Landscape record MDR6122 - Tramway (route of), Eckington Marsh to the Chesterfield Canal

The route of a tramway which ran from collieries in Eckington to the Chesterfield Canal. It includes a scheduled stretch of embankment running across Renishaw Golf Course [SMR 4904]. The tramroad is not listed by Baxter in "Stone Blocks & Iron Rails" 1966 but is shown on the OS 1" 1840 between Eckington Colliery (SK 425782) and the Chesterfield Canal (SK 442796), which opened in 1776. The tramway is visible as a slightly sunken track beyond the Midland Railway to the canal. (1, 2, 6) The origins of the tramway are unknown at present. It is marked on Sanderson's map of 1835 as a 'railway' running from the Chesterfield Canal to a site shown as 'Colliery' at approximately SK 425782 [SMR 4962]. A part of the route between the colliery and Setcup Lane ran through a tunnel. (3) The tunnel is also shown on an OS map of 1840. (4) By 1855 the route had been extended in two directions, firstly down a lane leading south from Setcup Lane to a coal pit at c. SK427783 (SMR 4963) and secondly westwards across Eckington Marsh towards Bole Hill and Lightwood, where there were coke ovens (SMR 4964) and a colliery on Bramley Moor. (5)