Starting at the High Peak Junction with the Cromford Canal, the line heads steeply uphill behind the visitor centre. At the centre, there is a small shop selling gifts, sweets and drinks. There are also toilets. The first section is in the open and rapidly takes you above the A6 with great views. The trail then enters gorgeous natural woodland which, when in leaf, forms a brilliant natural green tunnel. On a bike, the gate at the end of the 'tunnel' seems to remain tantalisingly distant! So, after the good but steady climb it flattens out and on the left you will see a ruined winding house. Audio guides are available for secondary groups. We’re happy to discuss your requirements. You can also visit Leawood Pumphouse with your school group.

This, with the expressed opinion of a great engineering authority against the success of the plan, threw a considerable damp over the proposal; but, notwithstanding every obstacle, we have the pleasure There are ‘in steam’ days open to the public throughout the year or you can book this for your group. The story of Middleton and Sheep Pasture inclines: A Balancing Act The story of Middleton and Sheep Pasture inclines: A Balancing ActThis locomotive was built in 1877 for the LNWR and it is seen here hauling a goods train between Sheep Pasture Top and Middleton Bottom. Some saw them as heroes, others as fools. Either way, trail-blazing railway pioneers had courage in abundance and were rarely thwarted by the undulations of our landscape. Valleys were crossed by embankments or bridges. Hills were cut or tunnelled. And, in between, the permanent way would cling to the contours like a politician to power. So states conventional wisdom. A queue of wagons wait at Sheep Pasture top, before descending the incline. And directly below them the eye rested on a more advanced line of hanging woods divided by bright patches of pasture or furrowed crops, and not yet deepening into the uniform leafy curtains of high summer, but still showing the warm tints of the young oak and the tender green of the ash and lime.” The High Peak Trail and part of the Tissington Trail (see below) are now also designated as part of the Pennine Bridleway, a leisure route that starts at Middleton Top, near Cromford, and includes 73 miles (117km) through Derbyshire to the South Pennines. The railways first steam locomotive arrived in 1841 in the shape of Peak, built by Robert Stephenson and Co.

Josias Jessop, the son of William Jessop was asked to survey the route. He, his father and their former partner Benjamin Outram had gained wide experience in building tramways where conditions were unsuitable for canals. its powerful aid. We were not at all surprised, therefore, that an attempt was made in the beginning of last year by the enlightened engineer, Mr. Leonard, who has long and successfully superintended the working In use, a horse was harnessed to the outer end of a long pole that was attached to the top of a vertical shaft that arose from a wheel pit, covered with boards, at the top of the plane.The guard seems to combine the duties of station-master, shunter, clerk, signalman, porter, and inspector. Indeed he seems to be the only element of existence about the place.One misses that pleasant aspect of life, that intensely human interest, which belongs to English countryside stations. There is an omission of healthy unkempt children to see the train pass through. Nobody gets in or out. The main purpose of the railway was for the transportation of minerals, such as limestone, lime, coal and iron, as well as general goods. near Wirksworth. This 18-inch gauge railway was built in 1985 on part of the former Killer's Branch to Middleton Quarry from Steeple House Junction on the Cromford and High Peak Railway. Upheaval surrendered to stability by the turn of the 20th Century. Traffic levels were consolidated and, during autumn and winter months, the line ran at capacity as local limestone – known for its purity – was guzzled by East Anglia’s sugar beet refineries.

By 1890 permission had been obtained to connect the line directly to Buxton by building a new line from Harpur Hill the two or three miles into the town centre, thus frustrating the Midland Railway‘s plans for a route to Manchester. Isolation was not-so-glorious for the C&HPR. Trade did not roar, certainly not loud enough to scare away the bean counters. Horsepower slowly retired, replaced by steam, but salvation truly arrived in 1853 when a connection was secured with the main line at High Peak Junction. Prospects brightened overnight. Quarrying companies gorged on local limestone and despatched it along the line to hungry, distant markets.The first was from Cromford Wharf (later extended to join the Midland Railway at High Peak Junction) to Hurdlow, a distance of 15½ miles, which opened on the 29 May 1830 and the second was from Hurdlow to Whaley Bridge, a distance of 17½ miles, The Peak District of Derbyshire has always posed problems for travel, but from 1800 when the Peak Forest Canal was built, an alternative to the long route through the Trent and Mersey Canal was sought, not only for minerals and finished goods to Manchester, but raw cotton for the East Midlands textile industry. Anon we rush under a bridge carrying a road that seems to lead nowhere; then we pause at a little one-horse, kind of a station called Parsley Hay, which looks just like a wayside shed on an American prairie line.