Weston-on-Trent

Village in Derbyshire, England

Weston on Trent is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,239. It is to the north of the River Trent and the Trent and Mersey Canal. Nearby places include Aston on Trent, Barrow upon Trent, Castle Donington and Swarkestone.

The name is of Anglo Saxon origin ( ton being an Anglo Saxon suffix meaning "town"). The name literally means 'West Town' – with Aston on Trent ('East Town') lying east of it. 'On Trent' refers to the nearby River Trent.

In 1603, Weston on Trent was awarded by James I to Charles Paget who also gave him a pension of £200 a year. This is unusual as the previous monarch had threatened to have him assassinated in France as he refused to return to face the charges against him. He was found guilty of his involvement in the Babington plot. It was Charles Paget, who Mary, Queen of Scots had written to from her imprisonment in code; this letter was part of the evidence that caused her execution. In 1633 James I granted the manor of Weston on Trent to Antony Roper and it is believed that this is when Weston Hall's construction started. At the start of the English Civil War (in 1642) soldiers who were based at Weston Hall attacked Royalists who were based on the south side of the river. Some Parliamentary soldiers were reputedly buried in Weston Churchyard in 1644 after a battle at King's Mill when Sir John Gell took 200 royalist prisoners. The Roper family sold Weston Hall in 1649 and it was never completed. In 1745 the young pretender advanced as far as nearby Swarkestone. Local records show that monies were found to not only repair ye town musquet but also money to charge it. Two other parishioners were given three quarts of ale to keep watch for the rebels from the church tower

Less than a century later, the village was again transformed, with several houses being demolished, large earthworks, and roads being diverted to allow the railway to be opened in 1873. The railway revolution initially happened outside Weston taking off in the area when three companies and their corresponding lines joined to form the Midland Railway Company. The company was an amalgamation of different lines from Derby to Nottingham, to Birmingham and to Leeds. Business was good and in the 1860s it was realised that traffic could be improved if there was a line to relieve the congestion if there was a line to the south of Derby. The proposers realised that there were advantages in not only following the level ground of the Trent Valley but also in capturing additional business with a new line from Melbourne. One act of Parliament allowed an old tram line route to be reused to make a line from Ashby de la Zouch to Melbourne and another act allowed a line to Stenson. This latter route was destined to disturb the quiet of the village as the new line allowed traffic to make its way from Trent Junction, creating an express route past the central station in Derby. The route as approved by the Act went directly through the village and although there was an allowance for deviations to this route, worryingly every allowable route just cut the village at a different point. Petitions were raised by the villagers to try and influence the construction, but despite deviations being agreed the effect on the village was large and permanent. The agreements and the work meant that the line was not fully complete until 1873 after four years of excavation and construction.]] In 1851 the population of Weston was just under 400 in over seventy dwellings, but over the next twenty years the population fell by about a hundred, ten houses disappeared and another five were empty. Even allowing for the six houses that were in the way of the new railway this was a substantial change on the previous agricultural life. A cutting assisted in dividing the village in half as well as changing the routes of local roads to join with the four new bridges. Weston was again the local centre of activity with Shardlow and Aston also channelling their trade through the station at Weston. The railway revolution substantially reduced the traffic on the rivers and canals, but at Weston there was an extended life. The mill at King's Mill was a useful source of power and was relatively close to the gypsum quarries at Chellaston and Aston on Trent. Because of this a circuitous route was devised that must have involved considerable effort. The stone once quarried was loaded onto a purpose built tramway so that the stone could be pulled to the canal near Aston. From here the stone was loaded into canal barges and moved the short distance to Weston Cliff where it was again unloaded and craned onto river barges that took the stone again on the short trip to King's Mill. Here the stone was again unloaded, ground into plaster and then sent back by the same circuitous route via the river barges to Weston Cliff and then the product was taken to Pegg's works on the canal at Derby. There was a £400 a year charge for the power of the mill, but the rest of this effort was achieved with animal and human effort. There were two ferries at Weston, one at Weston Cliff and the other at King's Mill which ceased trade in 1942. This ferry crossed the river at the end of King's Mill Lane closest to Castle Donington. After World War II Weston on Trent became home to the Ukrainian Youth Association (CYM) in the UK, which took over one of the camps which had been set up during the War. One of these camps had hosted concerts by Vera Lynn, Glenn Miller and Ivy Benson. The last shop in Weston closed in 1998. At that time there were three pubs.

Weston's only school is a Church of England Voluntary Aided primary school. The school has been in existence since 1821 and had on its old site to the west of the village since 1830. Two cottages were let from Sir Robert Wilmot at two shillings per annum in 1830. In January 2007, the school was relocated to a new building on the site of the old playing field The school's placement was discussed extensively by the residents living near the roads leading to the school because of the lack of access. However its position had been decided in the 1960s when the Local Education Authority purchased the land belonging to Old Gate Farm

Lying just outside the city of Derby, Weston is an occasional location for walkers. There are a number of walks