Great Longstone with Little Longstone is one of two villages in the local government district of

Derbyshire Dales Derbyshire Dales ( ) is a local government district in Derbyshire, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 71,116. Much of it is in the Peak District, although most of its population lies along the River Derwent. The borough borders ...

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. The population (including Hassop and Rowland, but not Little Longstone) as taken at the 2011 Census was 843.

History

A place called ''Longsdune'' 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 FerrersHenry was given a large number of manors in Derbyshire including Doveridge, Spondon, Pilsbury and Breadsall. and being worth thirty

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...

s; this is considered to be Great Longstone. The church of St Giles in Great Longstone dates from the 13th century. A medieval

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...

stands in the churchyard, and the head of a cross is built into the wall of the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

.Neville T. Sharpe, ''Crosses of the Peak District'' (Landmark Collectors Library, 2002) The manor house, Longstone Hall, has its origins in the following century, but was rebuilt in the mid-18th century. That century was one of prosperity, with lead-mining and shoemaking. There are two

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

s in the main village: The Crispin Inn, named after St Crispin, the patron saint of

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as ''cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen an ...

s, and The White Lion. The manors of Great and Little Longstone passed through many hands over the years. Walter Blount, Lord Mountjoy, was

Lord of the Manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

on his death in 1474, when the lordship passed to Robert Shakerley and his wife Margaret, daughter and heiress of Roger Levett. The two families'

coats of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in i ...

adorn the church of St Giles. In subsequent years, Shakerley descendants sold the manor to Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury. A

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 crosses ...

stands on the

village green A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for gathering cattle t ...

. Little Longstone, further west, has a 17th-century manor house and still has its village

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

. To the north is Longstone Edge, a limestone ridge some in height, on an upfolding of the Derbyshire limestone known as the Longstone

Anticline In structural geology, an anticline is a type of fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest beds at its core, whereas a syncline is the inverse of an anticline. A typical anticline is convex up in which the hinge or crest is t ...

. It has been, and is, intensively quarried for

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It cr ...

fluorspar Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs sca ...

baryte Baryte, barite or barytes ( or ) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate ( Ba S O4). Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of the element barium. The ''baryte group'' consists of baryte, celestine (strontium sulfate), ...

s and, more controversially,

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 w ...

. Since Longstone Edge is a noted beauty spot and is within 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 there is strong local pressure for quarrying to stop altogether. Some of the quarrying is strictly controlled by the Peak District National Park Authority, which has been conducting a lengthy legal battle to try to stop other quarries that are operating outside the authority's guidelines. Further north is the White Cliff, where the exposed limestone contains fossilised

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

s. There are four Sites of Special Scientific Interest wholly or partly in the parish. The largest is Longstone Moor, rising to approximately above sea level to the northwest of Longstone Edge. The moor is described by

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

as "the largest example of limestone heathland in the Peak District National Park" and "the best of only a very few remaining areas of this unusual type of vegetation". It is considered to be of "particular importance" for its lichens, including ''Centraria islandica'', rare in the Peak District and in lowland Britain in general. Within the confines of the moor are three scheduled monuments, namely the remains of Cackle Mackle Lead Mine and two

bowl barrow A bowl barrow is a type of burial mound or tumulus. A barrow is a mound of earth used to cover a tomb. The bowl barrow gets its name from its resemblance to an upturned bowl. Related terms include ''cairn circle'', ''cairn ring'', ''howe'', ''ker ...

s. In the far west of the parish is a section of the Cressbrook Dale SSSI, part of the Derbyshire Dales National Nature Reserve. In the north-east, the southern bank of Coombs Dale falls within the parish boundary; among its notable species are woolly thistle ''Cirsium eriophorum'' ("a southern species, rare in Derbyshire"), the

limestone fern ''Gymnocarpium robertianum'', the limestone fern or scented oakfern, is a fern of the family Cystopteridaceae. Description ''Gymnocarpium robertianum'' has small (10–50 cm), deltate, two- to three-pinnate fronds. Fronds arise from creep ...

''Gymnocarpium robertianum'' and the rare fingered sedge ''Carex digitata''. Finally, a tiny and isolated area of the Wye Valley SSSI falls partly within the parish boundary next to Castlegate Lane. There was a railway station, built by 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 ...

in 1863 when it extended the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway towards Buxton. Originally known as "Longstone", in 1913 it was renamed "Great Longstone for Ashford" (

Ashford-in-the-Water Ashford-in-the-Water is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Peak District, England. The village is on the River Wye, Derbyshire, River Wye, north-west of Bakewell. It is known for the quarrying of Ashford Black Marble (a form of limesto ...

). It closed in 1962, but the building, designed to match the nearby

Thornbridge Hall Thornbridge Hall is a large English country house situated near the village of Great Longstone in the local government district of Derbyshire Dales in Derbyshire. It is a Grade II listed building. History From the 12th to the late 18th century, ...

, survives as a domestic residence, and the trackbed through the station is part of the

Monsal Trail The Monsal Trail is a cycling, horse riding and walking trail in the Derbyshire Peak District. It was constructed from a section of the former Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway, which was built by the Midland Railway in 1 ...

, a walk and cycleway.

References

External links

"Stop destroying my Peak District", Roy Hattersley, ''The Observer'', 27 March 2005

Great Longstone village website

Quarrying on Longstone Edge

Save Longstone Edge Campaign
{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Civil parishes in Derbyshire Derbyshire Dales

History

See also

References

External links