Sheep Hills, Derbyshire

Biggin is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, near Hulland and just off the A517 road. In the 2011 census, the parish had a population of 120.The village and parish are also known as Biggin by Hulland, as distinct from the Biggin in the Derbyshire parish of Hartington.

Hulland Ward is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire roughly 6 miles west of Belper, Derbyshire England on the A517 road. The parish includes the hamlets of Biggin, Nether Biggin and Millington Green. Hulland Ward itself contains about 400 houses and has a population of just under 1000 inhabitants, being measured at 927 (and including Mercaston) in the 2011 Census.It is distinct from Hulland, the next village and civil parish immediately to its west. Originally, the village consisted of a few dwellings on the coaching road into the Duffield Frith, with the road being gated. This was known as Ward Gate and over the years, due to its proximity to Hulland Village was known as Hulland Wardgate. Sometime in the 17th century, the gate part was dropped, and the hamlet grew into the village now known as Hulland Ward. In the Domesday Survey Hulland Village is listed as Hoilant in the care of Geoffrey d'Alselin. It was part of the lands bestowed upon Henry de Ferrers after the Norman Conquest, and also became part of Duffield Frith, with two enclosed royal parks - Mansell Park and Ravensdale Park. The latter is now a civil parish in its own right.One of the earliest ore-stamping mills was built at Hulland Ward by Burchard Kranich in 1556.

Hulland is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, adjoining the A517 road. It had a population of 215 according to the 2011 census. In the 1870s Hulland was described as: "Hulland, a village and two townships in Ashborne parish, and a chapelry partly also in Wirksworth parish, Derby. The village stands on an eminence, 5 miles E by N of Ashborne r. station; and has pleasant environs" Hulland should be distinguished from Hulland Ward, an adjacent village and civil parish immediately to its east.

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.

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.

Hognaston is a small village and civil parish in Derbyshire, East Midlands, England. Hognaston has a population of approximately 200; including Atlow and increasing at the 2011 Census to 366, and has a play area, pub, church and a village hall. Built on the side of a valley, which ends at the start of the river, it is made up of mostly newer houses but there are some older 17th and 18th century farm houses and cottages. Due to the dam at Carsington Reservoir, the lower part of the village cannot get mobile phone signal, digital TV through an aerial, or very good radio quality. St Bartholomew's Church in the centre of the village dates back to the 12th century, the doorway and the middle section dates back to Norman times, shown by the stone carving over the door. This shows a bishop with crook, a lamb with cross, two fishes, a hog and other beasts. It is thought to represent the Agnus Dei. The church is home to Derbyshire's oldest church bell (early 13th century). The village hall was built in 1982 from the stones of the houses submerged by Carsington reservoir. Hognaston forms part of the Derbyshire Dales local government district.

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

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.

Atlow is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, about eight miles west of Belper. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 98. At the 2011 Census the population remained less than 100. Details are included in the civil parish of Hognaston.

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.

Hopton Hall is an 18th-century country house at Hopton, near Wirksworth, Derbyshire. It is a Grade II listed building. The Manor of Hopton, anciently the seat of the de Hopton family, was acquired by the Gell family in 1553 by Ralph Gell (1491–1564) who also purchased lands at Darley Abbey and Rocester.John Gell was created a baronet in 1642 (see Gell baronets). The Baronetcy was extinct in 1719 and the estate passed to John Eyre in 1732 via his mother Katherine Gell, daughter of 2nd baronet John Gell, at which point Eyre added the surname of Gell. The house has its origins in the 16th century when it was built by Thomas Gell as a two-storey, three-bay manor house. It was extended and remodelled by Philip Eyre Gell in the late 18th century. The north entrance front has three storeys and seven bays, flanked by tower wings with pyramidal roofs.Notable members of the Gell family include the religious patron Katherine Gell, Philip Gell's younger brother, Admiral John Gell and Philip's son Sir William Gell.Philip Gell's daughter and heir married William Pole Thornhill MP, on whose death the estate passed to his kinsman Henry Pole, later known as Henry Chandos-Pole-Gell (High Sheriff of Derbyshire) in 1886. The estate of some 3,700 acres (15 km2) was broken up in the 20th century, a major part being sold to a water authority for the creation of Carsington Reservoir. The house itself was put up for auction in 1989, passing out of the family. The present owner is Sir Bill Thomas and his family, a former senior vice president of Hewlett-Packard Europe who was drafted in by Ed Miliband to chair Labour's "small business taskforce". Thomas and his wife Julie have opened their formal gardens and lake to the public during February and early March for the woodland Snowdrop Walk and during the summer to the Rose Garden. Both periods allow access to the 30 acres (12 ha) of grounds and 2 km (1.2 mi) of signposted paths.The document collection of the Gell family of Hopton Hall is held by the Derbyshire Record Office.

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.