Cromford and High Peak Railway

COLLECTION CONSISTS OF AN ALBUM OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND AN ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET

These items were donated to the Record Office by a private individual in October 2001

The Cromford and High Peak Railway was intended to 'open up a more easy and commodious communication between the agricultural and mineral counties of Derby, Nottingham and Leicester and other eastern and southern counties, and the great manufacturing towns of Stockport and Manchester'. The first section from Cromford Wharf to Hurdlow opened in May 1830 and the remaining portion to Whaley Bridge in July 1831. The line followed that of a canal previously proposed and the engineer, Josias Jessop, had to plan for steep inclined planes, worked by stationary engines and continuous chains, to take the place of flights of locks. Elsewhere, trucks were drawn by horses until 1863 when they were replaced by steam engines along the length of the railway. In the 1890s the route was re-aligned between Parsley Hay and Ladmanlow, and new lines were built between Hindlow and Buxton and from Parsley Hay to Ashbourne. In April 1967, the line was closed.