The HERITAGE SHELL GUIDE TO DERBYSHIRE

Derbyshire is an updated Shell Guide with introduction and gazetteer of houses, villages and towns, from the rugged Dark Peak on Kinderscout, to tranquil limestone river valleys and best-brick Midland towns like Ashbourne, and to the wide swerve of mighty River Trent. It is a principal constituent of the Peak Park which takes great care of its area; elsewhere because of mining or clayfields they have been taken in hand by the first National Forest giving wide cover of green woodlands for surprisingly interesting areas. The architecture of its churches is mostly the loveliest style of Decorated (Dec) for which see particularly the "Cathedral of the Peak" but, also good Norman churches like that for the medieval Bishop of Carlisle in Melbourne, or that on the edge of Sherwood Forest at Steetley - magnificent in its detail. We should not forget the later Perpendicular tower to Derby Cathedral's eighteenth century nave by James Gibbs which he lauded by saying he wanted a low building suitable to the old tower! And creeping out of a big stone wall in Upper Matlock is the picturesque Arts & Crafts St John's church, seemingly high up the wall. This guide will lead you to early houses of local commanders of the Peak: Eyres of Hope Valley, who gave the Conqueror "the Air that I breath", and the Vernons of Haddon Hall; but equally to miners' cottages, railway terraces and early textile workers' houses by Richard Arkwright whilst the more formal residences of Ashbourne for clerics and lawyers are among the proudest in the country complete with voice pipe and rampant vines. You will be guided around Elizabethan Hardwick Hall with six splendid towers emerging through trees as though in Italy; the new Chatsworth of 1707 with work by the finest craftsmen in Europe: ironwork by Tijou, painting by Laguerre, exquisite marble carving by Cibber and stately baroque facades by Talman; at Kedleston true Georgian Palladianism by Adam is the finest kept as an artistic whole, Dr Johnson's views not withstanding. At Sudbury is a type of Carolean grand house mostly lost to this generation. Newly acquired Wingfield Manor (by English Heritage) has good representation of double medieval courtyards as shown by the picturesquely positioned Haddon Hall.