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  • Crossroads Crich

    Burdett’s map (above), first published in 1767, is the earliest large-scale map of the roads around Crich, but even the  revised 1791 version fails to show the Cromford/Langley Mill turnpike of 1766. The Oakerthorpe/ Ashbourne road is marked by a double solid line with mileages, minor roads are shown by double broken lines, but footpaths…

  • Riding through the glen …

    When I was a young boy in Nottingham, in what now seems the Middle Ages but was actually the 1950s, we loved playing at Robin Hood. Inspired by the TV serial and song (Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Riding through the glen) we could make a primitive bow and arrows ourselves, and finding a green cap…

  • The travels of the Bakewell Crosses

    There are a surprising number of pre-Conquest stone crosses in Derbyshire, but Bakewell churchyard must be unique in having two. The larger one can be seen above, near the eastern end of the church, with carvings on all four sides, but with the cross head missing. The carvings are both worn and defaced, but on…

  • High Life on the High Peak

    The successive iterations of the Cromford and High Peak Railway are a reflection of modern British history. Originally conceived as a canal in the early 1800s, it was intended to link the Peak Forest Canal with the Cromford Canal, a scheme that involved an ascent of about a thousand feet. But not only was such…

  • Phantom platform 2

    Trains no longer stop at platform 2, Whatstandwell station, for the very good reason that there are no railway tracks beside it. In fact, since the line was demoted in the Beeching era, the route has been single track from Matlock to Belper, whereas before that it was the main line from Derby to Manchester.…