Peakshole Water
Peakshole Water is a stream in the Derbyshire Peak District named after its source, Peak Cavern, more traditionally known as the Devil's Arse. The stream flows through the village of Castleton to join the River Noe in nearby Hope.
The name of the stream is relatively recent, possibly of the Victorian era. Daniel Defoe during his visit to the Peak District speaks of the cave and its stream and says that cottages were built within the vault of the cave "so that 'tis like a little town in a vault" and that:
In the middle (as it were a street) is a running stream of water; the poetical descriptions of it will have this be called a river, though they have not yet bestowed a name upon it, nor indeed is it worthy of a name.—Daniel Defoe[1]
Much of its flow of the resultant river actually emerges from the Russet Well, a resurgence in a garden on the east side of the gorge below the main Peak Cavern entrance, described as the "main resurgence of the Castleton area", and which drains a series of swallets on the other side of the Pennine watershed below Rushup Edge. The resurgence has been explored by cave divers to a depth of 82 feet but further exploration was halted by a constriction.[2]
Near Hope, the Peakshole Water enters the River Noe, which is a tributary of the Derbyshire Derwent.
About the river
The stream once powered a corn mill in Castleton,[3] now disused and derelict.
A public footpath leads from Castleton past the mill and follows close to the stream as far as Pindale Road south of Hope.[4]
The stream has one main tributary, Odin Sitch, which rises above Odin Mine on the slopes of Mam Tor and joins Peakshole Water north of the visitor centre in Castleton.
Outside links
- Location map: 53°20’31"N, 1°46’42"W
References
- ↑ Daniel Defoe's Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1726
- ↑ Iain Barker & John S Beck: 'Caves of the Peak District' (7th edition): Derbyshire Caving Association, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9563473-2-9, pages 77, 126
- ↑ Watermill, Castleton - The Mills Archive Trust
- ↑ Hope Walk - Discover Derbyshire and the Peak District
