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Peak District

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geography of Great
Britain

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   The Peak District within England
   Enlarge
   The Peak District within England

   The Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England,
   lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of
   Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West
   Yorkshire. Most of the area falls within the Peak District National
   Park, whose designation in 1951 made it the earliest national park in
   the British Isles. An area of great diversity, it is conventionally
   split into the northern Dark Peak, where most of the moorland is found
   and whose geology is gritstone, and the southern White Peak, where most
   of the population lives and where the geology is mainly
   limestone-based. Proximity to the major conurbations of the Midlands,
   Yorkshire and Lancashire coupled with easy access by road and rail
   makes the area extremely popular with visitors; the park's controlling
   authority claims it to be the world's second most visited national
   park.

Geography

   View of the Edale valley from Mam Tor.
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   View of the Edale valley from Mam Tor.

   The Peak District forms the southern end of the Pennines and much of
   the area is uplands above 300 m, with a high point on Kinder Scout of
   636 m. Despite its name, the landscape lacks sharp peaks, being
   characterised by rounded hills and gritstone escarpments (edges). The
   area is surrounded by major conurbations, including Manchester,
   Sheffield, Derby and Stoke-on-Trent.

   The National Park covers 555 square miles (1438 square km) of
   Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and South and
   West Yorkshire, including the majority of the area commonly referred to
   as the Peak. The Park boundaries were drawn to exclude large built-up
   areas and industrial sites from the park; in particular, the town of
   Buxton and the adjacent quarries are located at the end of the Peak
   Dale corridor, surrounded on three sides by the Park. The town of
   Bakewell and numerous villages are, however, included within the
   boundaries, as is much of the (non-industrial) west of Sheffield. As of
   2006, it is the fourth largest National Park in England and Wales.

   12% of the Peak District National Park is owned by the National Trust,
   a national organisation which exists to conserve historic and natural
   landscapes. The three Trust estates ( High Peak, South Peak and
   Longshaw) include the ecologically or geologically significant areas of
   Bleaklow, Derwent Edge, Hope Woodlands, Kinder Scout, Leek and
   Manifold, Mam Tor, Dovedale, Milldale and Winnats. The Peak District
   National Park Authority directly owns around 5%, and other major
   landowners include several water companies.

Geology

   Typical limestone scenery: Thor's Cave from the Manifold Way.
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   Typical limestone scenery: Thor's Cave from the Manifold Way.

   The White Peak is underlain with early Carboniferous limestone, which
   produces numerous caves — this is sometimes known as Karst topography.
   Under the Dark Peak lie shales and sandstones of the late Carboniferous
   millstone grit. Much of the Peak, and its adjacent areas, approximates
   to the structure of an eroded dome. The coal measures of the
   carboniferous lie just outside the district, especially on the eastern
   edge. Then, moving inwards, come the gritstone edges, the shales, and
   in the central region the limestone of the White Peak.

   For a detailed description of the geology of the area see Cope's
   monograph.

Ecology

   The gritstone and shale of the Dark Peak supports heather moorland and
   blanket bog environments, with rough sheep pasture and grouse shooting
   being the main land uses. The limestone plateaus of the White Peak are
   more intensively farmed, with mainly dairy usage of improved pastures.
   Some sources also recognise the South West Peak (near Macclesfield) as
   a third type of area, with intermediate characteristics.

   Woodland forms around 8% of the Peak National Park. Natural broadleaved
   woodland is found in the steep-sided, narrow dales of the White Peak
   and the deep cloughs of the Dark Peak, while reservoir margins often
   have coniferous plantations.

   Lead rakes, the spoil heaps of ancient mines, form another distinctive
   habitat in the White Peak, supporting a range of rare metallophytic
   plants, including spring sandwort (Minuartia verna; also known as
   leadwort), alpine penny-cress (Thlaspi caerulescens) and mountain pansy
   (Viola lutea).

Economy

   Tourism is the major local employment for Park residents (24%), with
   manufacturing industries (19%) and quarrying (12%) also being
   important; only 12% are employed in agriculture. The cement works at
   Hope is the largest employer within the Park. The springs at Buxton and
   Ashbourne are exploited to produce bottled mineral water, and many of
   the plantations are managed for timber. Other manufacturing industries
   of the area are varied; they include David Mellor's cutlery factory (
   Hathersage), brake linings ( Ferodo at Chapel-en-le-Frith) and
   electronic equipment ( Castleton).

   Limestone is the most important mineral quarried, mainly for roads and
   cement; shale is extracted for cement at Hope, and several gritstone
   quarries are worked for housing (see also Conservation issues:
   Quarrying). Lead mining is no longer economic, but fluorspar, barytes
   and calcite are extracted from lead veins, and small-scale Blue John
   mining occurs at Castleton.

Transport

   The main roads through the Peak District are the A57 (Snake Pass)
   between Sheffield and Manchester, the A628 (Woodhead Pass) between
   Barnsley and Manchester via Longdendale, the A6 from Derby to
   Manchester via Buxton, and the Cat and Fiddle road from Macclesfield to
   Buxton. These roads, and the pretty minor roads and lanes, are
   attractive to drivers, but the Peak's popularity makes road congestion
   a significant problem especially during summer.

   For such a rural area, the Peak is relatively well served by local
   public transport. Coach (long-distance buses) services provide access
   to Matlock, Bakewell and Buxton from Derby and Manchester, and local
   minibuses also operate between villages. Train services include the
   Hope Valley Line from Sheffield to Manchester, which passes through
   Hathersage, Hope and Edale; the Derwent Valley Line from Derby to
   Matlock; the Buxton Line and the Glossop Line, linking those towns to
   Manchester. The nearest airports are Manchester, Nottingham and
   Doncaster-Sheffield.

History

Early history

   The Peak District has been settled from the earliest periods of human
   activity, as is evidenced by occasional finds of Mesolithic flint
   artefacts and by palaeoenvironmental evidence from caves in Dovedale
   and elsewhere. There is also evidence of Neolithic activity, including
   some monumental earthworks or barrows (burial mounds) such as that at
   Margery Hill. In the Bronze Age the area was well populated and farmed,
   and evidence of these people survives in henges such as Arbor Low near
   Youlgreave or the Nine Ladies Stone Circle at Stanton Moor. In the same
   period, and on into the Iron Age, a number of significant hillforts
   such as that at Mam Tor were created. Roman occupation was sparse but
   the Romans certainly exploited the rich mineral veins of the area,
   exporting lead from the Buxton area along well-used routes. There were
   Roman settlements, including one at Buxton which was known to them as
   "Aquae Arnemetiae" in recognition of its spring, dedicated to the local
   goddess.

   Theories as to the derivation of the Peak District name include the
   idea that it came from the Pecsaetan or peaklanders, an Anglo Saxon
   tribe who inhabited the central and northern parts of the area from the
   6th century AD when it fell within the large Anglian kingdom of Mercia.
   An alternative idea is that 'Peak' is a corruption of the word ' Pict',
   the pre-Iron Age people whose culture may have persisted much later in
   the uplands of Derbyshire and partially survives even now in local
   traditions such as well dressing. Another possibility is that the title
   is merely descriptive, referring to the Peaks or high hills which are
   such a feature of the landscape.

Medieval to modern history

   In medieval and early modern times the land was mainly agricultural, as
   it still is today — with sheep farming, rather than arable, the main
   activity in these upland holdings. However, from the sixteenth century
   onwards the mineral and geological wealth of the Peak became
   increasingly significant. Not only lead, but also coal, copper (at
   Ecton), zinc, iron, manganese and silver have all been mined here.
   Celia Fiennes, describing her journey through the Peak in 1697, wrote
   of 'those craggy hills whose bowells are full of mines of all kinds off
   black and white and veined marbles, and some have mines of copper,
   others tinn and leaden mines, in w[hi]ch is a great deale of silver.'
   Lead mining peaked in the 17th and 18th centuries and began to decline
   from the mid-19th century, with the last major mine closing in 1939,
   though lead remains a byproduct of fluorspar, baryte and calcite mining
   (see Derbyshire lead mining history for details). Limestone and
   gritstone quarries flourished as lead mining declined, and remain an
   important industry in the Peak.
   Ladybower Reservoir.
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   Ladybower Reservoir.

   Large reservoirs such as Woodhead and Howden were built from the late
   19th century onward to supply the growing urban areas surrounding the
   Peak District, often flooding large areas of farmland and depopulating
   the surrounding land in an attempt to improve the water purity.

   The northern moors of Saddleworth and Wessenden gained notoriety in the
   1960s as the burial site of several children murdered by the so-called
   Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

Development of tourism

   The area has been a tourist destination for centuries, with an early
   tourist description of the area, De Mirabilibus Pecci or The Seven
   Wonders of the Peak by Thomas Hobbes, being published in 1636. Much
   scorn was poured on these seven wonders by subsequent visitors,
   including the journalist Daniel Defoe who described the moors by
   Chatsworth as 'a waste and houling wilderness' and was particularly
   contemptuous of the cavern near Castleton known, in typically frank
   Derbyshire style, as the Devil's Arse (or Peak Cavern). Visitor numbers
   did not increase significantly until the Victorian era, with railway
   construction providing ease of access and a growing cultural
   appreciation of the Picturesque and Romantic. Guides such as John
   Mawe's Mineralogy of Derbyshire (1802) & William Adam's Gem of the Peak
   (1840) generated interest in the area's unique geology.

   There is a great tradition of public access and outdoor recreation in
   this area. The Peak District formed a natural hinterland and rural
   escape for the populations of industrial Manchester and Sheffield, and
   remains a valuable leisure resource in a largely post-industrial
   economy. The Mass Trespass of Kinder Scout, the highest point in the
   Peak District, in 1932 was a landmark in the campaign for national
   parks and open access to moorland in Britain, at a time when such open
   moors were strongly identified with the game keeping interests of
   landed gentry. The Peak District National Park became the United
   Kingdom's first national park on April 17, 1951. The first National
   Trail in the United Kingdom was the Pennine Way, which starts from the
   village of Edale in the heart of the Peak District.

Transport

   The first roads in the Peak were constructed by the Romans, although
   they may have followed existing tracks. The Roman network is thought to
   have linked the settlements and forts of Aquae Arnemetiae ( Buxton),
   Chesterfield, Ardotalia ( Glossop) and Navio ( Brough-on-Noe), and
   extended outwards to Danum ( Doncaster), Manucium (Manchester) and
   Derventio ( Little Chester, near Derby). Parts of the modern A515 and
   A53 roads south of Buxton are believed to run along Roman roads.

   Packhorse routes criss-crossed the Peak in the Medieval era, and some
   paved causeways are believed to date from this period, such as the Long
   Causeway along Stanage. However, no highways were marked on Saxton's
   map of Derbyshire, published in 1579. Bridge building improved the
   transport network; a surviving early example is the three-arched
   gritstone bridge over the River Derwent at Baslow, which dates from
   1608 and has an adjacent toll-shelter. Although the introduction of
   turnpike roads (toll roads) from 1731 reduced journey times, the
   journey from Sheffield to Manchester in 1800 still took 16 hours,
   prompting Samuel Taylor Coleridge to remark that 'a tortoise could
   outgallop us!' From around 1815 onwards, turnpike roads both increased
   in length and improved in quality. An example is the Snake Road, built
   under the direction of Thomas Telford in 1819-21 (now the A57); the
   name refers to the crest of the Dukes of Devonshire. The Cromford Canal
   opened in 1794, carrying coal, lead and iron ore to the Erewash Canal.
   Totley Tunnel on the Manchester to Sheffield line.
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   Totley Tunnel on the Manchester to Sheffield line.

   The improved roads and the Cromford Canal both shortly came under
   competition from new railways, with work on the first railway in the
   Peak commencing in 1825. Although the Cromford and High Peak Railway
   (from Cromford Canal to Whaley Bridge) was an industrial railway,
   passenger services soon followed, including the Woodhead Line
   (Sheffield to Manchester via Longdendale) and the Manchester, Buxton,
   Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway. Not everyone regarded the
   railways as an improvement. John Ruskin wrote of the Monsal Dale line:
   'You enterprised a railroad through the valley, you blasted its rocks
   away, heaped thousands of tons of shale into its lovely stream. The
   valley is gone, and the gods with it; and now, every fool in Buxton can
   be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton.'

   By the second half of the twentieth century, the pendulum had swung
   back towards road transport. The Cromford Canal was largely abandoned
   in 1944, and several of the rail lines passing through the Peak were
   closed as uneconomic in the 1960s as part of the Beeching Axe. The
   Woodhead Line was closed between Hadfield and Penistone; parts of the
   trackbed are now used for the Trans-Pennine Trail, the stretch between
   Hadfield and Woodhead being known specifically as the Longdendale
   Trail. The Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway is
   now closed between Rowsley and Buxton where the trackbed forms part of
   the Monsal Trail. The Cromford and High Peak Railway is now completely
   shut, with part of the trackbed open to the public as the High Peak
   Trail. Another disused rail line between Buxton and Ashbourne now forms
   the Tissington Trail.

Activities

   Paragliding from Mam Tor.
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   Paragliding from Mam Tor.

   The Peak District provides opportunities for many types of outdoor
   activity. An extensive network of public footpaths and numerous
   long-distance trails (over 3000 km in total), as well as large
   open-access areas, are available for hillwalking and hiking. Bridleways
   are commonly used by mountain bikers, as well as horse riders. Some of
   the long-distance trails, such as the Tissington Trail, re-use former
   railway lines; they are much used by walkers, horse riders and
   cyclists. The Park authorities run cycle hire centres at Ashbourne,
   Parsley Hay and Ladybower Reservoir. Wheelchair access is possible at
   several places on the former railway trails, and cycle hire centres
   offer vehicles adapted to wheelchair users. There is a programme to
   make footpaths more accessible to less-agile walkers by replacing
   climbing stiles with walkers' gates.

   The many gritstone outcrops, such as Stanage and the Roaches, are
   recognised as some of the finest rock climbing sites in the world (see:
   rock climbing in the Peak District). The Peak limestone also provides
   many testing climbs. Some of the area's large reservoirs (for example,
   Carsington Water) have become centres for water sports, including
   sailing, fishing and canoeing, in this most landlocked part of the UK.

   Other activities include:
     * air sports ( hang gliding and paragliding)
     * birdwatching
     * caving
     * fell running
     * greenlaning
     * orienteering

Visitor attractions

   The spa town of Buxton was developed by the Dukes of Devonshire as a
   genteel health resort in the eighteenth century; now the largest town
   in the Peak District, it has an opera house with a theatre, and a
   museum and art gallery. Another spa town is Matlock Bath, popularised
   in the Victorian era. Bakewell is the largest settlement within the
   National Park; its five-arched bridge over the River Wye dates from the
   13th century. Buxton, Matlock and Matlock Bath, Bakewell and the small
   towns of Ashbourne and Wirksworth, on the fringes of the Park, all
   offer a range of tourist amenities.

   Historic buildings include Chatsworth House, seat of the Dukes of
   Devonshire and among Britain's finest stately homes; the medieval
   Haddon Hall, seat of the Dukes of Rutland; Hardwick Hall, built by
   powerful Elizabethan Bess of Hardwick; and Lyme Park, which doubled as
   Pemberley in the 1995 BBC television version of Pride and Prejudice.
   Many of the Peak's villages and towns have fine parish churches, with a
   particularly magnificent example being the fourteenth century church at
   Tideswell, sometimes dubbed the 'Cathedral of the Peak'. Little John is
   said to be buried at Hathersage churchyard.

   The picturesque village of Castleton, overshadowed by the Norman
   Peveril Castle, has four show caves (the Peak, Blue John, Treak Cliff
   and Speedwell Caverns) and is the centre of production of the unique
   semi-precious mineral, Blue-John. Other show caves and mines include
   the Heights of Abraham caves (reached by cable car) at Matlock Bath,
   and Poole's Cavern at Buxton. The little village of Eyam is known for
   its self-imposed quarantine during the Plague of 1666.

   The Mining Museum at Matlock Bath, which includes tours of the Temple
   lead mine, and the Derwent Valley Mills (World Heritage Site) give
   insight into the Peak's industrial heritage. The preserved steam
   railway between Matlock and Rowsley, the National Tramway Museum at
   Crich and the Cromford Canal chart the area's transport history. The
   Life in a Lens Museum of Photography & Old Times in Matlock Bath
   presents the history of photography from 1839.

   Well dressing ceremonies are held in most of the villages during the
   spring and summer months, in a tradition said to date from pagan times.
   Other local customs include Castleton's annual Garland Festival and
   Royal Shrovetide Football, played annually in Ashbourne since the 12th
   century. Buxton hosts two opera festivals, the Buxton Festival and the
   International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, as well as the Buxton
   Festival Fringe, and the Peak Literary Festival is held at various
   locations twice a year.

   Peak District food specialities include the dessert, Bakewell Pudding
   (never called Bakewell Tart in its land of origin), and the famous
   cheese Stilton, one of whose areas of production is the village of
   Hartington.

Conservation issues

   Walkers above Derwent Reservoir.
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   Walkers above Derwent Reservoir.

   The proximity of the Peak to major conurbations -- an estimated 20
   million people live within an hour's drive -- poses unique challenges
   to managing the area. The Peak Park Authority and the National Trust,
   with other landowners, attempt to balance keeping the upland landscape
   accessible to visitors for recreation, whilst protecting it from
   intensive farming, erosion and pressure from visitors themselves. An
   inevitable tension exists between the needs of the 38,000 residents of
   the Peak Park, the 22 million people who visit it annually and the
   conservation requirements of the area.

   The uneven distribution of visitors creates further stresses. Dovedale
   alone receives an estimated 2 million visitors annually; other
   highly-visited areas include Bakewell, Castleton and the Hope valley,
   Chatsworth, Hartington and the reservoirs of the Upper Derwent valley.
   Over 60% of visits are concentrated in the period May-September, with
   Sunday being the busiest day.

Footpath erosion

   The number of footpath users on the more popular walking areas in the
   Peak District has contributed to serious erosion problems, particularly
   on the fragile peat moorlands of the Dark Peak; the recent use of some
   paths by mountain bikers has exacerbated an existing problem. Measures
   taken to contain the damage have included the permanent diversion of
   the official route of the Pennine Way out of Edale from its original
   route up Grindsbrook, and the expensive stone paving of many moorland
   footpaths.

Quarrying

   Large-scale limestone quarrying has been a particular area of
   contention. Twelve large limestone quarries operate in the Peak;
   Tunstead near Buxton, is one of the largest quarries in Europe. Large
   quarries not only leave scars on the landscape but also cause dust and
   noise pollution and traffic congestion, particularly where stone is
   transported in lorries rather than by rail. However, the industry is
   critical to the local economy, employing 12% of those resident within
   the Park.

   Total limestone output has substantially decreased from the 1990 peak
   of 8.5 million tonnes (almost 30% in 1995). However, most of the
   mineral extraction licences were issued by national government for 90
   years in the 1950s, and remain legally binding. The Peak Park Authority
   has a policy of considering all new quarrying and licence renewal
   applications within the area of the National Park in terms of the local
   and national need for the mineral and the uniqueness of the source, in
   conjunction with the effects on traffic, local residents and the
   environment. Some licenses have not been renewed; for example, the RMC
   Aggregates quarry at Eldon Hill was forced to close in 1999, and
   landscaping is ongoing. The proposals dating from 1999 from Stancliffe
   Stone Ltd to re-open dormant gritstone quarries at Stanton Moor have
   been seen as a test case. Hotly contested by ecological protesters and
   local residents on grounds that the development would threaten nearby
   Bronze Age remains (in particular, the Nine Ladies stone circle) as
   well as the natural landscape locally, to date (2006) the development
   remains under consideration by the Park Authority.

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