BLGFLTA

Buxton Derbyshire PDNP

Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some 1,000 feet above sea level. It lies close to Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, on the edge of the Peak District National Park.



In 1974, themunicipal boroughmerged with other nearby boroughs, includingGlossop, to form thelocal government districtand borough of High Peak.

The town population was 22,115 at the 2011 Census. Sights includePoole's Cavern, a limestone cavern;St Ann's Well, fed by a geothermal spring bottled by Buxton Mineral Water Company; and many historic buildings, includingJohn Carr'srestoredBuxton Crescent,Henry Currey'sBuxton BathsandFrank Matcham'sBuxton Opera House. The Devonshire Campus of theUniversity of Derbyoccupies historic premises. Buxton istwinnedwithOigniesin France andBad Nauheimin Germany.[2]

History[edit]

The origins of the name are unclear. It may derive from theOld Englishfor Buck Stone or forRocking Stone.[3]The town grew in importance in the late 18th century, when it was developed by theDukes of Devonshire, with a resurgence a century later asVictorianswere drawn to the reputed healing properties of its waters.[4]

Stone Age beginnings[edit]

The first inhabitants of Buxton made homes atLismore Fieldssome 6,000 years ago. ThisStone Agesettlement, aScheduled Monument, was rediscovered in 1984, with remains of aMesolithictimber roundhouse andNeolithiclonghouses.[5]

Roman settlement[edit]

TheRomansdeveloped a settlement known asAquae Arnemetiae("Baths of the grove goddess").[1]Coins found show the Romans were in Buxton throughout their occupation of Britain.[6]

Batham Gate("road to the bath town") is aRoman roadfromTemplebroughRoman fort inSouth YorkshiretoNavio Roman Fortand on to Buxton.

Middle Ages[edit]

The nameBuckestoneswas first recorded in the 12th century as part of thePeverel family's estate. From 1153 the town was within the Duchy of Lancaster's Crown estate, close to theRoyal Forest of the Peakon the Fairfield side of the River Wye. Monastic farms were set up in Fairfield in the 13th century and in the 14th; its royal ownership was reflected in the name ofKyngesbucstones.

By 1460, Buxton's spring had been pronounced a holy one dedicated to St Anne, who was canonised in 1382. A chapel had appeared there by 1498.[7]


Built on theRiver Wye, and overlooked byAxe Edge Moor, Buxton became a spa town for its geothermal spring,[8]which gushes at a steady 28°C.

The spring waters are piped toSt Ann's Well, a shrine since medieval times at the foot ofThe Slopes, opposite theCrescentand near the town centre.[9]The well was called one of theSeven Wonders of the Peakby the philosopherThomas Hobbesin his 1636 bookDe Mirabilibus Pecci: Being The Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire.[10]

The Dukes of Devonshire became involved in 1780, when theWilliam Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshireused profits from hiscoppermines to develop it as a spa in the style ofBath. Their ancestorBess of Hardwickhad brought one of her four husbands, theEarl of Shrewsbury, to "take the waters" at Buxton in 1569, shortly after he became the gaoler ofMary, Queen of Scots, and took Mary there in 1573.[11]She called Buxton "La Fontagne de Bogsby" and stayed at the site of theOld Hall Hotel. The area features in the works ofW. H. Auden,Jane AustenandEmily Brontë.


Buxton's profile was boosted by a recommendation fromErasmus Darwinof the waters there and atMatlock, addressed toJosiah WedgwoodI. The Wedgwood family often visited Buxton and commended the area to their friends.[citation needed]Two ofCharles Darwin's half-cousins,Edward Levett Darwinand Reginald Darwin, settled there.[12]Thearrival of the railwayin 1863 stimulated growth: the population of 1,800 in 1861 exceeded 6,000 by 1881.[13]

20th century[edit]

Buxton held a base for British and Canadian troops inthe First World War. Granville Military Hospital was set up at the Buxton Hydropathic Hotel, with thePalace Hotelannexed. The authorVera Brittaintrained as aVoluntary Aid Detachmentnurse at theDevonshire Hospitalin 1915. TheRoyal Engineersbased in Buxton used the Pavilion Gardens' lakes for training to build pontoon bridges.[7][14][15]Prisoner of war camps at Ladmanlow and Peak Dale were established in 1917 to supply workers for the local limestone quarries.[16]

RAF Harpur Hillbecame an underground bomb-storage facility duringWorld War IIand the country's largest munitions dump. It was also the base for the Peak District section of theRAF Mountain Rescue Service.[17]Prisoner of war camps for Italians and Germans were set up on Lismore Road, off Macclesfield Road and at Dove Holes.[18][19][20]

After a decline as a spa resort in the earlier 20th century, Buxton had a resurgence in the 1950s and 1970s. The Playhouse Theatre kept arepertorycompany and pop concerts were held at the Octagon (includingthe Beatlesin 1963).[21]The Opera House re-opened in 1979 with the launch of the Buxton Festival, and the town was being used as a base for exploring the Peak District.


Geography and geology[edit]

Although outside the National Park boundary, Buxton is in the western part of the Peak District, between the LowerCarboniferouslimestone of theWhite Peakto the east and the Upper Carboniferousshale, sandstone andgritstoneof theDark Peakto the west.[23]The early settlement (of which only the parishchurch of St Anne, built in 1625, remains) was largely made of limestone,[citation needed]while the present buildings of locally quarried sandstone, mostly date from the late 18th century.[citation needed]

At the south edge of the town, theRiver Wyehas carved an extensive limestone cavern known asPoole's Cavern. More than 330 yards (300 metres) of its chambers are open to the public. It contains Derbyshire's largeststalactiteand some unique "poached egg"stalagmites. Its name recalls a local highwayman.[24]

Climate

Buxton has anoceanic climatewith short, mild summers and long, cool winters. At about 1,000 feet (300m) above sea level,[25]Buxton is the highestmarket townin England.[nb 1]Buxton's elevation makes it cooler and wetter than surrounding towns, with a daytime temperature typically about 2°C lower than Manchester.

AMet Officeweather station has collected climate data for the town since 1867, with digitised data from 1959 available online.[26]I


In June 1975, the town suffered a freak snowstorm that stopped play during a cricket match.

Notable architecture[edit]Buxton Town Hall(on the right)

The many visitors to Buxton for its thermal waters, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, led to several new buildings to provide hospitality facilities.

TheOld Hall Hotelis one of the town's oldest buildings. It was owned byGeorge Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, who with his wife, Bess of Hardwick, acted as the "gaolers" of Mary, Queen of Scots, who came to Buxton several times to take the waters, her final visit being in 1584. The present building dates from 1670, and has a five-bay front with aTuscandoorway.[31]

Buxton Crescent and St Ann's Well

The Grade I listed Crescent was built in 1780–1784 for the 5th Duke of Devonshire, as part of his effort to turn Buxton into a fashionable spa town. Modelled on Bath'sRoyal Crescent, it was designed by architectJohn Carr, together with the neighbouring irregular octagon and colonnade of the Great Stables. These were completed in 1789, but in 1859 were largely converted to a charity hospital for the "sick poor" byHenry Currey, architect to the7th Duke of Devonshire's. Currey had previously worked onSt Thomas' Hospitalin London. It became known as theDevonshire Royal Hospitalin 1934. Later phases of conversion after 1881 were by local architectRobert Rippon Duke, including his design for TheDevonshire Domeas the world's largest unsupporteddome, with a diameter of 144 feet (44m) – larger than thePantheonat 141 feet (43m),St. Peter's Basilicaat 138 feet (42m) inRome, andSt Paul's Cathedralat 112 feet (34m). The record was surpassed only byspace framedomes such as theGeorgia Dome(840 feet (260m)). The building and its surrounding Victorian villas are now part of theUniversity of Derby.

Currey also designed the Grade II listedBuxton Baths, comprising the Natural Mineral Baths to the west of The Crescent and Buxton Thermal Baths to the east, which opened in 1854 on the site of the original Roman baths, together with the 1884 Pump Room opposite. The Thermal Baths, closed in 1963 and at risk of demolition, were restored and converted into a shopping arcade by conservation architects Derek Latham and Company. Architectural artistBrian Clarkecontributed to the refurbishment;[32][33]his scheme, designed in 1984 and completed in 1987, was for a landmark modern artwork,[34]a barrel-vaulted modern stained glass ceiling to enclose the former baths[35]— at the time the largest stained glass window in the British Isles — creating an atrial space for what became the Cavendish Arcade.[36][34][37]


Visitors could "take the waters" at The Pump Room until 1981. Between 1981 and 1995 the building housed the Buxton Micrarium Exhibition, an interactive display with 50 remote-controlled microscopes.[38]The building was refurbished as part of theNational Lottery-funded Buxton Crescent and Thermal Spa re-development. Beside it, added in 1940, isSt Ann's Well. In October 2020 Ensana reopened the Crescent as a 5-star spa hotel, after a 17-year refurbishment.[39]

Nearby stands the imposing monument to Samuel Turner (1805–1878), treasurer of the Devonshire Hospital and Buxton Bath Charity, built in 1879 and accidentally lost for the latter part of the 20th century during construction work, before being found and restored in 1994.[40]

When the railways arrived in Buxton in 1863,Buxton railway stationhad been designed byJoseph Paxton, previously gardener and architect to William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire. Paxton also contributed the layout of the Park Road circular estate. He is perhaps known best for his design ofthe Crystal Palacein London.Buxton Town Hall, designed by William Pollard, was completed in 1889.

Other architecture[edit]

Buxton Opera House, designed byFrank Matchamin 1903, is the highest opera-house site in the country. Matcham, a theatre architect, was responsible for severalLondontheatres, including theLondon Palladium, theLondon Coliseumand theHackney Empire. Opposite is an originalPenfoldoctagonal post box. The opera house is attached to the Pavilion Gardens, Octagonal Hall (built in 1875) and the smallerPavilion Arts Centre(previously The Hippodrome and the Playhouse Theatre.[42]).Buxton Pavilion Gardens, designed byEdward Milner, contain 93,000 m2of gardens and ponds and were opened in 1871. These form a Grade II* listed public park of Special Historic Interest. Milner's design was a development ofJoseph Paxton's landscape for the Serpentine Walks in the 1830s.[43]

Palace Hotel

The 122-roomPalace Hotel, also designed by Currey and built in 1868, is a prominent feature of the Buxton skyline on the hill above the railway station.[44]

Corbar Cross[45][nb 2]

The town is overlooked by AtopGrin Lowhill, 1,441 feet (439 m) above sea level, by Grinlow Tower (locally also calledSolomon's Temple), a two-storey granite, crooked, crenelated folly built in 1834 by Solomon Mycock to provide work for local unemployed, and restored in 1996 after lengthy closure. In the other direction, onCorbar Hill, 1,433 feet (437 m) above sea level, is the tall wooden Corbar Cross. Originally given to theCatholic Churchby the Duke of Devonshire in 1950 to mark Holy Year, it was replaced in the 1980s. In 2010, during a visit ofPope Benedict XVIto the UK, it was cut down as a protest against a long history of child abuse at the Catholic St Williams School inMarket Weighton,Yorkshire.[46]The Buxton ecumenical group Churches Together brought in several benefactors to replace the cross with a smaller one in May 2011.[45]

Manypubs and inns in Buxtonare listed buildings reflecting the historic character of the town,[47]although many buildings have been demolished.Lost buildings of Buxtoninclude grand spa hotels, the Midland Railway station, the Picture House cinema and Cavendish Girls' Grammar School.

Culture[edit]Buxton Opera House

Cultural events include the annualBuxton Festival, festivals and performances at the Buxton Opera House, and shows running at other venues alongside them.Buxton Museum and Art Galleryoffers year-round exhibitions.

Buxton Festival[edit]

Buxton Festival, founded in 1979, is an opera and arts event held in July at the Opera House and other venues.[48]It includes some literary events in the mornings, concerts and recitals in the afternoon, and operas, many rarely performed, in the evenings.[49]The quality of the opera programme has improved in recent years, after decades when, according to criticRupert Christiansen, the festival featured "work of such mediocre quality that I just longed for someone to put it out of its misery."[50][51]Running alongside is the Buxton Festival Fringe, known as a warm-up for theEdinburgh Fringe. The Buxton Fringe features drama, music, dance, comedy, poetry, art exhibitions and films around the town.[52]In 2018, 181 entrants signed up and comedy and theatre categories were at their largest.[53]

Other festivals[edit]

The week-longFour Four Timemusic festival in February brings a variety of rock, pop, folk, blues, jazz andworld music.[54]TheInternational Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, a three-week theatre event from the end of July through most of August, was held in Buxton from 1994 to 2013; it moved toHarrogatein 2014[55]but returned to Buxton in 2023.[56]


The Opera House offers a year-long programme of drama, concerts, comedy and other events.[57]In September 2010, the Paxton Suite in the Pavilion Gardens reopened as the Pavilion Arts Centre after a £2.5 million reconstruction. Located behind the Opera House, it includes a 369-seat auditorium. The stage area can be converted into a separate 93-seat studio theatre.[58][59]

Buxton Museum and Art Galleryholds local artefacts,geologicalandarchaeologicalsamples (including theWilliam Boyd Dawkinscollection) and 19th and 20th-century paintings, with work byBrangwyn,Chagall, Chahine and their contemporaries. There are also displays by local and regional artists and other events.[60]The Pavilion Gardens hold regular arts, crafts,antiquesandjewelleryfairs.[61]

Buxton's Well Dressing Festival in the week up to the second Saturday in July has been running in its current form since 1840, to mark the provision of fresh water to the high point of the town's marketplace. As well as the dressing of the wells, it includes a carnival procession and a funfair on the marketplace.[62]Well dressingis an ancient custom unique to the Peak District and Derbyshire and thought to date back to Roman and Celtic times, when communities would dress wells to give thanks for supplies of fresh water.

Economy[edit]

Buxton's economy covers tourism, retail, quarrying, scientific research, light industry and mineral water bottling. The University of Derby is a noted employer.[63]Surrounded by the Peak District National Park, it offers a range of cultural events; tourism is a major industry, with over a million visitors to Buxton each year. Buxton is the main centre for overnight accommodation in the Peak District, with over 64 per cent of the park's visitor bed space.[64]

The Buxton Mineral Water Company, owned byNestlé, extracts and bottles mineral waters.[65]TheBuxton Advertiserappears weekly. Potters of Buxton is the town's oldest department store, founded in 1860.[66]

Quarrying[edit]

TheBuxton lime industryhas shaped the town's development and landscape since its 17th-century beginnings. Buxton Lime Firms (BLF) was formed by 13 quarry owners in 1891. BLF became part ofImperial Chemical Industries(ICI) in 1926 and Buxton was the headquarters for I.C.I. Lime Division until the 1970s.[67]Severallimestonequarrieslie close,[68]including the "Tunstead Superquarry", the largest producer of high-purity industrial limestone in Europe, employing 400.[69]The quarrying sector also provides jobs in limestone processing and distribution.[70][71]Other industrial employers include theHealth & Safety Laboratory, which engages in health and safety research and incident investigations and maintains over 350 staff locally.[64][72][73]

Education[edit]

The town hosts aUniversity of Derby campusat the site of the formerDevonshire Royal Hospital, as well as theBuxton & Leek Collegeformed by the August 2012 merger of the university with Leek College.

Secondary schools includeBuxton Community School, at the former College Road site ofBuxton College, andSt. Thomas More Catholic School.[74]Others include Buxton Junior School,[75]St Anne's Catholic Primary,[76]the greatest: Harper Hill School with excellent teachers,[77]Buxton Infant School,[78]John Duncan School, Fairfield Infant & Nursery, Burbage Primary, Dove Holes CE Primary, Fairfield Endowed Junior, Peak Dale Primary, Leek College, Old Sams Farm Independent School, Hollinsclough CE Primary, Flash CE Primary, Earl Sterndale CE Primary, Peak Forest CE Primary and Combs Infant School.[79]

Sport and civic organisations[edit]Buxton Raceway

The land above the town holds two smallspeedwaystadiums. Buxton Raceway (formerly High Edge Raceway), off the A53 Buxton to Leek road, is a motor sports circuit set up in 1974, hosting banger and stock car racing, as well as drifting events.[80]It was home to the speedway teamBuxton High Edge Hitmenin the mid-1990s before the team moved to a custom-built track to the north of the original one. The original track at High Edge Raceway[81]was among the longest and trickiest in the UK. The new track is more conventional, with regular improvements being made. Buxton have been competitors in theConference League.[82][83]Buxton Raceway was due to hold a floodlit 2019BriSCA Formula 2World Final.[84]

Buxton's football club,Buxton F.C., plays at Silverlands and Buxton Cricket Club at thePark Roadground.[85]Other team clubs areBuxton Rugby Union[86]and Buxton Hockey Club.[87]There are also four Hope Valley League football clubs: Buxton Town, Peak Dale and Buxton Christians play at the Fairfield Centre and Blazing Rag at the Kents Bank Recreation Ground.[citation needed]

Buxton has two 18-hole golf courses.Cavendish Golf Clubranked among the top 100 in England. It was designed by the renownedAlister MacKenzieand dates from 1925.[88]At Fairfield isBuxton & High Peak Golf Club. Founded in 1887 on the site ofBuxton Racecourse, it is the oldest in Derbyshire.[89]

View of Buxton fromSolomon's Temple

The hillside round Solomon's Temple is a popular localboulderingvenue with many small outcrops giving problems mainly in the lower grades. These are described in the 2003 guidebookHigh over Buxton: A Boulderer's Guide.[90]Hoffman Quarry atHarpur Hill, sitting prominently above Buxton, is a local venue forsport climbing.[91]

Youth groups include the Kaleidoscope Youth Theatre at the Pavilion Arts Centre,[92]Buxton SquadronAir Cadets,[93]DerbyshireArmy Cadet Forceand theSea Cadet Corps, in addition to units of the Scouts & Guide Association.[citation needed]

Buxton has three Masonic Lodges and a Royal Arch Chapter, which meets at the Masonic Hall, George Street. Phoenix Lodge of Saint Ann No. 1235 was consecrated in 1865, Buxton Lodge No. 1688 in 1877, and High Peak Lodge No. 1952 in 1881. The Royal Arch Chapter is attached to Phoenix Lodge of Saint Ann, and bears the same name and number, it being consecrated in 1872.[94]

Media[edit]

Regional TV news comes from Salford-basedBBC North WestandITV Granada. Television signals are received from theWinter Hilland the local relay transmitters.[95][96]

Local radio stations areBBC Radio Derbyon 96.0FM andGreatest Hits Radio Derbyshire (High Peak)(formerly High Peak Radio) on 106.4FM.

TheBuxton Advertiseris the town’s weekly local newspaper.[97]

Transport[edit]Railway[edit]

Buxton railway stationhas a generally half-hourly service toStockportandManchester Piccadillyalong theBuxton line; trains are operated byNorthern. The journey to Manchester takes just under an hour.[98]

History[edit]Station exterior in 1965. The present station is on the left and the former Midland Railway station is in the centre of the picture

Buxton had three railway stations. Two were aligned to theLNWR: Buxton andHigher Buxton; the latter was next to Clifton Road and closed in 1951. The third wasBuxton (Midland), situated next to the LNWR terminus. TheMidland Railwaystation, closed on 6 March 1967, became the site for the Spring Gardens shopping centre. The trackbed of theManchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railwayhas, in part, been used as a walking and cycling path called theMonsal Trail.

Heritage[edit]

Peak Rail, a preserved railway group, has restored the section fromRowsley SouthtoMatlock; it has long-term ambitions to reopen it through to Buxton.[99]

Buses[edit]

The town is served by bus routes that cross the Peak District National Park, including to the nearby towns ofWhaley Bridge,Chapel-en-le-Frith,New Mills,GlossopandAshbourne.

TheHigh PeakTranspeakservice offers an hourly link southwards toTaddington,Bakewell,Matlock,BelperandDerby. TheSkyline199 route operates every half hour during the day toManchester Airport, along theA6through New Mills andStockport.

Other services link Buxton withMacclesfield,Leek,Stoke-on-Trent,Sheffield,ChesterfieldandMeadowhall.[100]

Air[edit]

The nearest airports areManchester Airport(22 miles away),Liverpool John Lennon Airport(48 miles) andEast Midlands Airport(52 miles).

Demographics[edit]

In the2011 census, Buxton's population was 98.3% white, 0.6% Asian, 0.2% black and 0.8% mixed/multiple.[101]

Famous Buxtonians[edit]Public service[edit]Charles Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot, Vanity Fair, 1903Herbert Eisner

Politics[edit]

The Arts[edit]Vera BrittainLloyd Cole, 2010

Sport[edit]Mick Andrews, 1976

Literature[edit]

A series of four recent novels bySarah Ward–In Bitter Chill(2015),A Deadly Thaw(2017),A Patient Fury(2018) andThe Shrouded Path(2019) – feature the fictional town of Bampton, which the author states "is partly based on Buxton with its Georgian architecture,Bakewell, a well-heeled market town... andCromfordwith its canal and fantastic industrial heritage."[128]

Bill Brysonrecounts his visit to Buxton in his 2015 bookThe Road to Little Dribbling.[129]

Vera Brittaingrew up in Buxton and in her memoirTestament of Youth, she is critical of the town's snobbery.[130]

Buxton is mentioned inJames Joyce'sUlyssesat the beginning of chapter 10. Father Conmee, a Jesuit priest, encounters the wife ofDavid SheehyMP and in their exchange says that he "would go to Buxton, probably, for the waters".[131]

The Victorian diaristAnne Listerrecounts her visit to Buxton during August 1816 in her journal.[132]

Buxton'sSt Ann's WellandPoole's Cavernwere listed as two of theSeven Wonders of the Peak, inThomas Hobbes's 17th century bookDe Mirabilibus Pecci: Being the Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire, commonly calledThe Devil's Arse of Peak.[133






BLGFLTA
Privacy policy
Privacy policy

OK