Wonders of the Peak

Buxton Museum & Art Gallery

Discovering Britain

Crane at the Quarry

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We are now looking up at the remains of a sizeable quarry, complete with a rusting crane which once loaded the limestone blocks onto trains.

The quarry crane © Simon Corble

This is a typical Peak District scene. If you follow the High Peak Trail all the way to its northern end, just outside Buxton you will run into some truly vast quarries still in operation. They load directly onto a dedicated ‘mineral line’, just as happened here. Such railways are a much greener option than road transport.

Looking at the map, you may notice the route of the old railway seems to snake around all over the place. It’s quite unlike the normal pattern of straight rail lines we are used to. This is because the engineers who designed the line were not railway builders, they were canal men. In order to make the gradients as easy as possible they followed their habitual method of following the contour lines of the hills.

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The Cutting

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Walking through the cutting © Simon Corble

There’s a dramatic change of atmosphere here, as the former railway line slices through a small spur of the hill. At this point we are literally walking through a cross section of the very material of the White Peak: Carboniferous limestone.

Run your hand over the surface of the rock. It can be highly variable across the White Peak but this is tough, top grade building material. Almost certainly the spoil from this cutting was used in one or both of the huge embankments on our route. The builders may indeed have deliberately carved through here to get at the high quality rock rather than take a diversion.

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Past the Embankment

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Having passed over the narrow embankment, with its terrifying drops either side, this is the point to look back and admire the effort which went into its building.

The former railway embankment © Simon Corble

There is something incredibly ancient about this structure. Completed in 1831 it is ancient, in railway terms. But it speaks of something almost prehistoric.

We are used to nineteenth century railway architecture looking very precise; highly engineered, made of uniform brick. This is nothing of the sort. Now look at the wider landscape. Why does this structure seem to fit in so well?

The builders must have borrowed from the deceptively simple and centuries-old technology of the drystone wallers. Walls made of local limestone criss-cross the green fields around us in all directions.

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Crossing the Plateau

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A short walk exploring the story of the High Peak Trail

The Peak District abounds with former railways now converted into scenic walking and cycling trails. The former Cromford and High Peak Railway, now the High Peak Trail, is one of the best.

But what led anyone to attempt such a difficult feat of construction, over a thousand feet above sea level?

This trail explores the reasons and uncovers signs of other transport routes over the White Peak plateau.

From the car park, set off east on the High Peak Trail by crossing the narrow tarmac lane. Walk with care over the low-walled embankment, keeping dogs on leads. Stop just past the embankment.

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Milldale

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Milldale © Eamon Curry via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Limestone is the architect and dominant feature of Dovedale. This pearly grey, 350 million-year-old rock dictates the tone for the whole of this glorious landscape. It was this apparently intractable rock, carved over the millennia by wind, rain, frost and glacial meltwater into the soaring pinnacles, secret caves and free-standing arches we come to see and admire in the gorge today.

Dovedale caves and spires © Alan Feebery via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

These rocky features have provided refuge for our ancient ancestors and the source of inspiration for writers and painters. And it is the limestone which produces the soil that supports rare flora and filters the water to make the river the perfect habitat for trout and other wildlife.

Dovedale is one of the major honeypots of the Peak District National Park, visited by over a million people every year. Visiting on a crisp winter’s day, it’s strange to think that this was all once part of an ancient tropical coral reef.

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Viators Bridge

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Viator’s Bridge © Tony via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

This former packhorse bridge now known as Viator’s Bridge, gets its name from a passage in the classic book The Compleat Angler. First published in 1653, and never out of print since, it was written by Izaak Walton and his friend, local squire Charles Cotton.

Cover of ‘The Compleat Angler’ by Izaak Walton (mechanical reproduction of 2D image) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
As they cross this bridge, Viator (Walton) asks of his companion, Piscator (Cotton):

“What’s here the sign of a Bridge? Do you use to Travel with wheel-barrows in this country? …why a mouse can hardly go over it: ‘Tis not two fingers broad.”

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