Following the Cromford Canal ~ 6 ... I visit Hammersmith.

My fifth day following the Cromford Canal was on the 11th July 2010 ... my sixth day was on the 14th January 2011 ~ six months apart. Still I was making progress.

At the start of the sixth day I parked my car under the bridge taking the A38 northwards from Ripley, Derbyshire. There's a small area to park by the side of the road there ...

I should mention that that isn't my car but it is the A38 passing overhead. In fact I recall now, my car was parked back down the road behind me ... not under the A38.

This isn't going to be a walk that the mountain-loving walker is going to like but if you've been following some of my blogs you'll know I don't have to be out in the wilds to enjoy a walk.

So, I left the road shown above by turning right out of the picture, along a footpath, which runs alongside an old railway line which is now part of the Midland Railway Centre ...


 

This brought me to Butterley Reservoir where you can [just] see one of the steam trains at the far end ...


 

I walked around the southern end of the reservoir to reach the Butterley Ironworks or what remains of it. The Ironworks has quite a history ~ Butterley [according to Wikipedia] "produced the iron work for the Vauxhall Bridge over the River Thames". The next time you're at St. Pancras Station see if you can spot the 'Butterley Company' name on some of the ironwork. Clink on this link for a short history of Butterley Engineering by the BBC, this includes 12 great images [including a bit of the reservoir] ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/derby/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8470000/8470702.stm 

This area is known for something else of course ~ the Pentrich Revolution in 1817. This seems to have been a badly organised uprising by 200/300 men who planned to march on Nottingham and then London. They didn't even get as far as Nottingham as the cavalry was waiting for them. A government spy had been amongst them. Over 30 of the men were charged with high treason but only Jeremiah Brandreth, William Turner and Isaac Ludlam were found guiltyand subsequently executed. According to the Cambridge Chronicle and Journal of Friday the 14th November 1817 all three men were hanged at a quarter to one and "... at a quarter past one they were cut down." The dead body of Brandreth who had been 31 at the time of his death "was then laid on the block, with the face downwards ... The executioner then raised [his] axe and struck at the neck with all his force. At that instant there was a burst of horror from the crowd. The executioner then took up the head and ... addressed the people. "Behold the head of Jeremiah Brandreth the traitor." " The bodies of Turner and Ludlam were treated in a simlar fashion before "the heads and bodies were then thrown into the coffins, and all the spectators dispersed." 

They don't write newspaper reports like that nowadays.

The 'revolutionaries' passed the gatehouse at Butterley Ironworks ...

 

A plaque marking that fact ...



I continued, though so far I hadn't seen anything of the Cromford Canal. The Derbyshire Police headquarters are hereabouts though, hence this sign presumably ...



Then I did see something of the canal, well at least an airshaft from Butterley Tunnel through which the canal used to pass ...

 

As I made my way I could see from my OS Map that I wasn't far from the one and three quarter mile long tunnel. I was walking parallel to it though it was some distance below my feet. 



Eventually I reached the Newlands Inn at Golden Valley ... far from in its prime ...



Behind it the Cromford Canal, after it had come out of the tunnel ...

 

So now I walked back alongside the canal to reach the Butterley Tunnel. As you can see it is in a poor state ...





There is no towpath in the tunnel and so men on the barges or narrowboats had to rely on "legging". This literally meant lying on a plank across the boat and 'walking' along the sides of the tunnel.

Returning to the Newlands Inn I walked along the road for a short distance before turning into a wood and then walking up a field side towards Forty Horse Wood ...

  

This is where many, many walkers would lose interest because the next section of the walk was alongside an unattractive metal fence separating the countryside [on my right] with an industrial site [on my left] ...

 

You never know what you're going to discover though and a mile later after walking past Sainsbury's on the edge of Ripley [and through some of its streets] I reached Carr Wood which is, more or less, in Ripley ...



Carr Wood [according to the interpretation panel] can be traced back to the 13th century forming part of ancient Duffield Frith. Coal mining though left the site almost bare but as this decreased trees grew and it is now a local nature reserve. It was certainly much more enjoyable than paddling along some of the pavements of the town.

One interesting building I passed whilst paddling along those pavements was the King William Nursing Home ... though when you look closer at the side of the building ...



... you can see the words 'THE HOME BREWERY COMPANY LIMITED' partly hidden by some planters. The brewery ceased to exist some years ago but I spent my late teenage years drinking Home Brewery's Bitter and Home Brewery's Five Star ... with some enthusiasm.

Shortly afterwards I was passing under the A610 linking the A38 with Ripley ...



I always enjoy walking under busy roads with cars and lorries moving at speed way above my head [seriously].

Then I was walking through Hammersmith, complete with street name on the side of one of the terraced houses ...



Not everybody's idea of an interesting walk but I found it very enjoyable.

 

Anyone who wants to find out more about the Butterley Tunnel can search for 'Butterley Tunnel' in YouTube and find a video of some guys passing through it [or some of it] in a boat ... and there is more if you put 'Butterley Tunnel' into Google.

 

This walk was followed on the 14th January 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 5 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 15.8 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 14th January 2011 ~ 544.85 miles
 
4 of 2011

 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap