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Egginton lies in rich meadows, near the Roman road of Ryknild Street and the River Dove, here near the end of its journey and crossed by five bridges. A bridge with a single span has been joined by a new bridge of 1968 to take part of a double carriageway road. These have kept for company the old Monks' Bridge a few yards away, a monument of more leisured days.
Over this narrow graceful bridge, built perhaps by the monks of Tutbury Priory, Dr Johnson must have come with his darling Tetty, the widow nearly twice his age, on their way from Birmingham to be married at Derby, he making up his mind as he rode never to let her get the upper hand of him.
A stone's throw from the Monks Bridge the river is crossed again, this time by a canal raised on sturdy arches, the building of which was one of the triumphs of James Brindley in the 18th century, and farther downstream is the fifth bridge, carrying the railway.
The church is in a quiet setting at the end of an avenue of limes, with the buttressed brick wall of the rectory on one side of the churchyard. Much of it is from the end of the 13th century, when the Norman church was rebuilt. Of this time are the north arcade, with two tiny 14th century clerestory windows, (an early date for a Midlands church) the chancel with a priest's doorway, a stone seat and a piscina, and the fine east window with remains of 14th century and 15th century glass.
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