I love to walk along the Cromford Canal whatever the weather. Here is a short video of one very wet day.
The canal is beautiful on any day but especially in the early Spring sunshine. April 14th 2022 promised to be sunny so I decided to go for an early morning walk. By early I mean 8.30 which I know would not be everyones definition of early. It did however mean that there were not too many others, out walking the canal path. Deciding to start from Cromford was a really good idea as when I arrived at High Peak Junction, (the name now used to describe the site where the former Cromford and High Peak Railway, meets the Canal,) it was not too long before the small cafe opened for Coffee and a sandwich.
Leewood Pumphouse near High Peak Junction.
The canal used to run for 14.5 miles along the Derwent Valley to Ambergate where it turned to eventually join the Erewash Canal at Langley Mill. It was part of a network of canals dug in the midlands to transport goods such as coal, limestone, cotton and lead.
The 6 mile stretch from Cromford to Ambergate has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The area is home to diverse wildlife and a haven for water voles, grass snakes, little grebes, moorhens, coots, dragonflies as well as myriads of ducks, geese and swans.
Returning to Cromford along the canal I was excited to see three water voles but it is still probably rather early for grass snakes. There was how ever a good variety of wildflowers making their appearance and many bees buzzing around.
I love walking along the Cromford Canal and this year have also started to explore woodland near the canal. It is possible to park near the Cromford Canal at Whatstandwell or in a couple of small parking places along Robin Hood Road. This area has a cluster of old stone quarries which started to be worked over 200 years ago. Most are now overgrown with trees and other vegetation, one however, Middle Hole Quarry is still working.
I like to walk along the Cromford Canal and enjoy the wildlife, industrial heritage and numerous wildflowers. One of my favourite walks starts in the village of Lee where Florence Nightingale and John Smedley came from. Parking near to the Smedley factory the walk starts along the Nightingale arm of the canal. John Smedley Knitwear was founded in 1784 at Lea Mills, Matlock, Derbyshire by Mr. John Smedley and Mr. Peter Nightingale (Florence’s great-great Uncle). The Lea Mills factory is still John Smedley’s home, making it the world’s oldest manufacturing factory in continuous operation.
John Smedley, Lee Mills, Lee, Derbyshire.
The construction of the Cromford Canal was completed in late 1794, to improve the movement of heavy goods in and out of Cromford. The canal soon became very busy moving thousands of tonnes of stone all over the country from Cromford Wharf. Lead was taken the much shorter distance to the smelter at Lea, using the Nightingale Arm of the canal. One of the most unusual of shipments was two stone lions, sculpted in Darley Dale and then taken by canal to Liverpool, where they can still be seen standing by the entrance to St George’s Hall.
The Nightingale arm of the canal joins the main canal at the site of Aqueduct Cottage.
Aqueduct Cottage where Nightingale and Cromford Canal meet.
Aqueduct Cottage was originally built as a lengths-man’s and lock-keeper’s accommodation in 1802 by Peter Nightingale. It was necessary to have a stop-lock at the entrance to this arm of the canal and the operation of the lock needed to be supervised by a lock keeper. This is most likely the reason for the construction of the cottage in this location. The cottage was occupied until the 1970s but then gradually fell into disrepair. It is currently being repaired by the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with the help of many volunteers. It will become a visitor interpretation centre, to tell the story of its history, the former people who lived there, and how these aspects related to a Derwent Valley landscape.
Small Teasels along the Cromford Canal
Once I have walked the short distance from Lee to the main canal I can choose to turn right and walk towards High Peak Junction or left towards Whatstandwell. On this occasion I turned left and this is a record of some of the flowers seen at the beginning of August 2020 along this stretch of canal.
Rose Campion
Tufted Vetch
Bird’s-foot Trefoil
Burdock
Rosebay Willow Herb
Hemp Agrimony
All along the canal there is plenty of Meadowsweet, which is edible and can be used in similar ways to elderflowers. Once valued for its lasting fragrance; the dried flowers were strewn across floors to perfume the home, and was said to be Queen Elizabeth 1’s favourite scent, ‘for the smell thereof maketh the hart merrie’. It was also used in Anglo-Saxon times to flavour mead, and has had many medicinal uses. In the 1890s it was used to make acetylsalicylic acid later known as aspirin but unlike todays aspirin it is kinder on the stomach.
Meadowsweet
Along this stretch of canal there are several Guelder Rose and Bramble bushes, this year both have plenty of ripe juicy fruit.
Blackberry
Guelder Rose
Wild Carrot
Great Willowherb
Hemp Nettle
Common Knapweed
Common Sorrel
The flowers and berries this year have been beautiful and seem more rampant than usual, maybe due to weather or less pollution because of lockdown.
The High Peak Trail is one of my favourite places to walk in Derbyshire. Today is looking lovely and so the question is, where to go? Possibly to the High Peak Trail, Derbyshire!
Here are a few pictures I took on my last visit. The first is of Leawood Pump House which is the pumping station which can still pump water from the River Derwent up into the Cromford Canal just beyond High Peak Junction. This is not actually on the High Peak Trail but the trail meets the Cromford Canal at High Peak Junction, very near to the Pump House.
