Barrow-on-Trent

Barrow-on-Trent, as its name tells us, stands on the River Trent, between the river and the Trent and Mersey Canal. An interesting feature of this attractive village is that during the 18th century a row of parish cottages was built by parish levy, and first rented for £1.50 a year, and the parish council still maintains them.

The Parish Church of St Wilfrid’s is a beautiful medieval building overlooking the Trent valley, and dates mainly from the 13th century. The Church, at one time, was an outpost for the Knights Hospitallers of St John and has many interesting features, old and new. The north arcade, with its original columns, is one such notable feature. The plain glass windows lend the church a light and airy atmosphere. The base of the square tower and the north aisle date from the 1300s; there is also a Georgian east window.

The Derbyshire-born artist George Turner (1841-1910) was such an accomplished landscape painter that he has been dubbed ‘Derbyshire’s John Constable’. Turner’s favourite painting haunt was around this village, and it is where he met his first wife, Eliza Lakin of Walnut Farm. They were married in the village in 1865 and took up residence at The Walnuts.