Photographed from above the Holt Quarry on Dale Road, this view of Matlock is a slightly unusual one. In the bottom right corner is the railway line, which at the time the photograph was taken ran from Manchester Central Station to London St. Pancras. At this point the railway crosses over the A6 on a large arched bridge before disappearing into the tunnel.

The River Derwent, in the centre of the picture, is flowing towards the steep sided gorge of Matlock Dale, with the public footpath hugging the far side of the riverbank on a narrow strip of land below Pic Tor and St. Giles' Church.

In the bottom left of the shot are a couple of properties on Dale Road, or at least the top portion of them. Just behind these buildings is a grassy area with what looks like paths or tracks on it. In the early nineteenth century this land had been part of a Rifle Range that was on land between Dale Road and the river, covering about three quarters of the area from the present railway bridge to Matlock Bridge.

Matlock Cycle Club members used the land as a cycle track in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the "paths" are actually part of the oval of the cycle track. At least one of the houses in Derwent Avenue are believed to have the remnants of the track in the garden. The next image shows a little more of the track.

The line that looks like a straight path is not a path at all; it is actually a row of three tennis nets and, if you look very closely, you can see the tram lines marked out on the courts.

The Old English Hotel Co clearly intended to put a bridge across the river at the corner of their land to make a way to Matlock Green and Town. The Articles of the Old English Hotel Co, which was incorporated in 1881, included a copy of a plan from the deeds showing the path heading to the river and "suggested bridge"^[1].

The buildings in the centre of the photo are the Almshouses at the end of Causeway Lane, Knowleston Place and Matlock Green. Causeway Lane is just about visible. The road to Tansley and Alfreton (the A613) disappears off over the hill.



^[1] From the research notes of Colin Goodwyn, with grateful thanks