Monument record MDR4581 - Stanley-Chaddesden Footrill Tramway, Derby

The Stanley Footrill Tramway was a 19th century continuous-rope haulage system that delivered coal from Stanley Footrill Colliery [SMR 26302] to a wharf just north of Nottingham Road, Derby (at SK 370 371) At SK 399397 the trackbed can be seen crossing a field and passing between a hedgerow for a short distance. A large embankment survives at SK 406403 where the tramway originally began and from where it was later extended to the Stanley Footrill Colliery. (1) A railway ran from a colliery at Stanley to Roe Farm, Chaddesden. It was operated by rope haulage with a winding engine at the pit and one at Roe Farm. The route went across what is now the Oakwood housing estate. It is thought to have been used to supply coal to the GNR and possibly closed c.1926. (2) The colliery tramway between Chaddesden and Stanley was carried over Wood Road by means of a 25ft high cast-iron viaduct, now long since vanished. (3) Surviving sections of raised embankment of the Derby Kilburn Colliery Company's tramway from Stanley to Chaddesden are cut through by Charingworth Drive (SMR 32242). (4) Construction of the Stanley to Chaddesden tramway began in the early 1890s and the tramway was opened in November 1894. It was in two sections, the shortest running for 960 yards down an incline from the Stanley Footrill Colliery in a northwest direction to the Junction (an engine house a few yards to the south of the adjacent Great Northern Railway). The tramway then turned at almost a right-angle before running in a straight line for 5380 yards towards the south-west, first climbing to the high ground of Chaddesden Common, then dropping down to its terminus - the coal wharf at Chaddesden - about a quarter of a mile to the north of Nottingham Road. Each section of tramway could be worked separately via continuous steel cables wound around two drums in the engine house. The tramway comprised two adjacent sets of parallel rails of 22 inch gauge. It crossed Wood Road via a viaduct 282 yards long; it also ran under two public roads and was spanned by five occupation bridges. The Derby Kilburn Colliery company ran into trouble during the First World War and was wound up in 1918/1919. Because of the dramatic changes which have occurred to the area over the years, there are now few remains of the tramway. One building at the site of the former Chaddesden coal wharf was finally demolished in September 1997. Sections of the cuttings and embankments were visible on Chaddesden Common until about fifteen years ago but have now virtually disappeared due to housing development, although one small section may still be seen about 50 yards to the west of the junction of Oakwood Drive and Bishop's Drive [SK38713860 - SMR 32242]. A couple of buildings associated with the Stanley Footrill Colliery still survive [see SMR 26302]. However, all vestiges of the short section of the tramway that ran between the engine house and the colliery were swept away in the 1950s and 1960s when the land was subjected to open-cast coal extraction. (5)