Stephenson's lost tunnels - The Crich Tramway 

Brilliant !! Mushrooms and Tunnels 👌

You never fail to entertain lol! ...and I could watch Martin 24/7 too. A great combination and a great production. Thank you, all of you. As I've said before on Martin's channel, I'm a retired railwayman (due to ill health) and you (and Martin) take me to places that I would dearly love to go to but cannot physically hope to in what's left of my lifetime. Your videos are the next best thing and for that I say, "Many thanks."

Cracking Video.......can you imagine having that at the bottom of your garden.......council or not I would have a steel access door on that in no time!

I cycled these about 10 years ago - and discovered that I did not, in fact, have good lights. I remember the Oxendon tunnel being noticeably damper than the Kelmarsh tunnel, but it doesn't look like it was as wet during your visit. Nice to see them again!

I really do enjoy watching your films

I walk my dog in this area regularly and love exploring the industrial heritage. This is adjacent to the World Heritage site of Derwent Valley Mills. If you or anyone else reading this is in the area exploring, follow the incline cutting to a point half way down the hill where a footpath crosses the incline. Look a few feet to the right of the incline and there’s still evidence of the end of a piece of rail sticking up! Further down the hill near the fence of the now gasworks is another bricked up portal. The gas works was the site of Stephenson’s original lime kilns and the now lost bed of part of the Cromford Canal. This canal amongst many other uses, was used to transport lime to the nearby Butterley Ironworks that produced the iron arches for St. Pancras Station, London and the Falkirk Wheel.

Brought back many childhood memories of playing in those tunnels in the early sixties just after the lines had been ripped up. It was a mineral railway which started in the quarry where the Tramway Museum is now & transported limestone down to the lime kilns at Ambergate. The line closed in 1960 & remembered it running past our house

Always great to see Martin Zero...

Hi all, another very interesting video great find, love tunnels and viaducts good to see you all together, thank you Paul Rebecca Martin and Mark take care xx

WOW! what a great find, loved this weeks vid. Its great to see you with Martin again and hope you get to do more together.

If you go to the Tramway Museum in Crich you can find a small booklet called "George Stephenson's Crich Railway". It has some great old photos of the tramway when it was in use.

Another super video. They have really become such a high quality. Really like the collaboration with Martin Zero.

All this in my local area I must get out more fantastic video thanks for sharing

*whew*, great shots from inside the tunnel. Yeah, a great production. I, too, would like to say many thanks for all that you do. Much as I would love to go and visit disused stations, I look after my father, so your videos and those from Rediscovering Lost Railways really are the next best thing. So massive 👍👍 to you.

Fantastic, and great that the locals wanted to help (I’m sure most don’t). If that was at the bottom of my garden I think I’d be making something of it, what a conversation starter “what’s that down the garden?”, “oh it’s just one of George Stephensons tunnels, you know, father of the railways” 😀

Fantastic video guys great to see Martin in video too. Great combination keep up the great work look forward to future vlogs 👍👍

saturday morning cuppa with paul and bec and martin , no better way to start the weekend , thanks guys , fabulous as always !

Another fascinating journey, uncovering unusual pieces of British history! Thank you.

Fantastic as usual, great find of something that would otherwise be unknown about, keep up the good work

Watching you and your friends slide into the northern portal of the first tunnel brought on my claustrophobia!!! Thank you for squeezing into places, I couldn't!

Awesome! Best tunnel explore yet! I will always feel amazed that engineering works from so long ago still exist. When you see and touch things built by man and understand the effort and thought that went in to them......and then think about how it's been 180 years since. It leaves me in awe. What a great find for you guys. Thanks for making this. Btw, top notch editing on this one. Really racheting up the quality, P&R!

I cannot imagine such history directly below my feet. Great captures and efforts to record it. Cheers...

Love the old tunnel stuff

Great video, what an amazing tunnel,and beautiful place and houses,can you imagine saying to people you have a 150 year old tunnel at the bottom of your garden 😀👌👍

Great video love a good bit of explorering proper caving!

As usual an excellent and entertaining video. Well done and thank you.

What an exciting video. Unbeatable historical content. Fascinatiing facts and information. Brilliant.

Great video again Paul, Martin, Mark and last but not least, Rebecca. Great teamwork. It reminds me of me and my mates crawling through tunnels from brick kilns to a big chimney in an abandoned brickworks. We used to pretend we were doing the great escape!

In an unlikely way, part of this tramroad is still rideable today. The museum tramway at Crich was built on part of its trackbed, and at least one building from the Stephenson tramway survives within the tramway museum complex at the "Town End" entrance area.

Wow that was fantastic, pity you couldn’t get in and go thru. Such excitement

superb work,thank you

Great finds thanks to all of you for making a fantastic video. all the best Eden valley drones UK.

Super footage, magnificent funky fungi.

Great Vid guys and what a find. Thanks alot and keep up the great vids.

This was totally fantastic, thank you so much

Wow guys, that 2nd tunnel, it is just incredible. It's amazing how narrow they are compared to things build just years later. Thanks for the video guys, I can't wait for you to be on the former railway behind my house.

You're right. I did find your splendid channel from Martin Zero's splendid channel. And I'm glad I did! Interesting, informative and well made. Too many videos on RU-vid have very interesting subjects, but the presentation and production are so bad as to make them unwatchable! Great work!

I went on a school trip to Crich Tramway museum in the very early 90's and we were from North London. Still remember it now, like it was yesterday, nearly 30 years later.

As always. Another great video.

Lovely to video, no jeopardy to be had just a pleasant informative watch.

Subbed after watching! I did come from Martin's channel. Thanks for sharing your finds. I could never do it myself so because of you guys I can still see it.

Thank you for this video.I never knew about this despite living locally (Belper).Fascinating stuff.

Being originally from Matlock I can only say how grateful I am for you exploring something I have always been interested in, but unable to visit, as I now live in Essex. I always felt that Beeching did the country a serious injustice by closing the route between Matlock and Buxton/Manchester.

An absolutely brilliant film, so amazing that our early industrial revolution railway history is still there just hidden by nature. What an amazing soundtrack, who was it?? Truly amazing.

Excellent discovery guys - savouring how impressively thst tunnel appears to have survived inside.

Hi to you both!! Good vid as always!! I did mention it before but the Glenfield tunnel in Leicester was put through and completed in 1832 it is just over a mile long and I was lucky enough to take a tour last week!! George Stephenson was too busy to build it so handed the project to his son Robert, the next tours are in September led by local industrial historians, well worth a visit!!

Greetings Paul and Rebbeca I love your Railway Archaeology. in old Railway formations.I have just started looking at your website.a resident of victoria australia plenty of Tramways out my front door Jeff Puffingbilly Preservation Society

Nice video and nice bit of urban, ehhhh..... rural exploring. Thanks for making this one and, whatever you do, stay safe!

heya paul and rebecca , great video as always , wow 2 great finds , cant believe how good the condition was in the first tunnel , more of that please lol , oh and rebecca of course lol :)

Need to find these old tunnels be a blast

Wow! What a great video. A fascinating look at part of Derbyshire's industrial past. I thought I knew that area fairly well but you just knocked me out of my complacency.

Martin's channel brought me here, I'm now a subscriber to your channel too, love your videos.

Fascinating part of the world with lots of transport history. Cromford Canal, C&HP line, Ecclesbourne Valley line, Peak rail, Crich tram museum etc...

Love the video and learn alot

Love the collaboration with MZ, keep it up Whitewick’s looking forward to the next video 👍👍👍

Great video and many thanks for sharing 🙂🍻👍

What a great adventure! I've subscribed to your channel, as I also follow Martin on his channel. What I find amazing is that trams were considered a cheap form of transportation but so often I've seen that the went to great expense to avoid steep hills by digging tunnels and building viaducts and elaborate bridges to cross deep valleys. It's too bad these tram lines were abandoned, we need them today!

I recently subbed to your channel and I look forward to your uploads. I'm a train driver in america. I love old and abandoned rail lines

excellent again. thank you

Thankyou for sharing.

Abandoned tunnels love it ..and superb music !

Loved it, compulsive and immersive. Sad that such impressive engineering feats are almost wilfully ignored.

That was really entertaining and those tunnels were amazing to see

Wow, amazing tunnels and the history :)

lol - Martin getting freaked out my mushrooms! What a great find in those people’s garden.

amazing find

I watched Martin's, its only fair I watch yours, and probably more of them. Cheers 👍

Another belting upload ,esp' the second tunnel i wager that hole in the face is a cat highway in the evening , please keep them coming folks x

Great video again :)

Awesome Video Great Find !

This operated until the Clean Air Act of 1965 closed the lime kilns at Ambergate. The track was lifted and given to the Talyn Railway in Wales.

Really enjoy these!

So interesting thanks to all concerned, so much history

Wish I had a tunnel like that in my garden,.. amongst being fascinating, it would make an exceptional shed.

Brilliant thank you 👍😊

Great entertaining vid. I'm glad that Mrs.Whitewick had the good sense not to go scrabbling down holes to get underground "heh,heh!"Great exploring Didnt realise that was Martin [must be the cap].

What a find!

Wouldn't it be great to restore some of these old tunnels for the trains and trams to run through them once again, this is a great video thanks for the upload 👍

great video & u was both spoted on the laytest all the station video :)

Fantastic

Came from Geoff and Vikki. Really interesting stuff.

This from a 1841 newspaper may be of interest. Mr. Stephenson's Lime Works at Amber Green.-Mr. Stephenson has now commenced burning lime at these works, and is sending it to the different places adjacent to the North Midland Railway, In the course of a short time it will be conveyed to most of the principal towns in England. The kilns are built in a handsome and substantial form, standing from 30 to 40 feet above the surface of the ground. The limestone is procured from the village of Crich about two or three miles distant from the kilns, A tramway, formed for the purpose. A short distance from Crich the tramway passes through a tunnel between 40 and 60 yards in length, cut through a rock composed of sandstone grit ; a little further on is an inclined plane, which is worked by a wheel, round which passes a wire rope, which lets down six waggons filled with lime stone, and draws up the same number of empty wagons. Nearly adjoining this is another inclined plane, which is uncommonly steep, rising at the rapid rate of one yard in three and a half, and is worked by large drum, round which passes a wire rope; a lever is attached to the drum, by which one man alone is able to regulate the speed of the waggons at pleasure, or stop them altogether. Two full waggons are let down an two empty ones are drawn up at the same time. The full waggons pass over the Cromford canal by a wooden bridge (elevated several feet above the level of the water) to the top of the kilns, These stupendous works when finished, will be of the most extensive character in England, or, we may say, in the whole world. They will, when complete, be able to turn out upwards of 200 tons of lime per day.

Brave going in the tunnel

I'm glad that you managed to pronounce "Crich" correctly in the end albeit with a few slips on the way- it does not rhyme with "itch". That was a very interesting video-most enjoyable, but could I please suggest that if you are entering tunnels, remember that they are enclosed spaces. Is the air safe to breathe? Do you have enough torches? Helmets? Someone standing by outside? Not being pedantic, but I personally knew people who lost their lives in similar situations. The whole of that area is rich with industrial history but that tunnel was new to me. Well done.

I understand the tramway had rails until the museum opened in Crich quarry, and then the rails were removed by a narrow-gauge railway society. When the Tramway Museum were looking at ways to attract visitors I did suggest to them that a tramway ride to and from the Cromford canal would be a major attraction.

Great teamwork guys. Brilliant result & thanks for sharing. Do follow Martin too.👍👍

Absolutely brilliant, looks like time has just stood still in both tunnels,if only we had H. G. Wells time machine,thanks all.

Thanks for another great informative video. I really enjoy these tunnel videos and co operation with Martin. What was the song ?.

Nice to look at the other tunnel through a hole

Hi Paul and Rebecca flipped over from Martins channel ! but was only there for a cuppa tea, sometimes have one with Geoff and Vicki now hope to get one here occasionally, nice Video , now need to catch up on your others! Greetings from Germany( Oh the Germans make terrible tea;-),,,)

good video

Question: Why is this earliest piece of industrial revolution architecture blocked off, overgrown, forgotten? I'd pay good money to get in there, just look at the build quality. The historical significance should not go unnoticed. As usual, if it doesn't make money then we'll just block it up and hope it goes away - wake up some of you, it's just round the corner from a transport museum - deerrrrr!!!! Thanks guys and girl for digging around, great stuff, and Martin has another brush with Mr Stephenson!!! Also thanks to the friendly residents for their info and assistance, at least there are people who take an interest.

wow, i cant believe there stil sleepers in there, amazing!

History in there

Hey they some pretty small drones with cameras these days, you could put it thru a small hole like that and fly it further into the tunnel. They are relatively inexpensive. Even if you could not get the drone back thru the hole, you could record the video. Maybe a small RC car with a camera and a thread tied to it would work, but the floor would have to be clear enough.

You should check out the track bed of the old tramline from Pewfall Old Mine down to the St Helens Canal - Amazon are trying build over located near Liverpool Rd, Pewfall is between Ashton in Makerfield and Haydock. St Helens canal being the oldest canal in England. The mine closed in 1911 the canal was built in 1757 and Amazon just finished building there.

Great video, just thought I'd tell you about Watnall tunnel as you might find that of interest to explore

It's pronounced with a hard 'I' by us locals, Cr-eye-ch. Sorry if this has been mentioned before, I haven't read all the comments. Love all your videos, best wishes from Derbyshire.

I know you guys were dying to knock it in and get in there!!

Great videos guys, what maps do you use on them please