Buxton and Ashbourne Railway
The Ashbourne to Buxton Railway was built in two sections by the London and North Western Railway. It was planned to be its second mainline from London to Manchester to compete with the Cromford and High Peak Railway, once the southern section has been built[1].
The first section, from Buxton to Parsley Hay, was built in the early 1890s and connected with the Cromford and High Peak Railway. This meant that a difficult section of the latter could be avoided.
1897 one hundred local men were employed to build the second section from Ashbourne to Parsley Hay. This included a cutting at Cold Eaton measuring 1.2km long and up to 20m deep.
1899 The complete line was opened in August 1899. Locals from Buxton and Ashbourne had hoped that the railway would become the main line from London to Manchester and therefore prove very profitable for local businesses. Unfortunately for them it never became more than a small branch line. One of its main functions was for transporting milk from farmers to markets in Manchester and London.
WWII the line took on renewed importance as it was used to transport munitions from the underground ammunitions dump on the Frith 2km to the south-west of Harpur Hill to RAF bomber squadrons throughout northern England.
The railway was closed to passenger traffic in the late 1950s and was closed to all traffic in October 1963. The route of the railway is currently used as a cycle trail and farm access track.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Featherstone, 1998
- [1] NT heritage records