Trent Valley Way

Trent Valley Way
The Trent Valley Way with Clapper gates near North Clifton
Length	187 km (116 mi)
Location	Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire
Trailheads	Trent Lock, Derbyshire Alkborough, Lincolnshire
Use	Hiking
Elevation
Highest point	74 metres (243 ft)
Hiking details
Season	All year Round
Sights	The valley of the River Trent

The Trent Valley Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in England following the River Trent and its valley in the counties of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

Originally created in 1998, to mark the centenary of the Nottinghamshire County Council, it was waymarked between the two southern starting points at Thrumpton and Attenborough, through to near Gainsborough at the northern limit of the county, a distance of some 84 miles.

This Nottinghamshire route used both riverside paths and footpaths in the wider valley to link Nottingham, with Newark-on-Trent, Gainsborough and various villages via points of interest. It appeared on Ordnance Survey maps, and a book showing the route was also produced.

The waymark consisted of a white disc with a blue arrow containing three wavy white lines.

Various organisations were interested in extending the route of the Trent Valley Way so that it covered the entire length of the river from its source near Biddulph Moor in Staffordshire to Alkborough in Lincolnshire, where the Trent joins the Ouse to form the Humber estuary, a distance of 170 miles.

The feasibility of a complete route along the Trent Valley was investigated in 2008, and it was assessed to have "considerable potential", and would attract 250,000 annual walkers. These would enjoy the combined attraction of "the river’s rich natural heritage and its history as an inland navigation". A draft map using existing footpaths was drawn up in 2009 for the entire 170 mile route, with preferred and interim alternatives where there were major access issues.

One of the first revisions of the route was to remove the segment between Thrumpton to Nottingham, so that there was only a single starting point, which reduced the length to 77 miles. The start was then changed to Trentlock in Derbyshire, which extended the route slightly, so that it became 80 miles long.