Bullbridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bullbridge is a small village in Derbyshire.
It has a population of approx. 220 and is served by two public houses - the Canal Inn, (after the Cromford Canal ) and the Lord Nelson .
Until the end of the eighteenth century it was little more than the bridge over the River Amber for the road from Crich.
In 1794, William Jessop and Benjamin Outram built the Cromford Canal between Cromford and Langley Mill, with the Bullbridge Aqueduct crossing the road. In 1840, George Stephenson brought the North Midland Railway past on its way to Leeds crossing the road, but passing under the canal.
The steep wagonway to the Cromford Canal at Bullbridge, where it was sent on to the Butterley Ironworks was known as the Butterley Gang Road. Initially worked by gravity and horse power, in 1812, William Brunton, an engineer for the company, produced his remarkable Steam Horse locomotive. They built a wharf for loading the limestone from their quarry at Crich, and a group of limekilns.
In 1825 James Stephenson founded a dye works at Wirksworth opening branches in Duffield and Little Eaton, then Belper, finally building his main works at Bullbridge in 1908. The works is now part of Coats plc.
Hilt's Quarry and the gangway closed in 1933 and is derelict, the canal having already been virtually closed by the subsidence of Butterley Tunnel..
[edit] References
- Cooper, B., (1983) Transformation of a Valley: The Derbyshire Derwent, Heinneman, republished 1991 Cromford: Scarthin Books
- Maps of Bullbridge
