Tutbury circular 7.6 miles (16/08/22)

Attendees: A. Sear D.Martin P Cotterill M Simmonds M Sadler A Dulson J Hickling R Jones H Jones.

After a long period of drought,7 today was the day when rain was finally going to be arriving. Not until mid afternoon though, so if we complete the walk at the expected time we should stay dry.

The weather was not the problem, getting to the starting point was. Departing late from New St on the 09.49 it was going to be a challenge to get to Derby in time for the connection to Tutbury & Hatton. It soon became clear that we were not going to make it so plan B had to be implemented. Before that Adrian, aware that we would miss our connection, and was coming by car, offered to meet us at Willington and ferry us in two trips, to Tutbury. Plan B was to alight at Burton and take the bus to Tutbury. Although seven of us were seated together on the train it occurred to Phil that regular walker ‘Mac’ McDonnall could possibly be located elsewhere on the train. Thus efforts were made to contact him, but to no avail. So it was then that the seven of us caught the bus to Tutbury. During the journey Mac dug his phone out of his bag and saw missed messages and calls . He had been on our train, and not knowing of plan B, had carried on until Derby where as expected the train to Tutbury had already left. Sadly for Mac there was now no realistic possibility of him being able to join us for the walk.

Arriving at Tutbury we were joined by Adrian and Dale, both having travelled by car.

We set off through fields by the river Dove and then an industrial estate were we saw remains of an old narrow gauge railway. A bit of a steep climb followed, and then woodland an on to the village of Hanbury where we took our lunch break in the churchyard. Our objective was to visit the site of the November 1944 ammunition explosion known as the Fauld crater. This we did and impressive it was, along with a commemoration to those who sadly perished. The remainder of the walk was uneventful, although dark clouds could be seen gathering in the distance. We got back to Tutbury before any rain and settled down for refreshments at the Cask and Pottle micro pub, which had opened early especially for us. And guess who was already in there waiting for us? Mac!