place

Morley Park

Derbyshire geography stubsGeography of Amber Valley
Morley Park Furnaces
Morley Park Furnaces

Morley Park is an area within Heage, in the parish of Ripley in the English county of Derbyshire, north of Derby. It is about five miles north of the village of Morley itself. At the Norman Conquest it was within the wapentake of Morleyston. In the reign of Henry II it was within the newly created Forest of East Derbyshire. When the area was disafforested in 1225, it may have been taken over when William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby extended Duffield Frith to include the manor of Bradley, now part of Belper. In 1266 the area became part of the Duchy of Lancaster. It was an enclosed area, one of the seven royal parks within the Frith. Adjacent to it was the smaller Belper or Lady Park.In the nineteenth century Morley Park was the site of iron smelting furnaces, some of which have been preserved and can be seen from the A38 road.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Morley Park (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Morley Park
A38, Amber Valley

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Morley ParkContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 53.0384 ° E -1.4359 °
placeShow on map

Address

A38
DE56 0LP Amber Valley
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Morley Park Furnaces
Morley Park Furnaces
Share experience

Nearby Places

Heage
Heage

Heage is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ripley, in the Amber Valley district, in the county of Derbyshire, England. It is situated midway between Belper and Ripley. The village is in the Heage and Ambergate ward, which in the 2011 census had a population of 5,013.Heage is known for its six-sailed windmill; building work started in 1791 and it was first recorded as working in 1797. Each of the six sails weighs nearly one ton, and the tower is built from local sandstone. The name Heage is derived from the Old English hēah and ecg, and means 'high edge' or 'high ridge'. In 1817, the Lysons recorded that "Heage, alias High-edge, lies about five miles from Duffield, upon the road from Chesterfield to Derby. The manor, which had been parcel of the Earldom and Duchy of Lancaster, was granted, with Duffield, to Ditchfield and others. In 1629 it was conveyed to the Stanhope family. Sir William Stanhope bequeathed it, in 1703, to Godfrey Wentworth, Esq. his nephew, whose son of the same name sold it, in 1767, to Francis Hurt, Esq., grandfather of Francis Hurt, Esq., of Alderwasley, who is the present proprietor."Also located in Heage, at Morley Park, are the remains of two coke-fired blast furnaces for the smelting of iron, built for Francis Hurt of Alderwasley. The first, built in 1780 was the earliest in Derbyshire. The other was built in 1818 and they represent very early coke-fired blast furnaces. They closed in 1874, and most of the site has returned to nature, but the furnace towers still exist and can be seen next to the A38. The present school was built about 1862 to replace two much smaller schools that were managed by the Church and the Storer Charity. Later it became a secondary school and is now an infants and primary school. The original old Victorian buildings still form part of the school and the old Church school and Charity school are located nearby. When the school was a secondary school it received pupils from three other schools, The Green school (now demolished), Ridgeway school, which has been converted to a house and Ambergate school that is still an infants and junior school. There are a number of recent housing developments in the village. Heage has two bus services, the 6.2 and 6.3, both of which are operated by TrentBarton. Service 6E operates Monday to Saturday evenings (not Bank Holidays). The services link the village to the nearby towns of Ripley and Belper, as well as the City of Derby. The first mention of a post office in Heage was in 1847, closed in 2008. It has three pubs, the Eagle Tavern, the Green man and the Black Boy Inn. Heage is also home to St. Luke's Church, situated on Church Street. It was originally built in 1646. In 1836 the church was enlarged, this created an unusual 'T' shape which is a rarity in Derbyshire. Services are held every Sunday, varying in traditional and contemporary styles.

Denby railway station
Denby railway station

Denby railway station was a railway station which served the village of Denby in Derbyshire, England. It was opened in 1856 as Smithy Houses by the Midland Railway to on its Ripley branch from Little Eaton Junction (approximately 3 miles north of Derby) to Ripley. Denby itself is a fairly scattered community, but the main part was about a mile away. From November 1858 the timetables began to refer to "Denbey", with the Post Office spelling being adopted in February 1878. Initially there was a low platform on the up-side, but a new higher platform to match those of the other stations was added at some time later on the down-side. An important cargo was coal all from the many mines and opencast workings. An amount of ironstone was also worked but was of low quality. This meant that the local Denby Iron and Coal Company with their four furnaces 45 feet high - later increased to 60 feet - had to import their ironstone from outside the area. They also imported their coal since the local output was of domestic quality rather than being suitable for smelting. The railway provided a siding for this company and also built a facility for processing the slag from the iron production. It so happened in 1901, the Nottingham county surveyor, Edgar Purnell Hooley was visiting the site and noticed some tar that had been spilled and covered with iron foundry slag. A major trouble with highways at that time was the dust raised by increasingly speedy vehicles and various ways had been tried unsuccessfully for binding the road surface. He noticed that it had withstood the passage of traffic and obtained a British patent for producing what he called Tarmac. In 1903 he formed the TarMacadam (Purnell Hooley's Patents) Syndicate Limited.Another customer for the line at this point was the Denby Pottery which had opened in 1809 and had benefitted by the arrival of the railway. It had a siding at Denby Wharf (the terminus of the Little Eaton Gangway) about a third of a mile further north. Each week around three or four vans would be despatched to Chaddesden sidings (near Derby station) where they would be connected to an express to St Pancras and the company's warehouse at the Granary. Added to all this were consignments of milk and agricultural produce from all the farms in the area In the Grouping of all lines (into four main companies) in 1923 the station became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Passenger services finished in 1930, though the line remained open - primarily for the coal traffic Among the numerous coal workings in the area, the Butterley Company's Denby Hall colliery a mile north of the station was perhaps the most prolific. Investment continued during and after the war, with a washing plant for the colliery which was planned to handle the output of three other collieries, along with the deep Kilburn seam. The facility continued in use until after the station was finally closed in 1965. The track north of the station was lifted completely in 1968 leaving a short length of line in the remains of the station as a head shunt. The station house still survives as a private home, with both platforms greatly overgrown.

Kilburn railway station
Kilburn railway station

Kilburn railway station was a railway station which served the village of Kilburn in Derbyshire, England. It was opened in 1856 by the Midland Railway on its Ripley branch from Little Eaton Junction (approximately 3 miles north of Derby) to Ripley. It was approximately 2 miles from Coxbench and about a mile from Kilburn itself. It did not open until 1 December, three months after the line opened. There was a single platform on the down side, adjacent to the level crossing over the Belper Road. On the other side was the large Station Hotel which still exists but is now a day nursery. Behind this was a brickworks, which is remembered by the name of Brickyard Lane, and nearby a glassworks. However, the main business was from the Kilburn Colliery to the north-east which was served by both north and south facing junctions.In September 1887 the station was burgled. The station master's office was broken into but the money stored there had been removed the previous night. The robber ransacked the office but left without any gains. An 18 year old, John Walker from Chevin View, Belper was later arrested and admitted the offence. He was sent to prison for two months. In the Grouping of all lines (into four main companies) in 1923, the station became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Passenger services finished in 1930, though the line remained open to Derby for coal traffic until the late twentieth century. Nothing is now left of the station or its tracks, which were demolished in 1965.