Description: Close to the entrance to Calke Abbey is the Tramway Bridge which is now a Grade II listed structure. It was built in 1802 to carry the former Ticknall Tramway and subsequently connect the brickyards and limeyards around the village to the Ashby canal at Willesley Basin. It was deemed too costly to build the expensive locks which would be required to bring the canal to Ticknall so the Tramway cheaper alternative. Although abandoned in 1915, the tramway can still be traced intermittently along its route which passed through the estate of Calke Abbey where two tunnels were excavated. The old village of Tichenhalle is mentioned in the Doomsday Book, and probably existed from Anglo-Saxon times. Ticknall was an estate village to Calke Abbey until about 20 years ago. Ticknall reached its hey-day in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the limeyards and the brickmaking, tile and pottery industries were operating to their maximum capacity. The population reached 1500, three times the present size of about 500. However, since the neighbouring Calke Abbey changed its status in 1984 from long-standing private occupation by the Harpur-Crewe family to semi-public administration by the National Trust, much of the village has changed. The break-up of the former estate has meant the sale of cottages and building land, altering not only the charming higgledy-pigglediness of the architecture, but also the dilution of the former feudal relationship between the villagers and the somewhat reclusive lords of the manor. The village has developed with recent examples of new buildings and renovations.