Buxworth is a village in the
High Peak of
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
, England. The area, which was once an important centre for the
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
industry, became the
terminus
Terminus may refer to:
* Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end destination
* Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination
Geography
*Terminus, the unofficial original name of Atlanta, Georgia, United ...
of the
Peak Forest Canal
The Peak Forest Canal is a narrow ( gauge) locked artificial waterway in northern England. It is long and forms part of the connected English/Welsh inland waterway network.
Route and features
General description
The canal consists of two level ...
. Its pub, the Navigation Inn, was once owned by ''
Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
'' actress
Pat Phoenix
Patricia Phoenix Booth (born Patricia Frederica Manfield; 26 November 1923 – 17 September 1986) was an English actress who became one of the first sex symbols of British television through her role as Elsie Tanner, an original cast member ...
.
The village lies almost from
Whaley Bridge
Whaley Bridge () is a town and civil parish in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. It is situated on the River Goyt, south-east of Manchester, north of Buxton, north-east of Macclesfield and west of Sheffield. It had a population ...
and about southeast of
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
.
Name change
The village was originally called Bugsworth, from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
''Bucga's Worth'' ("Bucga's Enclosure"), but in the early 20th century some residents began to dislike the name of their village; their cause was championed by the local vicar, Dr J R Towers, and the village school headmaster, Mr W T Prescott. As a result of the efforts of these two residents, Bugsworth officially became Buxworth on 16 April 1930.
In 1999 the local
High Peak Borough Council spent £350 to organise a ballot of the 600 members of the local population. The result was 233 to 139 to keep the name as Buxworth. However, the village is still generally referred to as 'Buggy' by locals.
Transport
The
Peak Forest Canal
The Peak Forest Canal is a narrow ( gauge) locked artificial waterway in northern England. It is long and forms part of the connected English/Welsh inland waterway network.
Route and features
General description
The canal consists of two level ...
terminates here at
Bugsworth Basin
Bugsworth Basin is a canal basin at the terminus of the Peak Forest Canal at Buxworth (formerly Bugsworth) in the valley of the Black Brook, close to Whaley Bridge. It was once a busy interchange with the Peak Forest Tramway, for the transpor ...
(the renaming of the village had no effect on the name of the canal basin), which was re-opened on 26 March 2005 having been restored by the
Inland Waterways Protection Society
The Bugsworth Basin Heritage Trust (BBHT), formerly known as the Inland Waterways Protection Society (IWPS), is a British organisation founded in 1958 to work for the restoration of the canal system. Its members carried out surveys of canals an ...
, and, once again, the canal now ends at its original terminus. It is used entirely for recreational purposes.
The canal never reached
Peak Forest
Peak Forest is a small village and civil parish on the main road the ( A623) from Chapel-en-le-Frith to Chesterfield in Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 335.
The village grew from the earlier settlement of ...
but limestone from quarries near
Dove Holes
Dove Holes is a village in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. It has a population of about 1,200 (2001), shown in the 2011 Census as being included in the population of Chapel-en-le-Frith. It straddles the A6 road approximately thr ...
was, between 1796 and 1922, transported to the basin by way of the
Peak Forest Tramway
The Peak Forest Tramway was an early horse- and gravity-powered industrial railway (or tramway (industrial), tramway) system in Derbyshire, England. Opened for trade on 31 August 1796, it remained in operation until the 1920s. Much of the rout ...
– a distance of some six miles. Its trackbed can still be discerned in places (e.g. at Whitehough, close to
Chinley
Chinley is a rural village in the High Peak Borough of Derbyshire, England, with a population of 2,796 at the 2011 Census. Most of the civil parish (called Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside) is within the Peak District National Park. Historicall ...
, and just beyond the end of the bypass on the way south to
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level. ).
A main railway line (
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
to
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
) passes north of the village. The railway was originally the
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...
's main line to London, built in 1867 as part of the extension of its
Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway
The Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway ran from a junction with the Midland Railway at Ambergate to Rowsley north of Matlock and thence to Buxton.
In time it would become part of the Midland Railway's main line between ...
, and in 1894 the Midland built the line from
Dore, which today is the
Hope Valley line. Almost as soon as it was built a
landslip
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, ...
destroyed the viaduct. Some four hundred men made drainage channels and built a new timber viaduct, which served until 1885 when the present one was built. A tunnel to the north of the station collapsed during building, trapping a gang of navvies, who were close to death by the time they were rescued. In 1903, when the line upgraded to four tracks, the tunnel was opened out into a cutting.
![Buxworth railway station 1958029 ee19efa1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Buxworth_railway_station_1958029_ee19efa1.jpg)
There was a
station at Buxworth, also originally called Bugsworth, renamed on 4 June 1930, seven weeks after the village was renamed. This closed on 15 September 1958, but the building and parts of the platforms remain to this day. All through the station's existence it has experienced a peculiar anomaly in that reconstructing the collapsed viaduct also involved realigning the railway line a little way to the north. As a result, the tracks have always run past the "wrong side" of the station building, where the approach road was originally intended to be, with a new approach road hastily laid where the tracks were originally supposed to be. The old station house is owned by Burnage School For Boys in Manchester and is opened for visits frequently.
The village is split into two by the
Whaley Bridge
Whaley Bridge () is a town and civil parish in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. It is situated on the River Goyt, south-east of Manchester, north of Buxton, north-east of Macclesfield and west of Sheffield. It had a population ...
–
Chapel-en-le-Frith
Chapel-en-le-Frith () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, England.
It has been dubbed the "Capital of the Peak", in reference to the Peak District, historically the upperland areas between the Saxon lands (belo ...
bypass (
A6), constructed in the 1980s.
Local murder
John Cotton, the last man to be hanged in
Derby Gaol
The term Derby Gaol historically refers to the five gaols in Derby, England. Today, the term usually refers to one of two small ‘tourist attractions’, the gaol which stood on Friar Gate from 1756 to 1846 and the cells of which still exist an ...
in 1898, murdered his wife in Bugsworth basin after drinking heavily in the Rose & Crown (now demolished) at Bugsworth.
School
Buxworth Primary School, founded in 1884, is the only school remaining in Buxworth. The school is currently headed by Paul Bertram and was previously co-headed by Jennifer Rackstraw and Louise Moore. Their current Ofsted rating is 'Good'.
Sport
Buxworth
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
team, which was founded around 1848, play in the Derbyshire & Cheshire League. Former Buxworth player
Alan (Bud) Hill went on to play for
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
for over fourteen seasons, scoring more than 12,000
first-class runs at an average of 30.89.
Buxworth Football Club, nicknamed the Canal Men, play in the Premier division of the Hope Valley Amateur League with Buxworth Reserves competing in the Premier Division.
Links with the United States
Brierley Green adjoins Buxworth and in the early 19th century it was the home of the Clayton family. The eldest son, Joel Henry Clayton,
emigrated to the US to live with an uncle at
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. Other members of the Clayton family followed him and eventually they settled in a valley at the foot of
Mount Diablo
Mount Diablo is a mountain of the Diablo Range, in Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County of the eastern San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. It is south of Clayton, California, Clayton and northeast of Danville, Califo ...
, some 30 miles from
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
where they founded
Clayton. Buxworth and Clayton are now
twinned.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside
Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside is a civil parish in the High Peak, Derbyshire, High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. The parish contains 29 Listed building#England and Wales, listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage Lis ...
References
External links
Parish council website
{{authority control
Villages in Derbyshire
Towns and villages of the Peak District
High Peak, Derbyshire