Thursday 22 September 2011

It wer' a bit wet in Willington


My personal challenge for this round of Miss Jenny Matlock's alphabe-Thursday is to post about a location within the borders of my own county of Derbyshire, UK, for each letter of the alphabet.Look for the letter, to see where I am.

W is for Willington.
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'Willington' comes from the Old English tun (homestead or farm) among the willows. It is a village of around 2,700 people, situated on the banks of both the River Trent and the Trent and Mersey Canal, approximately 5 miles outside Derby.


The Green Man is one of 3 pubs in the village, all between the centre and the canal.


The centre of the village has a double mini roundabout which was causing quite a backlog of traffic while I was there. Around the roundabouts are a florist,


post office


and Co-operative Supermarket.


This road runs away from the roundabouts, south towards the bridge over the Trent between Willington and Repton. The railway bridge is both low and narrow; not a problem for cars, but a bit of a pain for larger vehicles which need to drive in the centre of the road to avoid hitting the edges of the arch.


Also alongside the roundabouts is the raised railway station.



From here, you can catch trains to Birmingham, Stoke on Trent, Crewe, Nottingham and Derby.



The village clock marks the time.


Yet another railway bridge heads out on the Derby road, along which is the modern Baptist Church...



...and the Chinese takeaway.


In Derbyshire, we call this a jitty, meaning a footpath between two streets. This particular one leads down the side of the village school.


Willington Community Primary School is a smart looking building (in spite of the flat roof; I'm suspicious of flat roofs) which has around 200 children on roll, aged between the ages of 5 and 11.


Just down the road is the Village Community Hall which, if I'm honest, looks functional, rather than interesting or attractive. Useful though!


Heading back past the centre, it's only a matter of a few strides to the canal. Look carefully and you can see the raindrops rippling the surface of the water!


Here, there are temporary moorings for narrow boats, mostly looking pretty forlorn on this soggy September afternoon.


The post sets out the regulations for the moorings. I'm sure you can figure out the rules for this location (though I think the dog poop sign is aimed more at local dog walkers than boaters!).


Not surprisingly, the picnic benches in the beer garden behind The Dragon are deserted. On a balmy summer evening, this is a popular spot for a beverage.


Nipping round roadside, this is what the front of the pub looks like. It's had a bit of a makeover since Dad and I last stopped off here a couple of years ago. I have to say that it needed it. We were virtually the only ones in the place at the time!


Almost next door is Willington's third pub...

...the delicatessen and a house sandwiched between the two drinking places. Lovely to have the canal behind, but I suspect it can get a bit noisy in the evenings!























And finally, for those who want longer term moorings than are on offer behind the pubs, there is the new Mercia Marina, where, for £107.30/metre of length per annum (excluding VAT), you can hire one of the 524 berths and park your boat. It's cheaper than renting a house and, if you get fed up of the views of the cooling towers of the now decommissioned Willington Power Station, you can always cast off and head out under the bridge to journey the Inland Waterways of Britain.

By the way, did you spot that this photo was taken on a different day? It doesn't rain here all of the time :)





20 comments:

  1. With all that rain around, I hope you had your willington boots on!

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  2. Definitely different from here!

    The bridge scared me. It looked like those cars were going to run into each other. It would definitely scare me out of driving. I hate narrow driving places *shudder*

    Here, all the schools have flat roofs, so I suspect you would be suspect of all of the schools =P

    The whole place looks very different from anything I've seen around here. And...if you get tired of the rain, we need some. Our state has kind of been on fire. =/

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  3. Very Funny Jenny!
    Thanks for the visit to Willington. Couldn't see the roundabouts, but you can see one on our blog today.....What's rain? is it to do with horses?

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  4. I feel as though I've actually been there and visited. Thank you for the informative tour!
    Dana

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  5. Hi. I love coming here and see your visits at different places. I love your photo's and especialy the narrow boats. We haven't seen them when we viited England. And I laughed about the roundabout. My husband got crazy of all the roundabouts in England because you drive on the left side of the road so the roundabout goes a different way. We always looked to the wrong side . Very frustrating LOL
    Thank goodness we made it home LOL
    Have a nice day.

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  6. Too bad it rained on your visit to Willington, but my impression of British weather is that you're chances were high that you'd get a wet day. Did you wear your wellies to Willington? :-D You got some stellar photos for us anyway. How did you know that was a Chinese take-out? I don't think I've ever seen one (outside of Asia) without a bilingual sign.

    [I share your ambivalence about wind farms. The ones in Ilocos are far enough off the beaten path that they aren't an eyesore, but I've seen more in Europe where I felt they disturbed the landscape. I don't know how they can scale this up without the windmills becoming intrusive. Yet as you say... we need renewable sources...]

    [A final note, please, H, please consider removing the word verification. Or at least changing to the newer Blogger format where the WV comes BEFORE posting the comment.]

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  7. Ugh... that would be "your chances..."... wonder what I was thinking...?

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  8. Well your alphabet is nearly over - wonder what you will find for X - I am sure you will come up with something as you have been so inventive.

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  9. Lovely pictures, will look out for Willington and maybe the Chinese when we come past in our narrowboat Tacet.

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  10. Your map is filling up - just three more spots to mark. Of course I enjoyed the boat shots!

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  11. Three pubs in such a small town! Some pretty buildings. I liked the florist.

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  12. I enjoyed my visit to Willington - the low arched bridge was kind of scary with my big truck & travel trailer :o) and the word "jitty" is new to me...have frequently heard of The Green Man legends...you must tell us more - the pubs look like fun!

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  13. I love the canals, and if I had my way, would try living in one of the berths for a little while. Neat way of viewing the countryside by the Inland Waterway! Great idea for the jitty - especially for kids going to and from school! Thanks for the tour. Lovely as usual! {:-D

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  14. Well, you've done it again! Another great post!! I love the Green Man sign, and the photo of the Cottage Garden Florist would make a great painting!!

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  15. What a great post, I just loved my visit to Willington...Your pictures made me feel like I was there! Being a Baptist myself the Baptist Church was great to see. I am not a world traveler, but I have always wanted to visit England..

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  16. Thanks for the nice sightseeing tour ! I feel like on holidays again although it's not the English coast, but the architecture looks very much alike !

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  17. I fear I've joined your tour too late! This looks like a lovely town. I went to London once, but I've always wanted to see more of the UK.

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  18. I just read Tacet's comment and I am really, really determined to rent a narrowboat! Soon!

    Living in the desert, it was refreshing to see all this rain!

    I love a good drizzle!

    Thanks for sharing this wonderfully damp trip with us!

    A+

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  19. I just love the photos of the different parts of Derbyshire...even with the rain :) I thought that last photo of the narrowboats interesting because you have what looks like a power plant as the background! I hope it's not a nuclear one!

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