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Directions

Start: Eagle Tavern, Heage

1. From the Eagle Tavern, take Brook Street opposite the pub. After about 600m (just past the third bus stop and No. 82), take the footpath on the left.
   Heage takes its name from its position on a 'high edge' ridge.
2. Keep the hedge on your right and cross four fields. Then bear left to cross the next field diagonally. Go through the wicket gate and continue straight towards the embankment. Cross the stile, then bear left diagonally across the field. Continue across the next field and follow the track to Upper Hartshay with the hedge on your left.
3. Cross the road carefully. Turn left for about 90m, then turn right between the Yew Tree Farm Cottage buildings. Follow the track downhill and turn left into the field at the gate.
   On a clear day Crich Stand is visible straight ahead in the distance. The monument is dedicated to members of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment who gave their lives in the two World Wars.
4. Go downhill keeping the hedge on your right for about 20m. Cross the hidden stile in the trees. Bear left, follow the field boundary to a stile, then head straight across the next field. Cross another stile and keep the hedge on your left.
5. Turn left through the gateway and pass left of the white buildings. Turn right at the end of the path to join the driveway. Follow it to the road near the former pub. Turn left and cross the bridge over the disused Cromford Canal, then immediately turn left onto the towpath. Follow it for about 600m to Lower Hartshay.
   The 14 ¾ mile long Cromford Canal was built by William Jessop and Benjamin Outram and ran from Cromford to Langley Mill where it joined the Erewash Canal. Limestone, coal and cotton were the main goods carried on the Cromford Canal, which opened in 1794. The canal attracts much wildlife such as dragonflies, butterflies and song birds like warblers and thrushes. The scrape, that can be seen through the hawthorn hedgerow on the right, attracts wildfowl and occasional waders. Ducks and lapwings can usually be seen here. Just before the point where the canal becomes totally filled in, the remains of an iron narrowboat can be seen amongst the vegetation.
6. Cross the road carefully. Take the path opposite, past the terraced houses, and continue straight across the fields, crossing several stiles and a small brook on a sleeper bridge. Keep following the old canal route.
   The canal was abandoned in 1944. Today some of the route is still in water, some has partially silted up and some has been lost to opencast mining and agriculture, leaving little evidence of the once thriving waterway.
7. Pass left of Pear Tree Cottages and go under the old canal bridge (Starvehimvalley Bridge). Continue straight for about 500m into the rear car park of the Excavator pub.
   The Bridge is a fine example of a stone canal bridge, typical of the ones that existed along the Cromford Canal.
8. Go under the disused railway bridge and turn left through the car park. Continue along the former canal towpath for about 1.2km, passing behind houses until you reach the entrance road to the Lockwood Group.
9. Cross the entrance road carefully and go up the track. Cross the four arched bridge, recross the road, then continue ahead past farm buildings. Head uphill through the fields. At the second field boundary, take the stile on the left and go diagonally uphill to the top corner.
10. Cross the stile and turn right along the field boundary. Cross the next field diagonally, then bear right across the following field, passing right of the green-domed water vent, to a gate.
11. Continue past the large oak tree, through a stone squeeze stile, and turn right across the hillside to a hidden stile.
12. Go diagonally uphill to a gate in the field corner (good view of Heage Windmill).
    Heage windmill, built in 1797 and restored in 2002 is a Grade II listed building and the only working, stone towered, multi-sailed windmill in England. Flour milling may take place when the wind is favourable. The mill is open to visitors at weekends from Easter to the end of October. For details visit
13. Continue straight across the next field to a stile in the lower hedge. Follow the path across several stiles to reach the road. Cation: beware of traffic. Cross carefully and turn left to the junction.
14. Turn left again, re-cross School Lane, continue along the main road, cross Church Street, pass the former pub, and return to the Eagle Tavern.

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.