Langley Mill, Pentrich and South Wingfield Revolution

Start: The Great Northern Public House, Langley Mill. OS ref. Explorer 260-452 472

(S/E) Starting outside the Great Northern pub (A), turn right (West) on A608 and walk across the bridge over the canal and immediately turn right down steps to the canal. Go right (South) again under the bridge along the towpath, walking away from the canal basin. Note the sign under the bridge indicating the beginning of the Cromford Canal.

(1) Keep along the towpath of the Erewash Canal, Pass Bridge 27.

(2) When you get to the next bridge, 26, cross over the bridge and walk on. After 100 yards cross another brick bridge over the disused Nottingham Canal. Follow the track to the road bridge over the A610. The ‘No Parking’ sign on your right is in English and Polish, presumably in honour of Eastwood's friendship with Myszkow, Poland.

(3) Turn left (North-East) to cross over the A610 and follow Church Street up the hill, passing the Raleigh works on the left and Eastwood Cemetery (containing D.H.Lawrence's family) on your right.

(4) At the top of Church Street (B) use the traffic light crossing to walk across to the Sun Inn. (Shorter route available from here see below "Useful information".) To continue on the main walk pass to the right of the Sun Inn, noting the D.H. Lawrence motif on the railings and pagoda.

Carry on downhill by the A608, turning right to cross the road again with the petrol station on your left. As you continue down the road you will pass Princes Street where the family home of D.H.Lawrence can be found. After 220 yards pass the Memorial Park on your right, then Durban House.The road becomes Nether Green. Pass the entrance to Eastwood Hall on your left and carry on for half a mile or so.

(5) Pass the sign to Brinsley. Just before the Brinsley Headstocks sign on your right, turn left (West) on the footpath signed Aldercar and Stoney Lane. The path zig-zags between hedges. Ignore a stile on the right and skirt a farm to descend to the Erewash Valley ahead.

(6) Through a gate turn left down a tarmac lane. (Ignore the footpath going right to the right which goes back to
Brinsley.) Pass Aldercar Flash Nature Reserve on your right. Cross over the River Erewash (more like a stream here.) Walk on then turn left under the road bridge with the railway on your right.

The track emerges onto a road (Plumptre Road). Walk straight on and then turn left down Cromford Road (C) and left (East) again at the roundabout to make your way back to the start.

(7) As you make your way back to the Great Northern pub, passing a smaller bridge to the right, taking water pipes (D). (S/E)

Distance: 5 miles (shorter option) Care needed when crossing roads.
On canal towpaths, roads, footpaths.
Park: The Great Northern, Langley Mill
Start: The Great Northern Public House, Langley Mill. OS ref. Explorer 260-452 472

Taking a Shorter Route.
Return more directly to Langley Mill by crossing back over the road from the Sun Inn and walk back down Church Street. Retrace your steps to cross back over the bridge over the A610 and walk on towards the canal.
A path turns off to the right before you reach the Erewash Canal. This follows the route of the former Nottingham Canal, now disused. Walk on down this footpath. You are walking between the Erewash Canal and the A610. The path becomes a hard track which comes out on the road into Langley Mill, opposite the Great Northern pub, and the end of the walk.

More information at Pentrich and South Wingfield Revolution group here.

After walking through the night the rebels reached the crossing of the Erewash River at Langley Bridge. This was also where the Cromford Canal joined the Erewash and Nottingham canals. They were to stop for refreshment here at the Junction Navigation Inn, now the Great Northern public house, before continuing their march towards Eastwood.

(A) The Great Northern, called the Junction Navigation in 1817, was one of the stopping places for the marchers. They demanded free beer of the Innkeeper, Ann Goodman, saying that the government would soon fall and they would pay when they received their just rewards. Here too, one of the marchers, Charles Walters, was accidentally shot in the thigh by James Hill. A surgeon, Samuel Davenport from Eastwood, was called but refused to treat the man on hearing that they were “going to affect a revolution.”

(B) This was the next stopping place of the marchers on the morning of 10th June 1817. Several hundred marchers had arrived in Eastwood but the marchers had expected many more to join them here and many marchers had begun to be demoralised, especially after such a long night's march through continuing rain. This may also explain the attitude of the landlady, Mrs Goodman, who recognised Isaac Ludlam, well known and respected along the Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire border as a Methodist preacher, and begged him to leave the march and hide in the cellar. He refused, saying “Many of these starving men are out because I am here. It’s too late to return. I must and will go on.” Ludlam was hanged, and then beheaded, in Derby on Friday 7th November 1817. They left The Sun Inn at 7am and continued on the road, past Hill Top and Newthorpe, towards Nottingham. It would be a much smaller group that would continue to the Gilt Brook and discover that soldiers were waiting for them.

(C) Cromford Road was the route taken by the revolutionaries in June 1817, making their way from Codnor in the rain, but there is nothing remaining from that time in the present mix of houses and industry.

(D) This is the River Erewash, an important crossing for the marchers as they made their way towards Nottingham. It was around here that George Weightman met the marchers, having apparently returned from Nottingham on a borrowed pony with the news that the people of Nottingham had raised in revolt. Where he got this entirely fictional information is still a mystery.