Great Hucklow (

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 ...

''Hucca's burial mound'') is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

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 ...

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southe ...

which nestles under Hucklow Edge between the villages of

Tideswell Tideswell is a village and civil parish in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England. It lies east of Buxton on the B6049, in a wide valley on a limestone plateau, at an altitude of above sea level, and is within the District of Derbyshire Da ...

and Bradwell. It has a population of about 100, including Foolow , Grindlow plus Little Hucklow and being measured at 427 in the 2011 Census. In the village, there is a thriving primary school, which is located up a short lane (School Lane), under the edge, and a pub, the Queen Anne. It had a theatre for 40 years, which was run by L. du Garde Peach and the actors and staff were from the local area. The first production (

The Merchant of Venice ''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Although classified as ...

, Shakespeare) was in 1927 staged in the Hucklow Holiday Homes. The first set of plays in the New Play House was in 1938, with four one act plays written by Peach. The New Play House was in a converted lead mining building (known locally as cupolas from the lead smelting furnace). The first 200-second hand seats cost 1 shilling and 9 pence each. The stage was wide by deep. For many years the theatre brought many visitors to Great Hucklow from all parts of the north of England. The theatre building is still used as an activity centre. The Nightingale Centre, which belongs to the Unitarians, is in the middle of the village and accommodates groups for school and community visits to the area, conferences and provides country holidays for children from

inner cities The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists somet ...

. The Centre brings many visitors to the village from all over the world. Recently, Great Hucklow has taken control of the Silance Mine Heritage Site, jointly with the village of Foolow. This is a four hectare area of scrub, woodland and grassland on a south facing slope on Hucklow Edge which was the previous location for lead working at both Silence and Old Grove Mine and more recent re-working of the surface mineral heaps for

fluorspar Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs scal ...

. The site straddles the parish boundary between Grindlow to the west and Foolow to the east. It is positioned on the boundary between the White and Dark Peak character areas. The long history of mining has resulted in the development of very complex surface soils with those derived from the shales lying in intimate association with soils developing from limestone and mineral material brought to the surface during the mining operations. Both Silence and Old Grove Mines have been extensively reworked for fluorspar at surface, but at the top end of Silence Mine there are the previously unrecognised remains of steam engine buildings and associated structures. These include the back walls of a horizontal engine house and boiler house, the possible base of a chimney, and a small sunken ‘chamber’ that originally was one half of a wheel pit which contained a large flywheel and/or winding drum associated with the engine house. Hillocks remain in the northern part of Old Grove Mine. The Peak District Mines Historical Society are currently excavating the remains of Silance Mine. The village is host to an annual

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

residency; this is a tradition dates back almost 30 years. The village is twinned with

Parisot, Tarn-et-Garonne Parisot is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. It is twinned with Great Hucklow - a rural village of similar size in the Derbyshire Peak District, England. See also *Communes of the Tarn-et-Ga ...

which is a rural village of similar size in the south west of France.

Geography

The land rises steeply to the north of the village to Hucklow Edge and at Camphill on the plateau above it there is a popular

gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is al ...

field, operated by the Derbyshire and Lancashire Gliding Club, which in July 1954 hosted the

World Gliding Championships The World Gliding Championships (WGC) is a gliding competition held every two years or so by the FAI Gliding Commission. The dates are not always exactly two years apart, often because the contests are sometimes held in the summer in the Southern ...

. On 9 August 2011 the UK's longest paraglider flight began in the village, ending over 250 km away in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. The village is accessed from the B6049 about a mile north of where it crosses the A623 at the Anchor Inn. The road to the village goes off to the east at the Windmill triangle. A lead vein or rake outcrops to the surface to the west of the village and dives under the rocks of Hucklow Edge on the western side of the village.

History

The Unitarian Old Chapel was founded in 1696 and is still in use; it also has a small meeting room which is well used by the community. The Methodist Chapel, built in the early part of the 19th century, was converted to offices in 1999. The area is now mainly agricultural, but the village was formerly a centre of the Derbyshire lead mining industry. An adit, known as Milldam Mine, has recently been reopened by Glebe Mines Ltd that connects the various deep mines that had formerly been dug along Hucklow Edge. This mine is being worked for fluorspar, which is frequently found associated with lead in the vein.

References

External links

The Village Web SiteSilence Mine
{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Gliding in England Derbyshire Dales