Monument record MDR9617 - Two railway bridges (site of), Hammersmith, Ripley

About 200 yards north-west of Hammersmith stand the remains of two ashlar millstone grit railway bridges dating to approximately 1890. The lower bridge carried a branch of the Butterley Company's private line (now dismantled) from the Butterley Works to Hartshay Colliery (abandoned), over a footpath that was once the Cromford Canal towpath. The bridge was set at a skew to the railway above and was approximately 20 yards long with a brick arch resting on stone piers. Above this the Midland Railway branch line from Ripley to Pentrich Junction, opened in c. 1890, was carried, also at a skew, over the Butterley Co. line, on another bridge of similar design to the first (1, 2). Gritstone railway bridge taking the former Midland Rail Ripley-Pentrich Junction extension of 1890 over a farmtrack with residual section of the embankment. The line was closed in the 1930s. (3)