Peak Forest
| Peak Forest | |
| Derbyshire | |
|---|---|
 Charles King and Martyr, Peak Forest | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SK113793 |
| Location: | 53°18’36"N, 1°49’52"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 335 (2011) |
| Post town: | Buxton |
| Postcode: | SK17 |
| Dialling code: | 01298 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | High Peak |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
High Peak |
Peak Forest is a small village on the main road the (A623) between Chapel-en-le-Frith and Chesterfield in Derbyshire. The parish population 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.[1]
Parish church
The parish church bears a rare dedication, to 'Charles, King & Martyr'. King Charles I was executed in 1649, and was esteemed a martyr by some in the Church of England.[2] The church was first built in 1657, during Cromwell's time. It was replaced in 1878 as a gift from the Duke of Devonshire.
Until an Act of Parliament was passed in 1754, the minister of this church was able to perform marriages without the need for reading the banns, and the village was known as the Gretna Green of Derbyshire.[3]
History
The name of the village apparently derives from the Forest of High Peak, of which this location was the 'capital'. 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.[4]
In the late 18th century, a horse-drawn tramway known as the Peak Forest Tramway, was built to serve the limestone quarries in Great Rocks Dale just to the south of the village. It carried the quarried stone down to the Peak Forest Canal: it was originally intended to bring the canal up to the quarries, but it never reached nearer than Buxworth, seven miles away, where it terminates at Bugsworth Basin. The quarries are found 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, by way of 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.
About the village
Stage 1 of the Peak District Boundary Walk runs from Buxton to Peak Forest.[5]
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Peak Forest) |
References
- ↑ Peak Forest CofE Primary School
- ↑ Information on Peak Forest from GENUKI
- ↑ Henderson, Mark (15 November 2017). "Derbyshire’s "Gretna Green"". Derbyshire County Council. https://www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk/facts/derbyshires-gretna-green/.
- ↑ Hadfield, Roger (1985). "An outline history of Peak Forest and Dove Holes". http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~hadfield/genealogy/acornerof.htm.
- ↑ McCloy, Andrew (2017). Peak District Boundary Walk: 190 Miles Around the Edge of the National Park. Friends of the Peak District. ISBN 978-1909461536.
