After a day spent looking around Cromford and it’s surrounds, visiting Arkwright’s Mill and dropping into Wirksworth, one of my favourite towns in Derbyshire (this is how you walk there from Ambergate Railway Station) it was time to set off once more.
This third day of walking is the second longest of my walk along the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, clocking in at around 14 miles. The route runs from Cromford, via Matlock Bath and Matlock, through the countryside north of Matlock, into the Peak District National Park and up to Curbar via the Chatsworth Estate.
It was Easter Saunday, and the weather was great as I set off from Cromford.
Passing by where Richard Arkwright used to live.
Then approaching the huge Masson Mill. Which seemingly until recently was a retail outlet complex. However, in a sign of the times, that had shut leaving the vast former factory, first built in 1783 derelict.
From Masson Mill it was not far to Matlock Bath. Matlock Bath is the ur proof of my theory that (non-Lincolnshire) Midlanders will make anywhere with water into the seaside.
In keeping with the spa town vibe, the town’s railway station feels distinctly German.
The holiday resort vibe in compounded by the existence of the Heights of Abraham Cable Car. As someone with an inordinate fear of heights, not my thing… It reminded me of a holiday I took to Sarajevo a few years back, and how terrifying I found the cable car (then newly back in service for the first time since 1992 when the Civil War began), and how my friend convinced me to go on it. Worth it for the views and the chance to see the ruined bobsleigh track, but utterly terrifying.
After passing under the cable car, the Derwent Valley Heritage Way takes an uncharacteristically strenuous turn, heading up the aptly named High Tor ridge.
There are spectacular views towards Matlock when you begin the descent on the other side.
Matlock, with a population floating around the 9,500 mark, is Derbyshire’s county town. In the 1950s the County Council opted the leave its historic premises in Derby city centre and set up a new County Hall in Matlock. The Council purchased a vast Victorian spa hotel, which continues to be where Derbyshire (minus Derby which is a
Matlock is a green, slightly old fashioned in the way Spa towns often are, sort of place.
The walk skirts the edge of the town, and soon you are leaving it along a path beside the River Derwent. This passes under a steam railway bridge, and past a former limestone quarry, now derelict.
Soon the walk takes a turn for the more rural again. There were lots of new lambs in the fields, as I was walking the route at Easter time.
The walk heads up past the small town of Darley Dale and it’s surrounding villages. To your left and up ahead the hills get hillier, you are approaching the edge of the Peak District National Park.
The section into Rowsley where the National Park actually begins, runs from the end of the steam railway, along the Monsal Trail. Until it shut in the late 1960s, this now sleepy river side path, was a mainline railway between Manchester and London.
At Rowsley, the Derwent Valley Heritage Way crosses the River and enters the Peak District National Park.
The short section after Rowsley is quintessential White Peak walking country.
Soon though, the walk leaves that terrain, heading into the landscaped parkland of Chatsworth House. Chatsworth was built by the Dukes of Devonshire. Historically they were the major landowners in the Peak District (they still own very big chunks of it). Thier holdings included the Kinder Scout plataeu. This East Midland’s highest point and the subject of a Young Communist organised Mass Trespass on the 24th April 1932.
Chatsworth House and its parkland are massive. And also very, very popular on Easter Sunday afternoon.
After crossing yet more parkland, and passing a cricket pavilion, the walk heads through the large village of Baslow.
At Baslow the route crosses the River Derwent via an old stone bridge, meaning that you are now on the same side as Calver.
On the other side of the River the route follows a lane high above the River Derwent.
Before heading off road again and into fields. The views through this section are pretty spectacular, including Curbar Edge up on the other side of the dale the Derwent runs through.
The day’s final section is along the river bank to the edge of Calver.
Today Calver is a little village of 700 people located just off the main road between Chesterfield and Stockport. However, between the 1770s and 1920s it was a textile town, with the River Derwent providing motive power for spinning.
Tomorrow’s task is to walk the final 10 – 11 miles of the River Derwent, up into the Dark Peak, leaving the verdant, pastoral and chalky limestone White Peak behind. The walk ends at Ladybower Reservoir, whose construction in the early 20th Century truncated the old early stages of the River Derwent.
From Ladybower Reservoir it is a short walk to Bamford Railway Station on the HopenValley Line, and then no more than 20 minutes into Sheffield.