River Amber

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Amber at Clapper Bridge in Ashover

The River Amber is a left bank tributary of the River Derwent in Derbyshire. The name 'Amber' is a pre-Celtic word with uncertain meaning.[1]

Course

Its source is close to the village of Ashover, near Clay Cross, and it flows southwards through Ogston Reservoir to Pentrich then turns westwards through Wingfield Park to join the River Derwent at Ambergate.[2] Its total length is 13 miles.

Like many such rivers flowing from the Derbyshire moors, it powered a number of water mills, many of them for crushing locally mined and quarried minerals, such as limestone.

The river valley also provided a route for the Cromford Canal, at the southern end as far as Butterley Tunnel, and the North Midland Railway, to travel northwards until it passed under Clay Cross via the Clay Cross Tunnel, where it entered the valley of the River Rother and then north to Chesterfield.

References

  1. David Mills (20 October 2011). A Dictionary of British Place-Names. OUP Oxford. pp. 12–. ISBN 978-0-19-960908-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=tXucAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12. 
  2. Ordnance Survey (2003). Buxton & Matlock. OS Landranger Map Series. Ordnance Survey. ISBN 9780319228463. 

Outside links

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