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Padley Gorge

Canyons and gorges of EnglandDerbyshire geography stubsLandforms of DerbyshireSites of Special Scientific Interest in DerbyshireValleys of the Peak District
Padley Gorge 09 07 05
Padley Gorge 09 07 05

Padley Gorge is a deep but narrow valley in the Peak District, Derbyshire between the village of Grindleford and the A6187 road. The gorge is wooded with a stream, the Burbage Brook. This stream used to form the boundary between Derbyshire and Yorkshire, but the boundary now follows the Hathersage Road, the A6187, formerly the A625. It is one of the furthest inland examples of temperate rainforest in the UK.The gorge begins near Grindleford Station at a stile where a post has been installed. Although the valley continues up towards Hathersage Road and Burbage, the gorge finishes at the edge of the woodland. Padley Gorge forms the backbone of several walks in the area and the railway station approach road forms a convenient car park for walkers. A short distance from the upper section of the gorge is the Fox House, a pub and hotel on the road to Sheffield. Longshaw Estate is equally close and its lands include the gorge. The lands to the north and east of the gorge are moorland with relics of stone circles, for example the Stoke Flatt stone circle on Froggatt Edge and Bronze Age field system at Swine Sty.The valley is part of the Yarncliff Wood, Padley Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), designated in 1972 as "the best example of the remnant oak-birch woodland that once covered much of the edges of the gritstone uplands of the Peak District". The citation mentions three species of Umbilicaria lichen said to be very rare in the Midlands, and describes the site as a breeding site for pied flycatcher, wood warbler and hawfinch.Padley Gorge is a popular tourist spot, and as of May 2020 has a five-star rating on TripAdvisor.

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

Padley Gorge
Station Road, Derbyshire Dales

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Latitude Longitude
N 53.3055 ° E -1.6248 °
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S32 2JA Derbyshire Dales
England, United Kingdom
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Padley Gorge 09 07 05
Padley Gorge 09 07 05
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Padley Hall
Padley Hall

Padley Hall (or Padley Manor) was an Elizabethan great house overlooking the River Derwent near Grindleford, Derbyshire, England. The remains of the hall today are mostly just foundation walls. The site is a protected Scheduled Monument. Not to be confused with 17th-century Padley Hall near Ripley. Padley Hall was a large double courtyard house dating back to the 14th century, although it was built on the site of an earlier Norman manor house. William the Conqueror gave the Padley estate to his supporter the head of the De Bernac family. The Bernac family changed their name to Padley after the estate. The hall was built for the Padley family and subsequently passed onto the local aristocratic Eyre family, when Joan Padley married Robert Eyre (Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests in 1481). It became the residence of Sir Thomas Fitzherbert through his marriage to Anne Eyre in 1534.The Fitzherbert family were devout Catholics, refusing to attend the services of the Church of England. Sir Thomas had given the hall to his younger brother John by 1588. In July 1588, the hall was raided and two Catholic priests (Nicholas Garlick and Robert Ludlum) were discovered hiding within the walls. Two weeks later they were found guilty of high treason (being ordained priests in England) and they were hanged, drawn and quartered in Derby. Their corpses were displayed on poles on St. Mary’s Bridge. They became known as the 'Padley Martyrs'. John Fitzherbert was imprisoned and died in 1590. Sir Thomas Fitzherbert had spent 32 years in prison for his beliefs and died in the Tower of London in 1591. Padley Manor was confiscated by the Crown before being returned later to the Fitzherbert family. William Fitzherbert inherited the estate in 1649 but hefty recusancy fines and family debts forced him to sell the hall, which gradually fell into disrepair. Stones were taken from the hall ruins to construct two barns.Padley Chapel was the former gatehouse to the hall and was used as a farm building following the closure of the hall. The building is still intact and in 1933 it was converted into a Catholic chapel in honour of the martyrs. A pilgrimage to Padley Chapel began in 1892 in honour of the executed martyrs and it still takes place in July each year from nearby Grindleford railway station. The chapel is a Grade I listed building.The National Trust's Longshaw Estate and Padley Gorge would have been part of the original Padley estate.

Grindleford
Grindleford

Grindleford is a village and civil parish in the county of Derbyshire, in the East Midlands of England. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 Census was 909. It lies at an altitude of 492 feet (150 m) in the valley of the River Derwent in the Peak District National Park. The 17th-century Grindleford Bridge crosses the river on the western side of the village. On the west side of the valley is the 1,407 feet (429 m) high Sir William Hill, and to the south-east lies the gritstone escarpment of Froggatt Edge. Grindleford became a parish in 1987, merging the parishes of Eyam Woodlands, Stoke, Nether Padley and Upper Padley. The nearest city to Grindleford is Sheffield, the centre of which is about 12 miles (19 km) away. For rail travellers, the Sheffield suburb of Totley is less than four miles away at the other end of the Totley Tunnel, the second-longest rail tunnel in the UK. Grindleford railway station (actually located in Upper Padley, half a mile away from the village) is at the western portal of the rail tunnel, on the scenic Hope Valley Line between Sheffield and Manchester. Grindleford is popular with walkers and climbers due to its proximity to a variety of landscapes, including open moorland, wooded river valleys (including Padley Gorge), several gritstone escarpments, and the broad Hope Valley. Visitors seeking refreshment are well catered for by a number of establishments, including the Sir William Hotel, the Maynard Hotel and Bar, the National Trust Longshaw Estate Visitor Centre, and Grindleford Station Cafe (in the old station house).

Longshaw Estate
Longshaw Estate

Longshaw Estate is an area of moorland, woodland and farmland located within the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire, England. The name of Longshaw is thought to have derived from the long wood in Padley Gorge. There are remains from Bronze Age and medieval human settlement in the area. Millstones were made from the gritstone at Yarncliffe Quarry back to the 15th-century. There are two guidestoops (stone guide posts) from the early 1700s on the estate, required by an Act of Parliament to help travellers across open moorland. The Duke of Rutland acquired the estate in 1855. He built Longshaw Lodge for shooting parties at the estate. The Longshaw Sheepdog Trials have been held since 1898 and are supposed to be the oldest to be run every year in England. The duke sold the estate in 1927 to Sheffield Corporation.In 1928 Ethel Haythornthwaite spearheaded an urgent appeal to the Yorkshire public, which helped Peak District and South Yorkshire CPRE to raise the funds to buy the 747-acre Longshaw Estate, which was threatened with development. The estate was given to the National Trust in 1931.The estate is part of the larger National Trust Peak District Estate and is run along with the High Peak Estate and White Peak Estate. At Longshaw, there is a tea room, shop and a learning facility called the Moorland Discovery Centre, which is a joint venture between the National Trust and the Peak National Park. Also staff and volunteers run many events throughout the year on the estate relating to wildlife, the estate itself and many other topics.

Hathersage Road (Sheffield)
Hathersage Road (Sheffield)

Hathersage Road is a road in Sheffield South Yorkshire, England and Derbyshire. It leads south-west from the suburb of Whirlow over the border between Hathersage and Sheffield, before becoming Sheffield Road at the point called Surprise View. The road begins at a bridge on the Limb Brook, the former boundary between Yorkshire and Derbyshire. There the road changes name from Ecclesall Road South to Hathersage Road. The road passes Whirlow Woods and Whirlow Hall Farm, the Dore Moor Inn, Fox House hotel at the top of Padley Gorge, crosses the Burbage Brook and ends at a tight curve at Surprise View, from where there are views of Hope Valley. The junction with Cross Lane and Long Line is deemed dangerous and a speed camera was installed. According to the Sheffield antiquarian, Sidney Oldall Addy, a feature known as the Giant's Chair could be found close to the road, near the junction of Whitelow Lane. No sign of this feature appears on modern maps, although it is shown on an 1888 map in Addy's A glossary of words used in the neighbourhood of Sheffield.Blacka Moor Nature Reserve, managed by the Wildlife Trust for Sheffield and Rotherham is located close to the intersection of the A625 and A6187. The 181 hectares (450 acres) reserve is the largest of the nature reserves managed by the trust, and has a migrant bird population which includes willow warblers, blackcaps, common cuckoos, northern wheatears, European stonechats and whinchats. Near Fox House, the road bends tightly whilst passing over Padley Gorge and is overshadowed by Toad's Mouth; a stone hanging over the road not dissimilar to the shape of a toad. This feature marks the boundary between Sheffield and Derbyshire. The road forms part of the A625. Until 2000, the entire course of Hathersage Road was numbered A625. Hathersage Road is now only numbered A625 as far as the junction with Stony Ridge Road where the A625 proceeds towards Calver. Between Hathersage and Stony Ridge Road junction, Hathersage Road is numbered A6187. A section of the A625 was severed in 1979 due to a landslip at Mam Tor hence the re-designation of the road number for part of the route.