After my recent three day walk between Sheffield and Manchester, I am heading off again. This time to walk the Derwent Valley Heritage Way.
The Derwent Valley Heritage Way, at least the direction I’m walking it, runs from Shardlow in the far south east of Derbyshire where the River Derwent joins the River Trent all the way up to Ladybower Reservoir on the edge of the Dark Peak inside the Peak District National Park.
Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site
Much of the trails focus is on the industrial heritage of the Derwent Valley. The Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site lies between the Silk Mill in Derby (recently reborn as the supurb Museum of Making) and Cromford near Matlock. It was here where the gravitational power of the River Derwent’s flow to power waterwheels which drove machinary enabling the large scale (and evntually wholesale) mechanisation of parts of the cloth and fabric making process. From this innovation grew the factory system, and all the impact good and bad this has had on our world.
I first heard about the walking route, and resolved to do it one day, when I visited the Museum of Making in Derby last summer, shortly after it opened in its current guise. A testimony to the impact that a single museum visit can have!
I’m looking forward to going back and getting a feel for it, and checking out some of these early industrial sites, where the factory system, that played such a pivotal role in the development of capitalism and changing our world – again for better and for worse – began.
More Derwent Valley Heritage
Other highlights of the walk – some more to my personal taste than others – include the former inland port of Shardlow where the Derwent meets the Trent, the wonderful and underated city of Derby itself, the quietly assured little ex-mill town of Belper, Matlock Bath, Chatsworth House and the eastern flank of the Peak District National Park up to Ladybower Reservoir.
I’ll be posting updates as I walk the route. I’ll also be stopping off for a day in Cromford, to have a look around the Arkwright Mill and the early planned company town that was built around it.
The Route
I will be walking the route in four days, as follows:
Day 1; Long Eaton Railway Station – Derby City Centre (download the GPX. file)
Day 2; Derby City Centre – Cromford (download the GPX. file)
Day 3; Cromford – Curbar (download the GPX. file)
Day 4; Curbar – Ladybower Reservoir (download the GPX. file)
Then up to Yorkshire for a bit before back to Birmingham.
Tune in for updates on the way and to see what I discover along the way.
Featured image used in this post is the waymark of the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail. The graphic is copyright the respective holders all rights reserved and the image was sourced from Wiki:Commons.