Duckmanton Tunnel is a former long twin-track railway tunnel between Chesterfield and Arkwright Town 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 ...

, England.

History

The tunnel was opened by the LD&ECR (later part of the

GCR GCR (or GCRS) may refer to: Science * Galactic cosmic ray, a cosmic ray from outside the Solar System * Geocentric Celestial Reference System, a coordinate system for near-Earth objects like satellites * Geological Conservation Review, a procedu ...

and subsequently the

LNER LNER or L.N.E.R. may refer to: *London and North Eastern Railway (1923–1947), a former railway company in the United Kingdom *London North Eastern Railway (2018–), a train operating company in the United Kingdom * Liquid neutral earthing resi ...

) in March 1897. As originally planned, this was a highly ambitious scheme, but only the central section between Chesterfield Market Place and

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

, together with a branch from

Langwith Junction Langwith Junction is a suburb of Shirebrook, in Derbyshire, England. Its name derives from the former Shirebrook North railway station, which was on the now-defunct Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway The Lancashire, Derbyshire and E ...

to the outskirts of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, were ever built. The section between Chesterfield and Langwith Junction (by then renamed Shirebrook North), was closed to passenger traffic by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways in December 1951. Bolsover South and

Scarcliffe Scarcliffe is a village and civil parish in the Bolsover district of Derbyshire, England. It is sometimes called Scarcliffe with Palterton. The population of the parish (including the hamlets of Palterton, Rylah, Stockley, and parts of Stony Ho ...

stations were closed completely. The section from Chesterfield Market Place through the tunnel to Arkwright Town was singled, but remained open to goods traffic until March 1957 after which the tunnel became redundant. Tracks through the tunnel were duly lifted and the tunnel itself was infilled in the 1970s. The tunnel's eastern approach cutting ("Duckmanton Cutting") remained in use by trains serving Arkwright Colliery. They had to run into the cutting then reverse into the colliery and vice versa on exit. In 1981 this complicated, and therefore costly, arrangement was ended by re-routing the tracks away from Duckmanton Junction to run directly into the colliery, making the approach cutting redundant for railway purposes, so the tracks were duly lifted. The colliery closed in 1988.

Rebirth

This previously insignificant cutting subsequently gained international recognition as a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

(SSSI) and as such is now heavily protected by law. It is managed by

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is one of 46 local Wildlife Trusts around the UK working to promote and protect local wildlife. It covers the whole of Derbyshire and was founded in 1962 in response to environmental threats to the local countryside, ...

specifically for its geology. In

chronostratigraphy Chronostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy that studies the ages of rock strata in relation to time. The ultimate aim of chronostratigraphy is to arrange the sequence of deposition and the time of deposition of all rocks within a geological ...

, the British sub-stage of the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

period, the 'Duckmantian' derives its name from the study of the geological exposures in this cutting.Cleal, C.J., Thomas, B.A., 1996 ''British Upper Carboniferous Stratigraphy'' Vol 11 of the Geological Conservation Review series

References

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History

Rebirth

References

Further reading