Monsal Dale

The Monsal Trail is a cycling, horse riding and walking trail in the Derbyshire Peak District. It was constructed from a section of the former Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway, which was built by the Midland Railway in 1863 to link Manchester with London and closed in 1968. The Monsal Trail is about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) long and opened in 1981. It starts at the Topley Pike junction in Wye Dale, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Buxton, and runs to Coombs Viaduct, 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east of Bakewell. It follows the valley of the River Wye. The trail passes through Blackwell Mill, Chee Dale, Millers Dale, Cressbrook, Monsal Dale, Great Longstone, Hassop and Bakewell. The trail has numerous landmarks including Headstone Viaduct, Cressbrook Mill, Litton Mill and Hassop railway station, and passes through six tunnels. It is a major part of the as yet incomplete White Peak Loop and is designated as National Cycle Route 680.

Monsal Dale railway station was opened in 1866 by the Midland Railway on its line from Rowsley, extending the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway.

Fin Cop is a hill and an associated Iron Age hill fort in Monsal Dale, close to Ashford in the Water in Derbyshire, England.The fort shows evidence of hurried construction, indicating a defensive response to a real threat, rather than the more usual assumption that such forts were a display of status and prestige. The hillfort, along with an adjacent bowl barrow, lime kiln and quarry, constitutes a Scheduled Ancient Monument. In 2011 excavations unearthed a mass burial containing only women and children, the first such segregated burial in Iron Age Britain. Some animal bones were also found, suggesting the inhabitants kept livestock. The remains were relatively well preserved due to the limestone geology of the hill. Carbon dating of the site suggests it was constructed between 440BC and 390BC.

Little Longstone is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England. The village is on a minor road west of Great Longstone, just off the B6465 road from Wardlow to Ashford-in-the-Water. There is a Grade-II-listed Congregational Chapel and a public house, the Packhorse Inn, in the village. As in many small parishes, there is no parish council and local democracy is administered via a parish meeting.The parish includes parts of Monsal Dale and the hamlet of Monsal Head, and lies wholly within the Peak District National Park. The Monsal Trail, a popular cycleway and footpath following a section of the former Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway, runs just south of the village.

Cressbrook is a village in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire. It lies in Water-cum-Jolly Dale at the foot of Cressbrook Dale. Population details at the 2011 Census are included in the civil parish of Litton. Before its Enclosure Act of 1762 Cressbrook did not exist. It later grew up around a textile mill complex built alongside the River Wye, first by Richard Arkwright and then later by his son Richard, JL Philips and Brother Cotton Spinners and McConnel and Company. Until McConnel's period of ownership the village did not exist beyond a collection of buildings in the immediate vicinity of the mill. When McConnel's workforce objected to the quality of the housing available he took it upon himself to build the model village that became Cressbrook. Building started in the late 1830s and was later extended by Henry McConnel's daughter, Mary Worthington, in 1902 to include a village club, modelled on a working men's club. Cressbrook Mill went bankrupt in 1965, after which time it changed from being a private mill estate to the public village that it now is. The Monsal Trail passes Cressbrook Mill. This 8.5-mile (13.7-kilometre) walk and cycleway mostly follows the old trackbed of the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway where, from 1866 to 1959, the village of Cressbrook was served by Monsal Dale railway station. Until May 2011 the Cressbrook Tunnel (and others) were closed to walkers and cyclists for safety reasons and the Trail diverted across the River Wye next to the Mill. David Cannon McConnel emigrated to Queensland, Australia in 1840. In 1841, he established the Cressbrook Homestead named after their home town. The homestead in turn gives its name to the modern-day localities of Cressbrook, Queensland and Lower Cressbrook, Queensland.

Cressbrook Dale (also called Ravensdale) is a dry carboniferous limestone gorge near Bakewell, Derbyshire, in the Peak District of England. The dale is cut into a plateau of farmland and lies to the south east of the village of Litton. Cressbrook village is at the foot of the valley to the south.The valley is dry over the summer but has a winterbourne stream which runs into the mill pond at Cressbrook Mill and then into the River Wye in Water-cum-Jolly Dale.

Wardlow is a parish and linear village in the Derbyshire Dales two miles from Tideswell, Derbyshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 118. The village contains the church of the Good Shepherd and the small hamlet of Wardlow Mires, which contains a notable pub, The Three Stags' Heads.

Great Longstone for Ashford railway station was a station which served Great and Little Longstone in the Peak District of Derbyshire. It was opened in 1863 by the Midland Railway on its extension of the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway from Rowsley.

Thornbridge Hall (originally Thornbridge House) is a large English country house situated near the village of Great Longstone in the local government district of Derbyshire Dales in Derbyshire. It is a Grade II listed building.

Great Longstone War Memorial is a 20th-century grade II listed war memorial in Great Longstone, Derbyshire.

St Michael and All Angels’ Church, Sheldon is a Grade II listed parish church in the Church of England in Sheldon, Derbyshire.

Holy Trinity Church, Ashford-in-the-Water is a Grade II listed parish church in the Church of England: 66  in Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire.