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 Dales. The population (including

Wheston Wheston is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Peak District. Notable features include Wheston Hall and the Wheston Cross. The cross, which survives intact, is more than high. It probably dates from the 14th century and marked the way f ...

) was 1,820 in 2001, increasing slightly to 1,827 at the 2011 Census, making it the second-largest settlement within the National Park, after

Bakewell Bakewell is a market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, known also for its local Bakewell pudding. It lies on the River Wye, about 13 miles (21 km) south-west of Sheffield. In the 2011 census, ...

Tideswell Dale Tideswell Dale is a short dry limestone valley near Tideswell village, Derbyshire, in the Peak District of England. There is a farmland plateau on either side. The foot of the valley leads into Miller's Dale on the River Wye, which the valle ...

is a short limestone valley leading south from the village to the

River Wye The River Wye (; cy, Afon Gwy ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of Wal ...

valley.

Name

There is some debate as to how the village got its name. The English Place Name Society accepts it as being named after a Saxon chieftain named Tidi, others that the name comes from a "tiding well" situated in the north of the village. This 'ebbing and flowing' well was declared to be one of the

Seven Wonders of the Peak The Seven Wonders of the Peak were described in the 17th century by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his book ''De Mirabilibus Pecci: Being The Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire, Commonly called The Devil's Arse of Peak.'' The wonders refer to ...

by Thomas Hobbes in his 1636 book ''De Mirabilibus Pecci.'' Tideswell is known locally as ''Tidza'' or ''Tidsa''. In addition, local residents are known as ''Sawyeds'', owing to a traditional story about a farmer who freed his prize cow from a gate in which it had become entangled, by sawing its head off. Today the story is re-enacted raucously and colourfully every Wakes week by a local mummers group called the Tidza Guisers.

History and heritage

In the Middle Ages, Tideswell was a market town known for

lead mining 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 cut, l ...

. The Tideswell lead miners were renowned for their strength and were much prized by the military authorities. The Domesday Book of 1086 lists TIDESUUELLE as the King's land in the charge of

William Peverel William Peverel († 28. January 1114), Latinised to Gulielmus Piperellus), was a Norman knight granted lands in England following the Norman Conquest. Origins Little is known of the origin of the William Peverel the Elder. Of his immediate f ...

with fewer than five households. Tideswell is now best known for its 14th-century parish church, the Church of St John the Baptist, known as the "Cathedral of the Peak", which contains three 15th-century misericords. A

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

lies in the churchyard; it is positioned on steps which local historian Neville T. Sharpe thinks likely to be those of the village's

market cross A market cross, or in Scots, a mercat cross, is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron. History Market crosse ...

. A market and two-day fair were granted to the village in 1251. The Foljambe family, later the

Foljambe baronets The Baronetcy of Foljambe of Walton was created in the Baronetage of England on 24 July 1622 for Francis Foljambe of Walton Hall, Walton, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, who was later Member of Parliament for Pontefract in 1626 and High Sheriff ...

, were the principal landowners from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The town has a week-long festival near the

summer solstice The summer solstice, also called the estival solstice or midsummer, occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer ...

known as the Wakes, culminating in "Big Saturday", which includes a torchlight procession through the streets, led by a brass band playing a unique tune called the Tideswell Processional, and townsfolk dancing a traditional weaving dance.

Taste Tideswell

In May 2009, Tideswell won a £400,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund's ''Village SOS'' programme. In a bid to help keep its village shops open and thriving—over 20 shops had closed in the preceding decade—''Taste Tideswell'' was created, to reconnect local people with their food and make Tideswell famous as a food destination. On 6 December 2010 the Tideswell School of Food opened, running full-priced cookery and brewing courses as well as subsidised community courses. The School of Food was intended to be the financial engine for the project that would help to develop work in the community. It closed during 2014 because of cashflow issues. ''Tideswell Made'' is a quality mark that local food producers, retailers, public houses and holiday accommodation can buy into. Ensuring products are sourced as locally as possible and made locally, ''Tideswell Made'' is marketed by ''Taste Tideswell'' and helps local business get wider recognition for their locally made produce. ''Taste Tideswell'' has an education service, visiting schools with a variety of food- and growing-related activities. School groups also visit the School of Food for practical hands-on activities. Behind the Parish Church, a small community garden has been developed to provide a training ground for those wanting to learn more about growing. There is also a small commercial kitchen available for hire by local food producers, particularly those who are looking to make the step up from home-based production. In May 2011, the first Tideswell Food Festival was held, attracting over 2,000 people, despite poor weather. On 7 September 2011, the ''Taste Tideswell'' story was broadcast as part of the ''Village SOS'' series on BBC One. It showed the rapid development of the project, along with the individual story of Tim Nicol, the 'Village Champion' who moved to live in Tideswell for a year and helped the volunteer directors get ''Taste Tideswell'' established. As of August 2011, ''Taste Tideswell'' employed eight members of staff, most of whom lived in the village, and had ten visiting chef/tutors on its books. Although the School of Food had to close, Tideswell's annual Food Festival has continued to be a success each year.

Facilities and activities

Tideswell Sports Complex was built in 2001 following a £1.2 million

Sports Lottery A betting pool, syndicate, sports lottery, sweep, or office pool if done at work, is a form of gambling, specifically a variant of parimutuel betting influenced by lotteries, where gamblers pay a fixed price into a ''pool'' (from which taxes and a ...

grant and substantial fund-raising in the village. There are two football pitches, a floodlit multi-use area with two tennis courts and five-a-side pitches marked out, a cricket ground, crown-green bowling area, a skate-park and two pavilions. The town has a football team, Tideswell United, and they play in the Hope Valley League 'A' Division. They also run a reserve side competing in the Hope Valley League B Division as Tideswell United Blue Star. The ground has floodlights for midweek games, one of few sides at such a low level to use them. The bowling club competes in local leagues, the cricket and tennis clubs compete in local friendly matches. The village has a long theatrical tradition, Tideswell Theatre having been formed over 200 years ago to perform leading plays of the time. It was revived in 2002 to bring professional-quality theatre, music, dance and comedy to the area. Tideswell Community Players are one of the oldest drama groups in the country, formed in 1929. Until the 1960s the village also had its own cinema, The Picturehouse. Tideswell Cinema was revived in 2005 to bring film once more to the community, with screenings for three seasons at Bishop Pursglove School's hall, before relocating in 2008 to the upper storey of The George Hotel. A number of musical ensembles are also active in the village – notably

Tideswell Male Voice Choir 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 Derbysh ...

and The Tideswell Singers.

Notable people

*Sir

Godfrey de Foljambe Sir Godfrey de Foljambe (born 1317-died 29 May 1376, Bakewell, Derbyshire) was a prominent landowner and politician in fourteenth-century England, who was a Baron of the Exchequer and chief steward of the duchy of Lancaster. He went on to have ...

(1317–76), Lord Chief Justice of Ireland *Blessed Christopher Buxton, Catholic martyr, studied at Tideswell Grammar school under Nicholas Garlickpublic-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 * Ric Lee, drummer of the blues/rock band Ten Years After, resides in Tideswell and participated in the male voice choir *Rev.

J. M. J. Fletcher The Reverend James Michael John Fletcher Master of Arts (Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin), MA (University of Cambridge, Cantab.) (29 September 1852 – 23 February 1940), was an England, English clergyman of the Church of England, author and histori ...

(Vicar of Tideswell), historian *Blessed Nicholas Garlick, Catholic priest and martyr, was a schoolmaster here in the 16th century *

Judy Leden Judy Leden, MBE (born 1959) is a British hang glider and paraglider pilot. She has held three world champion titles,Flying with Condors by Judy Leden twice in hang gliding, once in paragliding. Biography Judy Leden's flying career began while s ...

, stunt flyer and three times world hang-gliding champion * William Newton, poet and philanthropist, was buried hereWilliam Newton at the

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

now in the public domain *

Samuel Slack Samuel Slack (1757–1822), sometimes known as ''The Tideswell Vocalist'', was a noted bass singer, a native of the Derbyshire Peak District and protégé of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. Slack was a natural bass, and though of unpo ...

, notable bass singer born 1757 of local fame, reputedly sang before King George III *A monument in the south transept of Tideswell parish church is doubtfully identified as that of Sir

Thurstan de Bower :''This page is about Thurstan of Bayeux (1070 – 1140) who became Archbishop of York. Thurstan of Caen became the first Norman Abbot of Glastonbury in circa 1077.'' Thurstan or Turstin of Bayeux ( – 6 February 1140) was a medie ...

* Edwina Currie, current President of the Tideswell Male Voice Choir *

Robert Pursglove Robert Pursglove (alias "Sylvester";http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DBY/Tideswell/BishopPursglove.htmlGenuki 1504–1579) was an English sixteenth-century bishop. Life He was born in Tideswell, Derbyshire, the son of Adam Pursglove; his mothe ...

, sixteenth-century bishop, buried in Tideswell church

References

External links

Tideswell and District Community AssociationThe Village Voice – the village newsletterVisit Tideswell – accommodation for visitors and holiday makersPeak District Online – TideswellLink to interesting search of Google Books on Tideswell with several good books fully online mentioning Tideswell.
G4TIFF page images, plus poorly OCRed HTML. This has a lot of information on Tideswell during the 11th to 13th centuries. {{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Derbyshire Dales