Distance: 21.7 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: medium (distance is strenuous)
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
Walk right across the Peak District National Park from the historic little industrial towns of Cromford, Wirksworth and Middleton near the River Derwent to the picturesque village of Chelmorton near Buxton. Most of the walk is on the High Peak Trail, formerly the Cromford and High Peak Railway.
The Story
The Walk
Getting Back
A Gongoozler’s Railway
Late 18th and early 19th Century industry and agriculture’s hunger for Peak District limestone made building canal’s into Derbyshire and Stafffordshire’s hilly and sparsely populated white peak an attractive proposition.
Running east from Stoke-on-Trent the twisty Caldon Canal opened in 1779. And by the 1800s was facing competition from the Cromford Canal extending from the south east and the Peak Forest Canal from the north west.
During mass production’s early decades water rather than steam was the main motive power for industry, making the Peak District an attractive location for early cotton mill owners to construct their factories. Richard Arkwright was the first choosing Cromford on the River Derwent as the site of his first mill employing hundreds of people in 1770.
The development of industry at Cromford and elsewhere that came to be served by canals also benefited from the reliable, predictable, high capacity carrying abilities of narrowboat barges. Boats that facilitated the shipment of raw materials and finished products alike.
While both manufacturing and mineral extraction in the region boomed in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, the limestone geology of the region, not to mention its hilly terrain, made the construction of canals across the southern Peak District essentially impossible. Limestone is porous – not ideal for bottoming waterways or retaining reservoirs of water. Likewise, whilst the economic gains were potentially excellent for investors in the creation of a viable route, the engineering of a canal across the White Peak connecting the North West with the East Midlands was just too difficult.
The solution to this conundrum which emerged was the creation of a tramway, more than 30 miles long, linking the base of the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge, with the Cromford Canal’s terminus in the Derwent Valley.
Work began on the tramway in 1825. At the time railways were an emergent technology, steam trains being very much in their infancy, although they were already widespread throughout the North East coalfield. The plan devised by the tramway engineers was for a line running across the Peak District plateau, cutting through the rock in places, crossing valleys and dales by means of dam like stone viaducts in others. Access to the network at either end was by a network of inclined planes hauled by stationary steam engines.
The development of the line progressed throughout the second half of the 1820s, finally being completed in 1831, when the first through trains ran on the line. When the line was approved by Parliament in 1825 the option of working the route with steam locomotives was mentioned in the private act which authorised it. Which is interesting, because it shows that the route’s promoters were interested in the new technology, despite the fact that it was still in its infancy. Though this said up until 1860 sections of the route remained worked by teams of horses pulling carts along the rails rather than steam engines.
This said, the line that they built, with its cuttings and embankments, tight bends and short tunnels, not to mention the lock like system of inclined planes, is in many ways rather more like a canal than a typical main line railway. Even some of the bridges and railway buildings look like they belong alongside a canal. This meant that throughout its life the Cromford and High Peak Railway as it came to be known, was always somewhat isolated from the bulk of the UK’s railway network and a bit of an oddity.
While there was a passenger service on the Cromford and High Peak Railway it was always first and foremost a freight route, the line serving the limestone quarries and dairy farms along its course. With the exception of the northern section between Chapel-en-le-Frith and Whaley Bridge – now remembered as the Peak Forest Tramway – after passing Wirksworth and Middleton the bulk of the route passes no settlements of any size. Although as the Peak District began to be marketed as a tourist destination in the 19th Century the route did became popular with excursion trains carrying daytrippers from towns and cities near the region.
In 1899 the section of the line between Parsley Hay and Buxton became part of the line from Ashbourne to Buxton (the southern section of which is now the Tissington Trail). This left the bulk of the route running south towards Cromford as a standalone line running towards the inclines above Cromford, whereas the northern part became the route between Ashbourne and Buxton. This replaced the northern section of Cromford and High Peak system from the Dove Holes quarries to the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge which had closed in 1892. Much of the newer route remains open to this day whether for mineral trains or as part of line from Buxton towards Manchester.
The southern part of the High Peak and Cromford Railway carried on into the 1960s. After the Second World War traffic dwindled away so that the line was only serving the quarries along the route. In 1963 the inclines from Middleton to Cromford were closed, bringing that archaic section of the route to an end. The now truncated line from Parsley Hay south towards Middleton followed in 1967, bringing to an end nearly 140 years of locomotive traffic along the route.
No sooner had the old railway closed than a new use for it was spotted by Derbyshire County Council and the Peak District National Park. In 1971 they purchased the old Cromford and High Peak Railway trackbed from British Rail and began converting it into a mixed use path, a relatively early example of such a conversion. Albeit more than a generation after Staffordshire County Council purchased the old Manifold Valley Light Railway, also in the southern Peak District, in the 1930s to undertake a similar conversion.
Named the High Peak Trail and connecting with the Tissington Trail (converted from the southern part of the Ashbourne – Buxton Railway which also closed in 1967) the old Cromford and High Peak trackbed has become a popular Peak District attraction. Primarily used by cyclists but also enjoyed by equestrians and walkers.
In 2004 the High Peak Trail was incorporated in the Pennine Bridleway, a mixed use National Trail, running for 205 miles from Middleton to Ravenstonedale in Cumbria. Middleton, being just below the Peak District National Park in the southern fringes of the white peak is rather further south than the Pennines is often taken to be (the Pennine Way for instance starts at the edge of gritstone country at Edale). However, stood by the former incline plane engine house, looking south across Derbyshire, it is easy to fancy that you are stood in the boundary between north and south, so perhaps it is warranted?
The Walk
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.
This walk along the High Peak Trail from Cromford to Chelmorton begins at Cromford Railway Station.
Exit the platform and walk down the station’s driveway to the road beside Cromford Meadows.
Here turn right and begin walking towards the village.
Presently you reach a junction with a bridge across the River Derwent to your left. Turn left and cross the river continuing to walk towards the village.
Before you reach the Arkwright’s Mill buildings, Cromford Wharf is on your left.
Cross over the road here and enter Cromford Wharf heading for the canal towpath.
Follow the towpath for a mile or so towards High Peak Junction.
Upon reaching High Peak Junction there is a wooden bridge across the Cromford Canal to your right. Use this to cross the canal.
Once on the other bank of the canal to your right there is a red painted former railway goods wagon just behind the former railway building that is now a Derbyshire County Council cafe and toilet block.
Next to the red wagon is the base of the High Peak Trail. Walk past the wagon and begin climbing up the long slope of the former incline plane.
Soon you enter woodland as you keep walking uphill.
Presently after steadily climbing a fair distance you reach a flat section. There are great views here of the landscape on the edge of the Peak District, down towards Cromford, Matlock Bath and Matlock beyond.
Keep on walking along the flat making your way along the trail as it runs through the large, dispersed, village of Middleton. A village which due to presence of nearby limestone quarries still in production has a more industrial character to it than many of the settlements fringing the Peak District.
Soon you reach the next in the series of inclines leading up towards Middleton Top. Along the way you pass the Steeple Grange Light Railway, National Stone Centre and numerous sites of historical and industrial archaeological interest.
Middleton Top has a surviving, well maintained, incline plane winding engine still installed. It is also where the Pennine Bridleway begins, and the location of one of the Peak District cycle hire centres.
From Middleton Top continue walking along the former trackbed.
You soon pass through a tunnel.
On the other side you quickly pass a working quarry off to your right. Then continue along the line of the former railway heading past a cluster of wind turbines towards Harborough Rocks.
Past Harborough Rocks you cross the route of the Limestone Way long distance footpath heading towards the village of Longcliffe, which is more or less just a limestone quarry.
A little way beyond Longcliffe, and unheralded, you enter the Peak District National Park.
Presently you reach a junction where you cross straight over a bridleway that forms part of National Cycle Route 548.
Shortly after this you approach a shallow dale where the route loops around and you cross the valley by means of a vast stone embankment much like a dam.
On the other side you pass through woodland and a car park created from the former Minninglow Station and Goods Yard.
Continuing on the other side you continue along the trackbed looping around as it crosses the contour lines.
Soon you cross the busy A5012 – not far from Newhaven – and carry on a short distance to Friden, another former station, and home to a large brickworks. By now you are well over half way to Chelmorton and the end of the walk.
A couple of miles after Friden you approach Parsley Hay and the point where the Tissington Trail ends.
The views from here northwards and to the west are very impressive. Parsley Hay is the northern counterpart of the Middleton Top cycle hire centre. There is a cafe here and a toilet.
Past Parsley Hay you continue for two miles to the large car park built on the site of the former Hurdlow Station.
Crossing the car park you hit the final mile and a half of the High Peak Trail.
At the end the trail peters out at a gate leading onto a farm track style bridleway. This is also the boundary of the National Park.
Here turn right and walk uphill towards the busy A515 south from Buxton.
Just north of you stands a large limestone quarry. Looking back down the hill you can see railway wagons used for hauling limestone in a siding a very short distance from where the High Peak Trail ends. Proof that the northern branch of the railway remains in use much as intended nearly 200 years ago.
Beside the A515 following a Pennine Bridleway sign turn right, walking a short distance along the side of the road behind a wooden fence.
At the end of the fence on the left hand side of the road there is a lane running off along a ridge.
Turn left and cross the road, heading down the lane on the far side.
Keep on walking down the lane – which marks the boundary of the National Park – past a cottage.
A little way past the cottage on the right there is an unpaved bridleway type track. Turn right here and begin walking along the track.
Continue along the track for quite some distance. The limestone protrusion of Chelmorton Low looming increasingly large in front of you.
Presently you reach a main road.
Here, turn left and walk downhill for a short distance. In front of you Buxton and the westernmost flank of the Peak District are visible on the horizon.
Soon on the right the road to Chelmorton becomes visible.
Turn right and walk downhill towards the village.
Once in the village follow the road as it curves to the right along the village’s single main road.
Keep your eyes peeled on the right for Common Lane – hidden between two houses. Upon reaching it, turn right and use it to exit the village.
Continue along Common Hall Road until you reach the busy A5270. Here there are bus stops.
This is where the walk ends.
Getting Back
At the time of writing (April 2023) Chelmorton was served by the very good TransPeak bus service from Derby to Buxton and vice versa. Buses are quite frequent throughout the day, with the final service being just after 18:00. The Buxton bus runs to Buxton Railway Station which has trains north passing through New Mills (for Sheffield), Stockport (for the West Coast Mainline) and ending at Manchester. The southbound bus towards Derby traverses the Peak District National Park calling at Bakewell, Matlock and Cromford, before heading through Belper and Duffield towards Derby city centre. Derby has trains to destinations across the Midlands, Yorkshire and London.