The top picture is an early postcard of Matlock Bridge and Matlock
Bank published by G.W.W., a firm begun by George Washington
Wilson of Aberdeen who died in 1893.
It would have been taken from the top of High Tor.
In the foreground are the quarries and other buildings surrounding
the former Boat House Inn,
with the Harvey Dale Limestone Quarry belonging to Job Greatorex
and his youngest son extreme left and middle. The Derwent
Railway Bridge and
the iron footbridge across the river Derwent are on the opposite
side of the road. Beyond in is the railway embankment with the
wooded slopes of Pic Tor beyond that. The shops and houses of Dale
Road are just below the centre of the picture. The original photograph
would have been taken between 1893 and 1900.
On the far left, close to the top of the hillside, are the houses
of Smedley Street West and Hackney. The cable
tramway's depôt with its tall chimney can be seen at
the top of Rutland Street but otherwise the Bank is not overly
developed. Bridge House is surrounded by trees, making it impossible
to see whether it had been altered to become the Town Hall. Having
said that the surrounding trees were cleared around the time of
the 1899 extension. The earliest houses on Edge Road had not been
built either.
This enlargement shows us the relatively newly built iron foot bridge, with the small building at the end.
This had been a boat house and was to be converted into a drill hall.
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This is a similar view, also taken from High Tor in the early to mid 1890s.
The entrance to Greatorex's quarry is almost directly opposite the footbridge.
Smedley's Hydro is prominent on Matlock Bank as is the tall chimney of its boiler house
which was being built by the firm of John William Wildgoose of Matlock in the
summer of 1894[1].
The chimney is not shown on the top image so this picture was taken slightly later.
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Related pages:
Stone Quarrying in the Matlocks has more information about the industry.
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