Peak Forest Tramway Trail - Canal & River Trust Online Services

J Bewley/SUSTRANS – www.sustrans.org.uk
Alex McNeil
P
Whaley
Bridge
Explore the green lanes
of the Tramway Trail –
where tracks once ran.
The Bugsworth Basin to Charley Lane
section is open for you to enjoy.
Connected footpaths and towpaths
can even take you from Whaley Bridge
right through to Chapel-en-le-Frith.
Free public car parks are situated in
Chapel-en-le-Frith, Whaley Bridge and
at the Navigation Inn at Bugsworth
Basin (customers only).
For more information on the Trail
and the local area telephone Buxton
Tourist Information Centre on
01298 25106 or go online:
www.highpeak.gov.uk/culture/tramway
www.chapel-en-lefrithparishcouncil.gov.uk
www.visitpeakdistrict.com
For historic information on the
Peak Forest Tramway:
www.brocross.com/iwps
The trail starts at
Bugsworth Basin,
in the village of
Buxworth, Derbyshire,
one of the largest
inland waterway ports
ever created and the
terminus of the Peak
Forest Canal and
Tramway.
As you walk past the front of the Navigation Inn,
away from the canal, the trail begins on a wide
footpath that was once the track of the
tramway. Many features still exist although these
have gradually blended into the landscape.
Look out for the stone sleeper blocks
that used to support the rails.
Peak Forest
Tramway Trail
i
Linking local communities
A6
Whaley
Bridge
Macclesfield
A5004
Peak Forest
Tramway Trail
Linking local communities
The following organisations are
making the Tramway Trail a reality:
Supported by funding from
Stockport &
Manchester
B6062
Buxworth
Bugsworth
Basin
Peak Forest
Tramway Trail
B5470
B6062
Chinley
Charley Lane
Chapel-en-le-Frith
Buxton
Just a short distance from the start of the trail, notice
where a raised branch line from the tramway ran
along a high bank and crossed the Black Brook.
Further along the path, the trail moves away from the
river bank and takes you on to Whitehall works and
Forge Mill at Chinley. Mills were built along the
route of the tramway and, two hundred years after
they opened, many of the original buildings are still
in use.
Watch out for interpretation points, where
you can meet Tom the Nipper and discover
some of the secrets of the trail.
Today, the Tramway is a haven for wildlife.
Wrens flit along the mossy walls that line the
trail in search of insects and dragonflies glide
over the mill ponds.
Bugsworth Basin to Charley Lane – approximately 2.6 km [1.6 miles]
Bugsworth Basin
Buxworth
Navigation
Inn
Chinley
Whitehough
Connecting footpath
or towpath
i
Chapel Milton
A6
Peak Forest
Tramway Trail
Linking local communities
Bugsworth Basin
to Chapel-en-le-Frith
The trail finishes at Charley Lane near
Bridgeholm Green. You can use public
footpaths to walk on to Chapel Milton and its
historic viaducts. You can also walk further on
to Chapel-en-le-Frith, where you will
find an historic market place, local shops,
restaurants and public bus and train services
to take you back to Bugsworth Basin or
Whaley Bridge.
i
Charley
Lane
i Interpretation point
©Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. High Peak Borough Council Licence No. 100018411
Alex McNeil
Bridgeholm
Green
i
0 0.5km
Chapelen-le-Frith
Historic Market Place
Chapel Milton
P
Richard Burkman – www.spacefornature.co.uk
Mike Ritchie
P

Brian Lamb/Peter Whitehead
Rattle ‘n’Roll
Two hundred years ago it was the Peak
Forest Tramway, full of wagons loaded
with limestone. From the quarries at
Dove Holes up in the hills, the wagons
rolled down to the canal at Bugsworth
Basin in trains up to forty wagons long.
The tramway provided a quick, costeffective
means of transporting lime and
limestone onto the canal network. From
Bugsworth Basin, this important raw material
was carried for use in the growing industries
of the north west of England. Industries such
as construction, chemical, glass, pulp and
paper manufacture and water treatment.
The tramway was so successful that it
attracted new industry to the area. Soon, it
was carrying cloth from the mills that grew
up along the Black Brook. The returning
wagons carried coal, farming implements…
even furniture for local people moving house!
WAGONERS AND NIPPERS!
The tramway operated before steam power
was invented. The wagons were moved using
the incline of the
hills to roll down
and horse
power to pull
them back
up.
Teams of skilled
workers
controlled the
wagons’ movements.
In charge of each gang
was a ‘wagoner’. His
job was to control the
speed of the wagons
downhill, having first
calculated their
A tramway ‘nipper’. weight. For a brake he
used a metal hook on a chain to jam the
wheels. This was known as ‘spragging’.
Having set the wagons in motion, he would
Peak
Forest
Canal
Bugsworth
Basin
Navigation
Inn
Barren
Clough
Quarry
Chinley
Elevated Whitehall Works
Tramway
Forge Mill
Green Lane
Level Crossing
Crist Quarry
For nearly 130 years,
the Peak Forest Tramway
was an effective means
of transporting heavy goods.
Charley Lane
Level Crossing
Chapel
Milton
quickly sprag as many wheels as he thought
necessary to control the train’s speed.
Incredibly, he then jumped onto the side of
the wagons and rode down with the load.
With trains up to 40 wagons long carrying
tons of limestone, this was a dangerous job
that required experienced workers.
Training started young. The wagoner’s
assistant began work at twelve. Known as a
‘nipper’, he was responsible for handling the
teams of horses that pulled the wagons back
up the line. He also dealt with the empty
wagons and those loaded with goods to deliver
on the way back. When a nipper reached
seventeen, he usually transferred to other work.
GOING DOWN!
From Dove Holes, the wagoner would ride
the wagons down to the ‘Top o’ th’ Plane’.
Tramway
Bridge over
Black Brook
When it opened in 1796, it was acclaimed as
an innovative piece of engineering. It survived
alongside the introduction of steam locomotion as it
was the most appropriate means of transport for
goods in this location.
It wasn’t until the early 20th century, with improved
road and rail transport, that the tramway finally
became obsolete. Horse-drawn methods of transport
had declined and the tramway closed in 1925.
....
Rattle
The Tramway Trail wasn’t always as peaceful as it is today!
Alex McNeil/Mike Ritchie
Stodhart Tunnel
‘n’Roll
Townend Foundry and
Canal Company Warehouse
Chapel-en- Great Inclined Plane
le-Frith
Brakeman’s Top o’ th’ Plane
Tower Canal Company Workshops
Barmoor Clough Wharf
Lodes Well Bridge
Gisborne
Quarry
Canal Company
Lime Kilns
Lodes Knowle Quarry
Halsteads Quarries
Holderness
Quarries
Dove
Holes
Dale
Newline Quarry
The Great Inclined Plane, early 20th century.
View of the Trail today by the elevated section near Bugsworth Basin. The illustration gives a glimpse of how
Tramway traffic might have looked. The skew bridge carried the elevated tramway branch to the New Road lime
kilns over the medieval packhorse road between Macclesfield and Glossop.
Peak Forest
Tramway
The Great Inclined Plane was a steep,
straight stretch of track, still visible, where a
continuous steel rope was attached to the
wagons to assist in braking. As loaded wagons
travelled down one side of the track, empty
ones were hauled up the other. The bottom of
the Plane was near Buxton Road, Chapel-enle-Frith.
The tramway then ran on round the
outskirts of the town to the Stodhart Tunnel.
Here, the tramway became a single track
through what is thought to be the second
oldest railway tunnel in the country.
Soon after emerging from the Stodhart
Tunnel, the tramway curved round by the side
of the Black Brook. Today, you can walk close
to the route of the tramway under the
impressive railway viaduct arches at Chapel
Milton.
Further on, at Charley Lane, you can join the
original route of the tramway through to
Bugsworth Basin. Here, at journey’s end,
the wagons would have rolled into the basin
to be unloaded, nearly seven miles after
leaving Dove Holes. A dangerous, but
effective means of transporting one of the
most important raw materials of the industrial
revolution – Derbyshire limestone.
Peak Forest
Tramway Trail
Linking local communities
Phillip Murray/Brian Lamb/Peter Whitehead