Wonders of the Peak

Buxton Museum & Art Gallery

Buildings & Architecture

The Packhorse Bridge

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The stone bridge you can see was originally built at Goyt’s Bridge – which is now beneath Errwood Reservoir. The bridge was removed and rebuilt in this spot to save it from destruction. Do you recognise it in the image below showing it in its original position?

Postcard of Goyt’s Bridge, early 1900s.

According to historic records, the bridge was built further down the valley, at Goyt’s Bridge, in around 1762, on an ancient salt route. Teams of ponies would cross at this point in the valley, transporting salt from Cheshire into Derbyshire.

The lead pony in a train would wear a bell attached to its harness. This bell warned other trains to wait at passing places, and sometimes advertising the approach of the pony train to potential customers. You can see a pony bell like this on display at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery.

Bronze pony bell at Buxton Museum (DERSB-2009-7-236), discovered at Poole’s Cavern

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Errwood Hall

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Once the heart of a flourishing community, Errwood Hall was demolished in 1934 By Stockport Water Corporation to make way for nearby Fernilee Reservoir, along with almost everything else in the valley. Quite why the company felt the need to knock down an impressive Victorian mansion that was nowhere near the water is a matter of dispute. The most likely explanation is that they did not have the funds for its maintenance. Now little more than a ruin in a sea of rhododendron, the Hall still gets thousands of visitors every year, drawn to the mystique of the mansion in the woods. Slowly but surely, the building is being reclaimed by the wilderness and may one day vanish completely.

This was once the home of Samuel Grimshawe, a wealthy Lancastrian industrialist, who chose this beautiful location for his family to live. This lithograph from the museum’s collection was drawn by Errwood Hall’s Italian architect Alexander Roos in 1840, the year in which the majestic house was built. Did he or the Grimshawes imagine that it would stand for just 94 years?

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Butterley Gangroad: Fritchley Tunnel

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The Fritchley Tunnel is the world’s oldest surviving railway tunnel.

Fritchley Tunnel looking south.

When the Butterley Gangroad was built in 1793 the line started the downhill descent from the mine (later opened up into a quarry) at Crich and ended at the Amber Wharf on the Cromford canal at Bullbridge after passing through Fritchley village. Here it passed under a road junction by means of a short tunnel about 90 feet long. The tunnel was constructed using the “cut and cover” method. A deep trench was dug, walls were built directly on the earth on either side, a former was put in place  and an arch created over it. The ground was then restored above the arch. When the re-alignment of the line was undertaken in the 1850s the southern end of the tunnel was rebuilt using larger stones and a wider cross-section. the joint between the two areas of stomework was roughly made and had to be strengthened later by means of a blue brick buttress, partly due to the weight of the building above.

 

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Matlock, Tram Shelter at Crown Square

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This postcard shows the Tram Shelter and Crown Square. The Tram Shelter was established 1899. The Crown Hotel first opened its doors in 1895, and was last a hotel in 1990. It was the hotel that gave its name into the square.

Matlock Cable Tramway was cable tramway that opened 1893 and closed in 1927. The tramway ran between Matlock railway station and the Hydro Spa Hotels of Smedley’s and Rockside. The tramway was financed by locally born newspaper owner Sir George Newnes.

Some of the original structure of the Tram Shelter exists today, as it was moved from the location in the postcard Hall Leys Park.

matlock_tramway_-_crown_square_tram_stop_06-08-06

For more information about the establishment and history of the Matlock Tram consult the andregen.com website

 

Wirksworth, Babington House (The Cottage Hospital)

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Publisher: “The Adam Bede Series”, George Marsden & Sons, Wirksworth.

Babington House has a very long and distinguished history, and has served many different roles since its construction in around 1630. It sits within what resembles a small quarry, and the stone from this area was used to build the house. It began its life as house for the Babington Family.

From 1724-1829 the property became a Workhouse, and from 1867-1927 a Cottage Hospital, it later became the Maternity Hospital. The house returned to private use when the hospital relocated to Waltham House.

Locals have indicated that this postcard could well date from the time of the Great War, where recovering soldiers were returning from action to rest and recuperate. They have indicated that the figure in the foreground is a certain Nurse Penny.

Lucy Gannon the writer who wrote the Peak Practice series for TV once lived at the house in the 1990s, and her friends Dawn French and Lenny Henry were often seen visiting, along with Simon Shepard who rented a house up the top of Greenhill.

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Wirksworth, Market Place

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Publisher: F. Frith & Co of Reigate

This postcard is believed to have been taken in the 1950’s. The postcard comes from a series published by F. Frith & Co of Reigate. It depicts Wirksworth’s Market place, and the buildings still retain much of their original character and charm. Marsden was an agricultural merchant (and supplier of air pellets) to some point in the early 1980s, and always had a quantity of wares outside of the shop. Locals to this day remember walking in though main door, where there were pots and kitchen items for available for sale. Behind the counter, which was on the left of the store, there were shelves and draws with do-it-yourself tools. The store is remembered with the ever present evocative smell of paraffin in the air.

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