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Millers Dale

Hamlets in DerbyshireUse British English from March 2022Valleys of DerbyshireValleys of the Peak District
Millers Dale along the Monsal Trail geograph.org.uk 666
Millers Dale along the Monsal Trail geograph.org.uk 666

Millers Dale (Ordnance Survey: Miller's Dale) is a valley on the River Wye in Derbyshire, England, where there is also a hamlet of the same name. It is a popular beauty spot in the Peak District of England, much of the area being preserved as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Nearby are Ravenstor and Chee Dale, both popular with rock-climbers. Just to the north of the dale lie the village of Wormhill and the lesser-known valleys of Peter Dale and Monk's Dale, the latter being listed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a nature reserve. A local landmark is the viaduct, first built by the Midland Railway in 1866. Increasing traffic meant that a second viaduct parallel to the first was built in 1905, increasing the number of tracks to four. Millers Dale station was at the junction where passengers for Buxton joined or left the trains between London and Manchester. The station closed in 1967 and the line closed in the following year. Large sections of the trackbed now form part of the Monsal Trail, a cycle and walking trail.Northwards from Millers Dale the line entered the two Chee Tor tunnels (401 and 94 yards), separated by a 50-foot-high (15 m) bridge over the River Wye, then along a ledge cut into the rock face, before entering Rusher Cutting tunnel (121 yards), crossing the Wye again by another viaduct. The line here was immensely difficult and expensive to construct, skirting, as it did, the base of the 300-foot (91 m) high ciff of Chee Tor. Chee number 1 was, until May 2011, sealed off for safety reasons, but it is now possible to walk through all three tunnels. Further on was the triangular junction for Buxton via Blackwell Mill, before continuing to Peak Forest. The area is of great interest to geologists, particularly where the strata have been exposed by quarries and railway cuttings. In Station Quarry two layers of limestone can be seen, separated by a bed of shale. At one point there is a dip in the lower layer, possibly from a watercourse, millions of years ago. This is filled with the shale and a large limestone boulder can be seen within it. Elsewhere in the area there are signs of lava flows from long-ago volcanic activity.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Millers Dale (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Millers Dale
B6049, High Peak Wormhill

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Wikipedia: Millers DaleContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 53.256 ° E -1.791 °
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Address

Miller's Dale Viaduct II

B6049
SK17 8SN High Peak, Wormhill
England, United Kingdom
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Millers Dale along the Monsal Trail geograph.org.uk 666
Millers Dale along the Monsal Trail geograph.org.uk 666
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Monk's Dale
Monk's Dale

Monk's Dale is a short steep-sided dry gorge near Buxton, Derbyshire, in the Peak District of England. The dale is cut into a plateau of farmland and lies to the east of the village of Wormhill. The head of the valley leads into Peter Dale to the north. Miller's Dale is at the foot of the valley to the south.The dale is named after monks of Lenton Priory (a Benedictine monastery in Nottingham). During the 12th-century the priory was granted the income from a large area of north Derbyshire by William Peverel. 14th-century carved stones (of the low septum, or stone screen, dividing the chancel from the nave) are all that remains of the monks' grange.The valley is dry over the summer but has a winterbourne stream which runs into the River Wye at Miller's Dale. Monk's Dale is part of the Derbyshire Dales National Nature Reserve. Natural England manages the reserve which covers five separate dales of the White Peak (Lathkill Dale, Cressbrook Dale, Hay Dale, Long Dale and Monk's Dale). The reserve contains ash and elm woodland and shrubs including herb Paris, bird cherry and dogwood. Uncommon flowers in the shady dale include dark red helleborine. Native grasses include meadow oat, glaucous sedge, oat grass, cottongrass, knapweed and upright brome. Monk's Dale is also a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is especially important for the lichens on the shaded, limestone cliffs. There are two Grade II listed buildings at Miller's Dale at the southern end of the valley: The Anglers Rest pub from the 1700s and the Church of St Anne from 1879.The footpath along the length of the valley floor is challenging rough terrain for walkers. The Limestone Way long-distance footpath and Pennine Bridleway run along the same route on the plateau to the east of Monk's Dale. The Monsal Trail bridleway runs along the Wye Valley at the southern end of Monk's Dale.Access into the deep gorge is limited to the entry points at each end. Footpaths from the Wormhill village, from Peter Dale and from the Limestone Way converge at the northern end. At the southern foot of the dale, there is a large car park at Miller's Dale station on the Monsal Trail.

Tideswell Dale
Tideswell Dale

Tideswell Dale is a short dry limestone valley near Tideswell village, Derbyshire, in the Peak District of England. There is a farmland plateau on either side. The foot of the valley leads into Miller's Dale on the River Wye, which the valley's Brook Head stream runs into.The Carboniferous limestone rocks of these dales were formed 350 million years ago from the shells and sediments of a tropical sea. The landscape was then sculpted by the ice sheets from the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago. The disused basalt quarry on the east side of Tideswell Dale is now a nature reserve. Stone was quarried from a sill of dolerite rock, which was the result of lava rising through the strata of the surrounding limestone 'Debyshire Dome'. Tideswell Dale is part of the designated Wye Valley Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) between Buxton and Bakewell, which also covers Cunning Dale, Woo Dale, Wye Dale, Chee Dale, Monsal Dale and Taddington Wood. These dales contain ancient ash and wych elm woodland. The many herbs and wild flowers include lady's bedstraw, bird's-foot trefoil, bloody cranesbill, devil's-bit scabious, saw-wort, ox-eye daisy, cowslip and common spotted-orchid. The upper valley sides are heathland habitat for bilberry and heather. The dale is also home to small heath and common blue butterflies.Ravenstor at the foot of Tideswell Dale is a huge outcrop of overhanging rock. It is a challenging rock climbing location with over 200 graded routes, up to 50m long and including Mutation, graded 9a making it the hardest route in the Peak District. There are also several limestone buttresses in Tideswell Dale itself with established rock climbing pitches.Access into Tideswell Dale is easy from the B6049 road which runs down the valley from Tideswell in the north to Miller's Dale, about 1 km west of the south end of the dale. Tideswell Dale car park is on the B6049 from where the footpath follows an avenue of mature beech trees. A footpath runs from the Monsal Trail, over the footbridge at Litton Mill up through the dale to Tideswell. There is also a parking area near Litton Mill.

Taddington
Taddington

Taddington is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England. The population of the civil parish, together with neighbouring Blackwell in the Peak and Brushfield parishes, as taken at the 2011 census, was 457. It lies over 1,100 feet (340 m) above sea level, on the former A6 road between Buxton and Bakewell, in the Derbyshire Dales district. To the east, the A6 runs through Taddington Dale, while Taddington Moor lies to the west. Taddington grew around farming and quarrying for limestone and lead. From 1863 to 1967 the village was served by Millers Dale railway station, some two miles away, which was on the Midland Railway's extension of the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway.The village's main attractions are the Five Wells chambered tomb topped by a cairn, and the 14th-century church, with the remains of a 7th-century Celtic cross in the churchyard. The two-metre cross shaft is decorated with an unusual chevron-based pattern. It was at one time used to support a sink in the wall of a nearby public house. A further possible cross base lies in the churchyard.Notable buildings include Taddington Manor and Marlborough House. Fields around the settlement show evidence of both Celtic lynchett terraces, and of mediaeval strip farming. Taddington has two pubs, the Queens Arms and the Waterloo. In 2009 the Queens Arms opened a convenience store in the pub's pool room. There is an annual well dressing focused on the "High Well", unusually lying above the village.