B6047 (Rowsley - Baslow)

This article is about the original B6047 from Rowsley to Baslow.
For the modern B6047 from Market Harborough to Melton Mowbray, see B6047.

The former B6047 crossing the River Wye

The original B6047 was a short lived affair, lasting until (at the latest) 1929. It linked the A6 to the A619, bypassing Bakewell to the east. It was presumably found to be too popular, because it was quickly upgraded to become a southern extension of the A623. However, in the early 1970s it was downgraded again and became the B6012, which it remains.

The original gap in the B6047

As can be seen in the map on the left, early maps showed a gap in the B6047 where it ran through the grounds of Chatsworth House. This is presumably because the roads in the Chatsworth Estate were (even if open to through traffic) essentially private roads belonging to the Duke of Devonshire. The original system of classification did not permit private roads to be given a number, hence the fact that the B6047 number went as far as the boundary of the estate in both directions but required an unclassified road to link the two. Even today the road still has the air of an estate road rather than a public through route.