A Spring in Chatsworth Park

A spring in Chatsworth Park

Having finished taking a few photos of St. Peter’s church in Edensor for my forthcoming talk on the ‘Devonshire Marbles’, I then headed off to Rowsley, a village set on the confluence of the River Wye and River Derwent, which is approximately 4.5 km due south as the crow flies. 

Chatsworth House

A friend from Treeton, who had visited Chatsworth Park often during the very wet winter, told me that the River Derwent had flooded here and that the low lying areas surrounding the river were still very wet, so I just started by following the B6012 road. 

A view along the B6012

With only open parkland and sheep to see, I quickly walked along this surprisingly busy road for about a mile, before heading down the slope towards the river to investigate a patch of boggy ground, where I had noticed clumps of sedges growing. 

Sedges growing in a boggy depression

In Chatsworth Park, the River Derwent cuts through the Marsden Formation, which mainly comprises mudstone and siltstone, with the Ashover Grit forming the higher ground either side of the valley. Springs are common where the porous gritstone meets impermeable mudstone, but I have never seen one that has formed a distinctive landform like this. 

A gushing spring

On the western edge of a small circular hollow, the spring gushes out into a well defined fast flowing stream, before ponding in the centre of the hollow where it is joined by other water seepages and then continues down through a small v-shaped valley towards the river. 

A well defined stream and v-shaped valley

A short distance downstream, where it is forded by a path that runs above the floodplain, the stream exposes thin beds of flaggy sandstone to form a small waterfall and then cuts a narrow channel before arriving at the floodplain, when – only 100 metres from its source - it turns sharply at 90 degrees and runs southward parallel to the River Derwent. 

Exposed flaggy sandstone

From this point, to where it disappears beneath Edensor Mill, 100 metres further downstream, it assumes the appearance of a small river, with a volume of water that belies an origin such a short distance away. 

A general view towards Edensor Mill

Looking at the British Geological Survey map viewer, the area around the spring and to the slopes to the west of the B6102 is covered in head, an unsorted mixture of rock and soil that is typically found below the escarpments and in valleys, wherever the Millstone Grit occurs, and which was formed by solifluction in the Quaternary Period. 

The geology of Chatsworth Park

In the months leading up to my visit, the UK had experienced record levels of rainfall and the flow of the water at the spring was obviously at its strongest, but the development of the small valley, and the formation of head, shows that this feature has existed for many thousands of years.

Edensor Mill