J4M35 I got the telegraph.great article.obviously dont know you through the forum,but after seeing the article and finding out your age,well,credit due indeed.nice to hear of us younger folk having an interest in such local history.well done. 🙂

Thanks, I got banned from a forum previously because my age apparently means I cannot take photos. I am surprised they let me in Butterley, but they did 😉

some rules are just bo****** really arent they??!!! i also meant to add that i bet you are very proud of your grandfather's position of longest serving member of staff.i would be! 🙂

Just spotted on the Friends of Cromford Canal web site http://www.cromfordcanal.org.uk/  a walk through by Martin Cordon of part of the Butterley Tunnel which runs under the site and has underground wharves for loading barges, adits to local mines etc. See http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tina.cordon/Butterley%20Tunnel%20Survey.pdf  Not for the faint hearted! :ohmygod:

Impressive stuff, which also hints at the complexity of the shafts and tunnels under the blast furnace. When I worked on site I looked down one of the shafts near the blast furnace, which I recall had more debris in than the one that Martin explored, so this may be another shaft.

Further evidence to support a proper archeological study of the site prior to the developers getting hold of it.

Yes,ICLOK put a link into that some weeks ago (see his previous posts,they might be different pics on there?) it is very interesting.i often walk past both portals,and have done since i was a kid.my grandad knows all about the tunnel so when i was a kid i was fascinated by it,so it was great to see the exploration photos. 😉

If i get time today iam going to write a version of the letter set out to my mp,judy mallaber.the more the better eh? 🙂

Those wonderful cranes we photographed in 8 shop are just a twisted pile of metal now!! Drove by on A610 and stopped on bridge... dear oh dear... 😞

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Those wonderful cranes we photographed in 8 shop are just a twisted pile of metal now!! Drove by on A610 and stopped on bridge... dear oh dear... 😞

I went up the top of the furnace the other day, it's a horrible sight now :curse:

James mate, can you photograph your article and send it me... sadly when I got to the Elms to buy it in the evening... they had already packed up the spares and refused to let me have one.... at 7pm which is evening I would say... kinda defeating when the Derby evening Telegraph goes off sale in the evening!!! :guns:

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Iclok - A mutual railway author friend of ours (Howard) recently posted a website address on the mining-history website for an eight paged article entitled "A Day at the Butterley Iron Works, Derbyshire" which was published in the "Penny Magazine" in 1844. It is a very interesting graphic account of the Butterley works and includes details of the blast furnaces and is illustrated by sketches.

http://tinyurl.com/ybajfvj 

My copy of the Derby Evening Telegraph article is in the post and should be with me either today or Saturday. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Sorry for lack of contact but have been invaded the last few days by family - especially one 12 year old grandson wanting to use my p.c. Hoping to get cracking later today.

Hello me dear.... Thought of you the other day and forgot to call!!! I saw Howards penny magazine piece... excellent... thats what i like about Howard, he turns up some amazing stuff :thumbup: !
Did you get your letters off in the end...?
You see thats what children and grand children are really for... taking up time and computing space 🙂

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James mate, can you photograph your article and send it me... sadly when I got to the Elms to buy it in the evening... they had already packed up the spares and refused to let me have one.... at 7pm which is evening I would say... kinda defeating when the Derby evening Telegraph goes off sale in the evening!!! :guns:

I'll get it scanned for you soon 🙂

Update time.... Derbyshire Times article proof read and submitted back to them today along with a pic of demolition. This one will be 300 words and substantially better than the R & H one. Thanks to J4M35 also as his piece seems to have woken afew people up as to whats occurring.

Sougher well on way with contact list so any one interested can approach the various authorities (Thanks Sougher)...

Reply received from EH before Christmas which I will detail shortly having finally had time to read it. (copy coming soon Sougher)

Regs ICLOK

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I have been in contact with Patrick Morriss (Chairman of the Friends of Cromford Canal) about the situation. He states that “FCC have been talking with local authorities both county and borough, English Heritage, The Panel for Historic Engineering Work of the Institute for Civil Engineers and anyone else who will listen to us to try and get more of the buildings listed. It is a sad comment on the processes involved that the demolition teams and the developers are often able to move faster than the individuals and organisations charged with protecting out built heritage.”

Apparently, more recent correspondence with Derbyshire County Council indicates that they have been pursuing the matter with English Heritage. EH confirmed that the two gatehouse buildings are listed, but they apparently did not believe that any of the other buildings on site were of sufficient merit to be added to the statutory lists. There is a suggestion that it may be possible to add further buildings and structures to be listed, but this has not happened yet.

Key people who you may want to raise concerns with include:
• English Heritage
• Rachael Coates, the conservation officer at Amber Valley;
• Allan Morrison (Principal Historic Buildings Officer), Barry Joyce (Conservation and Design Manager), Steve Baker (Development Control Archaeologist) (all at Derbyshire County Council).

I have just sent Rachael Coates an email, will let you know the response.

Been in touch with top two, Sougher and i are accumulating a similar list for rest, cheers for that... Sougher will be writing alot of letters me thinks at this rate... 😞

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Regarding the third shaft in the works yard - this is in front and to the right of the blast furnace. It was sited inside the old foundry and one of the vehicles demolishing the foundry in 1985/6 partially fell down the shaft, hence the new capping.

Whilst working on the site I was able to look into the shaft from the top. I recall it was around 4m diameter and probably 6-8m deep. There were a couple of girders and rubble etc. at the bottom from when the excavator nearly fell in. This means it may be a different shaft to the one Martin Cordon explored.

There are also a number of drains in the works yard which are very deep with a number of passages off which are almost certainly more of underground Butterley.


Having seen Martin Cordon's pics, it makes me wonder how grim working conditions were down in the canal tunnel. Probably wouldn't pass todays H&S laws!!

ICLOK did you recieve my private message??? I was reading a book of my dads today about the old railway line through ripley and swanwick junction.it had a large paragraph all about the locomotives in butterley yard.it was very interesting,i will try to type it up on to the forum.

Yep... forgot to reply 😞 ... give us a mo

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no worries!!

Derbyshire Times appears not to have printed the Butterley article 😞 but we appear to have the attention of derbyshire county concil and the profile of the whole campaign is raised. Cromford canal org pushing too .. this means we have 3 fronts open now and the profile of this is getting higher! 🙂

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