Explore the Peak District National Park’s prettiest and most fascinating settlements, from the home of Stilton cheese and the delicious Bakewell tart to the start point of the epic Pennine Way.
The Peak District attracts more than 13 million visitors a year, making it one of Britain’s most popular national parks. And there’s good reason for this. The area boasts stunning show caves, dramatic mountains, glittering rivers and a long, intriguing history. It’s also home to the country’s first National Trail, Stilton cheese, Bakewell tarts and the magnificent ‘Cathedral of the Peak’.
With such a bounty of riches to explore, you may be wondering where the best place is to base yourself? Thankfully, local resident Roly Smith has plenty of inspiration to offer for that. Here, he reveals 10 of the prettiest villages in the Peak District, from Castleton and Bakewell to Tideswell and Edale.
Castleton: Spectacular show caves
Castleton’s fame lies in its splendid situation, standing at the head of the beautiful Hope Valley and surrounded by hills that are at the geological junction of the White and Dark Peaks. This planned township dates from the 12th century, when it was laid out on a grid-iron design beneath commanding Peveril Castle, on a lofty crag between the precipitous gorges of Peak Cavern and Cave Dale.
Today, Castleton depends largely on the tourist trade; the four famous show caves of Peak Cavern, Treak Cliff, Speedwell and Blue John attract thousands of visitors every year. The oldest of the show caves is Peak Cavern, directly beneath Peveril Castle, which is said to have the largest cave entrance in Britain. It recently reverted to its ruder ancient name, the Devil’s Arse. Treak Cliff Cavern, on the now-closed road towards Mam Tor, has the finest formations of stalactites, stalagmites and illuminated pools.
Tideswell: Magnificent parish church
Tideswell (local nickname “Tidser”) has the prosperous, urban air of a small town. It is perhaps best known for its magnificent parish church of St John the Baptist, known with some justification as ‘the Cathedral of the Peak’, and described by Sir John Betjeman as “a grand and inspiring church”. The Decorated-style church has a wonderfully light and airy chancel, and is a rarity among parish churches in that it was almost entirely built within one period – in about 70 years from 1300. This gives the elegant, cruciform church a wonderful uniformity of appearance missing from so many other churches. Only the impressive turreted and pinnacled west tower was added later.
The right to hold a market at Tideswell was granted in 1251 and, at one time, Tideswell held five markets a year for cattle and local produce. Those days are recalled in the name of the cobbled Pot Market. Another building of note is The George Hotel, with its Venetian-style louvered windows.
Ashford in the Water: Well-dressing on the Wye
Not exactly in the water, but certainly on the River Wye, Ashford is a candidate for the Peak’s prettiest village. It is perhaps most famous for its six beautifully executed well-dressings – when wells are decorated with mosaics made from natural materials – held annually in early June.
The medieval Sheepwash Bridge, which crosses the Wye on low arches framed by overhanging willows, is a favourite subject for artists, and was recently named by VisitEngland as the best location in the country to play the popular family game of Poohsticks. The walled enclosure to one side gives away its name, and it is still occasionally used for its original purpose when sheep are unceremoniously tossed into the river to clean their fleeces before shearing. Sheepwash Bridge is close to the grey limestone Parish Church of the Holy Trinity, which was largely rebuilt in 1870, but retains the base of a 13th-century tower. Over the south door, it also has a Norman tympanum from the original church. Hanging from the roof of Ashford’s church are the remains of four virgin’s crants – crown- shaped paper garlands that were carried at the funerals of unmarried village girls.
Hartington: The home of Stilton cheese
Hartington, at the northern end of Dovedale, still wears the air of a prosperous market town, although it is nearly 800 years since its market charter was granted and many years since a market was last held in its spacious square. The classical three-arched façade of the Town Hall, built in 1836, adds to this urban impression, and The Square is ringed by sturdy 18th- and 19th-century stone cottages.
The Charles Cotton Hotel recalls one of Hartington’s most famous sons. Charles Cotton co-authored with Izaak Walton The Compleat Angler (1653) and lived at Beresford Hall, of which only an ornate fishing lodge remains in nearby Beresford Dale. The Hartington Cheese Shop, in The Square, sells blue-veined Stilton from the Hartington Creamery at nearby Pikehall Farm. The creamery is one of a handful in the country licensed to produce Stilton.
Hayfield: A historic site for ramblers
Hayfield, the neat little gritstone township in the western shadow of Kinder Scout, plays a historic role in rambling folklore. It was from here on April 24, 1932, at Bowden Bridge Quarry east of the village, that the famous Kinder Scout Mass Trespass set out to exercise the ramblers’ right to roam on the then- forbidden moorland. Five ramblers were later arrested and imprisoned for their part in the demonstration. In 1982, to mark the 50th anniversary, a commemorative plaque was erected in the quarry – now a car park for walkers.
Hayfield was once an industrial centre, with wool, cotton, paper-making and textile printing mills using the fast-flowing waters of the rivers Sett and Kinder. All these industries are long gone, but the fine Georgian church of St Matthew gives a hint of the township’s former prosperity.
Edale: Start point of the Pennine Way
The charming moorland village of Edale – more correctly known as Grindsbrook Booth – is a magnet for Peak District ‘bogtrotters’, the name affectionately given to ramblers who enjoy the dubious pleasure of trekking across peat moorland. Situated under the southern edge of Kinder Scout, at 636m the highest point in the Peak, Edale was recently named in a national poll as one of the best villages to live in England.
It is perhaps best known to walkers as the starting point of Tom Stephenson’s classic long-distance marathon, the Pennine Way. This arduous 268-mile route up the backbone of England to Kirk Yetholm, just across the Scottish Border, sets off from the 300-year-old Nag’s Head public house in Edale. The beautiful valley of Edale is threaded by the Sheffield to Stockport railway line, built in 1894, a highly scenic line still fondly known as ‘the Ramblers’ Route’. Edale station is at Grindsbrook Booth, along with the charming Victorian Holy Trinity parish church, built in 1886, the village school and post office.
Tissington: The ideal White Peak village
For many people, Tissington is the perfect White Peak village. Neat stone cottages fronting broad greenswards, a village green complete with a duck pond, and everything governed by an elegant Jacobean manor house and watched over by the squat Norman tower of the church.
At Ascensiontide, the five beautiful well-dressings – traditionally the first and earliest recorded in the Peak – are in place. The only thing that Tissington seems to lack is a village pub – for that you have to go to The Bluebell Inn, on the A515 near Tissington Gates. This is FitzHerbert country, and most of the cottages were built and owned by the family that still occupies Tissington Hall, as it has for four centuries. Built in 1609 by Francis FitzHerbert to replace a moated fortification, wings have been added over the centuries, and the hall is now home to Sir Richard FitzHerbert and his family. The house remains one of Derbyshire’s most pleasing and intimate manor houses.
Bakewell: Much more than a tart
The busy little stone-built market town of Bakewell on the River Wye is the largest settlement in the national park and serves as its natural ‘capital’. Its Monday market, now housed in the modern Agricultural Business Centre, has probably existed for more than 1,000 years, and it still serves as an important social meeting place for farmers.
Many travel into the town over the 13th-century Town Bridge over the Wye, the banks of which are popular with children who love to feed the flocks of wildfowl. Towering over the town is the elegant spire of the All Saints church, which has monuments to the Vernon and Manners families, ancestral lords of the manor from nearby Haddon Hall. The late 17th-century Old Market Hall in the centre of town now serves as a national park and Tourist Information Centre, but reputedly the oldest house in Bakewell is the Tudor Old House Museum with its excellent exhibition of items from the town’s past. Originally a tax collector’s cottage, it was converted into a gentleman’s residence during the reign of Elizabeth I.
Eyam: Heroic plague histories
Eyam (pronounced “E-yam” as in stream) cannot escape from its tragic past and always seems to be saddled with the epithet: ‘The Plague Village’. The heroic self-imposed quarantine by the villagers after the plague struck from 1665 to 1666 has been described as “the greatest epic in the annals of rural life”. Despite its tragic past, Eyam is a lively, bustling village today, but many cottages are marked with plaques recording the names of the victims, ensuring the plague story will never be forgotten.
Hathersage: Explore Stanage Edge
Hathersage is a bustling little village at the eastern entrance to the Hope Valley under the frowning gritstone escarpment of Stanage Edge. There are many connections with Charlotte Brontë in and around the village. She often came to Hathersage to stay with her friend Ellen Nussey and is thought to have based the town of Morton in Jane Eyre on Hathersage. North Lees Hall (private), a fine embattled Tudor tower house to the north-east of the village, is thought to have been Charlotte’s model for Thornfield Hall, Mr Rochester’s home.
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