Darley Dale ‘Out and About’
Despite sharing the same DE4 post code, most of Darley Dale’s inhabitants prefer to think of themselves as living separate from neighbouring Matlock. Attempts to build on the small ‘green belt’ next to the DFS warehouse on the A6 between the two are met with furious objections. Darley Dale is, to them, still as it always has been, an independent village in its own right. Nowadays, the village is mainly a residential enclave on the border of the Peak District National Park, dominated by three large housing estates, where at least one them has a high proportion of bungalows popular with those preferring to live on the flat rather than hilly Matlock. Those estates and adjoining smaller developments link a chain of little hamlets strung along the spring-line on the eastern side of the Derwent valley – Hackney, Farley, Two Dales (formerly the less attractive sounding Toadhole), Hillside and Northwood. These together with Churchtown in the valley bottom make up what has become to be known as Darley Dale. The oldest remaining dwellings linking the past to the present are in those one-time hamlets. Dating from the 12th century, St Helen’s the parish church and spiritual focus to the area, stands oddly enough, just above the flood plain of the Derwent. It is probably the oldest building in the district, but the yew tree standing close to the church door is probably older still, making links to a pagan pre-Christian era. Although nothing remains other than the name of nearby Abbey Farm, it is likely that the church began as an oratory of a nearby small abbey whose monks preached beneath the yew’s spreading branches. South-west facing Hillside once had a number of specialist nurseries, although they no longer grow plants for sale – there is even a Darley Dale heather developed by one of them. Changing gardening fashions led to their demise and nowadays, domestic gardeners in the area buy their plants from Forest Nurseries, a perfect link between old and new. A rarity amongst garden centres, it is one of the few places where experienced advice can be given in answer to an amateur’s problem. The old pack horse way across the valley came by way of the river crossing at Darley Bridge below Wensley, and then climbed steep Sydnope Hill beyond Two Dales, or Toadhole as it then was, over the moors along Jagger’s Lane to Chesterfield. The old school for the district is on this road just before it reaches the original houses of Two Dales. With high windows to prevent wandering eyes, where pupils once had the ‘3 Rs’ hammered into their minds, the school has since been a bakery but is currently being converted into a house. ‘Jaggers’, or packhorse drovers, would have stopped for refreshment at the Plough Inn that stands on what is now a side road. Some carriers thankful at not having to climb the hill, would have turned off along Ladygrove Road towards the village mill. In the sixteenth century it became a flax-spinning factory powered by three reservoirs further up the narrow valley. Owned by the Dakeyne family, a dynasty of bankers and engineering inventors, it prospered for at least two centuries. In 1793 Daniel Dakeyne patented a machine known as the equilibrium, which he used in the mill as a more efficient way for preparing and spinning flax. Later, his brothers Edward and James, patented a hydraulic engine. An early version of a turbine engine, there is no record of its success, so one must assume that this innovative machine, though ahead of its time, was a failure. When the mill stopped spinning flax, it was taken over by S and E Johnson (East) Ltd for the preparation of animal feedstuffs, but since its closure, parts of the mill have been used by a variety of small industries, such as one making timber furniture. High grade pink gritstone was quarried by the Stancliffe Stone Company in Hall Dale Quarry on the hillside above Two Dales and carried by a narrow-gauge railway into the valley bottom. Most of the stone used to build the grand houses that sprang up along the valley sides and the A6 came from there. During Matlock’s hey-day as a Victorian spa, it became popular for businessmen to build their homes nearby, handily convenient to the numerous mini-spas that followed those started by John Smedley. With the demise of the fashion for immersion in cold water, one of them became a minor public school for daughters of the clergy. Known as St Elphin’s it moved to Darley Dale from its original site in Warrington to escape a cholera epidemic. One of its pupils (although she had left before the school moved to Matlock) was Richmal Compton, author of the famous Just William stories. Since the sudden and unexpected closure of the school in March 2005, the building has been steadily expanded into a high class retirement home. One of the businessmen who made Darley Dale his home was Sir Joseph Whitworth, engineer, inventor and philanthropist. He came to the area in 1854 when he bought Stancliffe Hall. By this time he was well established as an engineer based on his company in Manchester, specialising in making machine tools. One of his many inventions and innovations was to advocate a standard and uniform screw thread – until then every implement and machine had its own uniquely threaded screws. He also designed a measuring device that was accurate to a millionth of an inch – a bass relief of this machine is featured on Sir Joseph Whitworth’s memorial in Darley Dale Park. His philanthropy covered such things as a scholarship for graduate engineers studying at Manchester University, but he also helped the village where he had made his home. The Whitworth Hotel and adjacent Institute are the most tangible effect of his caring nature. Probably the biggest ‘village hall’ in the country, it provides space for public meetings, conference and lecture halls, theatrical events, indoor
Ecclesbourne Valley Railway
We are fortunate in having three preserved railways in our part of the North Midlands. Peak Rail, the Midland Railway, Butterley and the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, follow routes through attractive countryside, but arguably the Ecclesbourne line is through some of the best unspoilt farming countryside in Derbyshire. Part of its route is almost as though it is running through woodland, and there cannot be many places where trains have to slow down behind bouquets of cackling kamikaze pheasants. Running between Wirksworth and the Midland Main Line at Duffield, the Ecclesbourne Railway was originally the idea of a group of coal mine owners in the Erewash Valley. Around 1856 they wanted a quicker route to take their coal to the textile mills around Manchester, but as the Midland line only went as far as Rowsley, the alternative was to link up with the Cromford and High Peak Railway. This line already ran across the high limestone moors of the Peak District and the intension was to build a line along the Ecclesbourne Valley. The new line would join the Cromford and High Peak, connecting with it at Ravenstor above Wirksworth and its rapidly growing quarries. The only problem was that the last part of the route, via Ravenstor, meant a steep climb up a 1:27 gradient. No doubt this would be possible (and still is), for lightly laden passenger trains to climb up from Wirksworth, but it would create problems for trains loaded with tons of coal. This was soon proved to be impractical and coal continued to move by canal to be off-loaded at High Peak Junction until road traffic took over. Work began on the 9 miles (14.5km) of track of the Ecclesbourne Valley line from Wirksworth to Duffield with the ceremonial cutting of a sod at Duffield. The line was opened on 1st October 1865, much to the delight of the local businessmen who had thrown their weight behind the Erewash coal owners. Planning the line was not without its problems, which in turn led to the building of what became known as ‘Travis’ folly’. Up and until 1933 if you had travelled along the line you would have seen a much grassed-over 19 arch viaduct crossing the line. Simply linking fields on either side of the line, it was known officially as Hazelwood Viaduct, but more commonly as ‘Travis’ Folly’. It was built, so folk lore suggests in order for Thomas ‘Canny’ Travis’ cattle to get from one side of the track to the other. The ideal and much cheaper solution would have been to install a level crossing, but the railway company was forced to spend £10,000 building the bridge. Like all folk tales, the story linking the bridge to ‘Canny’ Travis is not exactly true. As the land over which the line ran was owned by the then 7th Duke of Devonshire, it was his agent who insisted on this expense. The argument was that it was necessary in order to allow Travis’ and a neighbouring tenant’s cattle to reach fields on the opposite side of the line from their farms. By 1933 and with a new duke (the 9th) at the helm, arrangements were made to demolish the hardly used bridge. Much to the delight of the huge crowd that had gathered, a detachment of Royal Engineers blew up the 19arch bridge. It was replaced by the more practical level crossing. Travis, whatever his involvement in this crazy scheme, for the rest of his life took advantage of the railway every day to send his milk to the dairy. Very much a rural line throughout its existence, it cannot have paid its way purely from the number of passengers it carried. Most, if not all would join the train at Wirksworth in order to go shopping in Derby, or work. What would be profitable was the amount of tonnage carried from the quarries surrounding the end of the line at Wirksworth. As practically all the quarries were separated from the railway by the Wirksworth to Middleton road, all were connected, either by narrow gauge lines, or even, as in the case of Dale Quarry, the massive hole that blighted the town from its situation a matter of less than a quarter of a mile from the town centre; this one was linked to Wirksworth Station’s goods yard through a tunnel by standard gauge. Baileycroft, even closer to the town had a narrow gauge track through another short tunnel. Stonecroft Quarry further up the road had both standard and narrow gauge tracks. The top half of Middlepeak didn’t use the valley line and was joined to the Cromford and High Peak line by standard gauge; however its lower twin did run stone by narrow gauge into the station yard, along with a conveyor built in 1954. Coleshill Quarry half way up the incline sent its stone by trucks on a narrow gauge track. The sleepy branch line was never going to be a commercial success, passenger use was never going to pay its way. Gradually road transport was taking over from rail, especially affecting the morning milk train. No longer was milk laboriously moved in pails from farm to station, to train, to dairy, but simply pumped into a tanker. Stone was easier to send by road and in any case, many of the quarries around Wirksworth were running out of space; the last stone train left the station in December 1969. Passenger services ended in June 1947 – the excuse being to save coal. From some reason the then owners of the line, LMS, possibly thinking forwards to nationalisation a year later, did not officially withdraw passenger services. They continued to publish a time table, but added the word ‘suspended’, and effectively stopped running passenger trains without the need for a public inquiry. Following nationalisation, British Rail saw no need to alter the status quo, and so the line slowly sank into oblivion. Gradually the nine miles of track disappeared beneath
