B6012

This article is about the current B6012 at Chatsworth.
For the original B6012 east of Belper, now the A609, see B6012 (Belper - Smalley).

Chatsworth Park

The B6012 is a relatively short, but important route, particularly at weekends. As with many roads in this area, it is popular with tourists visiting Chatsworth Park and also people wishing to avoid the busy town of Bakewell a few miles to the west. The road was originally numbered B6043 (except for the section across Chatsworth Park which was unclassified as a private road) before the whole thing became an extension of the A623 around 1930. The road gained its present number in the early 1970s.

We start as a continuation of the A619 at Baslow (the A619 TOTSOs right). The road is of a good standard for a B-road, showing its former Class I status. We head round some sweeping bends before dropping down to enter the grounds of Chatsworth. The house is to our left at this point. After passing the entrance to the house, we climb up again, with deer and sheep visible from the road.

After going over a cattle grid we pass the Chatsworth garden centre on our right and then head over the One Arch bridge, a single-track hump-back bridge over the River Derwent controlled by traffic lights. At busy times, a queue can form at either side of the bridge as traffic waits to get across. After crossing the bridge, the road starts to get twisty again until we reach the small village of Rowsley, passing the Peak Village Outlet on our right-hand side. There is a parking issue here due to the volume of traffic using the road and it can cause problems, particularly when Peak Village is busy. We then terminate on the A6, where most drivers turn left towards Matlock.