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Butterley Gangroad

1793 establishments in England1933 disestablishments in England3 ft 6 in gauge railways in EnglandClosed railway lines in the East MidlandsEngland rail transport stubs
Horse-drawn railwaysRailway lines opened in 1793Use British English from March 2017
Fritchley tramway embankment
Fritchley tramway embankment

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.

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

Butterley Gangroad
Front Street, Amber Valley

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Latitude Longitude
N 53.07315 ° E -1.46629 °
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Front Street

Front Street
DE56 2FT Amber Valley
England, United Kingdom
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Fritchley tramway embankment
Fritchley tramway embankment
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Bullbridge Aqueduct
Bullbridge Aqueduct

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.

Cromford Canal
Cromford Canal

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.

Ambergate
Ambergate

Ambergate () is a village in Derbyshire, England, situated where the River Amber joins the River Derwent, and where the A610 road from Ripley and Nottingham joins the A6 that runs along the Derwent valley between Derby to the south and Matlock to the north. Sawmills and Ridgeway are neighbouring hamlets, and Alderwasley, Heage, Nether Heage and Crich are other significant neighbouring settlements. The village forms part of the Heage and Ambergate ward of Ripley Town Council with a population of 5,013 at the 2011 Census. Ambergate is within the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage site, and has historical connections with George Stephenson; Ambergate is notable for its railway heritage and telephone exchange. Ambergate has an active community life, particularly centred on the school, pubs, churches, sports clubs; and annual village carnival which is relatively large and consistent locally, with popular associated events in carnival week and throughout the year. The carnival is organised by a voluntary committee. Shining Cliff woods, Thacker's woods and Crich Chase border the village. It is about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Matlock at the junction of the A6 trunk road and the A610 to Ripley. A mile east of Ambergate is Heage with its recently restored 18th-century windmill. Until the early 19th century it was known as Toadmoor, with no more than a few artisans' cottages. The placename has previously been attributed as deriving from the Derbyshire dialect "t'owd moor" (Old Moor). The origins of Toadmoor have been traced back by the Survey of English Place-Names as meaning "toadpool", the earliest reference being in 1397 and associated references suggesting how the name of "toad mire" was later corrupted to become "toad moor" therefore confusing the landscape feature meanings of "mire" and "moor". As the area is a steep-sided valley bottom with notable floodplains, marsh and bog areas adjacent to the River Derwent the "toadpool" definition is more likely. The southerly half of the present village is still shown as Toadmoor on the Ordnance Survey's maps, and the name is retained in the street name Toadmoor Lane. The name "Amber Gate" was originally applied to the tollgate for the Nottingham turnpike, but was adopted by the North Midland Railway for Ambergate railway station on the Derwent Valley line. The turnpike to Matlock was opened in 1818. Until then the main road from Belper northwards had been through Wirksworth and such traffic as there was, would have been mainly cotton from Arkwright's Mill at Cromford. However, the Cromford Canal, opened in 1794, also passes the village. In 1818 the turnpike to Nottingham was opened with a toll house at the junction. The canal towpath can be followed from here to Cromford Wharf, passing High Peak Junction, which is the start of the High Peak Trail). This 6-mile (10 km) section is listed as a Biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and also forms part of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way. In 1840 the North Midland Railway opened with a station at 'Amber Gate' which brought trade for 'omnibus and posting conveyance' to Matlock, which was becoming a fashionable spa town. By 1867 there was a through line from London St Pancras to Manchester, as well as to Leeds. Ambergate became an important interchange and, in 1876, Francis Hurt built the 'Hurt Arms' to replace the former 'Thatched House Tavern and Posting House' which the Midland Railway had converted into three cottages (now Midland Place). The main railway line runs through the elliptical Toadmoor Tunnel designed by George Stephenson. In 1791 Benjamin Outram and Samuel Beresford had built kilns at nearby Bullbridge to process limestone from their quarry at Crich. George Stephenson had discovered deposits of coal at Clay Cross and realised that burning lime would provide a use for the slack which otherwise would go to waste. He leased Cliff Quarry at Crich, and built eight limekilns beside the railway. Within a year they had grown to twenty. They were connected by another wagonway known as "The Steep", a 550-yard (500 m) self-acting incline at a slope of 1 in 5. By 1851 the tiny hamlet had grown to a population of 206. In 1876 Richard Johnson and Nephew opened the wireworks by the river. In 1931 the population had reached 901, rising to 1,794 in 1951. The quarry and the wagonway closed in 1957 but the limeworks carried on until 1965 and the passage of the Clean Air Act. The kilns were demolished the following year to build a storage facility and processing plant for natural gas. In 1966 the first fully operational electronic telephone exchange in Europe opened in Ambergate. This was also the first small to medium electronic exchange in the world and the first of many TXE2 type exchanges.