Ambergate

Toadmoor Tunnel (originally called Hag Wood Tunnel) was built at Ambergate as part of the North Midland Railway, which opened in 1840.128 yards long, it was cut through an unstable hillside on a notoriously difficult line of route. What had initially been expected to be acceptably strong coal-bearing rock turned out to be wet shale. On beginning excavation a landslide occurred, the effects of which can still be seen further up the bank in Thatcher's Wood.The engineer Frederick Swanwick decided to proceed using the cut-and- cover method, with stone retaining walls and invert, and a brick-built masonry arch over the top, which gives it its unusual elliptical shape. Because of this, it took 15 months to build, instead of the planned two. It is thought that a second landslip may have occurred sometime later, so that it was braced with steel hoops at its southern end.Because of the tunnel cross section the depth of ballast under the track is adequate in the centre but almost nothing close to the walls, which produces settlement in the middle and crushed ballast at the edges.Other problems arise with a need for increased line speed and the arrival of electrification, not least because it is grade 2 listed and part of the Derwent Valley World Heritage Site.

The River Amber is a left bank tributary of the River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. It gives its name to the local government district and borough of Amber Valley.The name Amber is a pre-Celtic word with uncertain meaning.

Ambergate railway station is a railway station owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway. It serves the village of Ambergate in Derbyshire, England. The station is located on the Derwent Valley Line from Derby to Matlock, which diverges from the Midland Main Line just south of the station at Ambergate Junction.

The Cromford Canal ran 14.5 miles (23.3 kilometres) from Cromford to the Erewash Canal in Derbyshire, England with a branch to Pinxton. Built by William Jessop with the assistance of Benjamin Outram, its alignment included four tunnels and 14 locks.From Cromford it ran south following the 275-foot (84 m) contour line along the east side of the valley of the Derwent to Ambergate, where it turned eastwards along the Amber valley. It turned sharply to cross the valley, crossing the river and the Ambergate to Nottingham road, by means of an aqueduct at Bullbridge, before turning towards Ripley. From there the Butterley Tunnel took it through to the Erewash Valley. From the tunnel it continued to Ironville, the junction for the branch to Pinxton, and then descended through fourteen locks to meet the Erewash Canal at Langley Mill. The Pinxton Branch became important as a route for Nottinghamshire coal, via the Erewash, to the River Trent and Leicester and was a terminus of the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway. A 6-mile (9.7 km) long section of the Cromford canal between Cromford and Ambergate is listed as a Biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Local Nature Reserve.In addition to purely canal traffic, there was a lively freight interchange with the Cromford and High Peak Railway, which traversed the plateau of the Peak District from Whaley Bridge in the north west, and which descended to the canal at High Peak Junction by means of an inclined plane.

The Bull Bridge Aqueduct was situated on the Cromford Canal, built in 1794, at Bullbridge east of Ambergate along the Amber Valley, where it turned sharply to cross the valley and the Ambergate to Nottingham road. The Cromford canal is in Derbyshire, England. Known officially as the "Amber Aqueduct", it was actually an earthwork bank surmounted by masonry walls across the valley some thirty feet high in places. It was pierced by three arches. One was for the river. The second was an accommodation arch for the houses behind, which are now the small village known as Bullbridge. The main road passed through the third which was the original Bull Bridge. In 1840, George Stephenson engineered the North Midland Railway to intersect the canal at this point on its way from Ambergate to Wingfield and Stretton, towards Clay Cross and Chesterfield. The lines were laid in the space between the river and the road, but were carried on an embankment over the side road leading to Bullbridge village, which itself was carried by a bridge over the river. A Victorian commentator wrote "river, road, railway and canal were thus piled up, four stories high". To avoid paying compensation to the canal owners, it was necessary to take the railway under the waterway without closing the canal. An iron tank 150 feet (46 m) long, 6 feet (1.8 m) deep and 9 feet (2.7 m) wide was prefabricated in sections at the Butterley Company's ironworks. The sections were assembled on site and floated to the spot, sunk and embedded during the night without interrupting the traffic on the canal. In 1860 the railway bridge (not visible in the picture) failed as a goods train passed over it, but there were no casualties.In the early twentieth century the canal went out of use. Where it crossed the highway, the aqueduct was only wide enough for a single line of traffic and was controlled by traffic lights. In 1968 the road became a feeder route for the newly upgraded A38 towards the M1 and the aqueduct was demolished.

The Great British Car Journey is a car museum in Ambergate, Derbyshire, England. It opened on 22 May 2021. The museum's exhibits consist of over 130 cars that illustrate the history of British car design and production between 1922 and the present day. Vehicles on display include a Morris Minor Million, Humber Hawk, Austin Allegro, Rover Metro, Mini Clubman, Triumph Toledo, Sinclair C5, DMC DeLorean, Ford Fiesta, Jensen Interceptor, Rover P6, Jaguar XJS and Lotus Esprit. Visitors to the museum are taken on an "interactive journey" and are able to learn about the history of the cars by scanning them with a device. The cars are arranged in groups by decade of production, surrounded by banners and artwork displaying period adverts and graphics. Visitors are able to get close to the cars, so they can "smell the old car smell, marvel at the interiors and jog memories".In addition to the display vehicles are 32 cars—including a Ford Capri, Austin Seven and Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit—that visitors are able to drive around the site, accompanied by an instructor. Visitors are also able to view maintenance work being undertaken on the exhibits.The museum is the idea of Richard Usher, former owner of Blyton Park racing circuit and Auto Windscreens. The idea took shape after Usher was asked if he wanted to buy a low-mileage, mint condition, 1989 Austin Maestro; Usher initially thought 'no', but later reflected on how rare such cars—the everyday cars that a few years ago sold in their millions— had become. Acquiring the cars and establishing the museum took about four years; one of the hardest cars to source was a Vauxhall Chevette, as few had survived out of the half a million that were made and the museum wanted one in a basic trim specification; the display car was eventually bought from Vauxhall. The museum had been scheduled to open in April 2020, but its opening date was delayed a year due to health problems of two of its founders, unforeseen extra costs, flooding at the site, and the COVID-19 pandemic.The museum occupies a 4-acre site of a former wire works, which shut down in 1996 after 120 years of production. The wire works had employed 500 people in its heyday, and during World War II made the telegraph cables that were routed under the English Channel.

Oakhurst House is a derelict building in Shining Cliff Woods above the village of Ambergate in Derbyshire. The house was built in 1848 by Francis Hurt behind his iron forge in Ambergate. It was owned by the Johnson family of industrialists for many years who were benefactors in the local area, building the parish church of St. Anne at Ambergate.

Bullbridge is a small village in Derbyshire. The Bull bridge accident, in which a railway bridge failed as a goods train was just passing over it, happened here in 1860.

Fritchley is a small village in Derbyshire south of Crich and north of Ambergate. It falls under the civil parish of Crich. To the west of the village is the ruin of a windmill. Fritchley has an active Congregational Church, and there is a Quaker meeting house with an active Quaker Meeting.[1] There is a pub, the Red Lion, but the post office closed in 2009. The village hosts a steam rally each August. In 1793, Fritchley Tunnel, the world's oldest surviving railway tunnel was constructed under a public road here on the Butterley Gangroad, the Butterley Company's plateway to carry limestone from Hilt's Quarry at Crich to kilns on the Cromford Canal at Bullbridge, by Benjamin Outram. The tunnel was scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act in February 2015.Fritchley was used as one of the filming locations for the hit UK TV series, Peak Practice, which ran from 1993 to 2002.

The Bull Bridge accident was a failure of a cast-iron bridge at Bullbridge, near Ambergate in Derbyshire on 26 September 1860. As a goods train was passing over the bridge at Bullbridge, the structure failed suddenly, causing the derailment of the majority of the wagons. There were no serious casualties, but it was a warning of the fundamental weakness of many such bridges on the British rail network.

The Butterley Gangroad was an early tramway in Derbyshire of approximately 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge, which linked Hilt's Quarry and other limestone quarries at Crich with the Cromford Canal at Bullbridge. The first railway project of Derbyshire civil engineer Benjamin Outram (1764–1805), the line was originally a horse-drawn and gravity-driven plateway, a form of tramway that Outram popularised. Unlike modern edgeways, where flanges on the wheel guide it along the track, plateways used "L" shaped rails where a flange on the rail guided the wheels. The line was constructed in 1793, with the construction of Fritchley Tunnel, now believed to be the world's oldest railway tunnel, being required to go under a road junction at Fritchley. A steam locomotive using a walking mechanism, known as the Steam Horse locomotive, was trialled on the line in 1813. In the 1840s, upgrading took place to accommodate steam locomotives, and part of the original line was moved.The railway remained in use until 1933.

Fritchley Tunnel is a disused railway tunnel at Fritchley in Derbyshire, England, which is believed to be the oldest surviving example in the world. The tunnel was constructed in 1793 by Benjamin Outram as part of the Butterley Gangroad, altered in the 1840s, and remained in use until the railway closed in 1933. It is a scheduled monument.