Ambergate, Cromford, Alderwasley and Shining Cliff

Date: 23 July 2011
Area: Peaks, South of Matlock
Distance: 12.6 Miles 20.3 k

Start Location: Ambergate Railway Station

OS Sheet: Explorer OL24

Grid Ref: SK 3490 5160

Route

These notes are provided to enable the walk to be plotted on a 1:25,000 map.

From the Station car park head down the approach road, left under the bridge to the A6 turn right, North, take the first footpath on the right and up on to the canal towpath all the way to Cromford Wharf.

Turn left up the road to the A6 turn left, South, on right take Intake Lane uphill passing beneath the High Peak Trail to join the Midshires Way heading south through Alderwasley and into Shining Cliff Woods at Typeclose Plantation. Turn left, East, taking the path past the old YH and down to the Wireworks at Hurst Mills. Turn right through the Mills to the lane turn left over the River Derwent, to the A6, turn left back to the Station

Journey

I have not walked in this area for quite a few years and had forgotten what a pleasant area it is, not classic white peak, quite wooded in parts, with villages, farms and houses sheltering into the folds of the hills. On a sunny day it appears pretty and tranquil, but it’s not, there is industry here, transport links, history, grit, masked by the trees, hedgerows, meadows, the views and vistas and the gentle roll of the hills.

Canal towpaths are fairly low on my list of places to walk, just above busy roads and shingle beaches. This is mainly because they are flat and boring. However, today I found the Cromford Canal to be flat and fairly interesting with plenty to see, birds and butterflies, reeds, flowers, ducks, moorhens, water and sunshine and houses with manicured gardens. From Ambergate until we were diverted off the towpath, due to works being carried out to the canal, and sent around by Holloway, we saw very few people.

Now, this diversion has caused some acrimony between me and Mrs G because before the walk I told her it was a10.5 mile walk but when at the end, the GPS said it was 12.6 miles she said thought I lied. Something I done before on longer walks, she also felt it that it was a lot more uphill than I had implied as I’d told her the canal walk was flat. Unfortunately the diversion by Holloway added to the overall climb. The other bit of the acrimony comes later.

Just before the diversion we spotted a small creature on the path in the edge of the reeds and grasses, a water vole, and I actually managed to get a couple of passible photos of it. As we walked along, it ran a few yards in front of us diving into the grass, popping out again and nipping along, as it did this for the fourth or fifth time a duck which had been standing in the long grass whipped down and grabbed it in his beak, the little scream from the vole was heart wrenching and the duck flopped into the water and paddled away as Mrs G shouted to me save it save it. Too late.

The walk from the canal across the park land, no deer in sight, towards Holloway was a steep pull, less so around the very attractive Manor House and gardens of Lea Hurst, (wasn’t he a footballer). Lea Hurst was once the home of Florence Nightingale, both before her work in the Crimean War and afterwards. The diversion route continued down to the village of Lea Bridge where there is another Nightingale connection, her Grandfather Peter Nightingale who with John Smedley built Lea Mills in the late eighteenth century.

Back on the Canal, Highpeak Junction was a frenzy of slightly elderly men muttering and pointing, taking photos and positively drooling over the few bits and pieces of old railway memorabilia that is dotted about. As Highpeak Junction is the starting point of one of the earliest railways in the world, the Cromford and High Peak Railway, opened in 1830 only 7 years after George Stephenson’s Stockton and Darlington Railway, I cannot fault them for their avid interest.

The Cromford Canal stops just across the road from another historic location Arkwright Mills, just before you reach the end there is a lovely seating area, toilets, car park, not so lovely, playing fields and cricket pitch the perfect place for lunch, there is also a café and an art gallery.

Arkwright’s Mill was built in the 1770’s to manufacture cotton using machinery driven by water power. The Cromford Canal was opened in 1793 providing a quick and cheap way of getting raw materials to the mill and cloth out to the markets.

The mill is currently being restored and is part of the Derwent Valley World Heritage site.

Our walk took us away from the mill and heading for the hills, crossing the A6, another important transport link we headed up Intake Lane. I believe the term intake here refers to the drains that collected water off the hills to feed the mill ponds at the mills.

As we trudged up Intake Lane we had brief views across the valley to Holloway, Crich and the Sherwood Foresters Monument prominent above the quarry face. The climb eventually levelled out as we passed through the bridge beneath the railway incline from Highpeak Junction. The area between here, west to Black Rock is a super place to explore on foot or bike, just amble around, let the kids run wild in.

As Intake Lane carries on south we pass one of the camp sites we first stayed at on our first visit to the Derbyshire Dales in about 1963. The site is now many times bigger than we remembered it and it seemed to be fairly full.

Crossing over Wirksworth Road the path wiggles up and down the hills through a succession of woods and fields eventually tipping out on the road just outside Alderwasley Hall The hall is an independent residential special school for children and young people aged 5 to 19 with Aspergers, speech and language difficulties and Acquired Brain Injuries.

As we passed the Hall and entered the park land I managed to miss the path heading south west towards Shining Cliff Wood. The second point of acrimony, as we stayed on the Midshires Way only realising my error on reaching Typeclose plantation following another diversion, this time to avoid a bull near the path which caused us to climb a gate into a sheep field and climb over a wall to get out.

A quick re-jig, a bit like a faff only less puffing, and we sorted out the path passing the old Youth Hostel and down to the dilapidated buildings that form Oak Hurst Mills, commonly known as the Wireworks. The works and buildings extends over some 700m. They were opened in 1867 as wireworks, and continued in the production of wire including telegraph wire and suspension cables until 1996. Now it is being vandalised, and is becoming overgrown, a very sad eyesore, walking through the place was a bit eerie. It is a shame. And I forgot to take a single photo, stupid or what.