Despite sharing the
same DE4 post code,
most of Darley Dale’s
inhabitants prefer to think
of themselves as living
separate from neighbouring
Matlock. Attempts to build
on the small ‘green belt’
next to the DFS warehouse
on the A6 between the
two are met with furious
objections. Darley Dale is,
to them, still as it always
has been, an independent
village in its own right.
DARLEY DALE
BY BRIAN SPENCER
N
owadays, the village is mainly a residential enclave on the border
of the Peak District National Park, dominated by three large
housing estates, where at least one them has a high proportion of
bungalows popular with those preferring to live on the fl at rather than hilly
Matlock. Th ose estates and adjoining smaller developments link a chain of
little hamlets strung along the spring-line on the eastern side of the Derwent
valley – Hackney, Farley, Two Dales (formerly the less attractive sounding
Toadhole), Hillside and Northwood. Th ese together with Churchtown in
the valley bottom make up what has become to be known as Darley Dale.
Th e oldest remaining dwellings linking the past to the present are in those
one-time hamlets. Dating from the 12th century, St Helen’s the parish
church and spiritual focus to the area, stands oddly enough, just above the
fl ood plain of the Derwent. It is probably the oldest building in the district,
but the yew tree standing close to the church door is probably older still,
making links to a pagan pre-Christian era. Although nothing remains other
than the name of nearby Abbey Farm, it is likely that the church began as an
oratory of a nearby small abbey whose monks preached beneath the yew’s
spreading branches.
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South-west facing Hillside once had a number of specialist nurseries,
although they no longer grow plants for sale – there is even a Darley Dale
heather developed by one of them. Changing gardening fashions led to their
demise and nowadays, domestic gardeners in the area buy their plants from
Forest Nurseries, a perfect link between old and new. A rarity amongst
garden centres, it is one of the few places where experienced advice can be
given in answer to an amateur’s problem.
Th e old pack horse way across the valley came by way of the river crossing at
Darley Bridge below Wensley, and then climbed steep Sydnope Hill beyond
Two Dales, or Toadhole as it then was, over the moors along Jagger’s Lane
to Chesterfi eld. Th e old school for the district is on this road just before it
reaches the original houses of Two Dales. With high windows to prevent
wandering eyes, where pupils once had the ‘3 Rs’ hammered into their
minds, the school has since been a bakery but is currently being converted
into a house.
‘Jaggers’, or packhorse drovers, would have stopped for refreshment at the
Plough Inn that stands on what is now a side road. Some carriers thankful at
not having to climb the hill, would have turned off along Ladygrove Road