Buxworth

Buxworth
Derbyshire
The Navigation Inn at Buxworth
Location
Grid reference:	SK022818
Location:	53°20’2"N, 1°58’4"W
Data
Post town:	High Peak
Postcode:	SK23
Dialling code:	01663
Local Government
Council:	High Peak
Parliamentary constituency:	High Peak

Buxworth is a village in the Peak District, in Derbyshire. The area, which was once an important centre for the limestone industry, became the terminus of the Peak Forest Canal, at Bugsworth Basin. Its pub is named for the canal: the Navigation Inn.

The village lies almost two miles from Whaley Bridge and about 18 miles south-east of Manchester.

Name

The village was originally called Bugsworth, from the Old English Bucgan weorð, meaning 'Bucga's Enclosure'.

In the early 20th century, some residents began to dislike the unattractive name of their village. Their cause was championed by the local vicar, Dr J R Towers, and the village school headmaster, Mr W T Prescott. As a result of the efforts of these two residents, Bugsworth was officially renamed 'Buxworth' on 16 April 1930. The name 'Bugsworth' is retained by the canal basin.

In the 1990s, some residents sought to reverse the decision and raised a petition, Accordingly in 1999 the local Council organised a ballot of the 600 members of the local population. The result was 233 to 139 to keep the name as 'Buxworth'. However, the village is still generally referred to as 'Buggy' by locals.

The canal and the railway

The Peak Forest Canal terminates here at Bugsworth Basin, built to transport limestone from the quarries of Peak Forest. The canal never reached Peak Forest but limestone from quarries near Dove Holes was, between 1796 and 1922, transported to the basin by way of the Peak Forest Tramway – a distance of some six miles. Its trackbed can still be discerned in places, as at Whitehough, close to Chinley, and just beyond the end of the bypass on the way south to Buxton.

The basin was re-opened on 26 March 2005 having been restored by the Inland Waterways Protection Society, and, once again, the canal now ends at its original terminus. It is used entirely for recreational purposes.

A main railway line between Sheffield and Manchester passes to the north of the village. The railway was originally the Midland Railway's main line to London, built in 1867 as part of the extension of its Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway, and in 1894 the Midland built the line from Dore, which today is the Hope Valley line. Almost as soon as it was built a landslip destroyed the viaduct. Some four hundred men made drainage channels and built a new timber viaduct, which served until 1885 when the present one was built. A tunnel to the north of the station collapsed during building, trapping a gang of navvies, who were close to death by the time they were rescued. In 1903, when the line upgraded to four tracks, the tunnel was opened out into a cutting.

Buxworth station seen from the road

There was a station here, Bugsworth Station (renamed 'Buxworth' in 1930). This closed on 15 September 1958, but the building and parts of the platforms remain to this day. All through the station's existence it has experienced a peculiar anomaly in that reconstructing the collapsed viaduct also involved realigning the railway line a little way to the north. As a result, the tracks have always run past the "wrong side" of the station building, where the approach road was originally intended to be, with a new approach road hastily laid where the tracks were originally supposed to be. The old station house is owned by Burnage School For Boys in Manchester and is opened for visits frequently.

Local murder

John Cotton, the last man to be hanged in Derby Gaol in 1898, murdered his wife in Bugsworth basin after drinking heavily in the Rose & Crown (now demolished) at Bugsworth.

Sport

• Cricket: Buxworth Cricket Club, founded around 1848
• Football: Buxworth Football Club, nicknamed the Canal Men

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Buxworth)

• Chinley and Buxworth Parish Council