Summer Programme 2021
Our summer programme this year is less extensive than usual, but we have three guided walks in the county. The number of places on each walk is limited, so these are for members only. Booking arrangements have been notified to members in the Summer 2021 Newsletter and by email.
Thursday 22 July 11.00am – Stone quarrying on Craken Edge
(Industrial Archaeology Section)
Anna Babcock (Cultural Heritage Manager with the Peak District National Park) will lead a walk to view remains of stone quarrying on Craken Edge, north of Chinley in High Peak. Stone was extracted on the surface and underground for roof slates and flags from the 16th to the 20th century. Remains include trackways, quarry faces, adit entrances, ruins of buildings and a winding house for a gravity worked railway incline. The history and a recent survey of the site was described by Elin Price at Derbyshire Archaeology Days earlier this year; a recording of her excellent talk is available to watch online, follow the link from our website at https://www.derbyshireas.org.uk/diary/non-das-events/. There is also a paper by Derek Brumhead in the 2019 DAJ about the unusual land ownership of this area “The Chinley Neighbourhoods and Slate Breaks”.
Saturday 14th August 2.00pm – Milford village
(Local History Section)
Jane Whitaker will lead a 2 hour walk round Milford which will take in its prime industrial and residential sites, including the few structural remains of the mill buildings. We will look at some of the remains of inventive genius, William Strutt’s designs for fire-proofing the mill. We will view some of the 18th and early 19th century housing, built for the workers and maintained by the Strutt family for nearly 200 years. Along the way we will hear about the lives of the mill workers and some of the incidents that occurred in the village, from the brutal murder of a small child to the tragic accident that ended the life of one of the Strutt family and the Milford’s night watchman employed by the Strutts to keep order at night. There are tantalising remains of other local industries to be seen, such as framework knitting, nailmaking, quarrying and farming, as well as many small remnants of the paternalistic care that the Strutts took of their employees, such as the pavements, allotments, gas lighting, water pumps and provision for leisure. Time permitting, we will view the elegant Stephenson railway tunnel entrance and bridge and hear about the problems of putting a railway through the narrowest part of the Derwent Valley.
Saturday 11 September 2.00pm – Railways and Canals of the Trent Triangle (Industrial Archaeology Section)
Ian Mitchell will lead a walk looking at canals and railways between Long Eaton and the River Trent. This area has been an important transport intersection since the connection from the Erewash Canal into the River Trent opened in 1779, and when the Midland Counties Railway opened in 1840 this was where the lines from Derby, Nottingham and Leicester met in a great triangular junction. A railway to canal interchange facility was developed, and in 1862 a railway station known as ‘Trent’ was built specifically for passengers changing trains. The station closed in 1967, but most of the canal and railway lines are still in use today, and many of the early features survive.
