NED Mini Guide - North East Derbyshire
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Surprisingly unspoilt...
A landscape of woodland, wilderness and water, small towns and stone-built villages, hilly pastures and green dales, North East Derbyshire is a varied, friendly, and accessible area that’s still surprisingly unspoilt.
While the urban crowds escape to the Peak District and the Derbyshire Dales, the north eastern corner of the county remains something of a well-kept secret - boasting some of Derbyshire’s best views, centred around the bustling market town of Chesterfield and within easy reach of the M1 motorway and the cities of Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester.
The hidden wealth of natural resources shaped the history of this rolling landscape on the eastern edge of the Peak District National Park, where the pattern of settlement has scarcely changed in thousands of years.
Ramblers discovering ancient stone circles and burial mounds on lonely Ramsley Moor, near Holmesfield, are witnesses to prehistoric man’s colonisation of the bleak heights with their immense views across the surrounding countryside. The occupying Roman generals garrisoned the area, mining lead near the pretty village of Ashover and marching their men across the terrain on a new road, straight as a die. The modern A61 trunk road follows the line of the Romans’ Rykneld Street to this day, south of Clay Cross.
The clang of pick and shovel echoed down through the centuries, as iron, lead and limestone continued to be prised out of the land long after the Romans retreated, bringing wealth to the area which remains visible to this day in the shape of grand old houses, mellow stone farms and craftsmen’s cottages in villages to the south and west of the area. The underlying coal measures too have been worked for many centuries, coal was a staple ‘crop’ here well before the Industrial Revolution and the opening of the Chesterfield Canal in 1777, and later the coming of the railways provided the means to transport it readily and economically.
Railway Pioneer George Stephenson discovered important coal reserves under the hamlet of Clay Cross during the building of the North Midlands Railway between Derby and Chesterfield in the early 1840’s.
With picturesque names like Highoredish, Spitewinter, Jonnnygate, Rattle and Uppertown any number of tiny hamlets and settlements lie off the beaten track awaiting discovery, home to rustic inns offering fine beers and hearty traditional fare to be relished by the discerning visitor.
Friendly villages and towns offer a wide range of accommodation, with easy access to the whole area and the various attractions that lie just beyond ... the Pennines, Sherwood Forest, Chatsworth in its magnificent park on the banks of the Derwent, 14th-century Haddon Hall, the caverns of Castleton, the Crich Tramway Village, the Herb Garden at Hardstoft, magnificent Hardwick Hall, the 17th-century castle of Bolsover... not forgetting the bizarre crooked spire of Chesterfield’s parish church and Derbyshire’s unique custom of Well Dressing.
