Blackwell Mill

Blackwell Mill is a location in Derbyshire, near to the village of Blackwell near Buxton, but not part of it.

There was once a corn mill on the River Wye which may have dated from 1066. Most of it has disappeared, apart from the weir. What is left is marked as an Ancient Monument.

It stands at the meeting point of several valleys: Great Rocks Dale, Chee Dale and Ashford Dale. In times past the Manchester Turnpike forded the river. It marks the northern end of the public path from Bakewell, used by walkers and cyclists, called the Monsal Trail.

The trail follows the trackbed of the former Midland Railway main line from London to Manchester. Blackwell Mill lies between Bakewell and Buxton, on the Midland's attempt to extend the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway into Manchester. This point was the south curve of the triangular junction which it built when it, instead, extended to New Mills.

There was a railway station variously called "Blackwell Halt", "Blackwell Mill" and "Blackwell Junction". Long enough only for one carriage, it was reputed to be the smallest passenger station on British Railways. It consisted only of two platforms, with no buildings, apart from a small shelter, and was a halt for the railway workers who lived in the still-existing cottages nearby, and closed in 1966.

The branch carried on into Buxton along Wye Dale, crossing the main A6 road and the river by a high twin arched girder bridge, before entering Pic Tor Tunnel (191 yards), where it emerged into Ashwood Dale.

ee also

* Monsal Trail
* List of Tunnels in the United Kingdom

External links

* [http://www.scienceandsocietyprints.com/barcode10446831.aspx "Science and Society" Construction of a viaduct at Blackwell Mill Junction, about 1862]
* [http://www.blackwellmill.co.uk/ Local website (fallen into disrepair)]
* [http://geoff-plumb.fotopic.net/p35598649.html Picture from 1963]

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