Hopton Hall

Hopton is a small village adjacent to the village of Carsington and two miles from the market town of Wirksworth in the Peak District. Evidence of humans visiting, possibly 200,000 years ago during a warm period known as the Aveley Interglacial, is given by the discovery of a Middle Paleolithic Acheulean hand axe nearby.Hopton is first mentioned in the Domesday book in 1086 as a berewick (supporting farm) of the town and manor of Wirksworth and its two main industries from ancient times have been farming and lead mining. Hopton lies just off the main B5035 road from Ashbourne to Wirksworth at the northern end of Carsington Water. The village had a long association with the Gell family, who have had assets in the Hopton since 1327, and had extensive lead mining interests in the Wirksworth area and lived at Hopton Hall. Notable members include Sir John Gell who was a Parliamentarian in the English Civil War and Sir William Gell who was an archaeologist. The famous Hopton Incline of the Cromford and High Peak Railway, now part of the High Peak Trail and Pennine Bridleway, is about two-thirds of a mile (1.1 km) north of the village. Modern Hopton is a rather straggling village with a number of houses some of which are popular for self-catering activities for tourists visiting the Peak District, Wirksworth and Carsington Water.

St Margaret's Church, Carsington, is a Grade II* listed parish church in the Church of England: 122  in Carsington, Derbyshire.

Carsington is a village in the middle of the Derbyshire Dales, England; it adjoins the hamlet of Hopton, and is close to the historic town of Wirksworth and village of Brassington. According to the 1991 Census, the population was 111, increasing to 251 at the 2011 Census.

The Hopton Incline was the steepest stretch of conventional, adhesion-worked standard gauge railway in the UK. The incline was situated in sparsely populated, exposed limestone uplands in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England. It is possible that steeper stretches were to be found in sidings, but the Hopton Incline was on the former Cromford and High Peak Railway's single-track main line as inherited by British Railways.

The Carsington Roman Villa is a Roman villa at Scow Brook, Carsington near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, England. The site of the villa is currently submerged under the Carsington Water reservoir. Before the reservoir was built, the villa would have been located along the upper valley of the Scow Brook.

Callow is a village and a civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales District, in the English county of Derbyshire. At the 2011 Census the population of the civil parish was less than 100. Details are included in the civil parish of Kirk Ireton. It is near the small town of Wirksworth and the reservoir Carsington Water. Callow is recorded as Caldelawe in 1086 as having two caracutes of land as a berewick (supporting farm) of nearby Wirksworth. Callow Hall (not to be confused with Callow Hall at Ashbourne) is a moated site with a seventeenth century gritstone double-bayed main farmhouse building constructed over a thirteenth century undercroft.Callow was one of the manors of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Middle Ages and was involved in a dispute between the Duchy and the Stathams of Morley, who had a tenancy at Callow. "30 mares, 30 Ox, 30 cows and 20 bullocks worth 100 marks were taken from Duchy of Lancaster lands at Morley, Callow and Wirksworth and (the Stathams) cut down John of Gaunt’s trees to the value of £100, dug in his mine, assaulted his free tenants and serfs, destroyed their tenements and practiced such oppressions at Ralph Statham’s court that many of his (John of Gaunts) tenants had left". Ralph Statham died on 13 June 1380 but his sons carried on their feud with the Duchy. On 20 June 1381 Philip of Okeover, one of John of Gaunt's knights with his retainers, struck back at the Stathams with an attack on their lands at Callow. This feud continued in an on-off kind of way throughout the 1380s, as it is recorded again, in 1387. Callow was also one of the lead ore producing manors close to Wirksworth and in 1822 lead miners sinking a shaft at the Dream Mine, on Stainsborough Hill at Callow, discovered the remains of a prehistoric woolly rhinoceros.

Carsington Water is a reservoir, operated by Severn Trent Water, between Wirksworth and Kniveton in Derbyshire, England. The reservoir takes water from the River Derwent at Ambergate during winter months, pumping up to the reservoir by 10.5-kilometre (6.5 mi) long tunnels and aqueduct. Water is released back into the river during summer months for water abstraction and treatment further downstream. It is England's ninth-largest reservoir with a capacity of 36,331 megalitres.[1] Planning for the reservoir started in the 1960s and construction started in 1979. In 1984, there was a partial collapse of the dam before it was filled. The dam was removed before the construction of a new dam began in 1989. The finished reservoir was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1992. The reservoir is a major centre for leisure activities including walking, cycling, fly fishing, birdwatching, sailing, canoeing, and windsurfing. The land surrounding the reservoir, in particular the facilities around the visitor centre, has hosted events including a music festival, the Festival of the Peak.

Hopton Tunnel is a former railway tunnel in Hopton, Derbyshire. Located on the former Cromford and High Peak Railway. The tunnel was closed along with the line in 1967 and is now in use for the High Peak Trail.

Godfreyhole is a hamlet in Derbyshire, England. It is located at the junction of the B5035 and West End roads, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Wirksworth, the population taken at the 2011 Census also included in the civil parish of the same name.

Kirk Ireton is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Wirksworth on a hillside near Carsington Water, 700 feet (210 m) above sea level. The population at the 2011 Census was 518. Ireton is a corruption of the Saxon hyre-tun, meaning "Irishman's enclosure"; Kirk was added after the Norman invasion and the building of the church. The village dates back to at least the Bronze Age. Kirk Ireton remains what it has always been, an agricultural village. Following the Second World War the number of working farms dropped from over thirty to half a dozen in the space of 40 years. The last cow was turned down Main Street in the late 1980s, but Fords, Matkins, Rowlands, Walkers and Wards still farm locally as they have done for many generations. Many of the former farm buildings have been adapted into houses. Much of the older part of the village dates back to the 17th century and is mostly built from sandstone, quarried locally. One of the oldest buildings in the village is the Barley Mow pub, which was one of the last premises in the country to accept decimalization, as the 87-year-old landlady, Lillian Ford, did not hold with the new money. The parish previously housed at least four other public houses: The Wheatsheaf, Old Bull's Head, The Windmill and The Gate. Holy Trinity Church is Norman, with the earliest parts being the three-bayed south and north arcades. The tower and the chancel are Perpendicular. It has an interesting custom known as roping for weddings, when the village children put a rope across the road and the bride and groom are not allowed to leave the church until a toll has been paid in silver by the groom. The village still celebrates a Wakes week, which starts on Trinity Sunday, the church's patronal festival. A procession of villagers is led by a local brass band, from the Barley Mow pub to the church for thanksgiving. Various events take place during the week, with a major all-day event on Saturday. The Post Office closed in 2008, before re-opening as a community shop. The premises were originally stables and the restored hay racks are still in place above shelving along one wall.

Dream Cave (sometimes called Dream Hole or Dream Mine) is a natural limestone cavern located near Wirksworth in Derbyshire, England. It was discovered by lead miners in 1822 and was found to contain the almost complete skeletal remains of a woolly rhinoceros and other large mammal bones. These remains were acquired by the geologist William Buckland and are now housed in Oxford Museum.

Holy Trinity Church, Kirk Ireton, is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Kirk Ireton, Derbyshire.