Guide To Barton Marina

Not a bad place to moor for a few months, but it gets a bit difficult any time longer than that.

We initially stopped here intending for it to be a short stay, but the surrounding pubs, butchers, cafes and restaurants on the marina are all excellent (especially the butchers). It’s a lovely place.

Parking for the moorers is in a secure compound each side of the marina. Not a great surface on the far side of the marina (jettys D, E & F) and during winter its at capacity and you’ll struggle to park because the grass verge becomes unusable. They public car park owner tried bringing in new parking charges across the site when I was there which wouldn’t help things if you were unable to park for any reason.

The facilities are ok on the office side, but weak on the far side. The marina is probably just too big for the facilities they provide and it shows in the cleanliness of them sometimes.

The staff are all liveaboards compared to some marinas we’ve stayed at and honestly that makes a difference. They know the issues, and it makes a difference seeing them on the jetty because they’re going through the same thing you are.

Its a short-ish walk into the local village (Barton-under-needwood) which has a small Co-op, but you’d need a car to get to either Lichfield or Burton for trains, decent laundry or anything else (like a gym).

We still visit back here as members of the public now and enjoy it much more in that role.

Nice and relaxing

HOWEVER ..

The signage on the carpark is awful no clear direction of if payment or not is needed some signs covered with binbags some ripped off some not

People paying some people not

All the shops are nice and the staff are friendly

Worth a visit on a nice day

Beware that parking the only downfall

We had a lovely walk around the lake, the boats look great and there are some nice cafes and places to eat here. We visited the art gallery and shops. Public toilets are clean.

Free parking, several quirky shops to browse. Lots of food & drink available. Public toilets. Mostly flat. Two lakes full of water fowl to walk around. I went on a Friday during school holidays and it was fairly quiet till around 2pm.

Really enjoyed Barton Marina, I went up to walk my dogs around the lakes, but there is something up there for everyone, great choice of cafes, restaurants and pubs.

There is a cinema, art gallery and some shops to browse round, a particularly good butchers.

Lovely place to sit take in the scenery and chill.