| Bullbridge | |
|---|---|
 Canal Inn | |
  Bullbridge Location within Derbyshire | |
| Population | 220 (2001) |
| OS grid reference | SK357524 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | AMBERGATE |
| Postcode district | DE56 |
| Police | Derbyshire |
| Fire | Derbyshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
Bullbridge is a small village in Derbyshire. The Bull bridge accident, in which a railway bridge failed as a goods train was just passing over it, happened here in 1860.
Bullbridge has a population of approximately 220 and one public house: the Canal Inn (named after the Cromford Canal). A second pub, The Lord Nelson is now closed. From the 2011 Census the population was included in the town of Ripley, Derbyshire.
Until the end of the eighteenth century it was little more than the bridge over the River Amber for the road from Crich.
In 1794, William Jessop and Benjamin Outram built the Cromford Canal between Cromford and Langley Mill, with the Bullbridge Aqueduct crossing the road. In 1840, George Stephenson brought the North Midland Railway past on its way to Leeds. The rail line crossed the road, but passed under the canal.
In 1860 the railway bridge failed as a goods train passed over it, but without casualties. [1]
The steep wagonway to the Cromford Canal from the quarry at Crich to Bullbridge, where limestone was sent on to the Butterley Ironworks, was known as the Butterley Gangroad. Initially worked by gravity and horse power, in 1812, William Brunton, an engineer for the company, produced his remarkable Steam Horse locomotive. They built a wharf for loading the limestone from their quarry at Crich, and a group of lime kilns.
In 1825 James Stephenson founded a dye works at Wirksworth, opening branches in Duffield and Little Eaton, then Belper, and finally building his main works at Bullbridge in 1908. The works became part of Coats plc and closed at the end of 2006.
Hilt's Quarry and the gangway closed in 1933 and are now derelict, the canal having already been virtually closed by the subsidence of Butterley Tunnel.
Ripley is a town in the Amber Valley borough of Derbyshire, England. Engineers from Ripley came up with some early improvements to the railway system.
The Cromford and High Peak Railway (C&HPR) was a standard-gauge line between the Cromford Canal wharf at High Peak Junction and the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge. The railway, which was completed in 1831, was built to carry minerals and goods through the hilly rural terrain of the Peak District within Derbyshire, England. The route was marked by a number of roped worked inclines. Due to falling traffic, the entire railway was closed by 1967.
The Cromford Canal ran 14.5 miles from Cromford to the Erewash Canal in Derbyshire, England with a branch to Pinxton. Built by William Jessop with the assistance of Benjamin Outram, its alignment included four tunnels and 14 locks.
Crich is a village in the English county of Derbyshire. The population at the 2001 Census was 2,821, increasing to 2,898 at the 2011 Census. It has the National Tramway Museum inside the Crich Tramway Village and, at the summit of Crich Hill above, a memorial tower for those of the Sherwood Foresters regiment who died in battle, particularly in World War I.
Benjamin Outram was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways.
Ambergate railway station is a railway station owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway. It serves the village of Ambergate in Derbyshire, England. The station is located on the Derwent Valley Line from Derby to Matlock, which diverges from the Midland Main Line just south of the station at Ambergate Junction.
Until it closed in 1967 the Hopton Incline was the steepest stretch of conventional, adhesion-worked standard gauge railway running line in the UK. The incline was situated in sparsely populated, exposed limestone uplands in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England.
Ambergate is a village in Derbyshire, England, situated where the River Amber joins the River Derwent, and where the A610 road from Ripley and Nottingham joins the A6 that runs along the Derwent valley between Derby to the south and Matlock to the north. Sawmills and Ridgeway are neighbouring hamlets, and Alderwasley, Heage, Nether Heage and Crich are other significant neighbouring settlements. The village forms part of the Heage and Ambergate ward of Ripley Town Council with a population of 5,013 at the 2011 Census. Ambergate is within the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage site, and has historical connections with George Stephenson; Ambergate is notable for its railway heritage and telephone exchange. Ambergate has an active community life, particularly centred on the school, pubs, churches, sports clubs; and annual village carnival which is relatively large and consistent locally, with popular associated events in carnival week and throughout the year. The carnival is organised by a voluntary committee. Shining Cliff woods, Thacker's woods and Crich Chase border the village.
The Bull Bridge Aqueduct was situated on the Cromford Canal, built in 1794, at Bullbridge east of Ambergate along the Amber Valley, where it turned sharply to cross the valley and the Ambergate to Nottingham road. The Cromford canal is in Derbyshire, England.
The Steam Horse was constructed by the Butterley Company in Derbyshire in 1813 by William Brunton (1777–1851). Also known as the Mechanical Traveller, it had a pair of mechanical legs, with feet that gripped the rails at the rear of the engine to push it forwards at about three miles an hour.
The Butterley Company was an English manufacturing firm founded as Benjamin Outram and Company in 1790. Its subsidiaries existed until 2009.
Butterley Tunnel is a 3,083-yard (2,819 m) disused canal tunnel on the Cromford Canal below Ripley, in Derbyshire, England, opened to traffic in 1794. Along with Butterley Works blast furnaces, part of the canal tunnel and its underground wharf were declared a scheduled monument in 2013.
The Bull Bridge accident was a failure of a cast-iron bridge at Bullbridge, near Ambergate in Derbyshire on 26 September 1860. As a goods train was passing over the bridge at Bullbridge, the structure failed suddenly, causing the derailment of the majority of the wagons. There were no serious casualties, but it was a warning of the fundamental weakness of many such bridges on the British rail network.
Fritchley is a small village in Derbyshire south of Crich and north of Ambergate. It falls under the civil parish of Crich. To the west of the village is the ruin of a windmill. Fritchley has an active Congregational Church, and there is a Quaker meeting house with an active Quaker Meeting. There is a pub, the Red Lion, but the post office closed in 2009. The village hosts a steam rally each August.
High Peak Junction, near Cromford, Derbyshire, England, is the name now used to describe the site where the former Cromford and High Peak Railway (C&HPR), whose workshops were located here, meets the Cromford Canal. It lies within Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, designated in 2001, and today marks the southern end of the High Peak Trail, a 17 miles (27 km) trail for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. The Derwent Valley Heritage Way also passes this point, and popular walks lead from here along the towpath in both directions.
Railway archaeology is the study and enjoyment of relics from past eras of rail transportation. The aim of railway archaeology is to learn about the history and see images of the previous appearance of a defunct rail system that became redundant or abandoned and to enjoy searching out these remains and exploring them.
This article lists events relating to rail transport that occurred during the 1790s.
Fritchley Tunnel is a disused railway tunnel at Fritchley in Derbyshire, England, which is believed to be the oldest surviving example in the world. The tunnel was constructed in 1793 by Benjamin Outram as part of the Butterley Gangroad, altered in the 1840s, and remained in use until the railway closed in 1933. It is a scheduled monument.
The Butterley Gangroad was an early tramway in Derbyshire of approximately 3 ft 6 in gauge, which linked Hilt's Quarry and other limestone quarries at Crich with the Cromford Canal at Bullbridge. The first railway project of Derbyshire civil engineer Benjamin Outram (1764–1805), the line was originally a horse-drawn and gravity-driven plateway, a form of tramway that Outram popularised. Unlike modern edgeways, where flanges on the wheel guide it along the track, plateways used "L" shaped rails where a flange on the rail guided the wheels.
Ripley is a civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. The parish contains 62 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, five are listed at Grade II*, the middle of the three grades, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish contains the town of Ripley, smaller settlements including Ambergate, Bullbridge, Butterley, Fritchley, Heage, Nether Heage and Waingroves, and the surrounding countryside. The Cromford Canal, now partly closed, runs through the parish, and the listed buildings associated with it are bridges and an embankment. Also running through the parish is a railway that originated as the North Midland Railway with a later branch, the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway, and associated with these are bridges, viaducts, a goods shed, and the portals of a tunnel. Most of the other listed buildings are houses, cottages and associated structures, farmhouses and farm buildings. The other listed buildings include churches, a windmill, a pair of coke iron furnaces, factory buildings, public houses, mileposts, colliery buildings, a railway station and signal box at Butterley, and a war memorial.