Arkwright Town

In the English county of Derbyshire, the mining village of Arkwright chugged along as a hardworking coal mining town, until it had to be picked up and moved.

In 1988, an unavoidable health risk presented itself. Seeping up from the ground, emissions of methane gas as endangering the citizens of the industrious settlement, and the County Council not only evacuated, they picked up the entire town and moved it somewhere else.

Just north of the now off-limits area, a new Arkwright was developed, appropriately name “New Arkwright Town”. Once all of the residents of the old Arkwright were settled in their new home to the north, the old settlement was destroyed, and easier breathing life carried on just a ways down the road.

There’s very little left of the demolished former location of Arkwright, but there are a few indications of a town that once was, including the abandoned railway tracks that lead there. Not to be completely forgotten, in the center of what was once Arkwright stands a plaque, commemorating its time as a heavy hitter in the coal mining industry.