The A52 Derby to Ashbourne road passes through some of the gentlest rural countryside in Derbyshire. Tiny villages little changed in centuries sit around junctions of minor roads that wander pleasantly between both ploughed fields and pasture. This walk skirts three of them, one barely bigger than a hamlet; starting at Osmaston, the largest, it wanders through Osmaston Park and on to Shirley. Field paths and farm tracks then take us by way of Shirley Mill and into the outskirts of Wyaston. Here a right turn takes the walk back into Osmaston Park, entering the village by way of its delightful green. It is complete with a duck pond and seats to rest and admire the scenery. Osmaston where the walk begins and ends was the home village to Osmaston Park, whose estate employees’ thatched cottages are now much sought after properties. The village church appears Victorian, rebuilt by the architect H I Stephens of Derby in 1845, but from the size of the venerable yews in its churchyard and the mediaeval font, it is obviously built on ancient foundations. While the parkland is magnificent, the 19th century Osmaston Manor is no more, abandoned apart from estate houses and the odd tower peeping over the surrounding trees as seen on the latter stages of the walk. Shirley, like Wyaston is only entered by a short but worthwhile extension to the walk as it passes so close: this village easily dates from the 14th century, but there are even older Norman stones slotted around the church doorway. The remains of a much damaged Saxon cross in the churchyard and a massive yew that was once badly damaged in a gale give some hint of its age. Further on is Wyaston that nestles in a green hollow a quarter...
