Derby - Darley Abbey Part 2
w/e 20 April 2008
All this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490

In the second part of three following a walk around the Darley Fields/Darley Abbey area of Derby we continue northwards along the western side of the River Derwent and into Darley Abbey Park.

Valley Side

The path here along Darley Grove is fairly level but the valley side rises steeply to the rear of the properties on Otter Street. Their outlook over the river to Parker's Piece must be quite something but I don't envy the inhabitants when they have to tend to their rear gardens!
Incline

ParklandResting PlaceDarley Grove continues its northward trek but deviates slightly from the line of the river where the intervening rolling parkland is popular with people exercising their dogs (left). This area is known as Derwent Park. Eventually the path reaches an incline that is fairly steep at the outset but gradually becomes a gentler slope. A low wall near the top is a convenient resting place if the exertions prove too great (right).
Lodge

At the entrance to Darley Abbey Park, we turn right and pass the Lodge to head down the hill again this time through the park and back towards the river bank.
Flower Beds

ParklandFlower BedsDarley Abbey Park used to be the private park of Darley Hall but the Hall was demolished in 1962 and the site of it is now a terraced garden. Standing on rising ground the views from the Hall were over the parkland landscaped by William Emes down to the river. Today attractive flower beds catch the eye but notice in the distance the balustrade that we saw from the other bank in Part 1.
Informal Gardens

As well as the flower beds there are some lovely informal areas within the park which was left together with the Hall to the Derby Corporation in Mrs Ada Evans' will in 1929. The Hall was originally built in 1727 for William Woolley, it is thought by Smith of Warwick, but it was later extended in the 1760s by Joseph Pickford.
Old And New

When the Hall was taken over by the Derby Corporation it was used as a school until 1961 but the school moving out was the signal for its demolition. Only the stable block survived but some of the trees in the park, particularly this old one in need of additional support on the left of the picture above must have stood for many many years. It is good to see however young saplings standing nearby that future generations will enjoy.
Abbey Inn

Darley StreetExiting the park we now reach what was the village of Darley Abbey. I would have preferred to have taken the above photo from further to the left but delivery vehicles and parked cars precluded this option. The building in fact is the surviving part of what was the largest monastic establishment in Derbyshire. Built about 1140 as an Augustinian Abbey it suffered at the hands of Henry VIII and the Dissolution of Monasteries in 1538 and most of the buildings disappeared within a couple of years. Fragments can still be found in other buildings in the village but this surviving building was sensitively converted in 1979/80 into the Abbey Inn.
The Square

The SquareBoar's Head Cotton Mill mentioned in Part 1 and which we shall see in Part 3 was founded around 1780 and much of the village of Darley Abbey was built between 1785 and 1830 to house workers at the mill. Despite modern day transport and telephone wires, the buildings in the Square off Darley Street still exude an air of a bygone time. They are now just a small part of the Darley Abbey Conservation Area which itself since December 2001 has been part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site that stretches 15 miles along the river valley from Derby in the south to Matlock Back in the north.
In Part 3 of this walk we will complete the walk and return to the Rugby Club.

Back to Part 01
Forward to Part 03

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