Stephenson's lost tunnels - The Crich Tramway
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ม.ค. 2025
- Welcome to another video, this week we explored parts of the Crich Tramway and Tunnels with MartinZero.
Martins Channel: / @martinzero
If you like our videos please consider becoming a Patreon here:
/ everydisusedstation
As usual we didn't know a huge amount about this line before we left other than the very basics. There is surprisingly little on the net, although we didn't have time to explore the local museum which I am sure would have answered some of our questions.
A couple disclaimers and notes:
1) With regards to the first tunnel at the top of the hill. We had been told by a local that the fencing is there to stop the cattle on the common from falling in. We took a look and found there to be plenty of room to get in without touching the fence. As always, we touched nothing and took just pictures and film.
2) Back to #EveryDisusedStation soon!
Thanks
A massive thanks to:
The owners of the house with the tunnel at the bottom of their garden. Thank you.
Links:
Our website: www.paulwhitewi...
/ everydisusedstation
Side by side maps from: www.nls.uk/
Railmaponline: www.railmaponli...
Social Media:
Twitter:
Paul: @PaulWhitewick
Martin: @Martin_0401
Mark: @limeheadmark
Rebecca@RWhitewick
Instagram:
@pwhitewick
@martin_zer0_
@markomarrichards
Brilliant !! Mushrooms and Tunnels 👌
Haha, cheers Martin. Culminates a great days explore. Thanks, as always, for your time. Much appreciated.
My initial thought as you approached the "fun guy" was that it looked like a model of Buzz Lightyear!!
@@pwhitewick , hey thanks for the video mate i always enjoy watching them. I cant help but think you may need to start bending the rules a bit, i understand why you never jump a fence or cut a padlock ( off camera of course ) etc because you are a respectful person but...... Thats half the fun of exploring and you seem to be missing out on alot?
Ive done alot of what you film and the padlocks etc always seem to be removed when i get there.......😉
Your bloody every where mate😉👌🏻love it as always
Martin there was some complaints that there was not mushroom in there. They seemed to be funghis anyway! 😂😂😂
You never fail to entertain lol! ...and I could watch Martin 24/7 too. A great combination and a great production. Thank you, all of you. As I've said before on Martin's channel, I'm a retired railwayman (due to ill health) and you (and Martin) take me to places that I would dearly love to go to but cannot physically hope to in what's left of my lifetime. Your videos are the next best thing and for that I say, "Many thanks."
Thank you Cyberdon Blue. Makes it all worth while. 👍👍
Cracking Video.......can you imagine having that at the bottom of your garden.......council or not I would have a steel access door on that in no time!
Couldn't agree more Gary.
@@pwhitewick
Could hold a happy hardcore rave in those tunnels just like they were in the 90's. Lol
What an exciting video. Unbeatable historical content. Fascinatiing facts and information. Brilliant.
Hi all, another very interesting video great find, love tunnels and viaducts good to see you all together, thank you Paul Rebecca Martin and Mark take care xx
Cheers Colin. 👍👍
Another super video. They have really become such a high quality. Really like the collaboration with Martin Zero.
Thank you very much. Certainly makes it worthwhile. Yup Martin is a legend.
All this in my local area I must get out more fantastic video thanks for sharing
Cheers Andrew.
I really do enjoy watching your films
WOW! what a great find, loved this weeks vid. Its great to see you with Martin again and hope you get to do more together.
Thank you Hayley much appreciated.
Great video, what an amazing tunnel,and beautiful place and houses,can you imagine saying to people you have a 150 year old tunnel at the bottom of your garden 😀👌👍
Lovely people and they knew there was a tunnel there, but very little about it. Need to buy that house!!
@@pwhitewick put in an offer lol,love the videos Paul.
Brought back many childhood memories of playing in those tunnels in the early sixties just after the lines had been ripped up. It was a mineral railway which started in the quarry where the Tramway Museum is now & transported limestone down to the lime kilns at Ambergate. The line closed in 1960 & remembered it running past our house
Thanks John. Impressed that quite a few locals have watched this.
saturday morning cuppa with paul and bec and martin , no better way to start the weekend , thanks guys , fabulous as always !
Cheers Peter, enjoy that cuppa.
I cannot imagine such history directly below my feet. Great captures and efforts to record it. Cheers...
Cheers Christopher. 👍👍
Great video love a good bit of explorering proper caving!
Haha, that's about as "caving" as I'll get.
Watching you and your friends slide into the northern portal of the first tunnel brought on my claustrophobia!!! Thank you for squeezing into places, I couldn't!
Another fascinating journey, uncovering unusual pieces of British history! Thank you.
Thanks Richard. Glad you enjoyed it.
Thankyou for sharing.
Thanks Sarah. A pleasure.
Great video again Paul, Martin, Mark and last but not least, Rebecca. Great teamwork. It reminds me of me and my mates crawling through tunnels from brick kilns to a big chimney in an abandoned brickworks. We used to pretend we were doing the great escape!
Hahaha.... Cheers Alistair.
Fantastic video guys great to see Martin in video too. Great combination keep up the great work look forward to future vlogs 👍👍
Cheers Grant.
You're right. I did find your splendid channel from Martin Zero's splendid channel. And I'm glad I did! Interesting, informative and well made. Too many videos on TH-cam have very interesting subjects, but the presentation and production are so bad as to make them unwatchable! Great work!
As usual an excellent and entertaining video. Well done and thank you.
Thanks Andrew. Much appreciated
*whew*, great shots from inside the tunnel. Yeah, a great production. I, too, would like to say many thanks for all that you do. Much as I would love to go and visit disused stations, I look after my father, so your videos and those from Rediscovering Lost Railways really are the next best thing. So massive 👍👍 to you.
Thanks Andrew. Much appreciated. 👍
Subbed after watching! I did come from Martin's channel. Thanks for sharing your finds. I could never do it myself so because of you guys I can still see it.
Thank you. Martin is a gent, glad you are enjoying the channel.
Awesome! Best tunnel explore yet! I will always feel amazed that engineering works from so long ago still exist. When you see and touch things built by man and understand the effort and thought that went in to them......and then think about how it's been 180 years since. It leaves me in awe. What a great find for you guys. Thanks for making this. Btw, top notch editing on this one. Really racheting up the quality, P&R!
Cheers Yankee. This was a really fun explore. Nice and easy to edit! (Ish)
Always great to see Martin Zero...
Indeed it is.
I recently subbed to your channel and I look forward to your uploads. I'm a train driver in america. I love old and abandoned rail lines
Thank you. Good to hear from across the water. Check out the back catalogue when you have time. 👍
superb work,thank you
Cheers Simon.
Super footage, magnificent funky fungi.
What a great adventure! I've subscribed to your channel, as I also follow Martin on his channel. What I find amazing is that trams were considered a cheap form of transportation but so often I've seen that the went to great expense to avoid steep hills by digging tunnels and building viaducts and elaborate bridges to cross deep valleys. It's too bad these tram lines were abandoned, we need them today!
....and quite often it seems for little point. Have a watch of the "Hills Tramroad Video" that we did and you'll see what I mean. Thanks for the subscription.
@@pwhitewick I just finished watching a BBC special about trams! Similar to the demise of the interurban in America, the bus and auto interests won out. Now our roads and highways are clogged and it takes longer to travel to and from work by car then by tram, in fact in some cities, even during non rush hours, travel time is not greatly improved over pre-super highway days.
Fantastic, and great that the locals wanted to help (I’m sure most don’t). If that was at the bottom of my garden I think I’d be making something of it, what a conversation starter “what’s that down the garden?”, “oh it’s just one of George Stephensons tunnels, you know, father of the railways” 😀
That's pretty much how it worked lol
I cycled these about 10 years ago - and discovered that I did not, in fact, have good lights. I remember the Oxendon tunnel being noticeably damper than the Kelmarsh tunnel, but it doesn't look like it was as wet during your visit. Nice to see them again!
You should check out the track bed of the old tramline from Pewfall Old Mine down to the St Helens Canal - Amazon are trying build over located near Liverpool Rd, Pewfall is between Ashton in Makerfield and Haydock. St Helens canal being the oldest canal in England. The mine closed in 1911 the canal was built in 1757 and Amazon just finished building there.
Thanks for the tip Ian. Much appreciated.
Fantastic as usual, great find of something that would otherwise be unknown about, keep up the good work
Thanks Craig
Wow that was fantastic, pity you couldn’t get in and go thru. Such excitement
This was totally fantastic, thank you so much
Thanks Linda
Fascinating part of the world with lots of transport history. Cromford Canal, C&HP line, Ecclesbourne Valley line, Peak rail, Crich tram museum etc...
Is a great county. Some of the caves are stunning.
You forgot the Butterley Company they built every thing made of Iron and steel. sadly now gone!
An absolutely brilliant film, so amazing that our early industrial revolution railway history is still there just hidden by nature.
What an amazing soundtrack, who was it?? Truly amazing.
Thanks James. Yes, so much to be explored. I'll dog out the sou d track when I'm later
heya paul and rebecca , great video as always , wow 2 great finds , cant believe how good the condition was in the first tunnel , more of that please lol , oh and rebecca of course lol :)
Cheers Davie. Yup a great days exploring.
Loved it, compulsive and immersive. Sad that such impressive engineering feats are almost wilfully ignored.
Thank you Nick. 👍
Martin's channel brought me here, I'm now a subscriber to your channel too, love your videos.
Cheers Andy, welcome abroad.
Excellent discovery guys - savouring how impressively thst tunnel appears to have survived inside.
Nice video and nice bit of urban, ehhhh..... rural exploring. Thanks for making this one and, whatever you do, stay safe!
Thanks Marc. Yup a little of both.
Great finds thanks to all of you for making a fantastic video. all the best Eden valley drones UK.
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it. 👍
Great Vid guys and what a find. Thanks alot and keep up the great vids.
Thank you John.
Lovely to video, no jeopardy to be had just a pleasant informative watch.
Cheers Owen. 👍
Need to find these old tunnels be a blast
Love the collaboration with MZ, keep it up Whitewick’s looking forward to the next video 👍👍👍
Cheers John. 👍
Wow guys, that 2nd tunnel, it is just incredible. It's amazing how narrow they are compared to things build just years later.
Thanks for the video guys, I can't wait for you to be on the former railway behind my house.
Cheers Alex. 👍👍
the tramway was a small gauge railway, like the inclines on the High Peak Trail they used the pulleys to get the wagons up and down. I love living here, we have Butterley, Cromford, the High Peak and of course, the Crich Museum and the Tramway all within 10 minutes,
Love the old tunnel stuff
We do too. 👍👍🚂🚂🛤️🛤️
Abandoned tunnels love it ..and superb music !
Thanks Merv. 👍👍
Really enjoy these!
Thank you. Glad you like them. One a week at the moment.
@@pwhitewick I love this type of history and add trains to it and I'm in!
Greetings Paul and Rebbeca I love your Railway Archaeology. in old Railway formations.I have just started looking at your website.a resident of victoria australia plenty of Tramways out my front door Jeff Puffingbilly Preservation Society
Wow! What a great video. A fascinating look at part of Derbyshire's industrial past. I thought I knew that area fairly well but you just knocked me out of my complacency.
Cheers Stephen.
I went on a school trip to Crich Tramway museum in the very early 90's and we were from North London.
Still remember it now, like it was yesterday, nearly 30 years later.
Time certainly flies!
@@pwhitewick
It most certainly does, we stayed in a hostel in Eyam for a week, the village the bubonic plague started apparently. Toured all around Derbyshire it was a good trip, considering we were comprehensive not private.
We normal folk got a proper education back before austerity, we visited Derwent dam, Matlock mining museum, Mam Tor the mile of steps.....
I'm glad that you managed to pronounce "Crich" correctly in the end albeit with a few slips on the way- it does not rhyme with "itch". That was a very interesting video-most enjoyable, but could I please suggest that if you are entering tunnels, remember that they are enclosed spaces. Is the air safe to breathe? Do you have enough torches? Helmets? Someone standing by outside? Not being pedantic, but I personally knew people who lost their lives in similar situations. The whole of that area is rich with industrial history but that tunnel was new to me. Well done.
Cheers Mervyn. This was a tad unexpected on our part. Because it there was a clear opening either end and it wasn't a "mined" tunnel at just 91 yards long we thought that we would be fairly safe. Points taken though 👍
I walk my dog in this area regularly and love exploring the industrial heritage. This is adjacent to the World Heritage site of Derwent Valley Mills. If you or anyone else reading this is in the area exploring, follow the incline cutting to a point half way down the hill where a footpath crosses the incline. Look a few feet to the right of the incline and there’s still evidence of the end of a piece of rail sticking up! Further down the hill near the fence of the now gasworks is another bricked up portal. The gas works was the site of Stephenson’s original lime kilns and the now lost bed of part of the Cromford Canal. This canal amongst many other uses, was used to transport lime to the nearby Butterley Ironworks that produced the iron arches for St. Pancras Station, London and the Falkirk Wheel.
Thank you for this video.I never knew about this despite living locally (Belper).Fascinating stuff.
Hi to you both!! Good vid as always!! I did mention it before but the Glenfield tunnel in Leicester was put through and completed in 1832 it is just over a mile long and I was lucky enough to take a tour last week!! George Stephenson was too busy to build it so handed the project to his son Robert, the next tours are in September led by local industrial historians, well worth a visit!!
Thanks Michael. You may well of mentioned it, but it sounds like a very good plan. We've a lot coming up in the next few weeks but if we have time we will get ourselves booked in!
Came from Geoff and Vikki. Really interesting stuff.
Thanks Jeremy. Welcome to the party. We hope you enjoy the channel.
same here.
@@andygif290368 welcome Good Sir
@@pwhitewick When I am in the UK I love to potter about old abandoned railways, I didn't realise it was so popular.
Popular and plenty to cover! 6800 abandoned stations in the UK.
As always. Another great video.
Cheers Richard.
Another belting upload ,esp' the second tunnel i wager that hole in the face is a cat highway in the evening , please keep them coming folks x
Cheers. Glad you enjoyed. Cat or Rat?
If you go to the Tramway Museum in Crich you can find a small booklet called "George Stephenson's Crich Railway". It has some great old photos of the tramway when it was in use.
Awesome Video Great Find !
Cheers. Glad you enjoyed it and found us!
I watched Martin's, its only fair I watch yours, and probably more of them. Cheers 👍
It would be rude not too... 😁. We split the video in two so please also check out "The Oldest Railway Tunnel in the world" on our channel too.
Great entertaining vid. I'm glad that Mrs.Whitewick had the good sense not to go scrabbling down holes to get underground "heh,heh!"Great exploring Didnt realise that was Martin [must be the cap].
Haha, yes much more sensible than us three for sure!
Great video and many thanks for sharing 🙂🍻👍
Cheers MrVXR
amazing find
Cheers Danny. Took some time to locate I can tell you!
Being originally from Matlock I can only say how grateful I am for you exploring something I have always been interested in, but unable to visit, as I now live in Essex. I always felt that Beeching did the country a serious injustice by closing the route between Matlock and Buxton/Manchester.
Indeed yes. What an amazing route that would have been even as a heritage line.
Love the video and learn alot
Cheers Peter
Great video again :)
Thanks David.
Hi Paul and Rebecca flipped over from Martins channel ! but was only there for a cuppa tea, sometimes have one with Geoff and Vicki now hope to get one here occasionally, nice Video , now need to catch up on your others! Greetings from Germany( Oh the Germans make terrible tea;-),,,)
Welcome aboard Julian. Have as much tea as you can consume
@@pwhitewick hi thanks Paul i miss my cuppa here in germany the last ten years. Ex northants guy here! So always got plenty wit Martin and Geoff. But more is welcome! Germans do not even make a good dunking biccie 🤔😂 i will catch up on your other vids next few days and when u want a Sauna give me a shout but infra red cabin is much nicer!!!
great video & u was both spoted on the laytest all the station video :)
Cheers Paul. The photobombed our outro How rude!
Good work mate. Shame i didnt know you were coming or i could have showed you a few more remaining bits to this and the Other tramway. The tunnel in this used to be quiet easily visible from the nearby Public Footpath steps but in summer i guess its overgrown. Im also certain the other end is buried beside some lock up garages. Did you get down the incline as far as the surviving bridge near the bottom ? Its bricked up for some strange reason . Also of not nearby is The Cromford Canal that had 3 tunnels in that small area you visited, and also three kilns survive on the bottom of the other Tramway but they are easy to find. They had a tramways running into them, of sorts. The chap with Fritchley tunnel in his garden knows my sister and let us go in it a few years ago before it all went public, nice chap.
Small world and all that! Sadly we only had time to cover pretty much what was in the video. Next time we would like to look at the canal if it's doable.
@@pwhitewick OK Pal. Well the canal has quiet a few decent remains. Butterley Tunnel is easy to find and i can take you to the airshafts, one of them you can lean over and throw stones into to listen for the splash ! I know it well from Cromford all the Way to the Erewash canal basin, including the Pinxton branch. The abandoned/built over section at Ambergate hasnt much to offer but from there to Butterley tunnel there are plenty to look at, so give us a shout on here or FB and i will guide you if you want. I actually worked for the Butterley Co in the 90s and had access to archive pix , i think i may have a few, somewhere.
The second tunnel reminds me of the bourne tunnel in rainhill underneath stephenson's liverpool to manchester railway
Still around today?
Whilst it is not a railway tunnel but did you have a look for any remains of the tunnel on the Cromford Canal down to the east of the site of Ambergate Works on the north side of the existing railway? Really interesting video, the interior of Crich Town tunnel appears to change from stone lined to solid rock part way in. Shame you couldn't get further in.
Cheers Jules. We didn't have time to check out the canal unfortunately. Yes we noticed the change in the tunnel walls. My thought is that was perhaps where the tunnel ended. Seems a tad too short potentially!?
@@pwhitewick It is soooo intrieging you can see the tunnel continue past the tall piece of wood (or that's what it looks like) right to another arch then the black beyond that. I measured it on a NLS map at 190 feet so maybe the black is the bricked up north portal. Looking at the floor in the distance I wonder if there has been a bit of a roof collapse or was that done when it was sealed. More questions than answers.
@@juleshathaway3894 thanks for the info Jules. Yup you are right, too short to end where the brick does. Lots and lots of questions!!
So interesting thanks to all concerned, so much history
Cheers Terry.
what is he talking about at 14:17? he was referring to borrowing items to clear the vegetation. he said something that sounded like " SEC A TEARS". what was he referring to?
I am an American so sometimes I have trouble understanding a word due to accent or the UK calling an item by a different name.
two natons seperated by a common language.
Ah yes, apologies. Basically garden scissors. We call them secateurs for some reason!
@@pwhitewick - thank you. No need to apologise. You cant possibly accommodate every language and country in every video.
lol - Martin getting freaked out my mushrooms! What a great find in those people’s garden.
Lol, we were both freaked out about it but Mark kept his cool!
Thanks for another great informative video. I really enjoy these tunnel videos and co operation with Martin. What was the song ?.
Thanks Steven. Can't recall the song, I'll add it to the description when we are back from filming.
Wow, amazing tunnels and the history :)
Cheers Daniel
excellent again. thank you
Cheers Keith. 👍👍
The second raised trackbed.. with it being so early would it possibly be a tow path for horses?
Quite a mystery as both sides look too low for any kind of engine. Despite a local suggesting there were steam engines along the line. My assumption was definitely horse draw, as for the rest of the line, not sure.
Maybe, but there is no record of a canal on this site. For what it's worth, according to www.narrowgaugerailwaymuseum.org.uk/collections/industrial-railways/crich-quarry-railway/ in 1934 the railway bought an engine that was a bit big for the line. So possibly that the tunnel floor was lowered to give a bit of extra clearance.
Fantastic
Thanks Jonathan
That was really entertaining and those tunnels were amazing to see
Cheers Simon. 👍👍
Brilliant thank you 👍😊
Cheers Jez
Absolutely brilliant, looks like time has just stood still in both tunnels,if only we had H. G. Wells time machine,thanks all.
Hahaha.... Yes indeed.
What a find!
Cheers Stephen. We certainly weren't expecting either!
Wouldn't it be great to restore some of these old tunnels for the trains and trams to run through them once again, this is a great video thanks for the upload 👍
Cheers Neil. Most certainly yes.
Great video, just thought I'd tell you about Watnall tunnel as you might find that of interest to explore
Pray tell more Sir.
Wow
In an unlikely way, part of this tramroad is still rideable today. The museum tramway at Crich was built on part of its trackbed, and at least one building from the Stephenson tramway survives within the tramway museum complex at the "Town End" entrance area.
Thanks Christopher, yup we had intended to take a look but sadly we ran out of time here!.
I understand the tramway had rails until the museum opened in Crich quarry, and then the rails were removed by a narrow-gauge railway society.
When the Tramway Museum were looking at ways to attract visitors I did suggest to them that a tramway ride to and from the Cromford canal would be a major attraction.
That would be amazing for sure.
Great teamwork guys. Brilliant result & thanks for sharing. Do follow Martin too.👍👍
Cheers David. Much appreciated
This from a 1841 newspaper may be of interest. Mr. Stephenson's Lime Works at Amber Green.-Mr.
Stephenson has now commenced burning lime at these works, and is sending it to the different places adjacent to the North Midland Railway, In the course of a short time it will be conveyed to most of the principal towns in England. The kilns are built in a handsome and substantial form, standing from 30 to 40 feet above the surface of the ground. The limestone is procured from the village of Crich about two or three miles distant from the kilns, A tramway, formed for the purpose. A short distance from Crich the tramway passes through a tunnel between 40 and 60 yards in length, cut through a rock composed of sandstone grit ; a little further on is an inclined plane, which is worked by a wheel, round which passes a wire rope, which lets down six waggons filled with lime stone, and draws up the same number of empty wagons. Nearly adjoining this is another inclined plane, which is uncommonly steep, rising at the rapid rate of one yard in three and a half, and is worked by large drum, round which passes a wire rope; a lever is attached to the drum, by which one man alone is able to regulate the speed of the waggons at pleasure, or stop them altogether. Two full waggons are let down an two empty ones are drawn up at the same time. The full waggons pass over the Cromford canal by a wooden bridge (elevated several feet above the level of the water) to the top of the kilns, These stupendous works when finished, will be of the most extensive character in England, or, we may say, in the whole world. They will, when complete, be able to turn out upwards of 200 tons of lime per day.
Fantastic, thank you. What a great find.
why dont you check out bolsover tunnel while your up here? another great video.
Cheers Freddie. Sadly we only had a limited amount of time when we filmed this.
Nice to look at the other tunnel through a hole
Cheers Caroline. Glad you enjoyed it
Fantastic film. Great stuff. Could you tell me the who the artist is please you use at the beginning of the video.
Cheers Robert. I think the artist is "The Days"
@@pwhitewick top man. Thank you. Keep up the good work. Fantastic
Was the first tunnel under private property or public land? If private, I'm surprised that the tunnel hasn't been repurposed for some kind of cool storage given how dry it appeared to be inside.
Similarly for the second tunnel with the portal on private property, surprising that it hasn't been repurposed. Would make for a nice wine cellar.
The first at the top of the hill is on a common. Cattle around etc. The second wasn't technically in the garden but just over the wall. The portal is a listed building.
Great Watch, Staring Martin Zero Fear, First one in the hole! It was DRY though!
Thank fully, very dry!
To be fair your research is off the scale! Excellent Channel!✔
Great videos guys, what maps do you use on them please
Generally the National Library of Scotland. Amazing maps.