Harpur Hill is a small village on the outskirts of

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.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. It is in the Cote Heath ward of the High Peak Borough Council. It has a primary school, a park, a pub, a

working men's club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class ...

and a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

church. From 1938 to 1969, the RAF Maintenance Unit 28 was based at Harpur Hill and it included the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Mountain Rescue Team for the

Peak District The Peak District is an 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, where moorla ...

. RAF Harpur Hill was established as an underground munitions store. Tunnels were dug out to house munitions and ordnance. When the RAF left the tunnels were used as a mushroom farm. When the tunnels closed they were sold to a group of local businessmen and used as a cold store for cheese; a warehouse was built for dry and bonded wines and spirits. A number of local hauliers provided the transport for these goods. One of the hauliers was Lomas Distribution which was bought out by

Christian Salvesen Christian Salvesen was a Scottish whaling, transport and logistics company with a long and varied history, employing 13,000 staff and operating in seven countries in western Europe. In December 2007, it was acquired by French listed transport ...

and was a major employer in the area; it later sold the site to French transport company Norbert Dentressangle. Many of the bunkers can still be seen in the surrounding hillside. The Health and Safety Executive Laboratory is not far from Harpur Hill. From 1916 to 1918 the site housed The Frith Artillery Range. A railway was constructed with old London Underground Jubilee Line trains which were used to reconstruct the

7 July 2005 London bombings The 7 July 2005 London bombings, often referred to as 7/7, were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamic terrorists in London that targeted commuters travelling on the city's public transport system during the mo ...

. A red flag is flown at the laboratory when an explosion is imminent. Also nearby is Far Hill Quarry, now flooded, where swimming is discouraged by the authorities as unsafe due to the high pH level of the water. Harpur Hill is the base of Harpur Club & Harpur Hill FC, and of Buxton Rugby Union Club. The tops of the rugby club's goal posts are the highest in the country.

References

*Gibson, Gary. ''Peak Sport Climbs from Horseshoe to Harpur Hill: mid-grade sport climbing in the Buxton and Matlock area'', British Mountaineering Council (2004). {{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District High Peak, Derbyshire Buxton