PDNP: Time/East Moors & Derwent Valley/Hollow Ways

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Hollow-Ways on the East Moors

In many places on the East Moors there are old routeways used by packhorses over many generations that now lie disused and overgrown, replaced by today's road network in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Map showing the courses of old packhorse routes on the East Moors around Big Moor between Baslow and the eastern foothills

Evidence for pre-19th century transport routes largely takes the form of hollow-ways. Associated with these are early 18th century guidestones known as stoops. These stone posts have destinations named and sometimes indicated with carved pointing hands, as for example at stones above Harland Edge and near Longshaw. An Act of Parliament of 1697, enforced locally in 1709, required that stoops be set up by road commissioners.

An 18th century guide stoup alongside a packhorse route above Harland Edge, north-east of Beeley, with the hand pointing the way to Chesterfield

Other features along the hollow-way routes of the East Moors include the occasional clapper bridge, paved paths and cairns. Near Curbar Crossroads is the best known clapper, a single stone set across the stream. In several places there are paved paths, now often grown over, but clearly seen at the renovated example descending from Stanage Edge through Stanage Plantation.

The Three Men of Gardom's Edge

The Three Men cairns on the crest of Gardom's Edge, next to a deep hollow-way, have associated local traditions dating well back into the 19th century, at least. These stories, which vary in their detail, state the cairns were built to commemorate the deaths during a snowstorm of a packhorseman or cleric, and his two sons; there is a record of three clergymen travelling from Eyam to Yorkshire on 22 April 1740 who were caught in a snowstorm with the result that two died. It is not a local tradition to erect guide or hilltop-cairns despite their recent proliferation on the moors.

The turnpike roads that replaced the hollow-ways from the 18th century also have interesting road furniture. Each Turnpike Trust had differently designed milestones or posts and these often survive at the roadside.

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