River Ecclesbourne
river in Derbyshire, United Kingdom
The River Ecclesbourne is a small river in Derbyshire, England, which starts in the upper part of the town of Wirksworth, flows for 9 miles to Duffield, and then enters the River Derwent just outside the village.
Course
The River Ecclesbourne's source is in the town of Wirksworth. This is also where the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, which is named after the river and follows it for its entire length, begins. The start of the river is located between Steeple Grange and Sough Lane. The river's two main headwaters come from Steeple Grange, below Bolehill, and the fields below the National Stone Centre, Ravenstor. The main source is about 100 metres down the railway tracks from Ravenstor railway station, where the Meerbrook Sough Mine area lies. The Meerbrook Sough drained water from the nearby quarries and led them in a tunnel to Whatstandwell where the excess water from the Sough joined the River Derwent towards Ambergate. The source of the Ecclesbourne contributed to the water powering the Meerbrook Sough. The Ecclesbourne flows mostly underground through the area of the Sough, but momentarily appears above ground in several places, near Ecclesbourne Cottages at the bottom of Sough Lane, in a shallow ditch next to the railway (now piped) and also near the bottom of Fanny Shaws Park, again near the main railway track. Part of the main headwaters of the Ecclesbourne flowed past the rectangular Sough Reservoir, which transported water up to the quarries around Wirksworth.
The public source identifies “River Ecclesbourne” as river in Derbyshire, United Kingdom. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around River, Ecclesbourne and river.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7337382. The Library of Congress control number is sh2016002391. Authority coordinates are 52.985, -1.480. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “River Ecclesbourne” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.