Shardlow Part 04 - Cavendish
w/e 11 October 2015
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
In the first part of this occasional series looking
at Shardlow, we walked along the Trent and Mersey Canal from
London Road to Wilne Bridge and then returned via Wilne Road
to The Navigation pub. The second and third parts saw us following
the route along the canal out of Shardlow to the River Trent.
This fourth part will again see us walking out of the village
and actually crossing the river into Leicestershire as we return
to the Navigation to follow London Road to the west.
But our first image takes us back to a small development between
the Malt Shovel pub car park on the left and the New Inn on the
right that we saw in Part 01. The development has no significant
historical importance and I only include it because of its name.
This is Cavendish Close.
As we begin our walk along London Road another
small development on the left is called Cavendish Court (left).
Just beyond on the right the old road swung to cross the river
via the old Cavendish Bridge. The road is now blocked but a small
fenced memorial stands nearby (right). London Road, once the
main thoroughfare through the village to Derby, continues straight
on to cross new Cavendish Bridge.
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The memorial bears a plaque that reads: "Scale of charges
taken from the Toll House of the old Cavendish Bridge built 1758
& washed away in 1947. Re-erected in this position by the
County Councils of Derby and Leicester in 1960."
Before the old bridge was built on the turnpike road, the river
was crossed by the Wilden Ferry, the precise location of which
is unknown but it is thought it relocated to the position of
the bridge. The scale of charges (above) is headed with the words
"Tolls taken at the Bridge by virtue of an Act of Parliament
being the same that were taken at the Ferry". It is interesting
to see that the tolls paid for horses, mules and asses were the
same as foot passengers but soldiers were favoured and only had
to pay half as much, the same as for cattle.
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When we walked along the Trent and Mersey Canal we saw the Chapel
Farm Marina and now approaching the new Cavendish Bridge we get
a good overview of the much larger Shardlow Marina which has
been created off the River Trent on the northern side of London
Road.
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A plaque half way across the bridge on the southern side shows
that it was opened in August 1957.
From this central point the view to the south along the River
Trent is towards the site of the old bridge.
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And looking back towards Shardlow from the eastern end of the
bridge we can see that having crossed the river we have also
crossed the county boundary into Leicestershire.
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Cavendish Bridge is not only the name of the bridge but it also
applies to the whole area and the hamlet on the Leicestershire
side of the river where we could also find Cavendish Farm and
Cavendish Brewery close by. Turning off London Road into Back
Lane we are actually following the old turnpike road to the old
river crossing. The area contains a number of significant old
buildings but surprisingly not all of them are Listed Buildings.
One such example is the former school of 1859 which is now a
private residence called Cavendish House. This was built for
the children of the workers at the brewery by George Tressel
Eaton whose family had purchased the brewery in 1839.
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Opposite Cavendish House and backing onto the river is another
non-listed building that has been converted into residential
properties. This is an eighteenth century Georgian Warehouse
that now goes by the name of Plumtree Cottages. Although it presents
a three storey appearance from the road, the fall of the land
to the river means that there are four storeys at the rear.
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A little further on is another building dating from the eighteenth
century and possibly even earlier. This is the Old Crown Inn
and it was here in September 1758 that a meeting was held to
discuss a proposed bridge over the river after the turnpiking
of the road had increased the traffic with the resulting congestion
at the Wilden Ferry. It was the Cavendish Turnpike Trust who
had become responsible for turnpiking the road some twenty years
earlier in 1738 and tolls were collected until 1888. It was not
until 1960 though the the Toll House was demolished. Although
significant, again the Old Crown Inn is not a Listed Building.
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The buildings next door though are all Grade II Listed dating
from the early nineteenth century with twentieth century additions
and are known as Cavendish Cottages. Back Lane continues in front
of the cottages but the turnpike road swings to the right opposite
the Inn to the site of the old Cavendish Bridge.
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The road however comes to an abrupt end and all that remains
are the fine brick boundary walls with the rounded copings along
the approach to the former crossing.
Peering over the barricade where the Cavendish Bridge once crossed,
the sweep of the river is visible as it winds its way from the
buildings at Shardlow in the distance. But with all these streets
and buildings as well as the bridge and the hamlet bearing the
name of Cavendish, you may ponder what the significance of the
name is. Well that is down to the 4th Duke of Devonshire who
was patron of the scheme to build the bridge. The Duke's architect,
James Paine, who was working at the Duke of Devonshire's home
at Chatsworth between 1756 and 1760, designed the bridge and
it was given the Duke's family name - Cavendish. Since then of
course the name has spread throughout the area around the river
crossing.
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