Peak District rocks and minerals, such as limestone, fluorspar, Blue John and lead, have been used for thousands of years. Today, quarrying and mineral-workings leave holes in the landscape but remain an important part of the local economy. The industry has a long history – lead mining was first carried out by the Romans and reached its peak in the 18th century when the industry employed more than 10,000 miners.

 

The remains of this intensive lead mining activity can still be seen today in the form of distinctive humps and hollows, as well as numerous old pump houses and kilns throughout the Peak District, such as Magpie Mine near Sheldon, now a scheduled monument. Visit the Peak District Mining Museum at Matlock Bath where you can experience first hand the forgotten world of the Derbyshire lead miners. Also evident are the many unfinished or broken millstones along the area's gritstone edges – carved in situ out of the local gritstone and originally destined for the nearby mills of Sheffield before being discarded or abandoned when they were no longer required by industry. 

 

Hartshill stone circleFurther back in time, the stone circles at Arbor Low, Hartshill (left), Nine Ladies, Gardom’s Edge, near Baslow and the many cairns, tumuli and burial mounds are evidence of man’s long presence in the region, while in the caves that honeycomb the limestone gorge at Creswell Crags, ice age people documented their lives with rock paintings and engravings around 13,000 years ago!

 

Travel thousands of years forward in time and visit Peveril Castle, positioned high above the pretty village of Castleton and built soon after the Norman Conquest by one of William the Conqueror's knights, or the English Heritage owned Bolsover Castle, built in 1612 by Sir Charles Cavendish and completed by his son William.

 

 

 

 

 

The region’s mills offer a fascinating window on past working lives. Sir Richard Arkwright’s Cromford Mill was the birthplace of the modern factory system and it was here that water power was first harnessed to provide power for the large scale manufacture of cotton.

 

Masson Mills in Matlock Bath is one of Arkwright’s best preserved cotton mills, Belper is home to Jedediah Strutt’s impressive North Mill, which was the most technologically advanced of its time, while the Silk Mill in Derby is now a Museum of Industry and Heritage. The importance of this stretch of the Derwent Valley from Cromford to Derby has been recognised by its designation as a prestigious World Heritage Site.

 

Other water-powered mills in the region include Caudwell’s Mill, the historic roller flourmill at Rowsley near Bakewell, Brindley Mill in Leek, a corn mill formerly owned by James Brindley and Cheddleton Flint Mill, a fine working example of a water mill which originally provided ground flint for the pottery industry.

 

 

Canals were once the lifeblood of the nation’s industry and the Peak District & Derbyshire played a pivotal role. Bugsworth Basin, near Whaley Bridge, was one of the largest canal ports in England and is the only remaining example of a canal and tramway terminus, while Shardlow on the Trent and Mersey canal is one of only two such remaining canal ports in England. Chesterfield canal opened in 1777 to link the town to the River Trent and the Tapton Lock Visitor Centre has information about its history and the restoration work being carried out.

 

James Brindley, regarded as the ‘father of England’s canals’, was born and worked in Leek, an important centre for silk and buttons and William Morris, pioneer of the Victorian Arts and Crafts movement, was also associated with the town, where he worked with local silk mill owners on many of his famous designs.

 

Christianity came to the area during the 600s AD and although little survived the onslaught of the Norman invaders, who rebuilt churches and suppressed local traditions in favour of their own, there are still tantalising glimpses of that time to be found, including Saxon crosses in the churchyards at Bakewell, Eyam and Leek, a superb Saxon font in Ilam church and a Norman chancel arch of Tissington church.

 

Pugin’s St Giles Roman Catholic Church at Cheadle is a vision of colour, decoration and delight, while St Oswald’s church in Ashbourne was considered by novelist George Eliot to be ‘the finest mere parish church in the kingdom’.

 

Other highlights include the shrouded effigies of Thomas Beresford’s alabaster family tomb at Fenny Bentley, Tideswell’s magnificent ‘Cathedral of the Peak’, which has remained largely unchanged since the 14th century, the famous twisted spire of St Mary and All Saints church in Chesterfield and Derby Cathedral, which has the oldest ring of ten bells in the world and is the burial place of Bess of Hardwick. 

 

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