Part 03 - Matlock Road & Long Row
w/e 14 April 2013
All this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490

We chose another fine day for this third part of the Heritage Walk 1 in Belper and parked once again at the River Gardens from where we followed the route along Matlock Road and into Long Row.

The Old Nick

Across Matlock Road from the entrance to the River Gardens is this solid looking building so it is no surprise to learn that it was the former Police Station and was built in 1847. Now somewhat disparagingly known as "The Old Nick" the name by the door is accompanied by a circular plaque (inset) that shows that it is also "An English Listed Building". When the Derbyshire Constabulary was formed in 1857 the building served as its headquarters for the following two years.
Police Houses

Twenty years after the formation of the Derbyshire Constabulary, three police houses were built in 1877 alongside "The Old Nick" which now overlook the pedestrian crossing by which we crossed Matlock Road.
Christ Church

Where Matlock Road becomes Bridge Street the 1849/50 building on the right is Christ Church and the drive to the right of the church marks the entrance to Belper Town Football Club. The club is nicknamed "The Nailers", a reference to nail making that began in the town back in Middle Ages. At that time Belper was the site of a hunting lodge for John of Gaunt and in a later part of this walk we will pass the remains of a nineteenth century Nail Shop.
Vicarage

To the left of Christ Church is another substantial building of the same date and this is the vicarage. A major contributor to the cost of the church and the vicarage was Jedediah Strutt II, a grandson of the first Jedediah.
Long Row

Opposite the vicarage is Long Row and the first thing to notice is the road surface, much of which must date back to the original development of the area. Long Row was the second phase of housing built around 1790 for the workers in their mills by the Strutt family. Whilst the road surface may have been a vast improvement on the muddy tracks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it now provides a severe test of the suspension of modern vehicles but its historic relevance makes it worth preserving.
School

At the bottom of street on the left hand side is the Long Row Primary School and Nursery. The original schoolroom was built about 1818 but was later rebuilt and enlarged, a project that required the demolition of a number of houses.
Continuous Roofline

On the right hand side of Long Row, opposite the school, a feature worthy of note on this row of old house is the continuous roofline.
Gritstone Houses

This feature is also repeated on the houses above the school on the left hand side and both those on the right and these on the left are built of gritstone.
Brick Built Houses

On the right hand side however, the construction changes part way up the street to brick built houses which are in stepped pairs. These also have only two storeys whereas the gritstone buildings accommodate a third storey beneath the continuous roofline. We are advised by the leaflet describing this walk that all the houses have "ample gardens" at the rear.
Railway Bridge

The railways came to Belper between 1838 and 1840 which involved the building of eleven bridges in a one mile stretch as the North Midlands Railway cut through the town. It also necessitated the demolition of four or five houses in the rows on each side of Long Row about halfway along its length to accommodate the cutting. With the recent announcement of the proposed route of the high speed rail line HS2 through the East Midlands which will also destroy many homes, it seems we have learned nothing since the 1830s about the art of communication and the impact such decisions made in high places have on the population in general (see link). A recess over this bridge (inset) on Long Row now houses a hopper for grit to be used on the road in icy weather but originally the walled area was known as the "dirt hole". This was where the residents emptied their ashes which would be collected later by the ash cart.

An information board on the bridge contains a potted history of the Strutt legacy giving details of some of the buildings we have already seen and also of more yet to come. It is from here that we will continue in Part 04.
Back to Part 02
 Belper Heritage Walk Index
Continued in Part 04

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