Fritchley is a small village in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

south of

Crich Crich is a village in the English county of Derbyshire. The population at the 2001 Census was 2,821, increasing to 2,898 at the 2011 Census (including Fritchley and Whatstandwell). It has the National Tramway Museum inside the Crich Tramway V ...

and north of

Ambergate Ambergate is a village in Derbyshire, England, situated where the River Amber joins the River Derwent, and where the A610 road from Ripley and Nottingham joins the A6 that runs along the Derwent valley between Derby to the south and Matloc ...

. It falls under the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

of Crich. To the west of the village is the ruin of a

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some ...

. Fritchley has an active Congregational Church, and there is a

Quaker meeting house A Friends meeting house is a meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), where meeting for worship is usually held. Typically, Friends meeting houses are simple and resemble local residential buildings. Steeples, spires, and ...

with an active Quaker Meetin

There is a pub, the Red Lion, but the post office closed in 2009. The village hosts a steam rally each August. In 1793,

Fritchley Tunnel Fritchley Tunnel is a disused railway tunnel at Fritchley in Derbyshire, England, which is believed to be the oldest surviving example in the world. The tunnel was constructed in 1793 by Benjamin Outram as part of the Butterley Gangroad, altered ...

, the world's oldest surviving

railway tunnel Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

was constructed under a public road here on the

Butterley Gangroad The Butterley Gangroad was an early tramway in Derbyshire of approximately gauge, which linked Hilt's Quarry and other limestone quarries at Crich with the Cromford Canal at Bullbridge. The first railway project of Derbyshire civil engineer Be ...

, the

Butterley Company The Butterley Company was an English manufacturing firm founded as Benjamin Outram and Company in 1790. Its subsidiaries existed until 2009. Origins This area of Derbyshire had been known for its outcrops of iron ore which had been exploited at ...

plateway A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later. Plateways consisted of "L"-shaped rails, where the flange ...

to carry limestone from Hilt's Quarry at Crich to

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

s on the

Cromford Canal The Cromford Canal ran from Cromford to the Erewash Canal in Derbyshire, England with a branch to Pinxton. Built by William Jessop with the assistance of Benjamin Outram, its alignment included four tunnels and 14 locks. From Cromford it ...

Bullbridge Bullbridge is a small village in Derbyshire. The Bull bridge accident, in which a railway bridge failed as a goods train was just passing over it, happened here in 1860. The village Bullbridge has a population of approximately 220 and one public ...

, by

Benjamin Outram Benjamin Outram (1 April 1764 – 22 May 1805) was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways. Life Born at Alfreton in Derbyshire, he began his career assisting his father J ...

. The tunnel was scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act in February 2015. Fritchley was used as one of the filming locations for the hit UK TV series,

Peak Practice ''Peak Practice'' is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale—a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District—and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their m ...

, which ran from 1993 to 2002."Peak Practice"
''BBC Derby'', 24 September 2014, retrieved 20 August 2015

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Geography of Amber Valley

See also

References

External links