Bridges and Burbage Tunnel Abandoned in 1892

Welcome to part 14 of this series on the Cromford & High Peak Railway. We pick up on the outskirts of Buxton, and the hamlet of Ladmanlow. We walked as far as the old station and goods area in the last episode. We pick up with the embanment and remains of the bridge over the A54. The railway sweeps it's way across the rugged landscape on a series of embanments.

We see the location of the junction to the Goyt Colliery. Tucked away in a steep hillside with remains of lime kilns still visible. The railway passed another signature curved embankment before plunging through the bridge under the Macclesfield Old Road. You'd be forgiven from a distance in believing this was a tunnel portal. Now infilled at the far end. It was in front of this bridge that the railway for it's last decades terminated. Everything from here onwards was abandoned in 1892.

From here the railway follows what is now a farm track. A long straight approach to the Burbage tunnel. The only tunnel of any real distance on the CHPR. It is 580 yards, but now sealed off. An unusual portal can be accessed at the northern end, with signs of a partial collapse. The tunnels would appear to be in use to carry communication cables.

The next section passes over the open Wild Moor on it's way into the Goyt Valley. Typical of the Cromford & High Peak, is winds it's way along the contours, before it is forced to pass over a ravine on a man-made embankment, which acts as a dam. Here is the scene of yet another deviation. The original 1832 trackbed was built with an exceptionally tight bend, which has been corrected with a the building of a second embankment to ease the radius, possibly in the 1870/1880 period.

We reach a road and the top of what was the Bunsall Inclines. But we will leave this for the next episode on this fascinating journey down this remarkable and addictive former railway line.


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On this series we'll be following the disused railway line the 33 miles from Cromford in the Derbyshire Dales over to Whalley Bridge in the High Peak.

During the conception of the Cromford and High Peak Railway, canals were in fashion and railways hadn’t really taken off yet. The line exists as there was a desire to connect the Peak Forest canal (Manchester's industry in the West) to the Cromford Canal and the various industry in the East Midlands. A canal was considered but the number of locks to cross the peak district would be enormous.

So instead, a tramroad, or tramway was decided to be the way forward. Horse drawn with rope inclines at several locations to pull the wagons up the steep gradients.

An extremely ambitious venture at the time coming only a handful of years after the Stockton and Darlington railway. This makes it one of the world oldest railways. The 33 mile long line opened at the turn of the 1830s connecting the two canals and shortly after the horses were replaced with steam engines. The inclines were powered by static steam engines.

We’ll see as we progress down the line, various challenges that ultimately led to the line's closure. Apart from a few quarry lines, the railway closed in stages up to 1967.

These days a large portion of the line is accessible as the High Peak Trail.

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