Local history Out and About near Cromford in Derbyshire Trevor James he River Derwent is a dominant Today the Derwent Mills are a World storey housing constructed by Arkwright Tfeature of the Derbyshire landscape Heritage Site. The buildings directly [1771-76] for his employees and which from the Ladybower Reservoir to where adjacent to the town of Cromford itself contain large mullioned windows in the it joins the River Trent just south of are managed by the Arkwright Society upper storey, self-evidently intended for Derby. This river is noted for the sheer and a very popular destination for a framework-knitting by-employment. power and volume of water it carries: in tourists. Amongst the buildings to view Just north of Cromford the much- the 1720s Daniel Defoe observed ‘the and enjoy is the Gothic Warehouse, extended Masson Mills stand alongside Images courtesy of Visit Peak District & Derbyshire. For further info on the area visit www.visitpeakdistrict.com Derwent is a frightful creature when the its castellated gable being designed the River Derwent. These began to be hills load her current with water’. to blend with the nearby architecture constructed by Arkwright in 1783. They It was to take advantage of potency of Willersley Castle, the stately home now contain a ‘designer shopping outlet’. of this water power that Sir Richard built for Arkwright, but incomplete at Virtually unaltered inside, it is possible Arkwright began to establish his cotton his death, and now a hotel. In nearby to explore the shape and atmosphere of mills on this river at Cromford in 1771. Cromford itself it is worth walking the Mill and even to see some fragments Within a few years a huge complex of up the hill to see North Street, which of what was being made and used, just factory buildings had grown up here. contains two blocks of well-built three- left where they were when the Mill closed. There is a small and interesting Cromford Mill museum. If you were to travel along the Derwent gorge just another mile further north, you would leave this industrial landscape and arrive in Matlock Bath, which was developing as a fashionable ‘watering place’ or spa at much the same time as Arkwright was developing his mills. A key building is Hodgkinson’s Hotel, dated from 1790, and some of the local hillside architecture has Swiss chalet characteristics, to complement the rugged nature of the sides of this gorge. The valuable Peak Mining Museum reminds people of the lead-working heritage of the nearby hills. Of course it would be difficult to miss the cable cars which swing across the A6 on their way to the Heights of Abraham above Matlock Bath. Travelling east about one mile along the Cromford Canal there is another important industrial and transport complex. The High Peak Junction is the crucial transhipment point where goods were transferred from the Canal to the 34 The Historian / Spring 2008 Crich Tramway Museum Leawood Pump House on the Cromford Canal Masson Mill High Peak Railway which, from 1830 to in the Cromford Canal. To the south- seen, including one bridge said to have 1967, ran from here to connect with the east side of the Aqueduct it is possible been designed by Stephenson himself. Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge and, to see the remains of the now derelict A parallel set of tracks lie to the east of thereby, provided an alternative route to Leawood Branch of the Canal which Crich and these were run by Benjamin Manchester. In its initial stages between was a half-mile connector to the lead- Outram and Company to join the the High Peak Junction and Middleton- smelting works of Peter Nightingale, a Cromford Canal near to Bullbridge. near-Wirksworth, the railway was relative of Florence Nightingale whose Standing above Crich, the top of operated through a series of stationary family subsequently owned the nearby the ridge is known as Crich Stand steam engines. The restored workshops Leahurst. As you walk from the canal and at its highest point there is what of this railway are open to the public towards the factory buildings, you may appears to be a lighthouse. At night and, a few hundred yards up the first notice a section of stone wall which its beacon flashes regularly but it has incline, the final ‘catch pit’ of the railway appears to have been dyed blue. This is a never actually been a lighthouse. In contains the disintegrating debris of the fragment of a hat factory, specialising in modern times it has become the war last run-away truck to be diverted to military wear, where what you see is the memorial of the Sherwood Foresters avoid a disaster. long-term effects of the blue dye soaking and an annual service of remembrance Shortly after the High Peak Junction through the stonework. is held around the tower. However, the Cromford Canal crosses the River Yet another important historical what you see is the third tower on the Derwent on the Wigwell Aqueduct. industrial and transport site lies a couple site and it originated as a wooden tower It was at this structure that the highly of miles above Lea. Crich is now famous built by the Hurts of Alderwasley Hall. talented civil engineer Benjamin for its National Tramway Museum which They owned an estate that did not lend Outram first really became prominent: operates, with authentic trams from itself so well to the eighteenth-century the Surveyor of the Comford Canal Britain and abroad, on a track running passion for landscaping because of its Company, William Jessop, had designed along the valley behind the splendid hillside position on the other side of the the original aqueduct and it was self- façade of the former Derby Assembly Derwent and so they purchased the top evidently unstable and so his assistant, Rooms. This, however, was an important of Crich Stand and built the wooden Benjamin Outram, was commissioned industrial site before its quarry was tower as a decorative folly to enjoy from to rebuild the aqueduct. It still stands occupied by the Tramway Museum. their perspective at Alderwasley Hall. solidly, bearing testimony to his skills. This was a limestone quarry belonging The Hurt family also used to go there to Just to the north east of the to George Stephenson and Company enjoy the view back to their house. Well Aqueduct, at the riverside is the and it was connected by a light railway over two centuries later people still set Leawood Pump. This steam engine, still track, originally horse-drawn but later out to enjoy the view from Crich Stand in working order, literally sucks up river- powered by a small steam locomotive, from which, on a clear day, it is possible water at a rate of 24 tons per minute, to an incline just above Ambergate. to see Lincoln Cathedral, eighty miles when required, to maintain the levels Some features of this route can still be away. The Historian / Spring 2008 35.