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The Peak District has its own traditional or 'vernacular' style of post-medieval buildings. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What are traditional Peak District buildings made of?Local stone, either limestone or gritstone depending upon location, was used to create sturdy houses, outbuildings and field barns. In gritstone areas everything is built of this local rock. In contrast, on the limestone plateau, whilst walls were usually made from limestone, this stone is difficult to shape. Thus dressed details such as quoins, lintels and sills were often made of gritstone imported from adjacent parts of the Peak. Thinly bedded sandstone flags were often used for the roofs. Thatch was also once commonly used, often presumably when stone slates could not be afforded. However, with rare exceptions, such roofs have now been replaced with more durable materials that are more suitable to withstand Peak winters for many more years than thatch. For example, in the village of Beeley, a mid-19th century survey for the Duke of Devonshire shows that just under half of the properties had some or all buildings that were thatched. Today, the thatch has now been replaced throughout the village with alternative materials such as slate.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How have Peak District buildings developed over time?The villages of the Peak, common on the limestone plateau, the Derwent Valley and the southern valleys, and a percentage of scattered farmsteads everywhere, have Medieval origins. Some villages have surviving churches of this date, while others have been reconstructed or heavily restored, mostly in the Victorian era.
Most buildings in the Medieval period were built with wooden frames, wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs. However, from the 17th century onwards new buildings were commonly built in stone and these are what generally stand today. The earliest stone vernacular buildings, often comprising local halls and larger farmhouses dating to the late 16th and 17th centuries, can often be recognised by surviving small windows with stone mullions as seen here at Eyam Hall.
Buildings of 18th and 19th century are the most common today.
Houses with non-local and often with nationwide design traits normally only started being built in the second half of the 19th century. Shops and workshops were common in villages, but less so today. Halls, chapels, vicarages, coaching inns and public houses were also built in many villages, and occasionally in more isolated locations. Industrial buildings include modest water mills, larger cotton and silk mills, and others associated with lead mining and quarrying. Places such as Glossop have extensive rows of 19th century houses built for workers in local mills. Farmhouses and cottages usually have outbuilding ranges and smaller outbuildings respectively. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Other buildings in the landscapeField barns amongst the fields were once a common sight, comparable to areas like the Yorkshire Dales and an important component of local distinctiveness. However, although many survive in various states of repair, they are mostly redundant to modern farming needs. They are expensive to maintain, and whilst a minority have been converted to other acceptable uses such as camping barns, most are now abandoned and becoming increasingly ruined as seen here.
Field barns were mainly built in the 18th and 19th centuries, either sited in fields at a distance from the main farmstead, or on smallholdings where the farmer’s residence did not include large outbuilding ranges. Many small scale farmers in the region had other sources of income, either working as lead miners, inn-keepers or tradespeople. Field barns were once particularly common, for example around Winster and Bonsall where there were many small lead mines, and around Bakewell the main market centre of the region.
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