as ridge-and-furrow. Notice also a WW2 pillbox! Turn right into Springfield Road and after about 200 yards turn left into a jitty marked by metal hoops leading into a cul-desac off Pinfold Close. Turn right and at the far end of the Close follow another jitty on the left from which a tarmac path crosses the Repton Brook and leads to the High Street. Turn right and walk back to the Church.

This “Repton Rambles” leaflet is one of a series of three guides published in May 1995 by the Repton Footpath Group under the auspices of the Repton Parish Council. The Repton Footpath Group walkers were Alan Webster, Sue Ellis and David Guest. The support of the Repton Village Society and the Repton Village History Group is also acknowledged.

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