Ticknall Village Trail Walk

The walk starts in Ticknall village, located on the A514 between Swadlincote and Derby. For a more detailed map you are recommended to refer to Landranger 128 Derby and Burton, and Ordnance Survey Explorer 245 – The National Forest.

Ticknall is an attractive village that until relatively recently remained largely owned by the Calke Abbey estate of the Harpur Crewe family. They built many of the houses for their tenants who worked on the estate and exerted a strong feudal influence on the village.

The Church of St George was built on the site of the former Church of St Thomas Beckett in 1831 which had become too small for the growing population. When they tried to demolish the old church, some areas proved resistant to gunpowder and remain standing, namely the west wall and the altar window.

There are 14 ‘lions head’ water pipes scattered through Ticknall which were provided by the Harpur Crewe family in 1914. Before then water was carried from local wells or springs. The taps fell into disuse in the 1960s when mains water was installed. Some of them are still working.

The Lockup was built in 1809 at a cost of £25.19s.11d to house vagrants, drunks and paupers on a temporary basis. Reputedly the kitchen back door key of the Staff of Life public house also fitted the local lock-up for drunks.

Over two hundred years ago Ticknall was much larger and noisier with lime quarries, tramways and potteries. Coal was also dug close to the village. A reminder of those times, the ‘Arch’ on the main road carried a tramway (for lime) through the Calke estate to the Ashby canal at Willesley.

With thanks to Ticknall Life Community Magazine for the information provided for this walk.