Scheduled Monument Consent Heritage and Design Statement

Erection of Visitor Centre Bugsworth Canal Basin, Derbyshire

Andrew Tegg MRTPI IHBC Heritage Advisor British Waterways Waterside House Waterside Drive Wigan WN3 5AZ

TYPE OF APPLICATION This statement accompanies the scheduled ancient monument consent application in relation to the erection of a visitor centre building at Bugsworth Canal Basin. It should be read in conjunction with the Planning Application Design and Access Statement (October 2009), prepared by John McCall Architects and attached to this application.

LOCATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT Bugsworth Canal Basin, Buxworth, Derbyshire. Scheduled Monument Number: 242 – see Appendix 1 for SAM Citation.

DATE OF PREPARATION 19 th October 2009

APPLICANT British Waterways

STATEMENT PREPARED BY Andrew Tegg BA(Hons) DipTP DipBldgsCons MRTPI, IHBC Heritage Advisor, British Waterways, Waterside House, Waterside Drive, Wigan, WN3 5AZ. Telephone – 07920 825690, Fax – 01942 405710, e-mail – [email protected]

Much of the information within this statement is taken from previous research undertaken by IWPS over the period of their restoration of the site. Their knowledge and assistance has proven invaluable within the preparation of this document.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO THE SITE Bugsworth Canal Basin can rightly be considered as one of the most important industrial heritage sites in the United Kingdom, although this significance can also to assessed on an international basis. However when assessing the significance of the site, an important consideration to make initially is to emphasise that the Basin is an entirely man made resource which has been imposed on the River Blackbrook valley landscape.

Between 1794 and c.1870, Bugsworth Basin developed from a small canal-head wharf into a full scale transhipment port through the construction of a series of additional channels, wharves and lime kilns, combined with the continuing development of the Peak Forest Tramway to satisfy the increasing industrial demand for limestone, gritstone and lime.

The original Bugsworth Wharf (or Basin) was opened on 31 August 1796 in conjunction with the Peak Forest Tramway and the upper level of the Peak Forest Canal. Approximately 150 metres of the original course of the Blackbrook was diverted northwards during 1794 to allow construction of the canal channel between the Upper and Entrance Basins, the Wharfinger’s House and Office being built c.1797 adjacent to the junction of the old and new courses of the Blackbrook.

Figure 1 – Photograph of site c.1930 – Wharfingers House can be identified in background. (IWPS Ltd Photographic Archive via B. Lamb).

Between 1796 and 1815 the extent of the primary phase of construction included the Upper Basin north channel, the Limestone Storage Pens, the original mobile Waggon Tippler, Gritstone Wharf, the Winding Hole, the Gnat Hole (east) lime kilns, and the Middle Basin and its associated Arm (the subject of this SMC application). Other significant surviving structures include the Chinley Road (Silk Hill) Bridge between the Upper and Middle Basins, and the course of the Tramway feeder to the New Road lime kilns.

The secondary phase of construction took place between 1815 and 1846. Illustrating the growth of local lime production, this period witnessed an increase in the Navigation battery from two kilns in 1815 to three in 1841, while the New Road battery increased from two kilns in 1815 to eight by 1841, and the Gnat Hole (west) battery was built c.1830. The three kilns in each of the Gnat Hole batteries were charged via an extension from the Upper Basin, and serviced by three Lime Transfer Sheds on the south bank of the Middle Basin. The Middle Basin Lime Wharf, built originally to service the Navigation kilns, was converted into a limestone transhipment wharf c.1835, this probably being the period that the Navigation kilns fell into disuse. The Lower Basin, constructed c.1838 to extend transhipment facilities of limestone, incorporated a high level mobile Waggon Tippler, as did the Upper Basin and Arm, and the Lime Transfer Building had been built over the head of the Middle Basin Arm by 1841.

The importance of the Peak Forest Tramway to the development of the Basin complex is demonstrated by the number of associated branches and flowlines which increased rapidly from around 1815. Evidencing an early increase in mineral traffic and, therefore, regional economic demand for limestone, the single track Tramway was widened in 1803 to accommodate a double track. In 1815 the Navigation and New Road kilns were each serviced by a branch line. By 1846 the Tramway diverged into seven tracks and twelve flowlines: three to the New Road kilns, two to the Navigation kilns, three to the Upper Basin, two to the twin Gnat Hole kiln batteries, one to the head of (what became) the Central Peninsula, and one possibly between the Navigation kilns and the Lower Basin. Also during the 1840s, a branch of the Tramway acted as a coal feeder to the new Road kilns from Bugsworth Hall Pit, another connected the Lower Basin and the Bugsworth Mill Pond, while a third connected the Crist and Barren Clough gritstone quarries.

Recognising the advantages of supplementing the rapidly expanding railway network with a ready- made transport system which was tried, tested and (for the most part) paid for, the railway companies began to take a controlling interest in the national canal network from the mid-1840s. The Peak Forest Canal, Tramway and Bugsworth Basin were leased by the Sheffield, Ashton- under-Lyne and Manchester Railway (SA&MR) in 1846 (and subsequently by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) from 1847 by amalgamation), with ownership being transferred to the MS&LR in 1863.

The tertiary phase of construction between 1846 and c.1878 is characterised by economic diversity created by direct and indirect railway influences, although the export of limestone remained the principal objective. From the 1840s the Derbyshire limestone reserves began to be exploited by increasing numbers of lime merchants who opened up new quarry workings at Dove Holes, and the advantage of direct conveyance of lime and stone to the industrial markets offered by the Tramway and Canal continued to place increasing pressure on the transhipment facilities at Bugsworth Basin. The Upper Basin Arm and its associated Lime Transhipment Building was constructed c.1845 for the purpose of transhipping the increasing quantities of lime which were being burnt at the Dove Holes quarries, conveyed down the Tramway and required undercover transhipment at Bugsworth. Notwithstanding the increase in calcination at Dove Holes, an additional kiln appears to have been incorporated into each of the Gnat Hole batteries during this period. The Limestone Crusher House was built (possibly during the 1870s) by the MS&LR for the provision of railway hardcore, and the Central Peninsula with its comprehensive system of flowlines serving the Lower Basin and Lower Basin Arm also developed during this period. The function of the Lower Basin Arm (constructed between 1860 and 1878) and of its associated Secure Goods Warehouse is, however, currently unknown, although consignments of (e.g.) coal and cloth may have been stored here prior to transportation via the Tramway to Forge Mill at Whitehough.

By 1880 the Tramway Interchange and Basin complex comprised approximately forty individual flowlines, including over seventy sets of points, and incorporated an estimated 5,000-6,500 yards (4,572-5,943 metres) of track (excluding the extensive network associated with the Crist and Barren Clough quarry workings to the south east). Although at the height of its industrial capacity, a series of changes in processing, production and transport technologies dating from the 1860s had begun to exert influences with which the Basin complex could no longer compete.

A steady decline in localised lime production was due, in part, to an increase in lime burning at the Dove Holes quarries from c.1870, this being encouraged by the increasing use of main-line railway services for transport and distribution. The most serious economic repercussions were, however, due to a reorganisation of the local lime trade in 1891 which, resulting initially in the amalgamation of 76 per cent of the independent local lime companies, and later the creation of Imperial Chemical Industries, irremediably shifted the balance of transport geography away from the Peak Forest Canal and Tramway. While strengthening the economic position of the lime trade by forging closer links with the chemical industry, the transition between independence and unification resulted ultimately in the centralisation of production at the expense of smaller facilities, and contributed substantially to the demise of Bugsworth Basin as a significant inland transhipment port.

Subsequently owned by the Great Central Railway from 1897, and the London and North Eastern Railway from 1923, Bugsworth Basin was abandoned between 1926 and 1928, with the bulk of the Tramway rails being removed by the LNER for scrap between 1927 and 1943.

Restoration and renovation of Bugsworth Basin began in 1968 by volunteers of the Inland Waterways Protection Society (IWPS) helped by the Waterway Recovery Group (WRG) restored parts of this important site over three decades. Work included the sealing of the bottom of the basin to prevent leakage, extensive stonework repair and the provision of a new facilites building for boating visitors. In 2003 Bugsworth Basin was re-opened to boat traffic and to full navigation and has become a focal point for pleasure boaters, who use this former inland transhipment port for short-term moorings.

Figure 2 – New build facilities building (British Waterways).

ARCHAEOLOGICAL REVIEW OF THE CHOSEN SITE FOR THE BUILDING The site identified for the building is located as illustrated on the plan below.

Figure 3 – Bugsworth Canal Basin c.1880 (IWPS Ltd).

Much archaeological assessment work has been completed to the Bugsworth Basin site during the restoration project as undertaken by IWPS, this research being summarised in the document titled ‘An Assessment of the Archaeological and Historical Significance of Bugsworth Canal Basin’ published during April 2001.

It is apparent from both site investigations and previous research that the chosen site is located upon made land, formed when the Black Brook was realigned to facilitate the opening of the canal basin in 1796. This realignment ran from the area around the existing wharfingers house to that

now occupied by the Navigation Inn, allowing the basin and its associated structures to be constructed within the valley bottom.

A review has been undertaken of the archaeological documentation as outlined above, from this document it apparent that not specific archaeological assessment of the chosen site for the new building has been undertake, although its significance as part of both the original realignment of Black Brook (c1794) and later extension of the Lower Basin (1838) have been identified.

Historical plans of the site have also been assessed to identify developments upon the chosen site or its immediate environs to establish the likelihood of below ground archaeology or other artefacts. The plan above (figure 2) illustrates that in around 1880 the location was undeveloped, a later plan dating from 1889 (Plans of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway) shown below also illustrates that the site does not appear to have been subject to physical development following the initial alignment works completed in 1794.

Figure 4 – Bugsworth Canal Basin (Plans of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway.1889) (British Waterways Archive).

From the desktop study completed to date it is therefore concluded that the subject site is formulated of man made land created following the realignment of Black Brook. Following this realignment around 1794 the site does not appear to have been subject to further development either in terms of buildings or associated tramway development. It is therefore concluded that the possibility of archaeological remains being uncovered during the development process is relatively low.

HERITAGE DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND CONCEPTS The background to the proposal is to design and implement a scheme that replaces the existing storage containers which house the IWPS offices and display materials. These were always intended to be only a temporary solution to the issue of site interpretation and their scale, utilitarian design and harsh finishes cause detriment to the site.

Figure 5 – Existing containers forming offices and display area (British Waterways).

Throughout the development of this proposal various design principles have been followed to ensure that the new building does not cause detriment to the SAM, but instead complements the character and aesthetic of the site. A key design driver being that the building provides the necessary facilities without proving obtrusive to the wider site and environment.

The siting of the building has been the subject of much discussion between English Heritage, British Waterways and IWPS, as it has been a key consideration to ensure that the building is visible to visitors to the site allowing them to utilise its facilities to further interpret and increase their knowledge and understanding of the site, whilst also ensuring that the building does not cause detriment to the wider aesthetic and character of the Basin. In terms of the siting itself it has been key that the design was understated and simple taking a design lead from its industrial predecessors but taking contemporary forms and materials forward in a simple interpretation.

The building has therefore been designed to be simple and contemporary, not trying to mimic a traditional industrial building but instead taking a design lead from the archival materials held relating to previous buildings on the site. It is a modest single storey structure, with a shallow mono-pitch roof to its centre, this being flanked to either side by lower flat sedum roofed blocks.

The palette of materials chosen follows this simple format, the flanking blocks being finished in coursed natural gritstone, whilst the higher central section features a glazed wall to its south elevation, giving a light almost open appearance to this elevation. The walls to the north west and east elevation are proposed to be simple understated render finishes to provide an organic appearance to blend with the surroundings.

Surrounding landscaping is again to be kept to the minimum, with paved areas to the north to provide a bin store, and to the west to provide level access to the existing and proposed toilet facilities. A hard standing area will be included to the west to provide space for servicing and turning of waste disposal vehicles, whilst the track to the south will remain surfaced.

It is concluded that the final proposal which forms the basis of this application meets the criteria as initially adopted and subsequently agreed with English Heritage. The building is simple and of a small scale, replacing presently incongruous containers. The design and materials palette takes a theme from site precedents but does not attempt to form a pastiche of a traditional form but takes a lead from these bring a simple contemporary style to the site.

REVIEW OF ALTERATIONS TO FABRIC OF SAM Alterations to the SAM are limited to the excavations required to form the foundation for the building and its immediate environs. As outlined above in the archaeological review, the subject area is made land which does not appear to have been subject to development at any stage of the sites evolution (apart from the containers being sited thus in the late 20 th century).

Consent has recently been granted by English Heritage for the undertaking of bore holes to gauge ground conditions in this location; this will obviously impact upon foundation design. The results of these will be forwarded to English Heritage in due course. At this stage the foundation design which will impact upon the fabric is envisaged to be made up of 150 to 200mm diameter specialist piles, approx. 5 to 6 metres long with ground beams and floor slab cast on top.

RECORDING PROPOSALS A key element of the proposed works is the recording to be carried out both prior to, during and following the works. The following procedure is proposed:

Pre and Post Works Recording

Undertaken By: British Waterways Heritage Advisor

• Where drawings have been prepared these should be carefully Survey/Drawings annotated to illustrate area of works. • Where detailed plans are unavailable, sketch plan showing location of works. • Annotated plan showing orientation of photographs. • Photographs of all elevations and surfaces of the structure. Photographic Records • Before and after photographs of affected elevations/surfaces and close up of works completed. • Statement detailing justification for works and where applicable Written Records extension of specification and materials sourcing information.

• Stored within waterway specific Heritage Log at NW Waterways Record Storage Office.

There is a low possibility of artefacts being uncovered during the works, for the reasons outlined above. During the ground excavation phase of the project, it is proposed that a scheme for a watching brief be undertaken and agreed in advance with English Heritage. This should provide an agreed protocol to be undertaken regarding processes and recording should any artefacts be uncovered.

REINSTATEMENT PROPOSALS As outlined elsewhere the works relate to the construction of the building and the landscaping of the immediate environs. There may be some low level ground disturbance in the immediate environs of the site during the construction phase due to site works and associated vehicle movements, although a key element of the scheme will be to ensure that any such disturbance will be avoided or limited to the existing hard standing.

CONCLUSIONS As outlined elsewhere within this document this project is intended to remove the unsightly containers from the site and introduce a visitor facility to the site which will improve the aesthetic and character of the SAM, whilst also increasing visitors understanding and enjoyment of this historical location.

In order to achieve these aims the building has been designed and sited in such a manner that ensures that at worst it has a neutral effect upon the character of the SAM. The buildings design is a careful contemporary interpretation taking leads from historical design, and takes the various

criteria which affect the site and provides a simple solution to these design difficulties. Equally its siting in an area where no historical development is evident, and which has been occupied recently, further limits any impact upon the historic fabric.

It can therefore be concluded that the proposal has a positive impact on both the fabric and wider interpretation of Bugsworth Basin and will assist in the interpretation and understanding of the site for years to come.

ANNEXE 1 – SAM Citation

Statutory Scheduled Name Bugsworth Canal Basin and Tramway

Statutory Scheduled Reference 0/0/242 Grade SAM Date Scheduled 12/20/1977 The transhipment basin area of the Peak Forest Canal, engineered by Benjamin Outram in the 178Os and ‘90s. The site was expanded and modified between the 1790s and 1860s, when the lower and middle basins, lime kilns and warehouses were constructed to cater for the increased trade. The site declined in the late C19 after its peak in the 1880s, and went out of use in the 1920s. The site was located at the point where the gradient became too steep for canal transport, and the tramway was constructed from there to the quarries. The canal- tramway carried limestone, gritstone and other stone products from the High Peak downstream to Disley and Marple. The site consists of: a) the gauging lock b) the earliest upper basin arm (1797); the later (1799-1846) lower and middle arms, with the remains of secure warehouses, wharves, tippler unit, transfer bridge, horse bridge, Statutory Description cantilever crane and stone crusher (185Os). c) the remaining battery of lime kilns to the west of Silk Hill, of the second phase (1805). (There are several lime kilns; most no longer survive intact). The quarry and wharves were connected by an extensive tramway system, the parts which still remain, in places with original wooden sleepers in-situ, with stone skips and flanged iron rails, are within the scheduled area. Modern dwelling houses, garages and garden buildings to the west of Navigation Inn are excluded from the scheduling. One of the six best remaining Canal-Tramway transhipment ports in the UK. The site survives almost intact in plan, with no later addition, and the complex still includes examples of all original components, making a unique example of an early industrial transport system. The documentation of the site is extensive and informative.