Aston-on-Trent History Walk No.4 - Aston to Shardlow Circular

The Aston-on-Trent Local History Group have produced a series of local walks to highlight the heritage of Aston-on-Trent, a cosy village whose records of settlement date all the way back to before the Norman Conquest in the 11th Century, and the surrounding area.

Walk No.4 is predominantly flat, easy walking. Most of the Aston-on-Trent walks use countryside paths at points along the route, so please be mindful of weather and ground conditions when planning a walk.

Below are some of the key points of interest to keep an eye out for:

• The Old School House
  • The old school served Aston-on-Trent for over a century, before a replacement was eventually built on Long Croft to better accommodate students in 1984. The costs for the construction of the original school building were provided by the Holden Family of the local Aston Hall, and their crest still adorns the building to this day.
• Brickyard Plantation
  • The Brickyard Plantation, also known simply as Aston Brickyard, a nine-acre site of mixed woodland and grassland on the northern side of the village that serves as a nature reserve. The site was formerly a gypsum mine in the 18th Century and played a key part in the local production of bricks, before the Derby Brick Company opened up new sites in the area and demand helped the businesses survive until the 1960s. After its closure, the Brickyard would eventually become a refuse tip until it was capped with clay. The Brickyards Plantation that exists today is a result of the hard work of the local villagers, who are responsible for much of the work in planting the trees to regreen the area.
• Thurlestone Grange and Toll House
  • Thurlestone Grange was originally built by the Earl of Harrington to serve as a Rectory, and it later became a private school and eventually a private home. Nearby there once stood a hexagonal toll house, named the “Threepenny Bit House” alluding to the discontinued pre-decimal coin.
• Weigh Cottage
  • The site at this location was formerly the location of Weigh Cottage, named for the fact that gypsum from the local mine would be weighed and checked before being distributed via the canals.
• Aston Cursus
  • A Neolithic earthwork dating to around 3500 BC around which now sits a patch of uncultivated land, roughly one acre in size, and the site as a whole is a Listed Scheduled Monument. The Cursus would have taken the form of two parallel ditches and would have been used for traditional ceremonial purposes, such as the veneration of ancestors.
• Aston Hall
  • Built in 1735 for Robert and Elizabeth Holden, the estate remained in the hands of the Holden Family until it was purchased by William Dickinson Winterbottom in 1898. Upon his death, it was acquired by the Nottingham Corporation to serve as a mental institution, and later served as a Red Cross Hospital until it was sold again in 2005 to Richmond Retirement Village.
• All Saints Church
  • The All Saints Church itself dates back to roughly the 12th Century, but Christianity in Aston-on-Trent dates back even further, arriving sometime towards the end of the 7th century. Christian worship began in the region shortly after the Mercian King Paeda’s marriage and conversion to Christianity. Worship would have originally occurred around a preaching cross – remains of an example of one such cross exist within All Saints to this day – before the Saxon’s constructed the current church in the 12th Century.

Please visit the Aston-on-Trent Local History Group‘s page for the route directions, as well as more information on key points along the route.

A PDF of the walk can be accessed at the Aston-on-Trent Parish Council‘s website or via the download file button below.