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The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, formerly known as the Wirksworth Branch, connects Wirksworth with the mainline station at Duffield. The villages, each having a 'halt' on the line, are Idridgehay, Shottle (actually Cowers Lane) and Hazelwood.

Built during the era of great expansion of railways throughout Great Britain the line was opened in 1867. It continued to serve the community for it's transport and employment for about 80 years until, just after World War Two , the passenger service ceased. Limestone, quarried around Wirksworth, continued to be carried by the railway until competition from road transport finally caused it's demise in 1989. Nature took over as trees and other vegetation rapidly reclaimed it.

Neglected and forgotten by most a small number of individual railway enthusiasts during the mid 1990s came together and dreamed of reopening the 'Ecclesbourne Valley Railway'. Early forays into this forest of rusting rails and sprouting trees led to something more promising. In 2002 the formation of 'WyvernRail plc' took place. The 'Ecclesbourne Valley Railway Association', was created by a group of enthusiast volunteers and became a registered charity (No. 1106810) with the expressed intention of creating a Heritage Railway thus maintaining as much of the original as possible.

These two organisations, working 'as one', are able to meet the needs and demands of legal and statutary requirement to operate a railway and providing the man-power, human resources and sheer enthusiasm to make dreams become reality. In this their ambitions are realised.

This page is primarily aimed at looking into the heritage of this railway which makes it's way along eight and a half miles of beautiful Derbyshire countryside.

In order to preserve memories of the past the Association has created

An oral history of the railway, including quarries

A train ride to history

A museum of railway artifacts at Wirksworth station

............... for more information on each of these and additional leads, visit http://www.evra.org.uk

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 Above is the official EVRA information.            Contributions from other sources appear below.

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Click below to view a video of the work so far.

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County:  Derbyshire

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