Woolley, Derbyshire
Woolley was a village in the valley of the River Amber, at the edge of the Peak District, four and a half miles east of Matlock.
In 1958, the valley was flooded to create the Ogston Reservoir. The waters of the new reservoir closed over the ancient village, completely submerging farmland, roads and part of the Ashover Light Railway.
Only a few buildings remained by the shore, on Yew Tree Farm on the west side of the water, still marked as 'Wooley' on maps though unrecognisable as a village; barely a hamlet. The village itself was destroyed, including the Woolley House Hydro, the village store, the blacksmiths, the joiners, the laundry, the sheep-dip and Napoleons Home, the local public house.
The villagers of Woolley were relocated into council houses built in another local hamlet, Badger Lane, which eventually became known as the village of Woolley on the Moor, and subsequently became the present village of Woolley Moor, although on the 1891 census, many people living in Shirland, Stonebroom and Stretton are shown to have been born at 'Wooley Moor', as well as at Woolley. This suggests that a village of that name existed long before the flooding of the valley.
Over the years Woolley Moor has had a number of shops and a post office although these have been transformed into normal houses since the 1980s. There was also another public house named 'The New Napoleon' after that which was drowned in old Wooley, though this closed for good after a period of uncertainty in the late 2000s.
Location
- Location map: 53°8’24"N, 1°26’36"W
