Middleton by Wirksworth

About Middleton and Middleton on the net

NB Most of the links on this page are to outside sites so use you back button to get back here. No doubt there are many more Middleton relevant links so apologies for omissions and please let us know of anything we have missed.

There is a surprising amount of material on the net relating to Middleton considering what a small village it is. This is due to the interesting industrial history of the village and surrounding area.

John Palmer's website http://www.wirksworth.org.uk contains a great deal of Middleton information, census details, old photographs, many notes, links, articles and references and "Memories of Middleton" by Edith Taylor. Notes on Middleton Top are to be found here.

There is also a note about Middleton Top and the Steeple Grange Light Railway on the Steeple Grange site.
There isn't much about Middleton Top elsewhere (that I could find) other than passing notes in general guides such as this http://www.derbyshire-peakdistrict.co.uk/middletontop.htm There is an opportunity for someone to put together an interesting internet essay here as the Cromford & High Peak Railway and the winding house at Middleton Top are major items of industrial archaeolgy.

There is a brilliant site about Middleton Mine and Hoptonwood Stone at www.hoptonwoodstone.co.uk including many fascinating old photographs such as these. NB That should be Eric Gill, not Gibb. It contains a very clear description of the local geology in relation to quarrying.
The navigation on this site is confusing and there are lots of pages and images which you might easily miss - so click about a lot and use the back button. If you haven't spotted this then you haven't uncovered everything!

There is more geological and landscape information here including an aerial photograph of the village (excluding Rise End). Higher resolution Aerial photograph including Rise End.
Did you know that Middleton is where it is because of a "perched' water table?.
The aerial photo shows the age of the village - with stone walls outlining the medieval open field strip system. It is easy to overlook that Middleton was an agricultural village for many hundreds of years and that quarrying is very recent - later than the building of the Cromford & High Peak Railway.
However t'owdman was extracting lead since Roman times but without the major effect on the landscape of quarrying. Spoil heaps can be seen on the aerial photograph as little bumps all over the place.

The Romans were preceded by an even older owdman who built this - a Bronze Age barrow on the top of the moor - Middleton's highest landmark (beyond the trig point, on the edge of the quarry, more info here). As with virtually every Bronze Age site especially the stone circles the view is spectacular. From various points around the moor the impression is of a commanding position and a sense of the age, separateness and strangeness of Middleton, looking down as it does on all the neighbouring villages, and looking across at Stanton Moor (Britains largest Bronze Age necropolis), Minning Low (chambered tombs in a spectacular site), Gib Hill (just visible and adjacent to Arbor Low - one of Britains' finest stone circles), Harborough Rocks, Black Rocks, Crich Stand, and other ancient sites.
To the south you can see beyond Derby to Charnwood Forest, and the Trent Valley power station cooling towers. On a clear day you can see the Wrekin. On a very still cold day it is rumoured that you can see the tower and hear the bells of Lincoln Cathedral!

More about quarries and mines can be found here and there is an active Peak District Mines Historical Society known as PDMHS and pronounced 'puddums'. The PDHMS is called often to Middleton as quarrying regularly uncovers old mine workings - the work of the 'owdman'.
And of course we also have The National Stone Centre just down the road on Porter Lane.

The National Stone Centre
Admission to the fifty acre site, revealing a fossil tropical seascape 330 million years old, is free. Based in six former limestone quarries, the centre runs several activities including gem panning and fossil rubbing and, by appointment: guided trails, fossil casting, quarry visits, rocks, minerals and soils and dry stone walling courses. The Millennium Wall features most of the different styles of dry stone wall found in the UK. The Story of Stone exhibition details the history of stone from the Earth's origin to the present day.
http://www.nationalstonecentre.org.uk/

There is more census and genealogical information here with added notes and photographs: http://www.rebus.demon.co.uk/ and http://www.genuki.org.uk/

The Middleton entry in Kelly's Directory 1891 can be seen here on the Andrews pages, where also are more Middleton links

Neighbouring Villages on the net

Bonsall History Project
Cromford Village
Winster Village
Bonsall Community
Wirksworth Net
Bolehill Focus
Youlgreave Bugle

Some more locally relevant links

(This list to be edited and expanded)
http://www.digital-wirksworth.org.uk/
http://www.wirksworthfestival.co.uk/
http://www.middletonadventurers.co.uk/
http://www.petetheplasterer.co.uk
http://www.derbyshireuk.net/
www.derbyphotos.co.uk/ has images of Derbyshire and a host of links to Derbyshire sites.
http://www.matlockmercury.co.uk
http://www.pandyweb.freeserve.co.uk/index.html
http://www.grant2222.freeserve.co.uk/mtlhp.htm
http://www.wirksworth.org.uk
http://www.nationalstonecentre.org.uk/
http://www.qpa.org/
http://www.tarmac.co.uk/l
http://www.roskill.co.uk/gccarbon.html
http://www.omya.com/
http://fp.viagellia.f9.co.uk/
http://www.cpre.org.uk/

CONTACT

Email
'phone 01629 822170
Write or call:
The Chapel
Main Street
Middleton
Matlock
Derbyshire
DE4 4LQ
Or use the Notice board

We are compiling a Middleton email list for all who would like to receive occasional reminders, news flashes etc on all things Middleton. To sign on click here and then just "send": Email List
Back to top
Back to Home Page