levels. Of the bridges, the first to exist was Wilne Toll Bridge,which stretched south to the opposite bank from the Wilne Mills area. This was a medieval wooden bridge which continued via a path to Great Wilne, however this structure collapsed in 1936. The toll was a penny and enforced by a toll house, it was used particularly by commuters to Draycott as well as employees of Wilne Mill who were exempt from the toll. Interestingly, as the Derby Canal became less used in the 1930s, coal carts began to more frequently use the bridge from Shardlow Wharf and speculation is that these heavy loads contributed to the bridge's collapse. A pedestrian-only bridge replaced it in 1937 but was closed to public access by the new owners of the mills in 1950, a year after the site was purchased. This later bridge is now dilapidated and still spans the river to the present day, alongside an aqueduct. A new foot crossing was finally built 250 metres downstream. it is thought that at Wilne Mills a ferry was in place since the 1600s which replaced the ford, and which the Wilne Toll Bridge eventually replaced. A temporary chain ferry, which was a regular rowing boat guided across the river by a fixed chain, replaced the bridge while it was being rebuilt during 1936-37. Another nearby upstream was the Ambaston chain ferry, and it crossed between The Ferry House (also known as the Boathouse, where Wilne Road meets the river) and the south bank, from which a footpath led to Ambaston. Formal parish council reports were that it was withdrawn from service by the Air Ministry during the Second World War for security purposes, although an alternative legend is that the boat was stolen in the 1950s. With the loss of this crossing and the mill bridge, direct travel on foot between Great Wilne and Church Wilne was severely impaired, with an increase up to 12 miles, until the current footbridge was established in the 1960s. Notable houses With the wealth generated by the mills, some operators commissioned notable houses locally. Draycott House is a Georgian era styled large house in the north of the parish built in 1781 by Joseph Pickford, the renowned Derbyshire architect for William Evans, a Derbyshire industrialist whose namesake son William Evans, later became High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant of Derbyshire as well as a J. P.