The Romping Lion
Brookbottom, the entrance to Ladygrove
a photograph taken in the early twentieth century, a scene little changed to this day
a photograph taken in the early twentieth century, a scene little changed to this day
Two Dales is a small village some 2 miles north of Matlock.The casual visitor driving through is unlikely to find Ladygrove, the steep-sided valley lying off the main road to Chesterfield. As a child I was very familiar with it. My grandfather had been born in 1859 in one of the cottages in Brookbottom, the small group of houses at the bottom of the valley. He loved to take me walks along there and up past the flour mill into the narrow valley climbing up the precipitous flanks.
I learned a lot. The mill had once been a flax mill owned by the Dakeynes whose large house we had just passed. My great grandfather had worked in the mill as a flax dresser and my great grandmother ran the little grocer's shop in the end cottage. At the far end of the mill a pile of stones lay across the lane. They were all that was left of the engine house which, when my grandfather was a boy, had housed the "Romping Lion". The local lads called it that because it groaned and roared. Hidden in the building it was not clear what it was but it turned a shaft that crossed the road to the mill.
The site of the Romping Lion Engine House
It was later found that the building was at the top of the bank, well above the level of the house seen to the left.
A short distance beyond the mill was the "Regulator" and just past that the "Fancy" - two mill dams fed by water from Sydnope Brook which ran down Ladygrove. And half way up the hillside perhaps 50ft above the dams were two long but very shallow interconnected ponds.
The Regulator
Aptly named, the sluices on this dam controlled
the water supply to the mill
Even higher up was "Moss Castle", a semi-circular embankment built in to the hillside, with glorious views across the Derwent valley and down to the mill 100ft below.
Moss Castle sits high above the valley below
It was to be 30 years before I read that the Romping Lion was a totally unique water engine working under pressure, a design that was difficult to understand and impossible to describe.* The author of the book suggested it would "repay further study". And 30 years after that I decided I should have a look - but of course someone would have done so by now. I soon found out that no one had. There were odd references, mainly incorrect, but nothing else.
My first real conclusion was that the ponds halfway up the hillside were probably linked with Moss Castle and that Moss Castle was connected with a pipe to the Romping Lion in the valley below. The Romping Lion was nothing to do with the dams in the valley below as several references had suggested. That my theory was correct was simply proven by a visit to the Local Studies library in Matlock. They had an 1837 map that showed exactly how the water was supplied to the engine house including even the line of the pipe down the hill.
* The Industrial Archaeology of Derbyshire, Frank Nixon 1972
My first real conclusion was that the ponds halfway up the hillside were probably linked with Moss Castle and that Moss Castle was connected with a pipe to the Romping Lion in the valley below. The Romping Lion was nothing to do with the dams in the valley below as several references had suggested. That my theory was correct was simply proven by a visit to the Local Studies library in Matlock. They had an 1837 map that showed exactly how the water was supplied to the engine house including even the line of the pipe down the hill.
* The Industrial Archaeology of Derbyshire, Frank Nixon 1972
