Tram to Chapel..

Yesterday, with Joe having taken himself off to Buxton and Graham in Abingdon dealing with a family bereavement, myself and Jill decided to walk along the tramway trial and find our way into Chapel en le Frith. Myself and Jill and of course, four dogs. The tramway was built to transport limestone and gritstone from quarries in Dove Hole to the canal basin at Bugsworth.

Above, an exposed section of the Tramway and below detail of the drilled holes in the gritstone set, drilled by hand, that would have had a rail attached.

. Frith is an old word for forest and the settlement of Chapel grow up around the church of St.Thomas a Becket, built by Royal Foresters in 1225. Close to the important Salt Trail that crossed Cheshire, Chapel soon grew into an important Market town.

Above, the purloined photo of the Market Cross in Chapel en le Frith.

Above, the church of St. Thomas a Becket and below, Market square. In this tiny square were once seven or more inns almost every other building.

Above, the Hearse House, now an information centre.

Cottages and cobbled streets..

The plaque above was proudly displayed at the Town Hall.

On our way out of Chapel we passed under these twin viaducts. The tramway at this point is now used by the Ferodo Company as a test track so the trail has been diverted onto a public footpath.
The modern town owes much of its prosperity to the Ferodo works, makers of brake linings and car components, whose factory dominates the northern end of the town. Its founder, Henry Froode, was a local man who was one of the inventors of brake linings.

At the start of the public footpath is this fine example of an old mill, now converted into flats.