Hartington is a village in the centre of the

White Peak The White Peak, also known as the Low Peak, is a Carboniferous limestone, limestone plateau that forms the central and southern part of the Peak District in England. It is mostly between and above sea-level and is enclosed by the higher altitu ...

area of 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 ...

, England, lying on the River Dove which is the

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

border. According to the 2001

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

, the parish of Hartington Town Quarter, which also includes

Pilsbury Pilsbury is a hamlet in the English county of Derbyshire, approximately 2 miles north of Hartington. It is on the side of the valley of the River Dove that, thereabouts, forms the border with the county of Staffordshire. History Pilsbury was ...

, had a population of 345 reducing to 332 at the 2011 Census. Formerly known for

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

-making and the mining of ironstone,

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 ...

and

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

, the village is now popular with tourists.

Architecture

Notable buildings in the village include the market hall (formerly the site of a

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: * Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand * Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, a ...

), the 13th-century

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

Saint Giles Saint Giles (, la, Aegidius, french: Gilles), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 6th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly lege ...

, and the 17th-century

Hartington Hall Hartington Hall is a much altered and extended 17th-century manor house at Hartington, Derbyshire, now a youth hostel. The Hall was built by the Bateman family. They were a well-established Norfolk family who settled at Hartington in the 16 ...

. The prominent Bank House in the centre of the village was built by the former village mill owner, and in the past was used as the village bank. A half-mile (800 m) to the south of the village, on the river Dove, is the fishing house of the famous angler

Charles Cotton Charles Cotton (28 April 1630 – 16 February 1687) was an English poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French, for his contributions to ''The Compleat Angler'', and for the influential ''The Comp ...

. In the north of the village is Pilsbury Castle, an 11th-century motte-and-bailey castle, that survives only as an earthwork. Near Hartington is the finest

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The be ...

in the

Arbor Low Arbor Low is a well-preserved Neolithic henge in the Derbyshire Peak District, England. It lies on a Carboniferous Limestone plateau known as the White Peak area. The monument consists of a stone circle surrounded by earthworks and a ditch. ...

. There are numerous ancient tumuli and

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

s in the landscape around Hartington, probably dating from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

. Hartington Mill, now a private house, stands by the River Dove. This was the local water mill for grinding corn.

Attractions

The village has a

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ba ...

, which serves two major National Cycle Network routes: the

Tissington Trail The Tissington Trail is a bridleway, footpath and cycleway in Derbyshire, England, along part of the trackbed of the former railway line connecting Ashbourne to Buxton. It takes its name from the village of Tissington, which it skirts. Open ...

and the

High Peak Trail The High Peak Trail is a trail for walkers, cyclists and horse riders in the Peak District of England. Running from Dowlow , near Buxton, to High Peak Junction, Cromford , it follows the trackbed of the former Cromford and High Peak Rai ...

, which meet at nearby

Parsley Hay Parsley Hay railway station served Parsley Hay, a hamlet within Hartington Middle Quarter civil parish, about south east of Buxton, Derbyshire, on the LNWR line to Ashbourne. The nearest large settlement is the village of Hartington. Histor ...

. These trails pass just under one mile (1500 m) to the east of the village; they offer of off-road cycling and walking along old railway trackbeds through the Peak District National Park. Hartington signal box, on the site of the former

Hartington railway station Hartington railway station opened in 1899 about two miles away from the village it served - Hartington () in Derbyshire, south east of Buxton. It was on the Ashbourne Line built by the LNWR as a branch from the Cromford and High Peak Railwa ...

and nearly two miles (3 km) from the village, has been renovated and converted into a visitor centre; there is also a car park on site. A little south of the village, overlooking the Dove, stands Wolfscote Hill (388 m at ) which is a good viewpoint; it is now in the care of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. Three miles (5 km) to the south-west of the village lies the small settlement of Hulme End; this marks the northern starting point of the Manifold Way, an tarmacked walking and cycling route that follows the route of the former Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway.

History

According to the English Place-Name Society the name of the village derives 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 ...

for either 'Stags' hill' or 'hill connected with Heorta'. Hartington was mentioned in the

Domesday book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as belonging to Henry de Ferrers and being worth forty shillings.''Domesday Book: A Complete Translation''. London: Penguin, 2003. p.745 The parish was originally quite large, and part of the hundred of Wirksworth. Hartington had four

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

s, known as the Town Quarter, Nether Quarter, and Middle Quarter, and Upper Quarter, which are now all separate parishes. These became separate civil parishes in their own right in 1866.Vision of Britain site
/ref> They are marked on

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

maps. Surnames that originate from this area include Heathcote.

Railway

, on the

Cromford and High Peak Railway The Cromford and High Peak Railway (C&HPR) was a standard-gauge line between the Cromford Canal wharf at High Peak Junction and the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge. The railway, which was completed in 1831, was built to carry minerals and goo ...

, was opened in 1899; it was sited on the part of the line that ran from Buxton to Ashbourne. Regular passenger services ceased in 1954, due to low passenger numbers, and the line through Hartington was lifted in 1964. Much of the line has since been converted to a shared-use path called the

. Hartington signal box has been retained and is now used as an information centre.

Cheese

The creamery in the village, often called the cheese factory, was founded by the

Duke of Devonshire Duke of Devonshire is a title in the Peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This (now the senior) branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the wealthiest British aristocratic families since the 16th century and has be ...

in the 1870s; it was one of the three sources of Stilton, and also produced its own unique

Dovedale cheese Dovedale, sold as Dovedale Blue, is a blue cheese. It is named after the Dovedale valley in the Peak District, near where it is produced. Dovedale is a soft, creamy cheese with a mild blue flavour. It is made from full fat cow's milk. Unusually ...

and others such as Buxton Blue cheese. The factory was closed in 2009 after being sold by Dairy Crest to the Long Clawson Dairy Company, but the cheese shop associated with the factory re-opened under private ownership,This Is Business Staffordshire Nov 2009
/ref> and a new, smaller, creamery was opened by two former employees in 2014.

Notable residents

Marie Litton Marie Litton (1847 – 1 April 1884) was the stage name of Mary Jessie Lowe,James F. Redfern, sculptor, was born here in 1838 * Steve Sutton, former

Nottingham Forest F.C. Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Trent ...

goalkeeper, was born here in 1961

References

External links

Hartington village website
{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Derbyshire Dales