Stanton Moor is a small upland area in the

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 ...

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 ...

of central northern England, lying between Matlock and

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, t ...

near the villages of

Birchover Birchover is a village and civil parish in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire, England, five miles north-west of Matlock. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 362. Eagle Tor is a small hamlet on the north western edge of the ...

and Stanton-in-Peak. It is known for its

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

s – particularly the Nine Ladies stone circle – and for its natural, wind-eroded sandstone pillars. The

Peak District Boundary Walk The Peak District Boundary Walk is a circular walking trail, starting and finishing at Buxton and broadly following the boundary of the Peak District, Britain's first national park. The route was developed by the Friends of the Peak District (a ...

runs across the moor.

Geology

Stanton Moor consists of an

outlier In statistics, an outlier is a data point that differs significantly from other observations. An outlier may be due to a variability in the measurement, an indication of novel data, or it may be the result of experimental error; the latter are ...

of Millstone Grit, known as Ashover Grit. This is a coarse-grained

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

which weathers to produce coarse sub-soils, rich in sand, and the soils themselves are typically podzols. The Ashover Grit sandstone layer lies on top of

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especiall ...

, which in turn lie upon Carboniferous limestone. The whole of the moor is of geological interest as a

syncline In structural geology, a syncline is a fold with younger layers closer to the center of the structure, whereas an anticline is the inverse of a syncline. A synclinorium (plural synclinoriums or synclinoria) is a large syncline with superimpose ...

. Several large, wind-eroded pillars of sandstone are found around the edge of Stanton Moor, and form significant features of its topography. From north, clockwise, these outcrops are the

Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English (later British) monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was ...

Stone (in which the legend "Y 1826" is carved), the Cat Stone, the Duchess of Sutherland Stone, the Gorse Stone, the Heart Stone (9 metres high), the Cork Stone (5 metres high) and the Andle Stone. The moor's

has been

quarried A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...

for many years, and has left several old dormant quarries around the moor. In 2009 an attempt to re-open dormant quarries failed after much local and national protest that had lasted for over ten years. A large part of Stanton Moor is designated as a Regionally Important Geological Site (RIGS) because of the unusual nature of its sandstones. Much of the vegetation that grows on the moor is upland heathland, regarded as a both local and national priority Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) Habitat.

Archaeology

There are more than 70 barrows on the moor, mostly on the southern side and often difficult to discern. Most of them were excavated between 1927 and the early 1950s by the local archaeologist J.C.Heathcote and his son, J.P.Heathcote. They exhibited their finds in a private museum in nearby

. The moor has four

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The ...

s, of which the best known is Nine Ladies. To its north lies "Stanton Moor I" (the "North Circle"), and to its south are "Stanton Moor III" (the "Central Circle") and "Stanton Moor IV" (the "South Circle"). These other circles are largely overgrown and have few remaining stones. A further circle,

Doll Tor Doll Tor is a stone circle located just to the west of Stanton Moor, near the village of Birchover, Derbyshire in the English East Midlands. Doll Tor is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, I ...

, lies a short distance west of the moor. Elsewhere on the moor lie a number of modern-day

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehi ...

s. Stanton Moor is a designated Scheduled Ancient Monument.

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

has commissioned a conservation plan for Stanton Moor from the Peak District National Park Authority.

Other structures

On the eastern edge of the moor is the Reform or Earl Grey Tower, built by

William Pole Thornhill William Pole Thornhill (1807 – 12 February 1876) was a British Whigs (British political party), Whig and then Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons from 1853 to 1865. ...

and dedicated to the

Reform Act 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...

. On the north side of the moor is a large TV transmitter which relays broadcasts from Waltham transmitting station to

and the

. It has recently been upgraded with the new tetra police radio antenna.

References

* Ali Cooper, ''Archaeology Walks in the Peak District'' * Percy Heathcote,
Birchover: Its Prehistoric and Druidical Remains
' {{Coord, 53.165, -1.630, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Mountains and hills of Derbyshire Mountains and hills of the Peak District Peak District Moorlands of England Scheduled monuments in Derbyshire