Following the Cromford Canal ~ 8 ... Erewash Meadows and Stoneyford ... or the Remains of the Day.

My eighth walk using the Cromford Canal was perhaps slightly unusual as I didn't see any sign of the canal. Perhaps I need to be more observant ... it was still an interesting walk though.

Parking near to the then deserted Stoneyford Lodge [which according to its sign offered Fine Ales and Good Food] I walked along Boat Lane [a clue perhaps that there had been a canal hereabouts ... once upon a time]. It was the middle of April and the blackthorn was in flower ...

At the T-junction with Castle Lane I turned right and Castle Lane did indeed lead me to a castle, albeit the remains of one ... Codnor Castle to be precise ...



It was built in the 13th century by Henry de Grey ...



... and is rather dilapidated ...



Fortunately the Codnor Castle Heritage Trust is doing its best to try and preserve the site and find out more about it. There's a website here which is worth looking at and includes some photographs of the dovecote that the Heritage Trust reports "was demolished in 1968 by Mr Bernard Swain" as well as the Time Team dig which found a Henry V Gold Noble. This coin was found by a metal detectorist rather than the diggers ! Worth a look.

 My walk continued northward ...



 ... before swinging eastward to follow a path alongside Foxhole Plantation, south of Ironville ...







 I reached Erewash Meadows where I'd left the canal on my seventh walk along it ...



 It was now, as I headed south, that the canal [or signs of the canal] should have been visible. Perhaps I should have been satisfied with the straight path which had presumably originally been the towpath ...



 On it went, through the pleasant grassy fields ...



 ... until I was walking alongside Aldercar Flash Nature Reserve ...



 As I drew nearer civilisation ... things became more uncivilised as is often the case ...



 Poor tree.

I believe that the sort of person who creates this much damage [a person without respect] should be very severely dealt with. If they will do this to a tree what else will they do ?

I reached the River Erewash where once again there were signs of disrespect ...



Before long I was walking below the noisy and busy A610 above me to my left. I gave way to an oncoming tractor and got a wave in return ...



There wasn't much leeway.

On reaching the railway line I turned right and followed a fenced path for some distance ...







This brought me to a bird hide overlooking the marshy ground ...

 

I could hear plenty of birds ... but I couldn't see any ...



As I drove along Boat Lane to return home, something caught my eye on a tree ...



 On closer inspection I could see it was a  fire hydrant sign ...




Incidentally it seems the figure at the top of the sign is the size of the water main that feeds the hydrant in millimetres ~ in this case 75mm ~ and the lower figure relates to the distance from the sign to the hydrant. 9 metres in this case.

As far as I'm aware Stoneyford Lodge is still closed. The Remains of the Day ? Why Codnor Castle, of course.

This walk was followed on the 15th April 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 4.36 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 110.18 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 15th April 2011 ~ 638.23 miles

  25 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was still averaging just under 4.41 miles a walk. This from the man who had once walked 56 miles in less than 24 hours ...]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap