Derby City Centre to Cromford

Setting off for the second day of my walk up the Derwent Valley Heritage Way I was departing from Derby city centre.

This section of the walk takes in almost the entire 15 miles of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

It was here where in the 18th Century early capitalists like Richard Arkwright who built Cromford, where today’s walk ends, first harnessed the natural power of the River Derwent to power vast textile factories.

The first large textile mill in the area was the Derby Silk Mill which opened just over 300 years ago in 1719. This is where I picked up the walking trail once more.

From there I walked north, heading out through Derby’s northern suburbs, and out in the countryside once more.

I arrived at Belper – 6 or so miles north – just before lunchtime.

Here, copying a practice inaugurated by Richard Arkwright at Cromford, the Strutt family built a model settlement for the workers arriving to work in their factory.

The Strutt family sold up their business at the end of the 19th Century to a big textile combine. Part of the rationale for creating the combine was that it was large enough to have the capital to invest in new plant at old mills like the Stutt’s factory at Belper. The massive East Mill was built and opened in 1912 as part of the modernisation drive.

It was clearly somewhat effective, because whilst Derbyshire’s Mills continued to struggle in the face of competition from newer, larger mills elsewhere, mass textile production continued at Belper until 1989.

After Belper the walk continues for a few miles to Ambergate where it joins the Cromford Canal.

Just after the mills at Belper the route crosses the River Derwent. Here weirs show the power latent in the falling water.

Much of the rest of the walk to Ambergate is through open countryside, including sections which are being turned into Riverside nature reserve.

The walk approaches Ambergate down a really steep hill. Then the few hundred metres to the railway station follow the same route as my Ambergate to Wirksworth walk.

A short distance after Ambergate Railway Station you reach the lane leading to the Cromford Canal.

The Cromford Canal is disused. However, under the care of Derbyshire County Council and the Friends of the Cromford Canal the section from Ambergate to Cromford has been restored and functions as a kind of linear park.

When it was built in the 1790s the Cromford Canal ran all the way to Langley Mill where it joined the Nottingham Canal, to reach the Trent that way. However, more or less everything of the canal east of Ambergate has now gone.

In this regard the Cromford Canal is rather like the section of the Nottingham Canal that runs for 5 or 6 miles just south of Ilkeston. That to, has been partially kept in water and serves as a kind of long, thin, linear park.

It’s a very nice, easy place to walk, right on the edge of the Peak District, and gets progressively hillier as you approach Cromford.

Presently the walk passes through the little village of Whatstandwell (what a name). Like many of the settlements in this section of the Derwent valley it is served by a train station on the Matlock Railway Line.

Then the route passes through a brief more open section.

Before plunging into a short tunnel.

On the other side the scenary takes on even more of the typical character of the White Peak.

After crossing a short aqueduct across the railway line the canal takes on a somewhat more kempt aspect

Here you are approaching High Peak Junction. Once it was a hive of industry, where goods and materials were transhipment between the railway and the canal. Today it is maintained as a tourist attraction by Derbyshire County Council. Apparently the site is home to the world’s oldest known surviving standard gauge railway workshop.

After High Peak Junction, Cromford is just a little over a mile away. The Canal crosses some of its nicest countryside, as well as skirting the edge of the lovely Cromford Meadows.