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Typical White Peak Villages

The villages of Chelmorton and Flagg are classic examples of simple planned villages, whilst Hurdlow and Blackwell are examples of shrinking villages.

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Chelmorton

Chelmorton, first recorded in the early 12th century, has a single street with traditional properties on both sides with extensive strip fields behind.  Explore the picture to found out more.

At the top of the street, nestled for shelter below the steep side of Chelmorton Low, close to the main village spring at the base of the hill, is the church. The main street provides access to the walled strip fields on either side of the village. The street runs to the edge of the strip fields, giving access to the commons further south and in effect forming a drove road for stock to be brought into the village.  An impressive bank and ditch (not seen on this picture) divides the strip fields from the commons.

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Flagg

Flagg, recorded in the Domesday Book (1086 AD), is a village with farms and houses spaced along a single sinuous street that is nearly one mile long.  Explore the picture to found out more.

This farm is called Town End Farm with Town Head farm at the opposite end of the village. All the traditional properties lie on this side of the main road, the north side, and are laid out at the downslope edge of a large oval field divided into strips. The gaps between the individual properties may well indicate that the settlement has shrunk over time, with now-lost farms filling the gaps in the medieval period.

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Hurdlow

Hurdlow is a small settlement, first recorded in 1244.  There are now only three farmsteads placed to either side of a single street. An early 17th century map shows more than double that number of properties.  At the west end of the street there was a droveway to funnel stock from the commons, although this has now been enclosed.

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Blackwell

Blackwell is a single street village, named in Domesday Book (1086 AD), where earthworks of buildings and yards can still be seen in the fields to either side of the road at the eastern end of the village.  A short distance down Blackwell Dale, in the field on the west side of the road, there is the original ‘black well', a spring above a bed of dark impervious volcanic rock.

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Taddington

Taddington, named in the Domesday Book in 1086, is an exceptional village.  Explore the picture to found out more.

Houses run along both sides of a main street. There are back lanes flanking the main street, with strip fields beyond.  Between the main street and back lanes there is a series of narrow walled paths linking the street to lanes and field strips. To the south the lanes lead uphill to the finely restored High Well, at a spring above a volcanic bed.

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Pilsbury Castle

Pilsbury Castle is in the upper Dove Valley and is a classic Norman earthwork castle, probably built before Hartington village became the focal settlement for this area.  Such structures are rare in the Peak District and this is the best and most accessible example.  Only Peveril Castle is better known but it is very different, for while it has Norman origins, much of the stone-built remains seen at Peveril Castle today were added in the 14th century.  The earthworks of Pilsbury Castle, once superimposed by timber palisades, are impressive.  They include a high motte, a main bailey (the earthworks of which incorporate a natural knoll) and an outwork to the south at the site of the main entrance.

Visit Pilsbury Castle website

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