Hartington

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Hartington
Derbyshire

The pond in the centre of Hartington
Location
Grid reference: SK129604
Location: 53°8’27"N, 1°48’30"W
Data
Population: 332
Post town: Buxton
Postcode: SK17
Dialling code: 01298
Local Government
Council: Derbyshire Dales
Parliamentary
constituency:
West Derbyshire

Hartington is a village in the Derbyshire Peak District, lying on the River Dove close to the Staffordshire border. According to the 2001 census, the parish of Hartington Town Quarter, which also includes Pilsbury, had a population of 345 reducing to 332 at the 2011 Census.[1] Formerly known for cheese-making and the mining of ironstone, limestone and lead, the village is now popular with tourists.

Architecture

Notable buildings in the village include: the market hall (formerly the site of a market); the 13th-century parish church of Saint Giles; and 17th-century Hartington Hall. A prominent house in the centre of the village (featured in the photo 'Hartington', below right), is Bank House built by the former village mill owner and in the past used as the village bank. A half-mile to the south of the village, on the Dove, is the fishing house of the famous angler Charles Cotton. In the north of the village is Pilsbury Castle,[2] an 11th-century motte-and-bailey castle, that survives only as an earthwork.

Near Hartington is the finest neolithic stone circle in the Peak District, Arbor Low. There are numerous ancient tumuli and cairns in the landscape around Hartington, probably dating from the Bronze Age.

Hartington Mill, now a private house, stands by the River Dove. This was the local water mill for grinding corn.

Attractions

The village has a youth hostel at Hartington Hall, which serves two major National Cycle Network routes; the Tissington Trail and the High Peak Trail, which meet at nearby Parsley Hay. These trails pass just under one mile to the east of the village, and offer 30 miles of off-road cycling and walking along old railway trackbeds through the Peak District National Park. Hartington signal box, on the site of the former Hartington railway station, and nearly two miles distant from the village, has been renovated and converted to a Visitor Centre.

A little south of the village, overlooking the Dove, stands Wolfscote Hill (1,273 ft), a good viewpoint, now in the care of the National Trust.

Three miles to the south-west lies the small settlement of Hulme End, which marks the northern starting point of the Manifold Way, an eight-mile tarmacked walk- and cycle-route following the route of the former Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway.

History

According to the English Place-Name Society the name of the village derives from the Old English for either 'Stags' hill' or 'hill connected with Heorta'.[3] Hartington was mentioned in the Domesday book as belonging to Henry de Ferrers and being worth forty shillings.[4] The ancient parish is large, and part of the hundred of Wirksworth. Hartington comprises four townships, known as the Town Quarter, Nether Quarter, and Middle Quarter, and Upper Quarter, which form separate civil parishes.

Cheese

The former creamery in the village, often called the cheese factory, was founded by the Duke of Devonshire in the 1870s;[5] it was one of the three sources of Stilton, and also produced its own unique Dovedale cheese and others such as Buxton Blue cheese. The factory was closed in 2009.[6] The cheese shop associated with the factory has re-opened under private ownership.[7]

Notable residents

  • Marie Litton, actress and theatre manager, was born here in 1847
  • James F. Redfern, sculptor, was born here in 1838
  • Steve Sutton, former Nottingham Forest F.C. goalkeeper, was born here in 1961

References

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Hartington)