Nicks` Cabinet of Curios

Aqueduct Cottage, as it is known locally, is a derelict lock keepers` cottage located on a bank of the Cromford Canal. A Member of the Friends of Cromford Canal told me that it has not been inhabited since 1974, that no utilities have ever been connected to the cottage and that after it fell into disuse it was damaged by a fallen tree, with no attempt to restore or renovate it since that time. Blogger Peter Daykin (pandy.me.uk) states that it now belongs to Derbyshire Wildlife Trust (there is a nature reserve backing on to and overlooking the cottage) and refers interested parties to Wirksworth Parish Records and the Friends of Cromford Canal, though presumably the Wildlife Trust may also be able to help. Recently the owners have had the building boarded up and commissioned local artists to do their thing to the exterior where possible. Before it was boarded up I personally did enter it and explore a number of times. I now realise that may not have been sen...

Some time ago (12 March to be exact), I posted a picture of Hyson Green scout hut and said I`d take more pictures next time I was nearby.  Slightly belatedly, it`s mission accomplished and here are a few more images. I`ll also be putting a few on Facebook.

Known locally as `The Folly` , this building is actually the remains of an ice house used by the inhabitants of the now-demolished Shipley Hall.  For anyone who doesn`t know, an ice house was a stone building used in those pre-fridge days to keep food fresh. There are the remains of many ice houses dotted around the country. This one is unusual in that it was built from `clinkers`, waste from a foundry which has taken the form of a stony residue.  I am told there is a house built from the same material somewhere in the area - West Hallam I think - and in Heanor there is a low wall alongside a tarmac footpath running from Ilkeston Road to William Gregg Leisure Centre along the edge of Heanor Memorial Park which I personally believe is also made of clinkers.