The Bentley Brook or Bradbourne Brook is a small tributary of the River Dove in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

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, and is 14.5 kilometres (9 miles) long

Name

In the upper reaches it is known as the Haverhill Dale brook, becoming the Bradbourne brook after it is joined by the Bletch brook, it is in the lower reaches that it is named the Bentley brook.

Course

The source of the brook is to the south of

Brassington Brassington is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, 16 miles north west of Derby. The parish had a population of 573 at the 2011 census. The name, spelled ''Branzingtune'' in the Domesday Book, is though ...

, and it flows generally south-west, passing the village of Bradbourne and its former mill, where it meets the Bletch brook. Downstream of this confluence it continues south-west until it reaches Woodeaves then

Fenny Bentley Fenny Bentley is a small village and civil parish located close to Dovedale in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England. The population in 2009 was 305 reducing to 183 at the 2011 Census. It lies two miles north of Ashbourne, on th ...

, and passes the Bentley Brook Inn. It then turns directly south, and after passing to the north of Ashbourne, it joins the River Dove near the village of Mayfield.

Mills

The water powered corn mill at Bradbourne is considered to be the oldest surviving watermill in Derbyshire; it was built in 1726 and continued in operation until the 1920s. The three storey mill had a unique system of twin overshot waterwheels which were some 12 feet (4 metres) in diameter. The waterwheels and mill pond were restored, as part of the renovation and conversion of the building for residential use in 2008. There was another mill which was originally powered by the brook at Woodeaves, a hamlet near Fenny Bentley, known as the

Tattersall Tattersall may refer to: People * Alfred James Tattersall (1861–1951), New Zealand photographer * David Tattersall (born 1960), British cinematographer * Gale Tattersall (born 1948), British-American film maker and cinematographer * Geoffrey ...

Cotton Mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven ...

it was built in 1784. It was a cotton doubling mill and employed around 100 workers, water from the brook being brought to the mill via a long mill fleam called the Woodeaves Canal. It was latterly powered by a steam engine, with the majority of the mill being demolished in the early 20th century. The geology of the catchment is a mixture of carboniferous limestone, gritstone and shale, and it has an area of 63 square kilometres (24 square miles). The brook has been designated as a

main river The Main () is the longest tributary of the Rhine, one of the major European rivers. It rises as the White Main in the Fichtel Mountains of northeastern Bavaria and flows west through central Germany for to meet the Rhine below Rüsselsheim, ...

by the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

from Fenny Bentley to its confluence with the Dove. Crossing the ford - geograph

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bentley Rivers of Derbyshire 1Bentley