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Longdendale and Glossopdale

Longdendale and Glossopdale have always been linked and it was only by an accident of political history during mediaeval times that they were separated into different counties. Glossopdale is an outpost of Derbyshire; Longdendale a long thin finger of Cheshire stretching out towards the distant Yorkshire moors. Neither have ever really belonged to these respective counties. They are their own entity; their people, their topology, their history and their legends so intertwined over the centuries that it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins.
 

Both valleys were formed by the glaciers of the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago, hollowed out of the rugged majesty of the Dark Peak. In the words of Daniel Defoe '…the most desolate, wild and abandoned country in England…' Today Longdendale is a lonely place, haunted by mystery; while Glossopdale is a small northern mill town struggling to emerge into the 21st century. They are what their past has made them and neither can let go of their heritage.

Explore the history and legends of these two beautiful dales isolated from the outside world for millennia until the coming of the railway in 1845. Discover a hidden world which lies at the edge of civilisation; so near and yet so far from the modern world.

Glossop has become known as the town that lost its history. Before the Conquest parting the curtains of time to shed some light is difficult. With the exception of the Roman fort at Melandra which is archaeologically well documented, it is a case of detective work and some imagination in piecing together the scraps. A feature here and there, a few finds, place name evidence.


In 1157 Glossopdale and Longdendale were granted to the Cistercian Abbey of Basingwerke under whose jurisdiction they remained for 400 years. During that time the forest was cleared, the Manor Court and Court Leet established, and the charter granted for the market and the annual fair. However the records of Basingwerke Abbey, including those of Glossop, were destroyed by fire in 1707.

From Tudor times until 1926 the Dukes of Norfolk held the manor of Glossop. During the nineteenth century the Industrial Revolution transformed Glossop from a sleepy village into a prosperous northern mill town. When the Glossop estate, which included the town, was split in to hundreds of lots and sold in 1926, the records of the past four centuries were cleared from the estate office and burned.


Castle Hill

The hill commands excellent views over Glossop. To the east the Snake Pass curls its way through the heart of the pennines. The sprawling connurbation of Greater Manchester lies to the west. History could not pass by such a place and Castle Hill has meant so many things to many people. Excavation of the summit suggests a Bronze Age burial mound was situated on the northern end and subsequently cut through, perhaps a thousand years later by the ditch of an Iron Age hill fort.
 

During the 1980s a collection of stones, originally found on Castle Hill in Glossop during the 1840s and carved in the Celtic tradition with strange symbols and figures, were rediscovered in a basement at Buxton Museum. Drawings and photographs of the Stones were shown to leading academics and the British Museum but they defied identification or explanation.

Edale
Overlooked by the Iron Age fort on Mam Tor, Edale Valley is the wide expanse of green which lies just to the south of the great gritstone and peat mass of Kinder Scout, which is usually accepted as the southern end of the Pennines.

Probably not permanently settled in Saxon times, Edale (called 'Aidale' in the Domesday Book) became part of the 'Royal Forest of the Peak' after the Norman conquest. This 'Royal Forest' covered a large proportion of the modern Peak District and in it farming and settlements were discouraged because they got in the way of the hunting.


This meant that Edale developed slowly throughout mediaeval times. There were herdsmans' shelters or 'booths' at what are now the hamlets of Upper Booth, Barber Booth, Ollerbrook Booth and Nether Booth. The central 'booth' was Grindsbrook Booth - now usually called Edale Village. Five Royal Farms were established in the reign of King John but it was not until the Royal Forest system effectively collapsed in Tudor times that proper settlements developed in the valley. In Elizabethan times the valley was effectively a large cattle ranch based around the five farms.


By the eighteenth century the pastures were full of sheep rather than cattle and the enclosure acts of the late 18th century resulted in the valley becoming a patchwork quilt of small fields enclosed by stone walls built out of the local gritstone. This had a dramatic effect on the look of the valley and now the walls look as though they have been there for ever, but actually they are mostly less than 200 years old.


In late Victorian times (1894) the railway arrived, driven through the 2-mile long Cowburn tunnel at the head of the vale. It linked Manchester to Sheffield and rapid travel from Edale to either of these cities suddenly became a possibility. It is no accident that most of the houses in Edale Village were built shortly afterwards - for the first time, professional people were able to live in the countryside and commute to work in the city.

Edale Village

Commuters were not the only by-product of the railways. During the period between the first and second world wars there was a strong movement for people to get out of the grimy, smoky towns at the weekends and go walking or 'rambling' in the countryside. The Ramblers Association and the Youth Hostels Association were products of this time, and each weekend the train would disgorge thousands of ramblers at Edale station.