The HERITAGE SHELL GUIDE TO DERBYSHIRE

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.