As you walk along the suggested footpath towards GZ before you
step down below the embankment, look down the hill towards
Chapel-en-le-Frith, you are looking at a piece of industrial
history. You are standing at the top o'-the plane - a steep incline
that was once part of the Peak Forest Tramway.
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A view taken from the bottom of the inclined plane at the
beginning of the twentieth century while it was still being used to
transport limestone.
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This photograph has been taken from the top of the inclined
plane today. Sadly it is overgrown and a house has been built at
the true 'Top o'the Plane'.
The tramway here was on a raised embankment with a dry stone
wall along its edge. You can see the wall in the foreground of this
image.
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The Peak Forest Tramway opened in 1796 in order to bring
limestone from the quarries in Dove Holes to the Peak Forest Canal
at Bugsworth.
Over the whole length of the Peak Forest Tramway gravity was the
main means of operation with the waggons traveling down it to
Buxworth by gravity. Horses hauled the waggons back to the the
quarries. However in Chapel-en-le-Frith, where the tramway
travelled over a steep hillside, the empty waggons were attached to
a circular chain to be pulled up the inclined plane as the loaded
waggons also attached to the chain decended the hillside tracks by
gravity.
By 1925 the Tramway was no longer being used and was closed
after nearly 130 years in operation..
The Peak Forest Tramway Trail follows the route of the tramway
between the historic Bugsworth Canal Basin and Chapel-en-le-Frith.
Follow the link here for a
description and map of the route.
A far more detailed description of the Inclined Plane on the
Peak Forest Tramway can be found here.
Listen to Flanders and Swan singing "Slow Train" as a lament on
the loss of part of our transport heritage link