Abandoned Railways and Secrets of Harpur Hill, Buxton

Welcome to part 13 of this series on the Cromford and High Peak Railway in Derbyshire. We're starting next to the old quarries above Harpur Hill. This was also the site of RAF Harpur Hill, which was operational from 1938 to 1960 and was mainly used as an underground munitions storage facility as well as an ammunitions disposal facility. It[s now an industrial estate and home to a logistics company.
We can from the outside see evidence of the tunnels on the site, which were all connected to the railway.
We're walking the old trackbed from here, looking at the deviations where the railway line was modernised over the years, including some fantastic embankments and cuttings. We pass through the HSE site (Health & Safety Executive), which the railway passes through, the abandoned Stanley Moor Reservoir before finishing on the long stretch towards Ladmanlow and the summit of the line.
At Ladmanlow was a former station and goods yard. It was also the junction to the branch down into Grin Quarry at Grin Low. We can see the entrance to the quarry branch just before the level crossing at Ladmanlow. This is the highest point of the line and it is all downhill from here.
...but that is for next time.
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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. In the first part we look at the section of the railway that was extended to meet with the main railway line.
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 that we will see in later episodes.
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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