Chinley is a rural village in the High Peak Borough of

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 ...

, England, with a population of 2,796 at the 2011 Census. Most of the civil parish (called Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside) is within 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 ...

. Historically, before the coming of the railway, the area was economically dominated by agriculture. Nowadays most inhabitants commute out of the village to work; accessible centres of work include

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is withi ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

Location

Chinley lies in the Blackbrook Valley. To the north is Cracken Edge, a once-quarried promontory of

Chinley Churn Chinley Churn is a prominent gritstone hill between the villages of Chinley and Hayfield in the Derbyshire Peak District. The summit is above sea level. The hilltop ridge area is designated as 'Open Access' land, following the Countryside and ...

, a large, prominent hill with a pass followed by the A624 named Chinley Head. Brown Knoll commands the skyline on the eastern border of the civil parish, with South Head and

Mount Famine Mount Famine is a gritstone hill between the villages of Hayfield and Chinley in the Derbyshire Peak District. The summit is above sea level. The hill's name originates from the period of the Enclosure Acts (from the late eighteenth century) ...

to the north-east. An old

winding engine A winding engine is a stationary engine used to control a cable, for example to power a mining hoist at a pit head. Electric hoist controllers have replaced proper winding engines in modern mining, but use electric motors that are also tradit ...

can still be seen atop an incline on the north-eastern face of Cracken Edge. Immediately south of the village, brook and parish border is

Eccles Pike Eccles Pike is an isolated hill three miles to the west of Chapel en le Frith in the Derbyshire Peak District. It consists of gritstone, pink in colour at the summit. While not as prominent as the surrounding hills of Cracken Edge and Combs Moss, ...

, an almost-conical hill, partly owned by 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 ...

. Filling the upper end of the valley to the southeast is

Chapel-en-le-Frith Chapel-en-le-Frith () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, England. It has been dubbed the "Capital of the Peak", in reference to the Peak District, historically the upperland areas between the Saxon lands ( ...

, more than twice the size of Chinley in area and in population. Other nearby towns include

Whaley Bridge Whaley Bridge () is a town and civil parish in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. It is situated on the River Goyt, south-east of Manchester, north of Buxton, north-east of Macclesfield and west of Sheffield. It had a population ...

( west),

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 ...

( northwest),

Glossop Glossop is a market town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is located east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of the county town, Matlock. Glossop lies near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Manche ...

( north) and

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.Buxworth in the same civil parish is the location of Bugsworth Basin on the Peak Forest Canal. Buxton Road to the east (bypassed here by the A6 through Whitehough) leads to the small settlement of

New Smithy New Smithy is a hamlet in the civil parish of Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside, Derbyshire, England, near the village of Chinley. It sits on the A624 trunk road from Glossop to Chapel-en-le-Frith featuring a TOTSO where left carries one down to ...

, beyond which the road turns south to

Chapel Milton Chapel Milton is a hamlet on the outskirts of Chapel-en-le-Frith on the road leading from there to Chinley and to Glossop. Within the parish of Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside, it takes its name from the site of a medieval corn mill, Maynstonfie ...

before crossing the Black Brook and continuing south into Chapel-en-le-Frith. The boundary of the

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, whe ...

National Park runs up the middle of Stubbins Lane and part of Maynestone Road, before crossing down into the valley and over Otter Brook, towards Wash.

Transport

Chinley railway station has a single island platform on the trans-Pennine Hope Valley Line between

and

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. Opened as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-east of Manchester city ...

. The typical service is one train every hour each way to Sheffield and to Manchester Piccadilly, operated by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

. It is one of only two stations between Stockport and Sheffield where

East Midlands Railway Abellio East Midlands Limited, trading as East Midlands Railway (EMR), is a train operating company in England, owned by Abellio, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. History In March 2017, the Department for Transport ...

express trains stop in peak hours. The coming of the railways was the reason Chinley grew from the tiny hamlet it had been and the village is actually named after its railway station. Previously, the names ''Maynestonefield'' or ''Four Lanes End'' were used. Chinley station was once an important railway junction on the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

's Dore and Chinley (or Hope Valley) line; it had a London-bound extension through

Millers Dale Millers Dale (Ordnance Survey: Miller's Dale) is a valley on the River Wye in Derbyshire, England, where there is also a hamlet of the same name. It is a popular beauty spot in the Peak District of England, much of the area being preserved as ...

and it was common to have to change trains in Chinley en route to Manchester, London or Sheffield.

Amenities

Chinley has a primary school; a small residential special school; an active village community centre and a Women's Institute hall; two village greens (one was formerly the bowling green); two parks, one of which is a local nature reserve; and a small collection of shops, including an Indian restaurant, tea shop, cheese shop, pizzeria and a fish and chip shop. Chinley Juniors Football Club plays its games at Chinley Community Centre. Recently the club spent £60,000 on refurbishing the two football pitches at the park. ''Chinley Churners'' cycling club is officially affiliated to British Cycling and boasts members of all ages.

Notable buildings and constructions

Chinley Independent Chapel, on the southeastern edge of Chinley adjacent to

, was built in 1711. The chapel was established by William Bagshaw as a nonconformist church in 1662, and is still the home of the local

Congregational church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

. It has simple furnishings and a pulpit near the centre of the building. The route of the Peak Forest Tramway (in use from 1796–1923), an early horse-and-gravity-powered railway, runs along the southern edge of Chinley near the Black Brook. The one remaining entrance to the

Stodhart Tunnel Stodhart Tunnel is a tunnel on the Peak Forest Tramway at Chapel Milton, Derbyshire. The tunnel stretches under the Chapel-en-le-Firth to Glossop Road. Although one side has been blocked up, it remains one of the oldest rail-related tunnels in ...

, one of the oldest railway tunnels in Britain, is just inside the entrance to Chapel Lodge nursing home, on the road between Chapel Milton and Chapel-en-le-Frith (in the latter parish). Part of the route is used as a road for testing car brakes by Ferodo, a local manufacturer of brakes and car parts. There are ruins or conversions of a few mills — one still in use as a plastics factory — and one or two large manor-style homes near the route. The fine stone building of Chinley railway station was dismantled in 1902 and re-erected as a private house on Maynestone Road on the northeast edge of Chinley. The Old Hall in the nearby hamlet of Whitehough, across the Black Brook to the south, dates from Elizabethan times and, with the adjacent 400-year-old licensed premises, forms part of the Old Hall Inn. A King's Mill stood alongside the Black Brook in

for around 700 years, but was destroyed in 1946 to allow construction of a water treatment facility for Ferodo. A small cattle market was developed on the south side of the railway, near the station, in the early 19th century by a local farmers' co-operative society. It was conducted by Brady & Son of Stockport, who could access it conveniently from Tiviot Dale station on the Midland Railway. It closed before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Notable people

John Bennet (1714–1759), described as "one of John Wesley's most outstanding young preachers", was born at Chinley and lived at Lee End. Bennet and his wife Grace Murray are buried in the graveyard of nearby Chinley Chapel.

Charles Wesley Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include "And Can It Be", "Christ the Lord Is Risen T ...

visited Chinley regularly; it is said he was in love with Grace Murray. George Kirk of the Old Hall, Whitehough was groom to the Royal Bedchamber of King

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

, and was present when the king was beheaded in 1649. Edwina Currie, former Conservative minister, winner of ''

Celebrity Mastermind ''Celebrity Mastermind'' is a celebrity version of ''Mastermind'', a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. It began in 2002 as a one-off special, expanding to the current arrangement of 10 episodes, broadcast during December ...

'' and author, moved to Whitehough in 2010, but moved to nearby Whaley Bridge in 2012. Constance Felicity Goddard (1881–1954), novelist and poet. Daughter of Mary Ann and James Goddard, dairy farmer, of Heatherlea, Maynestone Road. Novels included ''Dear Charity'' (1922), ''Silver Woods'' (1939), ''Come Wind Come Weather'' (1945), ''Three at Cherry-Go-Gay'' (1949). A review in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'' compared her work to that of

Alison Uttley Alison Uttley (17 December 1884 – 7 May 1976), ''née'' Alice Jane Taylor, was an English writer of over 100 books. She is best known for a children's series about Little Grey Rabbit and Sam Pig. She is also remembered for a pioneering time s ...

and

Flora Thompson Flora Jane Thompson (née Timms; 5 December 1876 – 21 May 1947) was an English novelist and poet best known for her semi-autobiographical trilogy about the English countryside, ''Lark Rise to Candleford''. Early life and family Thompson ...

. Her ''Poems'' were published in 1929.

Eric Hollies William Eric Hollies (5 June 1912 – 16 April 1981) was an English cricketer, who is mainly remembered for taking the wicket of Donald Bradman for a duck in Bradman's final Test match innings, in which he needed only four runs for a Test aver ...

(1912–1981), cricketer. A Warwickshire and England leg-break bowler who dismissed

Don Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman, (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 has b ...

in his final Test innings, he died in Chinley aged 68.

References

External links

Parish council website
{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District High Peak, Derbyshire