13 CHEVIN 21 Shining Cliff 4 ) 20 3 23 Dene DARLEY ABBEY 2008 16 19 Woods Quarry St. MARY’S 10 g TARGET WALL CATHEDRAL CHURCH in h WYVER Cromford Moor 7 Burley Hill n rt RC CHURCH Little pe o BELPER’S WYVER LANE & SHOOTING DUFFIELD -o FARM nt Chester e ksw SWIMMING BATHS 17 e 5 (r ir 14 BUTTS SILK or y EAST MILL NATURE rw HALL W CHIMNEY e o MILL Derventio ailwa T RIVER RESERVE D R ent Castle y t rw Cable D r e GARDENS De RIVER VIEWS Derwent e all n Amber Cars e v Hill V e iver r i e 15 t R R Site of the former n w rn w we Site of Cromford r Railway 2 Roman Fort Chapel ou Der original Cromford Canal Station e b e Cricket Pitch STEPHENSON CUTTING Church n es Buildings Buildings CUTTING FORMERLY TUNNEL Station t D Whatstandwell Aquaduct Willersley A6 Holt Lane Railway Houses Industrial Sheds Ridge and Furrow Eccl Chevin Golf Course Lea Wood Milford Tunnel Tunnel Tunnel Meadows Tunnel High Tor Tunnels Tunnel Little Little 855 Yards Ambergate 149 Yards 315 Yards 764 Yards 321, 56, 378 Yards 126 yards ‘Belper Goods’ D Junction Eaton Eaton erw Derwent Junction Site of original 11 bridges ent A6 Derwent DERBY W D DUFFIELD BELPER 22 AMBERGATE CROMFORD MATLOCK BATH MATLOCK er Belper Station D 24 Cromford Canal Cromford Canal High Tor i D w D s STATION isu e STATION STATION erwent STATION u STATION STATION STATION s nt BELPER CEMETERY s Recreation Ground ed DUFFIELD 18 A610 e Li 9 MOSCOW d WHATSTANDWELL n CHAPELS e t CHURCH R BREADSALL o Ambergate Village a Allison Utley’s D FARM Former site of i STATION e l S N nby PECKWASH w ROUNDHOUSE & CHURCH 8 FORGES, CORN a Crich Chase Castle Top Farmhouse 1 6 y MILL 11 CLOCKTOWER MILL and MILL’S M Woodlands 25 ai nline Not to scale. Diagromatic only. GAS WORKS to S MAKENEY heffiel d PRIDE PARK 12 and Leeds Home of Derby County FC E HALL SCENES FROM THE CARRIAGE WINDOW • After crossing the River Derwent, see if you can spot, between the tall • Moscow Farm 11 of 1812-15 was built by the Strutts, mill masters, to BELPER – for Strutt’s North Mill, the Derwent Valley Visitor Centre, • Wyver Farm 20 , another Strutt farm which incorporates fire AMBERGATE – for the Cromford Canal and Derwent Valley A guide to what you can see along the scenic towers of the Cathedral Church of All Saints and St Mary’s RC church, supply produce to their workforce at Belper and Milford. the East Mill, River Gardens, De Bradelei Mill and the mill town. proof constructional details and innovative agricultural Heritage Way walk. Derwent Valley Line running through the the pyramidal roof of the tower to The Old Silk Mill. 3 This is a • The bright green copper dome of its clock tower helps pinpoint • Robert and George Stephenson carried out the preliminary surveys processing arrangements. • To the west the little Halfpenny Bridge, beside a concave cricket rebuild of part of England’s first factory, Thomas Lombe’s Silk Mill. Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Makeney Hall 12 , which was home to a number of Strutts until 1928. which led to the excavation of a railway cutting 15 right through • Target Wall 21 of 1899 and shooting butts. A training ground for pitch, leads to an area of ancient woodland, Shining Cliff Woods. 23 • Some of the industrial sheds along this stretch almost certainly stand on It is now a hotel. the town centre. Note the size and finish of the stone blocks and the Victorian volunteer force which succeeded the volunteer force • At this point the Cromford Canal 24 joins the Derwent Valley. What is described can best be seen from seats on the left side from the Roman settlement of Little Chester or Derventio. 4 • Chevin Golf course is an indicator that you are approaching the follow the bold bull nosed string course which runs the length of raised by the Strutts under the threat of a Napoleonic invasion. The canal was designed and built 1790-1794 by William Jessop and Derby and the right side from Matlock. • Just north of them, looking south-west, may be seen the church tower impressive Milford Tunnel portal. Only the eagle eyed will be able to the structure. Eleven bridges span the railway cutting, re-connecting • The Strutts built earthen bunds (embankments) along this stretch of Benjamin Outram. of the 18th century mill settlement of Darley Abbey. St Matthew’s glimpse the fine stonework of the northern tunnel portal. the town’s roads. To build the northernmost town centre bridge the river as flood defences. DERBY – for the Silk Mill and Derby Art Gallery. six houses were taken out of the centre of Jedediah Strutt’s 18th • This cross section shows the complicated relationship between the Church 5 was built in 1818 by mill owner Walter Evans. • This cutting was, until the line was widened in 1931, a tunnel. linear engineering structures which interweave along the valley. The • The Midland Trijunct Station of 1839-41 was built to serve three century terrace of 77 three storey mill workers houses on Long Row. • The fine 13th century steeple and tower of All Saints Breadsall. 6 The remaining houses in the terrace are still in use today, on either • Ambergate Junction 22 . Here, the main line turns east here and canal came first, then the road and then the railway, which had to be independent railway companies. They were amalgamated in 1844 to inserted between them. form the great Midland Railway Company and by 1846 the railway • The river washlands are part of the Derwent Valley Mills World side of the cutting. continues along the valley of the River Amber, to connect with enterprise occupied 232 acres. There are two notable architects Heritage Site. Fragments of ridge and furrow may be seen in certain • The great red-brick square of the East Mill 16 of 1912 is one of the Chesterfield, Sheffield, Leeds and all stops north. The train has to associated with this line. Most of Francis Thompson’s buildings light conditions. country’s first steel framed structures. slow down as the Derwent Valley Line splits off from the main line, have been • North of the newer housing is Burley Hill 7 where pottery was crossing the confluence of the rivers Derwent and Amber on a lofty • One of Belper’s best kept secrets, its beautiful River Gardens 17 of viaduct. This junction once had a triangular arrangement, when the demolished but the manufactured during the 13th and 14th centuries. 1906, is revealed from the vantage point of the railway carriage, Roundhouse and Manchester to Midlands Junction Railway opened, with platforms on • The village is Little Eaton. A branch line from here closed in 1957. It whereas they cannot be seen from the road. each side from 1876. Clocktower 1 of ran up to Denby Pottery. about 1839 are • The photograph shows how the railway line joined up with the • The tall mill chimney locates Peckwash Mill 8 , a paper mill of a rare survival turnpike road of 1816-18. The A6 follows its line. about 1800. from the earliest railway days. • The spire and tower of St Alkmund’s Church 9 , Duffield date from The Roundhouse the 14th century but a church was recorded here in The Domesday could hold 30 Book (1086). locomotives. It was • Duffield Hall 10 has an Elizabethan core but was much extended in at Derby Station 1871. It is now the headquarters of the Derbyshire Building Society. • The new housing occupies the much re-used site of ancient forges, a in 1850 that Sir Joseph Paxton conceived the first conceptual sketch of corn mill, an 18th century iron foundry and an innovative gas works the Crystal Palace. DUFFIELD built by the Strutts in 1810 to serve their mills. • On the other side of the track and across the road a housing estate 2 • The wooded Chevin ridge 13 . ‘Chevin’ derives from a Celtic word built in 1842 for employees of the North Midland Railway may be • Here the former Wirksworth branch line of 1868 joins the main line. A volunteer group, Wyvern Rail, is working towards the re-opening of meaning high ridge. An ancient route runs along its crest and can still glimpsed. 55 terraced houses, built to designs by Frances Thompson, • Crich Chase 25 was enclosed in medieval times as a deer park. Its the line as a leisure service. be identified today. were rescued and restored by the Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust woodland was used for the provision of ‘white coal’ to smelt lead • A modern industrial estate occupies the site of Belper’s first railway between 1979 and 1982. • The decorative little stone building with a pyramidal roof is the former and some of the oldest coppiced oaks and sweet chestnut trees date station, which was relocated to the centre of the town in 1878. Free Methodist chapel of 1843. from the 1600s. • The concrete flyover leads to Pride Park, a business and retail park Fragments of Francis Thompson’s original complex survive. developed on the former Chaddesden Sidings. • The high plateau is Castle Hill (property of the National Trust). The • The spire surmounts Belper’s cemetery chapels 18 of 1859. • Stunning views of the Derwent Valley are to be had along • The chimney of Strutt’s former public baths 14 on Gibfield Lane, which castle keep that formerly stood here was second only in size to the • The river meadows and the Belper Pool (a former outdoors this stretch.