Find out about settlements though time in the page below or use these links for further information:

Hillforts
Vernacular Buildings
Houses, Halls, Parks and Gardens

Settlements Through Time

These interpretative drawings of a later prehistoric roundhouse based on excavations on Gardom's Edge. The house is shown under construction, being occupied and becoming an archaeological feature after its abandonment.

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Mesolithic - Early Neolithic

In the Mesolithic and early Neolithic people were mobile, moving around the landscape on a seasonal round, following traditional routes to make the best use of resources as they became available through the year.

Their settlements in the Peak District are mostly known by scatters of stone tools and waste from their production. In the 1980s a very special discovery was made at Lismore Fields near Buxton. Structural remains of a settlement were found by archaeological excavation in advance of development. Features included two rectangular timber buildings, large free-standing posts and pits containing a variety of fills including charcoal and burnt stones from fires. One of the pits has been radio-carbon dated to the Mesolithic at about 6000 BC and the whole settlement to the Neolithic at approximately 3500 BC.

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Later Neolithic

Later in the Neolithic we think people were less mobile as agriculture became a more important part of their lives.

So far, no definite later Neolithic settlement structures have been found in the region, though scatters of stone tools again indicate where they would have been. In the Upper Derwent a group of small pits filled with burnt stones and charcoal have been radio-carbon dated to approximately 2500 BC. They are located in an area which had been regularly visited during the Mesolithic.

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Bronze - Iron Ages

For the Bronze and Iron Ages much more evidence for settlement sites survives. This is found in more favourable areas on the Eastern Moors which had not been subject to intensive cultivation in the Medieval and later periods. People lived here in roundhouses scattered amongst small, irregular fields. They had to clear stone so they could cultivate the land, creating small cairns and linear piles of stone. The moors appear to have been slowly abandoned by the end of the Iron Age when worsening weather and spreading blanket peat made it unviable to farm the surrounding land.

One settlement which is very different in character is Mam Tor hillfort. Mam Tor is a large nucleated settlement comprising many buildings situated on top of a prominent hill and enclosed within a ditch and bank.

Mam Tor is a large nucleated settlement comprising many buildings situated on top of a prominent hill and enclosed within a ditch and bank.

There are a number of hill-top enclosures defined by large earthworks in the Peaks but they are very different in nature and size to each other and were probably used for different purposes. Only some would have been enclosed settlements.

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Romano - British

At the time the Romans annexed the region, people continued to live in roundhouses. However, in the 2nd century AD more rectangular buildings were also adopted alongside or to replace roundhouses.

There were many small hamlets such as Chee Tor, Blackwell, The Burrs near Chelmorton and The Warren, North Lees.

The earthworks of the yards and paddocks of Chee Tor survive under pasture which has probably never been ploughed since.

Elsewhere, such as at Deep Dale, near Taddington and  Bank Top, Hartington, settlements were scattered amongst fields much as they had been in later prehistory. There are also some isolated settlements comprising single buildings enclosed within a wall or bank such as at Ladybower Gorge.

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Early Medieval - Modern

At least part of the settlement pattern we see today originated during the early Medieval period and was subsequently recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086.

Edale is a typical landscape of dispersed farmsteads and hamlets that originated in the Medieval period.

Villages such as Monyash, Taddington and Chelmorton are typical Medieval villages.

Monyash is based around a Medieval market centre, Taddington is a planned Medieval village with a main street and parallel back lanes and Chelmorton has one main street with the fossilised strip fields to either side.

In the High Peak north of the Hope Valley and on the Staffordshire Moorlands settlement was very different, comprising dispersed farmsteads and hamlets. While this pattern has continued until today building styles and floorplans have changed dramatically, becoming larger over time. Stone has probably always been a major building material, significantly replacing timber in the 18th century.

Click here for futher information on vernacular buildings

An unusual local survival of Medieval upland settlement is on Lawrence Field where a small enclosure was carved out of moorland common in the 11th - 12th centuries AD. Within the enclosure are a long house, outbuilding and numerous clearance cairns and linear clearance piles.

Recently the trend for second homes and tourist accommodation has fragmented traditional communities.

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