Full Description
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.
