Distance: 7.5 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps

Predominantly countryide walk east from Ambergate Railway Station, to Alfreton. Taking in parts of the course of the former Cromford Canal and the village of Pentrich. Pentrich was where the doomed Pentrich Revolution of June 1817 began.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

The Story

A couple of miles south of Alfreton in the heart of the mid-Derbyshire district of Amber Valley lies the little village of Pentrich. A quiet place, just off the main roads, Pentrich sits perched above the River Amber itself, as it winds its way to its convergence with the Derwent at Ambergate.

Pentrich and its surroundings were not always so peaceful. Attracted by the strong currents of the local rivers flowing down from the area’s steep hills, early factory owners flocked to the area, to construct textile mills. Encouraged by plentiful local supplies of coal and wood for charcoal, the area around Pentrich, heading eastwards across the county boundary into Nottinghamshire, has long been associated with metalworking as well as mineral extraction. A little bit of both of those industries continues to this day.

Amidst the tumult of the early industrialisation of the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire borderlands, workers, the proletarianised toilers, skilled and unskilled alike, who worked in, but did not own the factories, began to organise amongst themselves.

To mill owners and magistrates at the time, and to certain later historians, the collective action of these early worker activists appeared as anarchic as it was inconvenient. One of the most famous of these early worker movements, the Luddites who emerged in the stocking making districts of Nottinghamshire, before spreading into Derbyshire and beyond, having become a shorthand for reactionary, illogical and fundamentally stupid opposition to technology. However, what really, when you think about for moment, what is so illogical, let alone stupid about questioning who controls and benefits from new technology that encroaches upon a major area of your life and livelihood?

Luddism and the wave of machine breaking and mass protest it embodied emerged in 1811, carrying on into 1812, before being brutally crushed. Key figures in the movement were executed, imprisoned and transported to Australia. Amongst those of means and standing it was pretty much only the quixotic figure of Lord Byron, a member of the House of Lords with a family seat at Nottinghamshire’s Newstead Abbey, willing to publicly defend the movement.

Much as Luddism had stemmed from earlier forms of protest and organisation amongst industrial workers, peasants and other ordinary people, so its suppression did nothing to halt future attempts at organising and contesting the power of bosses, landlords and the state.

The conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, led to an economic slump at a time when thousands of men were being demobilised from the army and navy. This led to an acute social crisis – one which most famously came to a head in Manchester in 1819 with the gathering that culminated in the Peterloo Massacre by jittery yeoman guards.

However, the crisis had provoked earlier reactions and outpourings of dissent. One of the most remarkable of which took the form of a desperate conspiracy centred upon Pentrich.

1817 in the teeth of the post-war crisis was a tumultuous year. In the spring 12,000 worker activists had set out from Manchester intending to be in London to petition to the Prince Regent within a week (or 5,000 – sources vary). They were harried by militamen on the way meaning that only a hardcore made it beyond the boundaries of modern Greater Manchester and into the Midlands, however, around 500 did get as far as the River Dove at Ashbourne and the boundary between Staffordshire and Derbyshire. Here they were turned back by the army, with 25 arrested, one man however, did manage to cross eventually make it all the way to London where he did petition to the royal family: to no avail.

The failure of large scale peaceful actions like the Manchester march did nothing to dissipate wider feelings in the economically becalmed areas of the country. One of these being the area around Pentrich. There were a confluence of factors which came together to make the village a flashpoint for a more desperate and revolutionary action. The region was industrialised and suffering from the post-war slump, it was near the locus of Luddism 5-6 years previously meaning that local workers had recent experience of mass insurrectionary action, and the radical Hampden Clubs had a strong membership in the area. Even the local curate of Pentrich’s St. Matthews Church, a man called Hugh Woolstenholme who hailed from Crich several miles to the west, was widely considered a revolutionary.

There was also another factor at play: the presence of a government spy. William J. Oliver the spy in question, much like the spycops of our own recent past, was far from adverse to playing the role of agent provocateur encouraging disaffected and downtrodden local people to take extreme direct action.

So, on the 8th June, under the leadership of “the Nottingham Captain” Jeremiah Brandreth, an unemployed framework knitter from Sutton-in-Ashfield just across the county boundary in Nottinghamshire, the Pentrich Revolution began.

Planned for several weeks in advance, 50 men committed to the cause assembled at Hunt’s Barn in Pentrich. The ground had been laid by the local Hampden Club Secretary called Thomas Bacon, who had made a plan to seize weapons and other equipment from the nearby Butterley Ironworks to support an armed putsch attempt. The immediate spark for the revolt, however, had been set by the government spy William J. Oliver, who claimed that a rising had already begun in the north of England and that the rebels in Pentrich would soon be able to meet them as they marched south.

So, having assembled the revolutionary party under Jeremiah Brandreth (Thomas Bacon was wanted for machine breaking so had gone to ground) set off to march first on Butterley Ironworks to seize weapons, then to Nottingham to link up with the (non-existent) northern revolutionary force and to rally the East Midlands to the cause, before heading to Newark by boat along the River Trent, prior to heading for London and a full frontal confrontation with the British state.

Their demands were a potage: including the abolition of the national debt and cash payments to relieve those in poverty. The rebels were armed with pikes that one of their number – a financially pressed small time quarry owner called Issac Ludham – had hidden in his workings, and several of them had recent military experience. As they marched they cajoled and extorted food, drinks and other provisions from farmers, and their ranks steadily swelled to around 400 at the peak. Although, it is doubtful that all of the recruits to the cause had joined voluntarily.

At one of the farmhouses visited by the rebels a servant was killed when a firearm was discharged. This unfortunate man: Robert Walters was the only fatality of the rising. Nobody knows who fired the fatal shot, nor was anyone ever charged with the killing, so the precise circumstances of this death will forever be shrouded in mystery.

The party of rebels meandered through the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire borderlands, passing through Codnor and Langley Mill, picking up some new recruits, and losing others, extorting farmers and publicans alike as they went. Their attempts to take control of the Butterley Ironworks failed after the factory manager and a party of special constables faced them down at the entrance.

Approaching Eastwood they were met by two magistrates, 20 heavily armed militia men, and a small number of cavalry officers. Here purportedly the rebels despite still vastly outnumbering the forces of law and order gave up. 48 members of the party were arrested on the spot whilst the majority fled.

What the rising proved was that there was an appetite for an insurrection, or at least a challenge to the established pattern of life and hum-drum way of doing things, in Britain at that time, or at least in and around Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. However, it achieved little else.

85 people were eventually arrested and committed to prison ahead of trial for participating in the rising. With 46 participants including Jeremiah Brandreth – who was captured in Bulwell on 22nd July 1817 – were eventually charged with high treason. The authorities estimated that a further 500 persons unknown had also been involved in the rising, however, they could not identify them, nor perhaps did they see the point in pursuing so many people.

As it happened when the case eventually came to trial in October 1817 only 23 people were convicted. The other 23 faced no punishment. However, those punished were sentenced to a variety of horrific fates ranging from life imprisonment, to transportation and death by hanging, drawing and quartering.

The crown decided to charge Jeremiah Brandreth as the leader of the conspiracy, this was despite the rising and its initial outline being Thomas Bacon’s idea. This was a tactical move decided because they were worried that if Thomas Bacon took the stand to defend himself he would reveal the fact that William J. Oliver the government spy had played a decisive role in fermenting the rising. The authorities did not want this coming out, hence they put the majority of the blame onto Brandreth along with Issac Ludham and another man William Turner who were sentenced to death.

By the early 19th Century hanging drawing and quartering was considered a barbaric custom. It had not been carried out in full since 1782. For this reason the Prince Regent in a supposed act of partial mercy requested that the men be hanged until dead then decapitated by a surgeon postmortem.

The death sentences were carried out in Derby in front of a hostile crowd, supportive of the condemned men, on 7th November 1817 shortly after their conviction. Those sentenced to transportation, including the 63 year old Thomas Bacon, were deported towards the end of 1817. This marked the end of the incident – but did nothing to quell demands for major political and social reform.

At the time the Pentrich Revolution had an immediate cultural impact with the executed rebels being memorialised in a pamphlet by the poet Percy Byshe Shelley. Lord Sidmouth who as the Home Secretary had licenced the activities of William J. Oliver was roundly criticised by progressive and more conservative voices alike. Writing in the 1960s the influential historian of the British working class E.P. Thompson argued that the Pentrich Revolution was the earliest example of an entirely working class rising without middle class involvement. But that seems like wishful thinking, and a flattening of the interesting and varied social composition of those involved in the action.

Today residents of Pentrich and the wider Amber Valley area are proud of their patch’s exciting, but ultimately fruitless, contribution to early working class history and the fight for political, social and economic democracy. There was a project in 2017 funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to uncover and better chart the revolution’s history. There is a walking trail taking in places associated with the revolt, as well as a Revolution Group who commemorate the event and steward its memory. There is an annual gathering around the anniversary of the events which attracts scores of participants. So, whilst the Pentrich Revolution was muddled, ill-resourced, and ultimately (at least in part) an exercise in government provocation, it is an important and proud part of the village, and eastern Derbyshire and western Nottinghamshire’s local identity.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps

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This walk starts from Ambergate Railway Station.

At Ambergate Railway Station, which is the point at which the branch line to Matlock diverts from the mainline and continues heading up the Derwent Valley.

From the station platform turn right and head out onto the forecourt.

Walk across the forecourt heading left. This leads past a short terrace of houses.

On your left you come to a short flight of steps (there’s also a road leading down just after it. Head down these.

At the bottom of the steps you come to a main road. Here there is a bridge which carries the railway line north to Matlock. Walk under the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge opposite The Hurt Arms pub, turn right along the main road.

Continue along the road for some distance.

Presently on the right hand side of the road there is a lane running between an inter war era white rendered house and a much more recent redbrick one.

Head down this lane and walk under the bridge.

Continue up the lane on the other side, walking uphill. The terrain on this side of the railway line is far more rural in character.

After some distance, just before reaching a house, there is a signpost pointing off the lane to the left.

This leads down a short sloping path to the towpath of the Cromford Canal.

Upon reaching the towpath turn right and pass underneath a bridge.

This leads a couple of hundred metres along the tranquil, but incredibly overgrown Cromford Canal. Going the other way leads you eventually to Cromford, five miles up the canal, site of Arkwright’s Mill, the world’s first modern factory opened in 1771.

Soon you reach the end of the canal.

Here turn left and begin walking uphill along a chain fence behind which sits an engineering works apparently making, fixing, or otherwise working with industrial pipes.

After some distance the path emerges from the trees into a scrubby clearing partyway up the hillside.

Here turn right and follow the path as it continues running along a narrow but well worn route across the grassy scrub land above the factory yard.

After some distance it enters woodland. Walk through these trees for some distance.

Soon you come to a wooden gate on your right.

Head through the gate and down a sloping path through the trees.

After a short distance you come to some steps on your left. Walk down these steps.

At the bottom – opposite a new housing estate which was being built when I walked the route – turn left and walk up a well worn footpath.

This leads around the housing estate, heading to the right.

Continue walking along this path down a snicket which leads out beside the main road in the small (but rapidly expanding as new estates go up around it) village of Bullbridge.

Once beside the road turn right and walk downhill.

At the base of the hill, next to the River Amber there is a footpath sign off to your left leading along a track.

Turn left and walk along the track heading in the direction of two newly built conjoined yellow stone cottages.

There is a short tunnel beneath an embankment which you walk through.

On the far side of the tunnel take an immediate right turn. Walk along the footpath through trees for a short distance.

This leads to a new green metal footbridge across the Midlands Mainline. I must have passed beneath this bridge dozens of times over the years, first travelling by train up to York as an undergrad student, and in the decade or so since, on most of the numerous occasions that I have visited Yorkshire.

Cross over the bridge. On the far side you come out next to the busy A610 road. Apparently a stone aqueduct on the Cromford Canal once spanned the road at the point where you are crossing. It became derelict when the canal fell into disuse in the early 20th Century and was eventually demolished in 1968.

Here cross the road then head up a flight of steps cut into the bank on the far side.

At the top you emerge onto a well worn path along a bank, turn left here and begin walking.

The path runs behind a row of houses which front onto the A610.

It soon becomes apparent what the path you are walking along is. Next to you on the right there is the unmistakable outline of a canal cut. This is the former course of the Cromford Canal, fairly well preserved behind the houses and now serving as a footpath and ad-hoc green space. In places it has even been recently cleared. There are information boards dotted here and there which tell the history of the canal.

Here and there the line is broken. Just after a former canal bridge, turn right down a paved slope towards a road. Cross over the road and climb the steps on the far side to get back onto the former canal path.

After the steps keep on walking along the former canal cut, this section is less well preserved, but it is still clear where the canal once ran. The former canal route has now been appropriated by the residents of the houses fronting onto the A610 as outdoor storage space with garages and sheds of various types.

Presently you reach a short former tunnel, which you walk through.

This leads to the car park of the Excavator pub. Once a canal building.

On entering the car park turn left to exit onto the side of the A610.

Cross over the road – taking care as it’s busy with lorry traffic in particular – then turn right and begin walking along the pavement on the far side.

Soon you come to a road running off the left.

Turn down this road and walk a short way.

There is an old metal milestone in the hedgerow which says you are in Pentrich parish. Testimony to the fact that you are in Pentrich Rebellion country.

Soon on your right there is a smaller road running off uphill. This is Wood Lane.

Turn right up Wood Land and walk a short distance.

Presently on your left there is a gate leading into a field.

Turn off the road heading through the gate walking straight downhill across the edge of the field.

At the bottom through some bushes a wooden footbridge across a stream is visible.

Cross this bridge and then head up the bank beyond, through a gap in some bushes, and across the field on the other side.

Having crossed the field climb a stile then head in the direction of a few scattered houses, including a former mill building, on the other side.

Upon reaching these buildings head right walking uphill along a track.

This track soon peters out, but you carry on following the line of the fence uphill.

There are impressive views behind you back across the Amber valley towards Ambergate.

Here you take a slight left turn, still heading uphill, until you come to a gateway shaded by a tree.

Pass through this gateway and cross the field beyond. On the other side there is another gate which you also pass through.

On the far side of the next field you come to a stile leading off to the right.

Cross this stile and then head across the field to your right.

Keep on walking across the field for quite some way. Ahead of you on top of the slight ridge stands the village of Pentrich. Starting point of the Pentrich Revolution in June 1817.

Passing through another gate you approach the back entrance into Pentrich church yard.

Inside the church yard keep walking straight ahead past the church of St. Matthew.

Just after the church turn to the right and head down a slight slope and some steps to the main road through the village.

Here off to the right there is a board telling the story of the Pentrich Revolution next to the car park of The Dog at Pentrich pub. It’s worth a slight detour to read.

When ready, continue the final couple of miles to Alfreton by turning left and walking uphill through the village.

After a little way near the top of the hill where the road curves there is a green lane running past a house towards open fields.

Cross the road and head down this lane.

Soon on your right there is a wooden gate leading into a field.

Cross this field heading for a gap in the hedgerow.

Keep walking across the field on the far side. There are impressive, expansive views across the River Amber valley to your left.

At a stile set next to a gate, cross into the field beyond.

Here you are walking right at the peak of the ridge as it begins to run downhill. Follow the line of a temporary electrified fence for a fair distance.

Soon you reach a sturdier fence. Here a little way down the slope there is a stile. Cross the stile and then head down across the field on the far side making for a road running at the bottom of a gentle dale like valley.

Passing through a metal gate you come out beside the road.

Cross the road and walk into the field opposite, heading uphill.

At the top of the hill there is a lopsided waymarking post pointing through a gap in the hedge. Walk across the corner of the field, crossing the corner of the adjacent field, and then passing into the field beyond past an overgrown stile set in the hedgerow.

On the far side follow the path across the field sloping steadily downhill.

Reaching another hedgerow, turn left slightly and keep walking downhill heading for woodland.

Upon reaching the edge of the woodland follow the path a short way into the trees, taking an almost immediate right hand turn.

Leave the trees, turn left, and follow the path across the side of a field with the woodland to your left.

Presently there is a break in the trees off to your left.

Here follow the path down a slight bank next to a stream.

Soon on your right there is a bridge.

Cross over this bridge, then on your left there is another bridge which you also cross.

Then follow the path along a boardwalk through some marshland.

After the marshland follow the path as it runs around the edge of a paddock. Presently it runs off to the right towards an estate of new houses. This is the edge of Alfreton.

There is a gate which leads onto the new estate. There is a walkway running around the edge of the new estate towards a snicket. Once at the snicket follow it until you reach a main road.

Upon reaching the main road turn right. You soon pass the “welcome to Alfreton” sign.

At the bottom for this road turn left, then left again walking along part of the ring road around the town centre.

At the top of the hill just past the town’s branch of Wetherspoon’s next to an unusual war memorial featuring a soldier in uniform holding a gun with his arm around a small boy, there is a road running off to your right.

Turn down this road which leads right into the town centre.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

Alfreton Station is well served with two trains an hour each way. There are services running towards Sheffield via Chesterfield, some of which continue to Liverpool, others to Leeds. The southbound services are to Nottingham via Langley Mill and Ilkeston, passing Bennerley Viaduct. Alfreton is also a major bus hub with services to the outlying towns and villages as well as places like Derby, Matlock and Belper where there are stations.