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Belper appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a small agricultural settlement. Everything changed in the 18th century with the arrival of the Strutt family, whose cotton mills shaped the town into the planned industrial community we see today.

Directions

Start: Belper Railway Station car park

1. From the station car park follow signs to the railway platform. Walk down the right side of the supermarket to reach King Street. Turn left and walk uphill. At the top turn left and cross at the lights.
2. Bear diagonally right across the old Market Place into the large car park. Head towards the woodland and down the steps, crossing the footbridge.
   You are now in Belper Parks Local Nature Reserve, once a medieval deer park forming part of the old Duffield Frith.
3. Bear left to follow the path through the reserve to Mill Lane. Turn left downhill, cross into the recreation ground and immediately turn right, keeping the brook on your left. Follow the path into the fields. Go through the squeeze stile, then another on the left, and climb uphill to a third stile near a house.
4. Turn left along the bridleway, go through the gate and stay on the bridleway until you reach the road.
5. Turn left and cross the road with care. After 100 metres take the footpath on your right between Sandbed House and the hedge. Keep the hedge on your left as you cross five fields.
6. At the sixth field stay on the footpath to the right of the track. At the road turn left uphill. Cross the straight section (beware of traffic) and as the bend approaches take the alleyway on the right in front of Ireton Houses. Climb the stile and head diagonally left across the field to join the bridleway.
7. Cross the track, go through the hedge and turn right along the bridleway. At the next gate bear left downhill. Cross the footbridge over the A38 and continue ahead towards the trees. Follow the track as it bends right, keeping the hedge on your right, and continue through the woodland.
8. Before the old metal railway bridge, turn right at the sign and cross the stream. Continue through two fields, passing through hedge gaps, then turn right along the tarmac path beside the houses. Keep straight on, parallel with the railway. Turn left across the disused railway and continue to the road.
9. Cross carefully and turn right. After 150 metres take the footpath on the left, cross the field, then the road beyond. Continue over the footbridge and climb the field to the kissing gate. Walk through the streets past the schools. At the junction turn right, then left at the roundabout.
10. After 150 metres cross opposite the bus stop and follow the field path with the hedge on your right. At the main road turn right briefly, then cross to the footpath opposite beware of traffic. Continue ahead to join the former railway line.
11. Go through the tunnel and after 200 metres turn right at the two metal poles and cross the stile. Continue with the hedge on your right.
12. Cross the stile and footbridge and climb uphill. At the brow cut across the narrow field to a stone stile, then head diagonally to the far corner to a green lane leading into Holbrook. Turn left onto Brown’s Lane and then right up Pond Road. At Makeney Road turn right, and after 50 metres cross to the footpath opposite. Go over the stile, continue over the hill and bear diagonally right through the gate. Continue with the hedge on your right.
    On clear days there are wide views to Alport Heights, 314 metres high and marked by hilltop aerials.
13. Cross the road carefully and turn left downhill. After 50 metres take the footpath beside house number 28. Keep the hedge on your right. When the path bends left, go through the gap and head to the farm. Go through two close-set farm gates and follow the track past Wildersley Farm to Holbrook Road.
    To the left are Stephenson’s Tower, a siting tower built in 1839, and airshafts from the Derby–Sheffield railway.
14. Cross the road and turn right. After 150 metres turn left down the alleyway. Continue until the crossroads of footpaths and go straight ahead into Belper Parks. Follow the path right beside the meadows to a surfaced track, then descend steeply behind gardens.
15. 15. At the end of the surfaced path continue ahead and right through the trees. The path runs behind a playing field and through a hedge. Turn left downhill with the two churches on the skyline. Continue over the stream to New Breck Road. Cross this road and Queen Street to reach Belper. At the main road turn left (or right if finishing at the Coppice car park). Cross at the lights and turn right, then left through the arched doorway into the Memorial Gardens. Continue down King Street and turn right beside the supermarket to return to the station car park.

Disclaimer

Please note that the council update these leaflets on a periodic rolling basis and that some landmark information may have changed. The footpaths should remain in place and be signposted and be clearly marked on the Ordnance Survey maps. Please report problems you may find so that these can be investigated to tourism@ambervalley.gov.uk.