| Official Name: | Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside | ||||||||||||||||
| Constituency Westminster: | High Peak | ||||||||||||||||
| London Direction: | SE | ||||||||||||||||
| London Distance Mi: | 150 | ||||||||||||||||
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 6.38 | ||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Civil parish | ||||||||||||||||
| Static Image Caption: | Chapel Milton Viaduct | ||||||||||||||||
| Static Image Name: | Chinley - east viaduct - geograph.org.uk - 2979041.jpg | ||||||||||||||||
| Static Image 2 Name: |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Shire County: | Derbyshire | ||||||||||||||||
| Shire District: | High Peak | ||||||||||||||||
| Dial Code: | 01663 | ||||||||||||||||
| Country: | England | ||||||||||||||||
| Postcode District: | SK23 | ||||||||||||||||
| Postcode Area: | SK | ||||||||||||||||
| Post Town: | HIGH PEAK | ||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates: | 53.347°N -1.932°W | ||||||||||||||||
| Os Grid Reference: | SK 046833 | ||||||||||||||||
| Population Ref: | (2021) | ||||||||||||||||
| Population: | 2,794 | ||||||||||||||||
| Region: | East Midlands | ||||||||||||||||
| Civil Parish: | Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside --> | ||||||||||||||||
| Website: | chinleybuxworthbrownside-pc.gov.uk | ||||||||||||||||
| Parts: | Chinley | ||||||||||||||||
| Parts Type: | Settlements | ||||||||||||||||
| Parts Style: | list | ||||||||||||||||
| P1: | Bridgeholm Green | ||||||||||||||||
| P2: | Brierley Green | ||||||||||||||||
| P3: | Buxworth | ||||||||||||||||
| P4: | Chapel Milton | ||||||||||||||||
| P5: | Chinley Head | ||||||||||||||||
| P6: | Leaden Knowl | ||||||||||||||||
| P7: | New Smithy | ||||||||||||||||
| P8: | Wash |
Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside is a civil parish within the High Peak district, which is in the county of Derbyshire, England. Partially rural with several villages contained within, its population was 2,794 residents in the 2021 census. The parish is 150miles north west of London, 35miles north west of the county city of Derby, and NaNmiles north of the nearest market town of Chapel-en-le-Frith. Being close to the edge of the county border, it shares a boundary with the parishes of Chapel-en-le-Frith, Edale, Hayfield, New Mills and Whaley Bridge.[1] A substantial portion of the parish is within the Peak District national park.
Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside parish is surrounded by the following local Derbyshire places:
It is 6.38sqmi in area, NaNmiles in length and 5miles in width, within the western portion of the High Peak district, and is to the north of the county. The parish is roughly bounded by land features such as the Kinder Scout nature reserve to the north and east, the Chinley-Edale rail link and the A6 road to the south, and the River Goyt to the west.
There are areas of built environment mainly to the south of the parish, outside of this being essentially rural with dispersed settlements and farms throughout. The main locales are:
See main article: Chinley. This is to the south of the parish, hemmed in between the Black Brook to the south and hillside in the north. It is the primary location of the parish, taking up prominence in the title as it is the largest urban area. Chinley maintains core local services such as food stores and hospitality, other retail, schools, railway station and churches.
See main article: Buxworth. Lying 1miles to the west of Chinley, it is a more scattered, less dense area, with the Black Brook and A6 road cutting through the settlement. Public functions here include school, public house, churches and canal marina.
Community areas, villages and hamlets within the parish include:[2]
The key road is the A6 from Derby to Manchester, which bypasses many of the parish populations centres and is to the south of Buxworth. The A624 from Chapel-en-le-Frith to Glossop passes through Chapel Milton, New Smithy and Chinley Head. The B6062 spurs off this at New Smithy into Chinley, through Buxworth, and connects to the A6 close to Whaley Bridge and Furness Vale.
The Black Brook in the south forms a flat valley in which much of the populated areas exist. Outside these, it is primarily farming and pasture land throughout the parish, with patches of forested areas, mainly along the A6 corridor to the south west and at Chinley Head to the north. The parish is hilly bar the areas around the core settlements which are in the river valley. It contains some raised areas and slopes primarily around the national park region in the north and east. The location encompasses a number of Dark Peak characteristics, such as gritstone upland, pastures and moorland ridges and hills.[3]
Throughout much of the western areas of the parish and river basins are superficial deposits of the Till, Devensian - Diamicton range. These deposits formed between 116 and 11.8 thousand years ago, dating from the Quaternary period. The bedrock of the parish consists of mudstones, siltstones and sandstones of various types such as Milnrow, Chatsworth, Roaches and Kinderscout grits, most formed between 329 and 319 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. There are superficial deposits of coal west of Chinley and peat in the upland area towards Brown Knoll, formed between 2.588 million years ago and the present during the Quaternary period.[4] [5] In the vicinity of South Head to the north of the parish are several shake holes.[6]
The parish western edge is formed by the River Goyt. Peak Forest Canal runs parallel to the river to the west. A tributary of the Goyt, Black Brook runs along much of the parish south boundary and doubles as a canal. The Otter Brook rises at Chinley Head and flows south through Chinley into Black Brook. Hockham Brook is another tributary that forms a portion of the eastern boundary. Roych Clough and other unnamed streams are on higher ground to the far east, some of which also marks an eastern edge of the parish.
The parish lowest point is along the far north west boundary by the River Goyt, at 140m (460feet). The land rises towards the north and east, Buxworth is in the range of NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet) and Chinley NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet). Outside the settled areas, Browne Hill south of Buxworth is at 325m (1,066feet), the parish rising more steeply once within the Peak District boundary, with several high points including Chinley Churn South at 451m (1,480feet),[7] Chinley Churn North at 457m (1,499feet)[8] and South Head at 494m (1,621feet),[9] all north of Chinley. The peak is along the north eastern border, by Brown Knoll at 569m (1,867feet).[10]
The locales were not listed in the Domesday 1086 landholding survey, likely because of the wider area's designation as hunting forest owned by the king during the period. The three names demarcate the parish into informal areas.
Chinley first appeared in the late 13th century, recorded in public records with the alternate spellings Chynley(e), Chinley(e), Chinle and Chinlege. It meant 'clearing in a deep valley'.[11]
Buxworth was Buggisworth(e), Bugg(e)sworth(e), Bugg(e)sword also first seen in the 13th century, possibly derived from an Anglo Saxon manor owner Bugca, meaning 'Bugca's enclosure',[12] but more likely to derive from Ralph Bugge from Nottingham who became the Bailiff of the Forest in the Peak in 1250, whose enclosure covered the present area. It was later changed by local government order from Bugsworth to Buxworth in 1935.[13]
The name Brownside is a now little-used reference to a hamlet east of the A624 road that was first reported in the 16th century, grouping a number of scattered farms close by Breckend and Wash, and is possibly in reference to the dark, peaty landscape contained within the upper slopes of Brown Knoll which is now part of the Peak District National Park to the far east of the parish.[14]
The area has unearthed few prehistoric and early history remains, such as flint scatter along the banks of the Roych Clough of unknown date or era,[15] although similar finds in the region are estimated to be from the early Mesolithic to late Neolithic (10000 BC to 2351 BC) period.[16] Also undated are the possible remains of a tumulus on Chinley Churn[17] or Roman (43 AD to 410 AD) camp, which could be simple earthworks of a later period. A suggested route of a nearby Roman road from Buxton to Glossop NaNmiles to the east, comes through Wash village and follows the path of the present day A624 Hayfield Road.[18] A carved stone head with Celt stylings, appearing to date from much older although generally were medieval creations, was found in the Hough area north of Buxworth after the millennium.[19] [20] Black Brook was named from antiquity, the darkness of its waters derived from the peat surrounding its upland source.[21]
Chinley was also known alternately as Mainstonefield in the Middle Ages and Medieval period. The wider area was part of the Royal Forest of High Peak, established since the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066 by William the Conqueror. It spread across over 180sqmi,[22] and the parish was then a part of the Campagna ward of the forest.[23] [24] William Peveril was the initial steward and he was based at Peveril Castle, his descendants continued to oversee the forest laws, but the area was later repossessed by King Henry II after the family fell out of favour. The forest was granted away several times since to others including royal sons, until coming under the ownership of the Duchy of Lancaster at the end of the 14th century.[25] Merevale Abbey, a Cistercian religious order was founded in 1148 and in the early 12th century granted a herbage near Chinley Head, now known as Monk's Meadow Farm, the Duchy however continued to collect rent on the holdings for several centuries.[26] [27] [28] [29] In around 1157 the ancient parish of Glossop was established, Bowden Middlecale was a southern subdivision for taxation reasons, and it eventually contained ten hamlets including Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside.[30] [31] [32] [33]
One of the first instances of industry was recorded at what would become Chapel Milton, which was noted in records from the late 13th century,[34] the Kings Mill was reported by 1391 as a corn mill owned by the monarch,[35] and this forming the placename. The Chapel prefix is a reference to the nearby town of Chapel-en-le-Frith, as the village had no local religious buildings. Forest wardens were living in Chinley and Buxworth before the 14th century to assist in upholding the law of the forest, but by this time the growing population had begun encroaching on the area, breaching laws by using land for farming, obtaining fuel and building houses. Although fines and other severe forms of punishment were at first routinely handed out to offenders, by the mid-17th century, enforcement had softened and locals instead being charged rent or taxed.[36]
North-west Derbyshire is said to be ‘a vast extent of rough grazing’, with ‘short, cool summers, harsh winters and 60 inches of rain', and with a resulting landscape that sets hard expectations with what is achievable when farming. Up to the 16th century this was generally a mix of subsistence farming based on sheep, cattle, corn and oats.[37] Due to this it was designated hunting forest, as well as forest rules slowing local development, until the time of the Industrial Revolution era, the area of Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside only contained dispersed farmsteads and scattered residences, the nearest settlements being at Chapel-en-le-Frith and Hayfield. Although there was an attempt near to Chinley in 1569 to enclose common land, this was opposed by locals violently with riots,[38] with further disputes in the middle 1570s. The Duchy's herbage was subdivided in 1569 and the portions rented out to local farmers. Chinley eventually was enclosed by 1628. and the arrangement remaining for some centuries until the late 1800s when it was sold. By 1590 the Earl of Shrewsbury had purchased from Elizabeth I much of the Longendale estate surrounding Glossop village, and a map prepared showed the Chinley herbage surrounded by lands described as 'great waste' but which did contain some settled areas.
After the English Civil War during the middle 17th century with the monarchy's power much lessened, the status of much of the royal forests were abolished or largely reduced by 1635, along with the sale of much of the land within. John Speed's map of 1610 did not indicate any places contained within the present-day parish, but showed the remaining area of the Forest was much smaller, and then localised around the Peak Forest village. Hearth tax assessments of the time demonstrated the subsequent effect of this; between the start of the tax in 1662 and 1670 there were substantial increases, either due to rebuilding of houses larger and/or more housing overall. Those records also showed how sparsely populated the hamlets of Bowden Middlecale were, with Chinley, Buxworth and particularly Brownside amongst the lowest. These three were administratively grouped for poor rates purposes in 1713, predating the eventual 1894 civil parish.[39] [40] Burdett's map of Derbyshire in 1767 gave some insight into the state of the hamlets, with Chinley by this time taking some precedence with noted local areas including Chinley Houses, Chinley Churn and Chinley Head; (Chapel) Milton also, while Four Lane End was the then name of Chinley village.[41] Brownside took in some of the scattered farms in the east and was later known as Breckhead,[42] [43] the wider eastern area also encompassing Over Fold/Upper Fold[44] and Shireoaks hamlets[45] alongside Wash village, which is on the east boundary of the parish and where properties span into the neighbouring Chapel-en-le-Frith parish. Many of these were built in the 17th to 18th century and were primarily farmhouses and agricultural buildings.[46] Leaden Knowl also started to develop from the 18th century onwards as a dormitory settlement of Chinley.[47]
Bugsworth Hall had been improved in 1627 by the Carrington family at Buxworth, although some of the fabric dated from earlier, and this spurred the development of a surrounding hamlet around it.[48] By the 17th century some industry was in place, such as quarrying at Cracken Edge, Chinley Churn, Chinley Head and others for slate,[49] limestone and sandstone.[50] [51] There were coal mining/bell pits on the surrounding moorland towards Buxworth.[52] Much of this output was moved via packhorse. Additional local activities included handloom weaving and a woollen mill at Whitehall, south of Chinley. Because of the relatively undeveloped character of the area, there was some interest in improving communications due to the strides made elsewhere in the country because of the Industrial Revolution as well as exporting the produce, so turnpike roads were built, with a petition put to Parliament on March 1792 by “the Gentlemen, Clergy, Merchants, Principal Tradesmen, and Inhabitants, residing in or near the Towns of Chapel-en-le-Frith, Chapel Milltown, Chinley....", the subsequent Act enabling a road from Chapel en le Frith to Hayfield, which was built by 1795 and is numbered as the present-day A624.[53] The first school in Buxworth was built with public subscription in 1826 by at Brierley Green, north of the Black Brook. The construction was carried out voluntarily by local farmers and quarrymen, it became a Congregationalists School and a Sunday School for the village. In 1902 a Congregational Chapel was built alongside the schoolroom. Another school was built in 1884.[54] A school was rebuilt at New Smithy in 1834, its original date is unclear.[55] St. James' Church School was constructed in 1878,
Further development included Buxworth becoming the terminus of the Peak Forest Canal which ran alongside Black Brook stream which was partly diverted in places to accommodate it, the canal stretched 14miles from Manchester.[56] This was linked there to the Peak Forest Tramway which was an early horse-drawn railway, both designed by Benjamin Outram, and a major shareholding held by Samuel Oldknow. They opened in 1796 was and were primarily built to transport limestone 6miles away from the quarries at Dove Holes, the stone also being used to construct the canal.[57] The Buxworth interchange became the busiest and largest inland canal port, but it was initially planned further downstream at Chapel Milton which was the closest practical location to getting narrowboats to these upland areas However, to avoid building locks at Whitehough, and on realising the water basin might not be guaranteed a good water supply and that a reservoir would have to be built at Wash village, which would incur additional expense, along with the discovery of gritstone deposits at Crist and Barren Clough which was en route curtailed these. The gritstone mine was further developed, becoming renowned for the anti-slip properties of the stone, creating additional income for the canal company. in 1928 it was closed after being worked out and used as landfill until the 1980s.[58] [59]
There were several historic industrial locations utilising the natural energy of the fast flowing Black Brook; Whitehall Mill was established around 1781, NaNmiles south west of Chinley and claimed during its time to making the largest rolls of paper in England. It later became a cotton mill,[60] a dye plant, and further on manufacturing plastics, the site renamed Stephanie Works.[61] [62] Britannia Mill began as a cotton mill also on the brook, NaNmiles west of Buxworth, it was later used for gritstone milling and a factory manufacturing seats until a fire burned down the building in 2005, and in modern times is now an industrial estate.[63] The Forge Mill site southeast of Chinley, is primarily in the adjoining Chapel en le Frith parish but auxiliary buildings were built across the boundary, it was a paper and later bleaching mill,[64] before being redeveloped as a residential area.[65] Bridgeholm Mill, immediately west of Chapel Milton in Bridgeholm Green was also for paper manufacture, and later for storage before becoming a small present-day industrial estate.[66] The mills also took advantage of the tramway and canal, using them to move their output. The mill owners also built homes closeby, White Hall is a country house south of Chinley, dating from the early nineteenth century and is built from gritstone ashlar, it is associated with its namesake paper mill, being formerly occupied by one of the owners of the mill.[67] Carrington House, north west of Buxworth was built by the Britannia Mills owner in around the later 1800s, and later was associated to the Carringtons at the Bugsworth Hall estate.[68]
From 1796 until 1830, the transportation of limestone had little competition, and a large area of storage sheds and lime kilns built up around the Buxworth end of the canal,[69] becoming over time a 24 hour operation. By the 1830s, Chinley was a sizeable village with over 1000 inhabitants, several being involved in the various local industries.[70] The Cromford and High Peak Railway reached nearby Whaley Bridge in 1833, connecting canals and providing an alternative route for transporting limestone from Buxworth, which to begin with supplemented the canal. This was later progressed upon by the Midland Railway and Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway linking up lines to create a route between London and Manchester, the former building their line from Buxton through to New Mills via the Great Rocks Line, and opening a station at Chinley by 1866-1867 via the Chapel Milton Viaduct and a tunnel north west of Buxworth, where another station was opened in 1867. The hamlet of New Smithy became known from a blacksmiths established there when the original one was displaced by the building of the chapel in Chapel Milton,[71] and it was referenced in maps at the turn of the 18th century[72] and later gazetteers,[73] before the building of railways in the area.[74] Another line, the Dore and Chinley Railway, with support from the Midland was opened from 1893-1894, connecting Sheffield and Manchester via a tri-junction and additional viaduct at Chapel Milton. The line through Chinley and Buxworth was widened to cope with this extra traffic, Chinley station was rebuilt and the Buxworth tunnel removed in favour of an embankment to accommodate this additional capacity.[75] [76]
Due to being in the hunting forest, there was no religious facilities directly within what would become the parish, and with Chapel-en-le-Frith and Hayfield being closeby, as well as being in the parish of Glossop meant church goers in what was a sparse area until the 17th century were mainly catered for. However, there were factions which did not conform to the Act of Uniformity 1662; William Bagshaw, the then vicar of Glossop, amongst others who rebelled against the Act were deprived of their living and ministries. He established a congregation and regularly preached to them at nearby Malcoffe farm, just outside the parish. After Rev Bagshawe's death in 1702, the members of the church led by James Clegg started the work on finding a suitable area for building of a new worship place. In 1711, Chinley Independent Chapel (alternatively known as New Chapel) was constructed in Chapel Milton.[77] Many of the non-conformists were subsequently embroiled in a local tithe court case of 1765-1766 involving a refusal to pay them which ruled in favour of landholders.[78]