Thornsett is a hamlet within the

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 authorit ...

New Mills New Mills is a town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England, south-east of Stockport and from Manchester at the confluence of the River Goyt and Sett. It is close to the border with Cheshire and above the Torrs, a deep gorge cut t ...

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 between New Mills and Hayfield, and features a primary school, a nursery, two pubs, a band room and a cemetery (created in 1993). It is roughly southeast of central Manchester and west of Sheffield. The hamlet is governed by High Peak Borough Council and, as it lies within New Mills' parish boundaries, New Mills Town Council.

History

Birch Vale railway station 1800648 0025e56c

Thornsett has always been in Derbyshire, unlike some other parts of New Mills. It was originally grouped, along with Beard,

Ollersett Ollersett is an area of New Mills, Derbyshire, England, about northeast of the town centre, between St. George's Road and High Hill Road. It is about long with about 100 houses, mostly built in the late 1940s. Ollersett Field Ollersett Field i ...

and Whitle, as one of the ten hamlets that formed the area of Bowden Middlecale. Bowden Middlecale has since been split up, with only these four hamlets forming part of the new township of New Mills. The hamlet was once served by

Birch Vale Birch Vale is a village in the Borough of High Peak, High Peak district of Derbyshire, just outside the boundary of the Peak District National Park, between New Mills and Hayfield, Derbyshire, Hayfield. Most of Birch Vale, including the attached ...

railway station on a branch line (now the

Sett Valley Trail The Sett Valley Trail is a cycle- and bridleway in Derbyshire, England, linking the village of Hayfield and the town of New Mills (via Birch Vale, Thornsett and Ollersett). It runs along the lower valley of the River Sett and follows the ...

) from

New Mills Central New Mills Central railway station serves the town of New Mills in Derbyshire, England. It is on the Hope Valley Line between Manchester Piccadilly railway station, Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield railway station, Sheffield, east of the form ...

to Hayfield Station (now demolished). The line opened in 1868 but passenger numbers declined after the Second World War; lack of use led to the line's closure in 1970 as part of the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the M ...

. By 1975, the land occupied by the railway had been sold to Derbyshire County Council. Birch Vale and Thornsett were served by a post office until its closure in 2008. The nearest post offices are now in Hayfield and New Mills. There were two chapels in the hamlet, both of which have been converted into houses.

Geography and transport

The hamlet is accessed only by local roads and has links to nearby New Mills,

Rowarth Rowarth is a hamlet about 2.5 miles (4 km) north of New Mills in the High Peak borough of Derbyshire, England. It is on the edge of the Peak District, in the hills between New Mills and Marple Bridge. It is within the parish boundary of New ...

, Mellor,

Marple Marple may refer to: Places * Marple, Greater Manchester, a town close to Stockport, in England ** Marple Bridge, a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester ** Marple railway station in Marple, Greater Manches ...

and Hayfield. The only bus route that runs through Thornsett is the High Peak 60, which runs to Hayfield and New Mills. High Hill Road, Thornsett - geograph

The nearest stations are

and New Mills Newtown, both with services 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 ...

and Stockport, but also separately running 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.Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a 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 historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

and Preston. The

River Sett The River Sett is a river that flows through the High Peak borough of Derbyshire, in north western England. It rises near Edale Cross on Kinder Scout and flows through the villages of Hayfield and Birch Vale to join the River Goyt at New Mi ...

runs below the hamlet, flowing from

Kinder Scout Kinder Scout is a moorland plateau and national nature reserve in the Dark Peak of the Derbyshire Peak District in England. Part of the moor, at above sea level, is the highest point in the Peak District, in Derbyshire and the East Midlands; ...

to The Torrs in New Mills, where it joins the

River Goyt The River Goyt is a tributary of the River Mersey in North West England. Etymology The name ''Goyt'' may be derived from the Middle English ''gote'', meaning "a watercourse, a stream". Derivation from the Welsh ''gwyth'' meaning "vein" has bee ...

References

{{Derbyshire-geo-stub Hamlets in Derbyshire New Mills