A cold but sunny morning on which to end what must be the mildest November on record and just right for a walk around Leawoods and along the Cromford Canal.
Leawoods lie just about midway along the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire. The woods themselves are now part owned I believe by a partnership between the local community and The Woodland Trust which has given them valuable protection, rightly so as they are an important mix of native trees.
Cromford Canal winds in an arc below Lea Wood Hill many feet above the River Derwent. With Leawoods on one side and Derwentside Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve on the other the location presents a scene of peace and tranquillity. At one time the canal ran from its start at Cromford down to the Erewash Canal and onto the River Trent. The scene when the canal was built was far from tranquil as Cromford was the place selected by Arkwright for his first water powered manufacturing mills, a milestone for the region but also for the world as this was just the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Canals need water and in its very early days the canal was so busy that in dry weather it was difficult to keep the canal topped up with water from the original soughs. The solution was to build Leawoods Steam Pump House. The large steam engine was used to lift 4 ton’s of water on each cycle from the River Derwent to the canal, a massive 39,000 ton’s per day. The Steam Engine is preserved by its own Conservation Trust and can be seen in full steam on various weekends through the year.
But Arkwright was not one to rest on his commercial laurels for as busy as the Cromford Canal was its was soon surpast in carrying capacity and speed by the Railways. Arkwright was again right on the ball and invested in the creation of the High Peak Railway. Built to link Cromford to Bugsworth (ultimately Manchester and Liverpool) and enable fast transport of raw materials one way and finished goods the other. Again ingenuity and steam were used to overcome natural obstacles. Immediately after the start of the High Peak Railway at Middleton Junction the trains (or rather carriages) were hauled up an immense incline by chain and stationery steam engines. It is truly amassing that in such a compact and once isolated area that so many new innovations occurred……makes you realise that our ancestors were very creative and brave entrepreneurs, and could probably put many of to-days to shame.
A ‘linesman’s’ shed at High Peak Junction where the High Peak Railway met Cromford Canal.
LINK for info on Leawoods Pump House: http://www.derbyshire-peakdistrict.co.uk/leawoodpump.htm
30th November
DAVID OAKES - IMAGES. 