Grant restores railway heritage

The site is on the High Peak Trail

A unique piece of Derbyshire's railway heritage has been restored thanks to a £50,000 grant.

Middleton Bottom Wheel Pit - a scheduled ancient monument - is on the former Cromford and High Peak Railway near Wirksworth.

It helped pull trucks up a hill known as the Middleton Incline.

Over the past five months specialists have restored the machinery, replaced decaying timbers and re-built the brickwork to match the original.

The wheel pit operated between the 1820s and 1960s and houses a giant cast iron wheel which used to drive the cables for pulling the trucks up the steep slope.

Two information panels have been placed at the site to tell visitors about the history of the area.

The £50,000 grant to help restore the machinery came from English Heritage.

The county council has also spent £36,000 resurfacing the part of the High Peak Trail along which the monument lies.