Coordinates: 53°09′58″N 1°35′46″W / 53.166°N 1.596°W
| Darley Dale | |
 Church at Darley Dale |
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  Darley Dale
Darley Dale shown within Derbyshire |
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| Population | 5,167 (Parish) |
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| OS grid reference | |
| Parish | Darley Dale |
| District | Derbyshire Dales |
| Shire county | Derbyshire |
| Region | East Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | MATLOCK |
| Postcode district | DE4 |
| Dialling code | 01629 |
| Police | Derbyshire |
| Fire | Derbyshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | West Derbyshire |
| List of places: UK • England • Derbyshire | |
Darley Dale, also known simply as Darley, is a town in Derbyshire, England, with a population of around 6,000 people. It lies north of Matlock, on the River Derwent and the A6 road.
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History
A Benedictine Abbey was built here under the reign of Henry I[1] in the twelfth century.
The town grew in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries around the lead mining and smelting industries. It is also a commuter town for workers in Matlock.
Between Darley Dale and Matlock is the Cawdor Quarry which supplied stone for Hyde Park Corner and the Thames Embankment in London.
Famous people
Famous people associated with Darley Dale include
- Nigel Bond the snooker player was born here
- Tom Peet, disc jockey on Derby Radio Station and Football guru
- Tom Chambers, Actor. Born here in 1977[2]
- Mike Hendrick, English cricketer was born here in 1948
- Joseph Paxton, Architect and gardener for the nearby Chatsworth House
- Crichton Porteous, Author
- Joseph Whitworth, Engineer[3]
Notable buildings and attractions
Notable buildings in the town include its fourteenth century parish church St. Helens, with a yew tree which is thought to be two thousand years old. The south transept has a stained glass window by Burne-Jones and William Morris. Other attractions include the Peak Rail railway which runs from Rowsley South to Matlock via Darley Dale railway station and the Whitworth Park, a large park located next to the railway.
It was the winner of the 2003 Britain in Bloom, in the category of 'Large Village'.
There is a bi-annual arts festival, the Darley Dale Arts Festival, held in July in odd-numbered years.[4]
In nearby Two Dales, Ladygrove Mill was built for spinning cotton by Abraham Flint, but converted to flax spinning in 1789 by Daniel Dakeyne of Knabb House. It was expanded by his sons, Edward and James, who built a series of three dams on the Sydnope Valley rising to 96 feet. To cope with the water pressure, they invented a revolutionary water-pressure powered "disc engine", which they patented in 1830 as the Dakeyne hydraulic disc engine[5][6]. It was the progenitor of a type, now known as a "Nutating disc engine" (which has been the subject of entrepreneurial interest in the 21st century). The mills and equipment have virtually disappeared but the remains of the dams can still be seen.
At the bottom of Station Road lies Darley Dale railway station. Although national rail services ceased in the 1960s, the station has been for over 15 years occupied by the railway and heritage preservation group Peak Rail. From here, a heritage steam service operates south to Matlock and north to Rowsley South, with a route distance of approximately five miles.
An annual transport festival, the Darley Dale Festival of Transport, is held at the bottom of Station Road every September.[7]
References
- ^ Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835
- ^ Tom Chambers' biography at IMDb accessed June 2007
- ^ Whitworth bought Stancliffe Hall and supplied four six-ton blocks of stone from its quarry, for the lions of St. George's Hall in Liverpool. He endowed the Whitworth Institute, where the hospital was later founded in memory of his wife.
- ^ The bi-annual Arts Festival
- ^ "The Romping Lion" - The story of the Dakeyne Disc Engine by Phil Wigfull
- ^ [1] Inventors - The Romping Lion, Peakland Heritage site
- ^ The Annual Darley Dale Festival of Transport
External links
- Darley Dale Town Council
- Darley Dale Arts Festival website
- "Geograph" Darley Dale station in the 1990's
- Peak Rail Website
- Darley Dale Fly Fishing Club
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