Whitle is a historic hamlet in Derbyshire. The Whitle area is now part of the town of

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 thro ...

, and lies between the centre of the town and the hamlet of

Thornsett Thornsett is a hamlet within the civil parish of New Mills in Derbyshire. 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 centra ...

. The main approach to the hamlet is via an unadopted road from the south, connecting with Apple Tree Road. This continues north-east as a public bridleway and private driveway to Mellor Road. Public footpaths lead north-west and WSW across New Mills Golf Course, which is immediately west of the hamlet.

History

The placename is thought to derive simply from "white hill". At one point, Whitle was part of the Lordship of

Longdendale Longdendale is a valley in the Peak District of England, north of Glossop and southwest of Holmfirth. The name means "long wooded valley" and the valley is mostly in the counties of Derbyshire and Greater Manchester. Geography The eastern part ...

. In 1713 the hamlet was included in the newly formed township of

and to this day it remains within the town's boundaries. The

Inclosure 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 ...

1826 refers to, and maps, four distinct areas within Whitle: New Mills Lee, Whitle Bank, Shaw Marsh and Broadhurst Edge. By comparing maps and written records of the Whitle enclosure, Bryant shows that, in 1826, the area contained around 20 buildings. These buildings included "Stafford's Mill", "Barnes's Mill", a "Whitle School" (on the site of 41–45 Mellor Road) and also a "

Poor House A poorhouse or workhouse is a government-run (usually by a county or municipality) facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy. Workhouses In England, Wales and Ireland (but not in Scotland), ‘workhouse’ has been the ...

" (set back from the southeastern end of present-day

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Road). Close to the Poor House a

toll gate Toll Gate or Tollgate may refer to: * Toll gate, a barrier across a toll road or toll bridge that is lifted when the toll is paid Entertainment * "Tollgate" (Hale single) * ''The Toll-Gate'', a 1954 novel by Georgette Heyer * ''The Toll Gate'', ...

was sited on what is now known as Batemill Road. All of the major surviving buildings in Whitle were

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1977: Whitle Farmhouse and its barn; Bower House and its barns; Fold House; Whitle Cottage; Hilltop Cottage; and Century Cottage, dated 1666.

References

Hamlets in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District New Mills {{Derbyshire-geo-stub

History

See also

References