Cressbrook is a village in the

Peak District National Park Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-d ...

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 ...

. It lies in Water-cum-Jolly Dale at the foot of

Cressbrook Dale Cressbrook Dale (also called Ravensdale) is a dry Carboniferous Limestone, carboniferous limestone gorge near Bakewell, Derbyshire, in the Peak District of England. The dale is cut into a plateau of farmland and lies to the south east of the v ...

. Population details at the 2011 Census are included in the civil parish of Litton. Before its

Enclosure Act The Inclosure Acts, which use an archaic spelling of the word now usually spelt "enclosure", cover enclosure of open fields and common land in England and Wales, creating legal property rights to land previously held in common. Between 1604 and 1 ...

of 1762 Cressbrook did not exist. It later grew up around a

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

complex built alongside the River Wye, first by Richard Arkwright and then later by his son Richard, JL Philips and Brother Cotton Spinners and McConnel and Company. Until McConnel's period of ownership the village did not exist beyond a collection of buildings in the immediate vicinity of the mill. When McConnel's workforce objected to the quality of the housing available he took it upon himself to build the model village that became Cressbrook. Building started in the late 1830s and was later extended by Henry McConnel's daughter, Mary Worthington, in 1902 to include a village club, modelled on a

working men's club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class ...

. Cressbrook Mill went bankrupt in 1965, after which time it changed from being a private mill estate to the public village that it now is. The

Monsal Trail The Monsal Trail is a cycling, horse riding and walking trail in the Derbyshire Peak District. It was constructed from a section of the former Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway, which was built by the Midland Railway in 1 ...

passes Cressbrook Mill. This walk and cycleway mostly follows the old trackbed of the

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 ...

where, from 1866 to 1959, the village of Cressbrook was served by

Monsal Dale railway station Monsal Dale railway station was opened in 1866 by the Midland Railway on its line from Rowsley, extending the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway. History The original intention was merely to have a goods depot to serve ...

. Until May 2011 the

Cressbrook Tunnel The Monsal Trail is a cycling, horse riding and walking trail in the Derbyshire Peak District. It was constructed from a section of the former Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway, which was built by the Midland Railway in 18 ...

(and others) were closed to walkers and cyclists for safety reasons and the Trail diverted across the River Wye next to the Mill. David Cannon McConnel emigrated to

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia in 1840. In 1841, he established the Cressbrook Homestead named after their home town. The homestead in turn gives its name to the modern-day localities of

Cressbrook, Queensland Cressbrook is a rural locality in the Somerset Region, Queensland, Australia. In the Cressbrook had a population of 117 people. It is known for its recreational aviation facilities. Geography Cressbrook is a sparsely populated rural area with ...

and Lower Cressbrook, Queensland.

Publications

The history of Cressbrook was recently captured in the book ''Behind The View — Life and times in Cressbrook, a Derbyshire Mill village''. This was written by and published by the Cressbrook Community association with the help of a grant from the Local Heritage Initiative, a

Countryside Agency The Countryside Agency was a statutory body set up in England in 1999 with the task of improving the quality of the rural environment and the lives of those living in it. The agency was dissolved in 2006 and its functions dispersed among other bod ...

project.

Bill Bryson William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...

writes warmly about Cressbrook Mill in his 2015 travel memoir '' The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island''.

References

External links

Cressbrook Mill, Peak District Information
Towns and villages of the Peak District Villages in Derbyshire Derbyshire Dales {{Derbyshire-geo-stub

Publications

See also

References

External links