[2] The 2021 Census recorded a population of 3,277 incorporating the expanded Mercia Marina and full parish boundary.

In about 1554 William Westcote conveyed this manor to Sir John Port (d.1557), founder of Repton School and of the hospital at Etwall, and in 1817 it continued to form part of the estate belonging to those foundations, which also held the tithes and advowson of the vicarage.

[citation needed] It first began to grow from a population of 477[citation needed] with the construction of the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1777, the same year Bass beer in Burton was started, at which time it became a small inland port and a village with four public houses: the Railway (which was later demolished), the Rising Sun, the Green Man and the Green Dragon (now just called The Dragon), all selling locally brewed beers from Burton upon Trent for the many Irish canal navvies.

[citation needed] A 200-year-old Cedar of Lebanon[8] lies on the site of the now-demolished Potlock's Farm on Twyford Road in the village.

Due to the opening of the nearby Toyota car factory (on the A38/A50) in 1992 between Willington (on the former Derby airfield at Burnaston) and Findern, the village has prospered and expanded since the 1980s.

Local shops include a post office and newsagent, florist, Co-op supermarket, delicatessen/cafe, beautician, hairdresser, barbers, vets, hardware and DIY, general store, pharmacy, Indian restaurant, chip shop, a Chinese take-away and the three pubs mentioned above.

A vibrant tourist destination with restaurants, bars, shops, art-galleries, furnishings as well as numerous offices.

Willington has a large GP practice incorporating a dentist, a Church of England parish church and Baptist Chapel,[11] a large modern primary school and nearby in Etwall (within Willington's catchment area) an expanding secondary school, John Port Spencer Academy.

Although most of the stations were demolished at the turn of the millennium, the five cooling towers continue to dominate the skyline of the local area.

The power station was also the subject of a short documentary by Channel 4 titled "Drones in Forbidden Zones".

Tragically, two years later on 5 January 1976, almost the entire original Blue Buses fleet was destroyed by a fire at the depot.

Although some of the former ARC owned aggregate quarry was back-filled with pulverised fuel ash transported via a pipeline from the power station, the remaining gravel pits at the southern edge of the village adjacent to the River Trent have now become a wetland nature reserve managed by the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and developed with the aid of the Environment Agency.