Mill buildings added to risk list

The wheel pit cost £50,000 to restore

Several mill buildings and four bottle kilns in Derbyshire have been added to a heritage at-risk list, but another in the county has been removed.

English Heritage said Darley Abbey Mills and the kilns in Church Gresley had been added to the list.

Swarkestone Bridge and Causeway remains on the at-risk list as damage caused by road users is still a problem.

The at-risk building removed from the English Heritage list is the Middleton Bottom Wheel Pit in Wirksworth.

The wheel pit is a brick-lined structure that was part of a rail system that helped pull trucks up a hill known as the Middleton Incline.

Specialists 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.

English Heritage said the Swarkestone bridge remained at risk despite extensive masonry repairs by Derbyshire County Council.

The medieval bridge is the longest of its type in England.