BUTTERLEY, a hamlet in the township of RIPLEY,
parish of PENTRICH, hundred of MORLESTON-and-LITCHURCH,
county of DERBY, 3 miles (S.) from Alfreston.
The population is returned with Ripley. The
extensive iron-works at this place belong to a company
formed in 1792, who are also owners of various similar
establishments, collieries, and lime-works in the vicinity.
The ore and coal are .conveyed to the Butterley works
by railways, and by the Cromford canal, which/ by
means of a' tunnel two. thousand nine hundred and
sixty-six yards in length, passes under the works; to
this a shaft about thirty-six yards in depth has been
sunk,: up which the ore is raised by a steam-engine.
There are about fifteen hundred workmen; and the
number of steam-engines employed in the works and
mines is twenty-six, affording an aggregate power equal
to that of seven hundred and six horses. All the
heavier articles in cast-iron, and machinery of various
kinds, are produced at these works.. Among those'made
for different public undertakings may be enumerated
the cast-iron work for Vauxhall bridge, the .great roof
over the quay and other works at the West India docks,
the bridges 'and lock-gates of the Caledonian canal, a
great part of the cast-iron work for the dock-yard at
Sh'eerness, the  whole of that for the harbours and
docks at Dublin and Leith, the large main pipes for
supplying Edinburgh with water, and the pipes for
many of the Water and Gas Companies in England;
several steam-engines for vessels, and for exportation
to the colonies, have been made.: the entire process of
constructing them, from the raising of the ore to completing
the engine, is here carried on. The Cromford
canal affords. a medium for the conveyance of goods by
water to Cromford, where the navigation terminates,
and where the Cromford and High Peak railway, planned
by Josias Jessop, Esq., of Butterley (the expense of
constructing which is estimated at £180,000), commences,
extending to Whalley bridge, near Stockport, a
distance of about thirty-two miles and a half: another;
called the Stockport Junction railway, has been plannedconnecting
the former with the Manchester and Liverpool
line, and thus forming a distinct medium of communication
between Cromford and Liverpool.