Hay Dale

Peter Dale is a short dry crag-sided valley near Buxton, Derbyshire, in the Peak District of England. There is a farmland plateau on either side. The northern end of the valley leads into Hay Dale at Dale Head and the foot of the valley leads into Monk's Dale. Hay Dale and Monk's Dale are both part of the Derbyshire Dales National Nature Reserve managed by Natural England. The Carboniferous limestone rocks of all 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 walking along the flat valley floor is easy except for a couple of short rock-strewn sections. The Limestone Way long-distance footpath runs along the length of the gentle valley floor. The Peak District Boundary Walk trail passes the northern end of the valley. The Pennine Bridleway runs across the southern end and then parallel to the dale about 1km to the east (through the hamlet of Wheston). Where the Limestone Way crosses the A623 road (about 1 km north of Hay Dale), the route of the old Batham Gate Roman road runs east–west.Peter Dale's limestone cliffs are well-suited to rock climbing, with 25 graded routes on Main Crag.Access into Peter Dale from the south can be made from the hamlet of Wormhill along the Pennine Bridleway. From the north there is a footpath from the village of Peak Forest (on the A623 road) through Dam Dale and Hay Dale.

Hargate Wall is a hamlet in Derbyshire, England, situated northeast of Buxton and now part of Wormhill. The name Hargate Wall derives from Old English Herdwyk-waella, meaning "herd farm by the spring", so the first settlement was probably around AD 700–950. The hamlet now consists of several cottages, farms and property called Hayward Farm and Hargate Hall (completed and lived in by Robert Whitehead). On the edge of Hargate Wall is a Neolithic barrow known as Wind Low (53.2733°N 1.8299°W / 53.2733; -1.8299 (Wind Low)). Excavations have revealed the remains of a Neolithic chieftain and his family, a female member of a Celtic tribe and a Celtic necklace which is now in the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield.

Wormhill is a village and civil parish in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England, situated east by north of Buxton. The population of the civil parish including Peak Dale was 1,020 at the 2011 Census.Wormhill was mentioned in the Domesday book as belonging to Henry de Ferrers and containing 20 acres (81,000 m2) of meadow. The name is said by the English Place-Name Society to be derived from the Old English 'Wyrma's hyll'.There was a tradition of wolf hunting in Wormhill in the fourteenth century. It was said that a living was made by some and that an annual tribute of wolfheads was shown. It has been reported that the last wolf killed in England was at Wormhill Hall in the 15th century.From 1863 to 1967 the village was served by Millers Dale railway station, some 2 miles away, which was on the Midland Railway's extension of the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway. The disused railway line is now the Monsal Trail bridleway. A footpath south of the village leads to the nearby River Wye in Chee Dale. The Peak District Boundary Walk runs past Wormhill on its way from Buxton to Peak Forest.It has memorials to James Brindley, pioneer builder of Britain's canals, who was born in 1716 in the hamlet of Tunstead within Wormhill parish. The well in Wormhill is dedicated to Brindley. As part of the annual well dressing festival the Brindley well is decorated each year and there is also a smaller well dressing in the churchyard of St Margaret's Church in the village. The lower part of a cross shaft and its stepped base stand in the churchyard. A sundial dated 1670 tops the broken shaft. Only the base of the church tower is medieval; the rest of the church was "almost rebuilt" in 1864, and a transept added in 1904–10.Near the church and Brindley's well can be found the old village stocks. At the north end of the village lies the hamlet of Hargate (now part of Wormhill), where the industrialist Robert Whitehead and notorious mill owner Ellis Needham once lived.

Peak Forest is a small village and civil parish on the main road the (A623) from Chapel-en-le-Frith to Chesterfield in Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 335.The village grew from the earlier settlement of Dam (still inhabited, with a number of houses and farms) at the conjunction of Perrydale and Damdale. There is an inn, a church and a primary school. Its name probably derives from the Forest of High Peak. The village is at the heart of the old royal forest and was formerly known as Chamber of Campana. The nearby Chamber Farm or Chamber Knoll may have been the exact location of the residence and meeting place of local forest officials.Its church is dedicated to 'Charles, King & Martyr' (King Charles I of England, executed in 1649). First erected in 1657, it was replaced in 1878 as a gift from the Duke of Devonshire. Until an Act of Parliament was passed in 1754 its minister was able to perform marriages without the need for reading the banns, and the village was known as the Gretna Green of Derbyshire.The Peak Forest Canal, although originally aiming for the limestone quarries in Great Rocks Dale just to the south of the village, never reached nearer than Buxworth, seven miles away, where it terminates at Bugsworth Basin. Instead, a horse-drawn tramway, the Peak Forest Tramway, was constructed in the late 18th century to connect the canal with the quarries between Dove Holes and Peak Forest. The original limestone-carrying purpose of the canal was replaced long ago by the Great Rocks mineral railway line serving the quarries around Buxton and joining the Manchester–Sheffield line, via the diverging Chapel Milton Viaduct over the Black Brook valley at Chapel Milton (between Chapel-en-le-Frith and Chinley). Its railway station (now closed) was built by the Midland Railway, two miles away at Small Dale. This was on its extension of the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway, part of the main Midland Line from Manchester to London. It was also the northern junction for the line from Buxton. Stage 1 of the Peak District Boundary Walk runs from Buxton to Peak Forest.

Wheston is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Peak District. Notable features include Wheston Hall and the Wheston Cross. The cross, which survives intact, is more than 11 feet (3.4 m) high. It probably dates from the 14th century and marked the way from Tideswell to Buxton along the Forest Road. Images of the Madonna and Child and the Crucifixion are carved into it. The cross is both a scheduled monument and a Grade II* listed building. The village was formerly known as Whestone.

Old Dam is a hamlet in Derbyshire, England. It is located 3 miles (4.8 km) south-west of Castleton on the edge of the village of Peak Forest.

Tunstead is a village in Derbyshire, England, situated above Great Rocks Dale north of Buxton. It should not be confused with Tunstead Milton, which is roughly five miles to the north west. It is in the civil parish of Green Fairfield. It is famous as the birthplace of James Brindley, pioneer builder of Britain's canals. He was born in 1716 in a farmhouse on the edge of the village and with the encouragement of his mother he became an apprentice millwright in Leek. By 1875 the farm had fallen into ruins, marked only by an ash tree, when a monument to his memory was placed in nearby Wormhill. By 1958, the ash tree had also gone, and the Derbyshire Archaeological Society planted a sapling in its place and erected another monument. Tunstead is also famous for the quarry, on the other side of the old Midland Railway line from Millers Dale to Chapel en le Frith. Being just outside the boundary of the Peak District National Park it is probably the most extensively worked in the area, yielding high-quality limestone exceptionally free of volcanic rock.

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

Wormhill Hall is a 17th-century grade II* listed country hall in Wormhill, Derbyshire.

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.

Great Rocks Dale is a dry valley in the Derbyshire Peak District, known for its extensive quarrying.

Eldon Hill is a hill in the Peak District National Park in the county of Derbyshire, England, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) southwest of the village of Castleton. It is a 470-metre (1,540 ft) limestone hill whose pastureland is used for rough grazing, although a large proportion has been lost to limestone quarrying. It lies within the Castleton Site of Special Scientific Interest. Eldon Hill was formed when a bed of pure limestone was squeezed and upfolded by geological forces to form a dome; it is the highest limestone hill north of the River Wye.The hill is of considerable geological, historical and industrial interest; it lies at the northern limit of the carboniferous limestone in the Peak District, as further north it merges into the millstone grit of the Dark Peak. The name Elveden is first attested in 1285 as Elvedon and seems to have meant 'Elves' hill'.Quarrying permission was granted in 1950 and huge quantities of limestone have been excavated, mostly for road-building purposes. A large amount of the northern and northwestern slopes of the hill have disappeared and it has been called the best-known eyesore in the Peak District. In 1995 an application by RMC Aggregates to extend the quarrying further east was denied as parliament tightened up on environmental problems caused by old mineral permissions granted between 1948 and 1981. The quarry closed in 1999 and now stands unused with vegetation starting to grow on the quarry face. There have been some attempts at natural restoration with several aquatic pools being established in the former workings. The termination of quarrying has also given cavers the chance to explore some of the narrow caves exposed by the work, with Sidetrack Cave (discovered 2002) being one of the most impressive. In September 2020 the quarry was used as a film location for a TV series called Ray James, inspired by H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds.350 metres south of the summit lies Eldon Hole. At 55 metres it is the deepest pothole in the area and was named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Peak by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes in 1636. According to folk tradition, it is the abode of the Devil. Close to the summit of the hill lies a Bronze Age tumulus, a large burial site measuring 16 by 15 metres and 1.5 metres high. The tumulus, a Scheduled Monument, has been excavated on several occasions with human skeletons and jewellery amongst the finds. The hill is dotted with numerous lead mines, all disused and many capped off for safety. Eldon Hill can be climbed either from the villages of Peak Forest to the south or Castleton to the north. The approach from Castleton goes up Cave Dale with a return down Winnats Pass to give a very interesting walk. The approach from Peak Forest is shorter and passes Eldon Hole on the way. The summit of the hill stands just 100 metres from the edge of the fenced quarry workings and gives good views with Mam Tor, Axe Edge Moor and the town of Buxton all well seen.