THE BUTTERLEY GANGROAD By TREVOR GRIFFIN (67 The Fleet, Belper, DE56 1NU) DAVID BUNTING ( 6 Priory Way, Ripley, DE5 T$) and BRIAN KE( ( Broo) Street, Loscoe, .eanor, DE75 7LP) INTRODUCTION Canals 0ecame the fa3oured mode for mo3ing hea3y goods during the eighteenth century and railways captured most of this traffic during the nineteenth century. There was a transition period during which primiti3e railways were 0uilt as feeders to canals and sometimes as a means of lin)ing them together. This com0ined transport system greatly e7tended the catchment area of inland waterways and also pro3ided a 8test 0ed9 for the de3elopment of railway technology. This transition was 3ery important in Der0yshire. In 18 9 the first pu0lic steam railway to ser3e the county was opened 0etween Der0y and Nottingham, 0ut 0efore then the Cromford and .igh Pea) Railway pro3ided a north/south transport route right across Der0yshire 0y lin)ing canals. The Cromford Canal was already lin)ed to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire 0y means of the Mansfield and Pin7ton Railway and it also had around 0 railway 0ranches lin)ing it to coal mines, quarries, ironwor)s, etc. (Fig.1). Traction on all of these early railways was pro3ided 0y horses, gra3ity or 0y means of stationary steam engines 3ia ropes or ca0les. Fig.1. Map of branch railways serving the Cromford Canal pre-1839, based on anderson!s Map of 25 Miles around Mansfield, the first edition Ordnance urvey 1 inch to 1 mile Map and other sources. Page 1 BG2A0001 BenAamin Outram played an important part in the de3elopment of early railways in this area and throughout the country. .e was a co-founder of a company that originally 0ore his name 0ut which after his death 0ecame the Butterley Company 0ased at Ripley. .e was one of the first people to realise the potential of railways to create a nation-wide transport system and to ad3ocate common standards to facilitate interopera0ility1. Riden has shown how his company 0ecame a significant 8e7porter9 of 0oth railway components and of technical consultancy2. The creation of the Cromford Canal in the 1790s can 0e seen as the catalyst for the de3elopment of the Butterley Company and the type of products it sold. It ran through the area where the company e3entually de3eloped its own manufacturing and mining acti3ities and Outram recognised this potential early on. .e used railways to lin) the sites used 0y his company to the canal so that it could 0e used as a means of transport. One of the earliest was a relati3ely short line of Aust o3er 1mile (1.6)m) 0uilt to lin) a limestone mine at Crich to the canal at Bull Bridge near Am0ergate. Limestone was needed as part of the ironma)ing process at Butterley wor)s. This short railway was referred to as the 8Crich Gang Road9C it was also referred to as the 8Crich Railway9 and later as the 8Butterley Gangroad9 . The railway was important for two main reasons. It may ha3e 0een the first su0stantial one with which BenAamin Outram was personally in3ol3ed and where he de3eloped his ideas that were su0sequently adopted throughout Britain. It was also one of the first railways in the world and certainly in the East Midlands where a 8steam locomoti3e9 operated successfully. This importance was recognised early on 0y $ohn Farey who de3oted nearly two pages of his great sur3ey of Der0yshire to the Crich Railway, whereas other railways connecting to the Cromford Canal got only a 0rief mention4. The Crich Gang Road was a plateway using 8L9 shaped cast iron rails, each one 1 yard (0.91m) long. The ends rested on stone 0loc)s, although originally tim0er sleepers may ha3e 0een used (Fig.2). The trains, or 8gangs9, ran down to the canal 0y gra3ity and were hauled 0ac) empty 0y teams of horses. The line was su0sequently 8modernised9 0y 0eing re0uilt as a narrow gauge steam mineral railway with con3entional trac) and remained in operation until 19 . Fig.2. Plate rail from another early Outram line at Codnor Park, kindly donated to the (utterley )angroad Project by the Portland Path Project. The rail weighs 38lb ,17.2kg.. O3er the years the line has 0een mentioned in 3arious pu0lications, often in conAunction with the other Crich mineral railway (1841-1957) that was owned 0y the Clay Cross Company. In 1959 Rawson Cowlishaw prepared a paper on the su0Aect of the two railways5. Mr.Cowlishaw had li3ed in the area and could remem0er the railway 0ac) to 0efore the turn of the century 0ut, 0y his own admission, he made Page 2 BG2A0001 many errors in the first edition of his paper. In 1971 A.R.Cowlishaw was one of the co-authors of a Tramway Museum Society pu0lication that descri0ed the two Crich mineral railways6. The three authors used the pseudonym 8Dowie9. Unfortunately Cowlishaw and Price ha3e since died and Dr.Te00 was not in3ol3ed with the Gangroad history section and has no notes either. Although the railway closed o3er 80 years ago most of the infrastructure sur3i3es. At Fritchley there is short tunnel under a road Aunction, which has 0een 0loc)ed at 0oth ends since the 1960s. Farey and other authors had descri0ed it as a 80ridge9. It is of interest howe3er since the Guinness World Boo) of Records has recently accepted it as 0eing the oldest railway tunnel in the world7. A few years ago Da3id Smith, a railway historian li3ing in Crich, showed that the route of the Butterley Gangroad had 0een altered considera0ly o3er the years. It had originally followed a cur3ing contour hugging alignment and was later straightened o3er most of its length. Therefore the cuttings, em0an)ments and 0ridges that remain in the 3alley today are not e7ceptional mar3els of eighteenth century railway engineering 0ut date from the mid- to late nineteenth century. The remains of the original route are much less easy to see, which is what one usually finds when searching for the routes of early railways (Fig. ). Fig.3. Comparative views of the old and new alignments looking north from just south of Fritchley village ,O )rid Ref. 0358529.. The image on the left8 was taken in 1912 and shows an occupation bridge and the tunnel in the distance on the new alignment. The right image was taken in 2011 from about 50m to the east and shows the formation of the earlier alignment. In 2011 Tre3or Griffin was preparing a guided wal) to follow the route of the Gangroad for Derwent Valley Mills World .eritage Site Disco3ery Days. .e contacted landowners to gain access. One of these, the owner of the land to the north of Fritchley Tunnel, suggested that it might 0e worthwhile to try to open up the tunnel to disco3er if it was still accessi0le. The Butterley Gangroad ProAect of the Der0yshire Archaeological Society de3eloped from this idea. The proAect recei3ed .eritage Lottery funding of E17,900, started in $anuary 2013 and was due to end in Septem0er 2014. Page BG2A0001 One of the proAect o0Aecti3es was to e7ca3ate and in3estigate the tunnel to learn more of its history. Was it a tunnel or a 0ridgeF Was the infrastructure as old as the railwayF The proAect also had much wider o0Aecti3es to study, interpret and disseminate information a0out the railway, the associated quarries and limewor)s. It achie3ed this through a mi7 of professional archaeology, fieldwor) 0y trained amateurs, recording memories, collecting information, photographs, and maps and through research. The early archi3es of the Butterley Company were deposited at the Der0yshire Record Office 0efore Riden pu0lished his maAor study of the history of the Butterley Company in 197 , which forms an in3alua0le o3er3iew and 0ac)ground9. .anson Bric) deposited further archi3es there in 200 . These include the original letter0oo)10, pre3iously missing financial records11, which include an early ledger co3ering the period 179 -180012. These ha3e thrown new light on the early history of the Gangroad. As a result of the proAect this paper is a0le to pro3ide a much fuller and more accurate history than those pre3iously a3aila0le. It draws on information from the archaeological report prepared for the proAect 0y Wesse7 Archaeology1 and also a study underta)en on 0ehalf of the Panel for .istoric Engineering Wor)s of the Institution of Ci3il Engineers14 where these pro3ide e3idence15. The paper also uses information from as yet unpu0lished reports prepared for the proAect co3ering the people who wor)ed at the limewor)s and quarries, land ownership along the route and the output and profita0ility of the 0usiness. T.E EARL( GANG ROAD (1790-1840) In 1790 BenAamin Outram, superintendent of the ma)ing of the Cromford Canal and his wealthy patron Francis Beresford Aointly purchased the Butterley .all estate and 0egan to e7ploit it under the name of BenAamin Outram and Company. $ohn Wright and William $essop Aoined the company soon after16. The first furnace was esta0lished at Butterley in 179117. Soon after they were paying miners to sin) pits to o0tain coal and ironstone on the estate18 0ut limestone was also required to produce iron. A suita0le source was )nown to e7ist at Crich. William $essop is )nown to ha3e used Crich lime for Wigwell aqueduct on the Cromford CanalC he 0lamed it for the collapse of the structure19. Beresford purchased land for limestone e7traction at Crich in 1791 and also leased a quarry under the Leys Close from .on.Nathaniel CurGon for 21 years20 (Fig.4). Fig.1. Map of the lands where limestone e4traction took place c.1800, based on a contemporary plan by 5ohn Nuttall.