Barton Turns Marina.

[Boat&Bikes]

Anyone have recent experience of mooring in this Marina? It's location suits me well for this winter. Ian.

[john6767]

I am sure there are people here who moor there full time, we had a short term mooring there a few years ago, from what I remember the staff there were very helpful.

As you probably know it is a very public marina with shops and a pub on site, you either like that or you don't.  It is also very close to the A38, again that is either an issue to you or not.  If you would be intending to go out for weekends, then again the canal is very impacted by the A38 in both directions for a fair distance.

 

[MHS]

When we visited early on in the year, we felt the jetties and marina itself looked a bit neglected. 

I don't know how the site management is arranged, but wondered if the money is all being spent on the shops, pub & cinema etc. 

[bill brown]

Stayed there for four months earlier this year, as above everyone seemed very friendly. Good pub, nice Thai restaurant, well stocked deli and the not so greasy spoon cafe does a good breakfast. The on site cinema shows a good range of films and live theatre broadcasts. Nice setting with the surrounding lakes and the village nearby has a handy Co-op  and several pubs and a good bike shop if you cycle. The noise from the A38 never really bothered me but others did find it intrusive. There is building work going on at the moment adjacent to the shops, a complex of apartments is being built as well as more retail units. Secure car parking, good public transport links for a semi rural setting. If it was closer to home I would have stayed longer.

[tommytelford]

Would suggest you try Mercia Marina if they have space. They have shops and a pub but the moorings are quite seperate. Willington village is within 10 minutes walk and there are 3 pubs and a co-op store plus takeaways

 

[Nightwatch]

16 minutes ago, tommytelford said:

Would suggest you try Mercia Marina if they have space. They have shops and a pub but the moorings are quite seperate. Willington village is within 10 minutes walk and there are 3 pubs and a co-op store plus takeaways

 

Martin from the dog house,remember him? used to speak highly of Mercia. He once moored there.

 

[Dave Payne]

Been to both mercia and bartons, both nice, i like the deli at bartons, lovely food, but then i liked the moorings better at bartons.

Visit both i would say and make your mind up.

 

 

[john6767]

We have just had a temp mooring at Mercia, and left it a couple of weeks ago for our jaunt to Boston.  I was initially put off by the place and the guy in the office was quite rude when we booked in, which was a bit off putting.   I went to the boat a few times in the month it was there and did warm to the place a bit.  It certainly has everything that you want on site if that is what you need, and the final bonus for us was that we were able to get to the boat by train, so for someone with no car and lots of money to pay for trains that could be useful.  The weekend cruising options from there are a bit better than from Barton Turns, but still not great, lots of road and rail noise.

[BruceinSanity]

4 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

Martin from the dog house,remember him? used to speak highly of Mercia. He once moored there.

 

Best marina we've ever used and I'm really surprised to hear that someone was rude in the office, not our experience at all.

I too would say visit both, for us the cinema and stuff is a negative, much rather be able to get away from the commercial side.

[Rob-M]

We moored in Barton Turns for a few months when we first bought our boat. The marina and staff were all fine. It was a very windy marina for getting in and out. Having the shops and cafe were useful but mainly just for somewhere to have a still and a coffee, the cinema was just being built when we left.

The pub can be busy especially on a weekend, our mooring was on the far pontoons so it was never a problem but I would be checking available berths before committing.

Don't forget that you have the river section at Alrewas which does get closed occasionally in flood so that can stop you cruising in that direction although it was never an issue for us.

[Boat&Bikes]

Thanks all. Sounds fine to me. I need a marina close to my mum who lives a couple mile south of Burton. We don't boat far in winter, just go out of the marina, moor up and enjoy the romance of the stove and crisp winter mornings. Come April we go off boating again. Cheers all, Ian.

[frahkn]

5 hours ago, tommytelford said:

Would suggest you try Mercia Marina if they have space. They have shops and a pub but the moorings are quite seperate. Willington village is within 10 minutes walk and there are 3 pubs and a co-op store plus takeaways

 

I no longer moor at Mercia but would recommend it for the proximity to Willington. It has all (more or less) the facilities of Barton but noticeably better mooring pontoons.

If you are not part of the 'in group' then the staff are a bit cool but this never worried me.

If you don't have/don't want to use a car, then this is the marina for you.

Frank.

[Nightwatch]

Can't for the life of me remember the marina in Burton. Might be berths there.

[philjw]

Shobnal?

[Nightwatch]

Yep! That's the one.

[Sunflower16]

We struggled a bit finding a decent, secure morring close to Burton on Trent for our newly acquired narrow beam motor cruiser - initially thought Mercia would be good and it is a lovely marina - although found the office staff slightly stand-offish when enquiring but not a big issue - but the problem is that Mercia has no slipway at all, from which to launch a GRP boat brought to the marina on a trailer from a distant mooring.  They are entirely geared to narrowboats and narrowboats only.    It would have meant finding a slipway elsewhere and getting to Mercia by water which was quite awkward to arrange.  

Subsequently discovered that in the local area, only Shobnall Marina and Barton Marina have slipways - Shobnall is lovely, but very very small marina wise and generally always full. Very nice and helpful staff. They did offer us to lauch from their slipway, but there was no mooring there at the time we needed it.  So we went with Barton - its a lovely marina, easy to get to, a bit expensive just like Mercia I expect. Good security and good security for moorers cars as well.   They were also pretty full and only one short berth was available. There are a number of boats which look as if they haven't moved from their moorings in many many years, so a bit untidy - one poor motorboat in particular looks a right sight!  Bartons slipway is controlled by their workshop tenants who were initially not too helpful, but became more pleasant and helpful in the end - they charged £40 for use of the slipway, which is very awkwardly placed for launching from a trailer, but the chap who delivered our boat was extremely good at manoevering a long trailer.   The A38 is a way of life for most locals, it does make access to the marina pretty easy though. 

[Mac of Cygnet]

I remember cruising past Barton Turn marina on its official opening day. One dignitary's hat blew off, and the ladies' dresses were all over the place. Later our (shared) boat was based there for a year, and I remember the difficulty getting into and out of the berths.