The River Bradford
The Bradford rises at Gratton Dale End very close to The Cheese Factory at Gratton, built In 1885 by the Stanton in Peak estate and run on a co-operative basis by the local dairy farmers. The factory produced white Stilton until the end of the Second World War when this became economic.
The stream flows from here over the fields to Fishponds Wood. Then along the bottom of the narrow rocky gorge that runs below the former monastic Grange of Smerrill. This is the site of the deserted medieval Smerrill village and the remains of an ancient fish-farm, in the dry summer months the medieval fishponds below Smerrill are no more than muddy pools.
Smerrill Grange is a medieval Monastic Grange originally built by the Monks of Roche Abbey and the site of a Wellington bomber crash in the second world war – there is a bronze memorial plaque in the village square in Middleton by Youlgreave. The plane crashed during flight over Derbyshire on the night of January 21st 1944 killing all six of the Australian crew.
Called Rowlow Brook at this point it is dammed forming a series of four separate pools at successively lower levels finally draining into the next until the flow is finally released to continue its course across the fields and meadows being crossed by one of the old Derby to Manchester roads just below Middleton before joining the steep-sided wooded confines of Middleton Dale.
There is a wishing well at this point where a natural spring spouts from a man-made trough in the cleft of the rock and empties into the now much wider river.
You cross the river here and enter the main part of Bradford Dale with it’s intriguing series of dams and mill races lots of old ruins indicate the rich industrial and agricultural heritage of this area.
A steep old track descends from Middleton by Youlgreave at this point joining the river just above the sheepwash. At this point the river is dammed and walls have been built across the floor of the dale to create superbly designed sheep-washing enclosures with a central dip. Also at the bottom of the track is a 19th century lace making bobbin mill which was also used later as a ram pump to supply the Middleton Village pump.
Just below the old stone bridge the river flows over a weir and into the main body of Bradford Dale. The next section is a series of stepped trout rearing ponds connected by a system of weirs and sluice gates controlling the water flow between the ponds. The spectacular large metal sluice valves are dated 1898 and still appear to be in good working order.
There are many waterfowl and other birds on this stretch of the river the dipper being one of the most spectacular – also the rainbow trout these ponds were designed for can be seen darting just beneath your feet in the clear water.
The River Bradford then flows more freely down its next stretch with gardens tumbling down from houses backing onto the river on the Youlgreave side and old lead workings on the footpath side, before reaching an ancient clapper bridge at the bottom of a lane leading from Youlgreave.
A clapper bridge is an ancient form of bridge found mainly on the moors of Devon – Dartmoor and Exmoor and in other upland areas of Britain. It is formed by large flat slabs of granite or schist supported on stone piers when across rivers or resting on the banks of narrower streams.
Beyond the bridge the riverside path follows the water’s edge until Mawstone Lane crosses the valley down near the hamlet of Bradford. Just before the last weir is a communal swimming pool in the river still used to this day. Here the valley widens out as the river approaches the dale end.
Then the river bends to the left at the bottom of the dale where an old pack-horse bridge carries a footpath which crosses the river just by the road – it then meanders round to join the Lathkill just before Alport bridge at Alport.