Rowsley, Derbyshire

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Rowsley, Derbyshire

https://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/explore/towns-and-villages/rowsley-p680861

Interesting Facts:

• Rowsley is two villages, Great and Little separated by the river Derwent
  
• It is at the site of the River Wye entering the River Derwent
  
• The manor belonged to the Dukes of Rutland whose coat of arms has a peacock
  
• The Peacock hotel was a manor house built in 1652 for John Stevenson who was the agent to Grace, Lady Manners of Haddon Hall. It became a hotel in 1828
  
• There were at least two other inns. The Nag's Head and the Red Lion. The Grouse and Claret was built after the railway came in 1849 and was the Station Hotel.
  
• In 1840 the Duke provided a master's house and school and the village hall
  
• In 1854 St Katherine's church was built. It contains a Manner's family memorial, the bell from Haddon Hall chapel and a part of a 17th century preaching cross
  
• In 1849 the railway came and Joseph Paxton designed the station building as many of the Duke of Devonshire's guests for Chatsworth arrived here. It closed in 1968.
  
• Rowsley quarries (Burntwood quarry and Bowden's stone merchants) sent much dressed stone by rail including millstones. Also fluorspar, alabaster and tufa stone for rockeries. Burntwood quarry, a small sandstone (Ashover gritstone) quarry between Beeley and Rowsley (Coordinates: 53.196415, -1.600738), was reopened in 2014 to provide stone for the restoration of Chatsworth House.
  
• Local knowledge states that during World War II the sidings were used to store coal and steel trains and they were never discovered by the enemy. The up siding had a 721 wagon capacity and the down siding a 845 wagons capacity.
  
• There is an 1841 fountain commemorating the coronation of Queen Victoria and a seat commemorating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
  
• Peak Rail, a heritage railway which runs from Rowsley to Matlock, has its station at Rowsley south
  
• Former site of the Derbyshire Dales Narrow Gauge Railway
  
• It is the site of Caudwell’s Mill. This historic complex was a thriving roller flour mill powered by water from the River Wye. Many mills have occupied this site over 400 years and the present mill was built by John Caudwell in 1874. The mill is one of a hundred mill left in the UK and remains in working order with historic machinery on four floors
  

Sources:

• Wikipedia Rowsley
  
• Wikipedia Rowsley Railway Station
  
• Wikipedia Rowsley South Railway Station
  
• [1] [2] [3] Rowsley Station Information and Sidings Track Plans, etc
  
• Peak Advertiser Vol40 No17 article by Julie Bunting August 2021
  
• Burntwood Quarry
  
• Caudwell's Mill