Staveley Works

Today I slowly ran the remaining rights of way in the south east corner of my map. I've visited the Chesterfield canal several times now but I'd not been able to reach some paths north of the canal as the footbridges (on footpaths #11 and #12, but of which parish?) have been dismantled, although not apparent to me on the RoW closure register. On this run I approached from the north with an acceptance that I'd go as far as possible and then retrace my steps.

The footpath network on both 1912 and contemporary maps (from NLS)

The maps show a clear route between Barrow Hill and Staveley so I was hoping for a clear run today. From Barrow Hill, heading south east the map shows the path to be fenced, which is very true. So often a path is placed between aging posts with a good width. However, here the path is just wide enough and bordered by high steel fencing with signs threatening trespassers. The land either side is featureless gravel, so not especially inviting anyway.

Trapped between two fences!

After a few hundred metres of being trapped in a rat-run I wasn't able, or perhaps willing, to pass beyond the railway underpass as it was flooded with foul-looking water.

At home, I discovered that the 'Works' is the dismantled remains of the Staveley Chemical Works (aka Devonshire Works) which was started around 1912 (so just after the survey shown above presumably) and finally decommissioned in the 1990s. It was developed to refine byproducts of the iron and coal industries and widened its output in subsequent decades to include chlorine gas and sulphuric acid derivatives (eg oleum). 

The paths are still shown at the height of the works' activity (from NLS)

An online search will take you to a number of aerial photographs of the site and videos by urban explorers of recent years. Significantly, the site has been linked with excessive cancer incidence in workers and poor waste management practices that have resulted in at least one documented industrial accident. On that basis I'm in no rush to trespass, although, in theory, the area has been cleaned-up prior to proposed redevelopment. The Chatsworth Estates has been the owner of the land throughout its intensive use in the industrial revolution, leasing it to various people for iron extraction and chemical manufacture, and will presumably be the freeholders of any new houses.